Daniel Jackson stared slack-jawed at the images on the screen before him. His eyes danced from one quadrant to the next. He brought his hand to his face and slowly pulled it across his mouth, stopping briefly to tap his lip while he continued to stare.

Jack O�Neill looked to the other people seated in the room, all of them deeply involved in the mesmerizing pictures in front of them. Jack turned his attention back to the screen, squinted at it, and then threw his hands up in frustration.

"Fine. I don�t see it, but apparently you all do. Who wants to fill me in?" he asked.

Daniel spun around, his hand still on his jaw. "Oh, right. As I was saying, this is...I mean just look at the...quality..." he began before turning back to the screen where a vision of a miniature statue grabbed his attention. He reached out for it as if he could actually touch it through the monitor.

"Daniel!" Jack snapped. He gave Daniel a peevish smirk.

"Sorry. It�s just that..." Daniel tapped his lips again. "...This is amazing! This--see this?--this is a Stela, a...a commemorative marker. It shows the offerings made on behalf of the person for whom it was made."

"A grave stone?" Sam asked, looking at the thick slab.

Daniel twirled his hands in the air, bobbed his head up and down, and looked up at the ceiling all in the course of trying to find the right word with which to answer Sam. Finally, he found it. "No."

"Then what is it, Daniel?" Jack asked.

"It�s more like...Well, it�s kind of like a death certificate cum apology cum severance package," he said, shoving his hands in his pockets while addressing his colleagues. "See, these were made to explain to the gods how the person died, how they lived, what offerings were made at their death. That sort of thing."

"And is there any indication to whom this marker belongs?" General Hammond asked.

"Well, unfortunately, the MALP wasn�t able to capture the entire Stela," Daniel said as he shrugged his shoulders. "However," he clicked the remote, bringing up a new screen capture, "in this picture we can see a �false door,� which would make it possible for the spirit in the tomb to leave and partake of food offerings and such." Daniel walked closer to the screen and stared at the carvings on the stone facade made to look like an entrance way. Hieroglyphics and carvings of animals adorned the surface. "Whoever it was must have been very important. Maybe a high priestess, or daughter of a pharaoh, or..."

"Or, what, Daniel?" Jack asked, afraid of the next title on the list.

"Or princess...of some sort," Daniel said, sheepishly.

"Knew you were gonna say that. Isn�t there supposed to be a duck on a string falling from the ceiling about now with the word �princess� written on it?" Jack asked.

Teal�c lowered his hands to his lap, raised an eyebrow, and, by inference, asked for clarification.

"Groucho Marx show, Teal�c. �Say the magic woid and win...� " Jack stopped in the middle of his Groucho imitation and looked at the rest of the people in the room staring at him. He shrugged his shoulders and gave the floor to Daniel.

"Right. As I was saying," Daniel began. He gave Jack a final look before turning to the screen, "whoever is buried here was a woman of importance. I strongly suggest we go have a look."

"The planet has been or was inhabited by humans. Our readings show the environmental quality is acceptable," Sam said, reading through her notes.

"This planet is uninhabited?" General Hammond asked. He tented his hands in front of him.

"It would seem so, General. Our UAV recordings give us no evidence of inhabitants, human or otherwise," Teal�c said.

"Colonel O�Neill, it�s your call," said General Hammond.

Jack rocked back in his chair. The last few months for his team had been grueling. They were most certainly overdue for some downtime. But the excitement that both Daniel and Sam saw in the artifacts was reason enough to put the mission in the books.

"Probably not a good time for you to start wearing those contacts, Daniel. Hear sand can really play havoc with them," Jack said.

Daniel smiled.

General Hammond wrote a note to himself in his papers as he addressed the team. "All right then. SG-1, you have a go."

"Thank you, sir," Jack said. General Hammond nodded and left the room. "Well, kids, it�s time to stick a few needles in a doll, burn some candles, sacrifice a jelly donut, and call it a day."

Teal�c and Daniel looked at Sam for some sign that she knew what he was talking about.

Sam shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.

"You know what?" Daniel said, his face lowered so they couldn�t see his smile.

"No. What, Daniel?" Jack said.

"I�m going home," he said, gathering his notes. "See you guys in the morning."

"Now, hold on there, bucko. Why the hurry?"

"We�ve got plans, Jack."

"So do you, Colonel," Sam quietly reminded him.

"Oh, right. So, Teal�c, how would you like your steak?" Jack asked.

"I will not be joining you and Major Carter for dinner tonight, O�Neill," Teal�c stated.

"Why�s that, T?"

"Major Carter threatened to injure me if I came within 50 meters of your home."

Jack looked down at the angelic face of Samantha Carter. "You wouldn�t say that. Would you?"

"In a heartbeat," she said.

"Okay, then. I�m outta here," Daniel said.

"Give Corey a hug for me," Sam called out.

"Will do," Daniel answered her, leaving the room.

Sam rose from her chair and joined the two men at the door.

"Not even for dessert?" Jack asked Sam.

"Nope."

Jack looked forlornly at his friend the Jaffa. "You know, Teal�c, you hear about these things happening. You never think they�ll happen to you."

"Goodnight, Teal�c," Sam said leaving the room.

"Goodnight, Major Carter," Teal�c said.

Jack raised an eyebrow, tilted his head, mouthed that he was sorry, and headed for his office.

*****

"Anyway, it looks like there are all sorts of artifacts that need cataloguing, so we�ll be gone a little more than a week," Daniel said, carrying the last of the dishes from the table into the kitchen.

Corey took the cups and put them into the dishwasher. "Sounds like a dream for you, DJ. Where is this place?"

Daniel lowered his head and frowned. "I can�t tell you that, Corey. It�s the one part of my job I hate the...well, not the most, but it�s right up there."

"Classified."

"Classified."

"Okay," she said, sighing. "Oh, by the way, our string quartet is playing for the museum�s new exhibit."

"That�s great, Corey. When is it?" Daniel asked, wiping the dining room table.

"Sorry. Classified," she said, giving him a coy eye. "Well, I think we�re done here. I�m going to go practice for a while." She began to walk out of the kitchen.

"Uh, wait. You...you�re going to practice tonight?" Daniel asked, corralling her back into the kitchen with his outstretched arms.

"Yes, Daniel. You know I always practice after dinner," she said, trying to maneuver around him.

Daniel held out his arms and walked her back into the counter, where she looked up at him in mock annoyance. "But I�m leaving in the morning. I thought...well, maybe...I mean, I know it�s not like I�m leaving for a month, but..." he grabbed the counter behind her, pressing her into the edge, and held her in his blue-eyed gaze, "...the point is, Cordelia, your husband is going out on a mission..."

"A mission."

"Yes. A mission," he stated, lightly kissing her neck. "And I thought maybe, juuuuuust maybe, we could spend this night..."

Corey closed her eyes and let her head tilt of its own accord. "Yes?"

"...we could spend the night getting..." he ran his lips across her collar bone, heating it with his breath, "...me..."

Corey swallowed hard. "Getting you...?" Her hand went to the back of his head, raking through his hair as she felt the warmth of his breath flow through her body.

"...getting me...ready to leave," he said, meeting her eyes again, smiling. He wrapped his arms around her back and pulled Corey to him.

"We could. We could," she said, unzipping the top of his pullover. She pulled back the collars of the sweater and placed hot kisses at the base of his neck. "Or..."

"Yes?" he asked, pressing his hands into the small of her back.

"Or I could..." She reached up inside his sweater and rubbed his chest. Corey nipped lightly at his ear lobes.

"You could what?" Daniel asked, breathlessly.

"I could..." she made a little groaning sound in his ear, just enough to make his knees a tad weaker. "...I could... mmmmm, practice," she said, ducking under his arm.

Daniel stood, slack-jawed, unable to breathe. He grasped the counter for support.

"Two can play this game, DJ," Corey said, smiling. She left the kitchen and started for the living room. "Give me an hour. Then come talk to me...or...whatever."

"I think it might take that long for me to move again," Daniel told her, his aquamarine eyes shining.

Corey smiled back at him as she rounded the corner.

Daniel lowered his head as he stood propped up against the kitchen counter. He found himself smiling.

Happy. Content. Safe.

For many years, practically all his life, for that matter, he had wished to be able to use those words to describe himself. He had used them, very briefly, when he was with Sha�re on Abydos. But the words were ripped from his personal lexicon when Sha�re was taken from his arms. He put all his hope in the promise that he�d made to Kasuf: that he would find Sha�re and bring her home.

He found Sha�re. And he found a new set of words.

Dejected. Shattered. Alone.

For months after her death, all he could bring himself to do was work and sleep. Sleep and work. He had no energy and no care to do anything else.

Each day, each new mission came and went. One moment blending with the next, with no one to help him distinguish between them. He did his job, fought his battle, and went home, again, to an empty apartment. An empty bed.

And then one day he met Corey. Dr. Cordelia Barnett, PhD. Thunderstruck and utterly speechless when they met, Daniel instantly recognized a kindred spirit, another soul just getting by. The speed with which their relationship progressed surprised everyone except them.

Six months after meeting, Corey and Daniel married. They spent a few days camping in the mountains outside Denver, and then returned to their home in order to make a life.

For a man who had spent his childhood tumbling from one dig to another, his adolescence falling from one foster family to another, his matriculation rolling from one degree to another, and his adulthood stumbling from place to place, looking for Sha�re, seeing her in the corner of his eye, this home of theirs represented his innermost need for structure. For belonging.

Standing in his own kitchen, in a house he and his wife had chosen to make their home, Daniel shook his head in awe. Everytime he walked into this structure, this collaboration of brick and mortar, lumber and electricity, he found himself. It was a place which held more than just his belongings. This was his home, his embracing sanctuary. And at its center was Corey.

The mellifluous sounds of Brahms floated through the air, calling him to join her, as he often did, in the living room.

He stood leaning against the archway that lead into the living room, his arms loosely crossed in front of him. He watched with amazement and admiration as her fingers manipulated the keyboard, attacking the keys with ferocity one moment, and then the next, caressing them as if they needed a gentle reminder.

He had never been aware of the visceral power of music before he met Corey. But the moment he heard her play was the moment he heard her soul, heard the purity of her heart. That was the moment he knew he had to keep her close to him for the rest of his life. Listening to her play Brahms, watching her body mirror the music�s message, Daniel felt the thrill he had had when she first played for him.

He silently stepped to her, carefully slid his legs over the piano bench, and sat behind her as she continued to play. He laid his hands on her shoulders, feeling the flesh under her shirt contract as her hands glided over the keys. Daniel slid his hands down the tops of her arms and slowly back up, teasing the tender skin on the inner part of her arm. He pushed her long auburn hair away from her neck, lowered his face and gently kissed the nape. Letting his fingers brush down the side of her chest, Daniel listened for the telltale signs that his wife was losing the battle of concentration and surrendering to his touch.

Corey felt her skin tingle, felt her body begin to deliciously ache at his ministrations. But she continued to play. Her fingers automatically worked the keys, while her mind gave into the sensual barrage: his stroke; his clean scent; his heartbeat pounding through his chest and against her back. She heard the cool air entering his mouth and leaving in hot exhalations, cascading over her skin.

"You sure you want to practice?" he whispered into her ear, allowing his lips to brush against the sensitive skin. He reached in front of her, slid one had around her waist, the other, slowly up to her neck, pulling her quivering torso closer to him.

Corey stopped playing.

"I love you, Corey," Daniel breathed.

Corey laid her head against his chest, raised her face to his, and kissed him deeply.

Brahms could wait.

*****

The last thing he did before saying goodbye was remove his ring. Daniel didn�t like to wear his wedding ring off-world: not very practical; it could be a safety hazard; he didn�t want to lose it. He left it on their dresser, next to a picture of them with their arms wrapped around each other, a brilliant Rocky Mountain sunrise as their backdrop.

Daniel crouched down on Corey�s side of the bed. He had showered and dressed, readying himself for leaving without having woken his wife. The hour was early, and, even though she would be getting up soon, he wanted to let her sleep. He knew that she didn�t sleep well when he was gone; nor did he sleep well off-world. The only break he could give her was to not wake her from her deep slumber.

Daniel took one last look at his watch, wishing there were more time before he had to leave. SG1 had been given an early departure time, and he had to get back to base early enough to pack his gear. With one last resigned breath, Daniel decided it was time to say goodbye.

"Corey? Corey. I have to go, Corey," Daniel whispered, fingering the wisps of hair from her sleeping face.

"What time is it?" Corey croaked, reaching for the alarm clock.

"Um, it�s 5 am. I have to be on base by 6. I just wanted to say goodbye before I left."

"One week, right?"

"Yeah, seven short days. I should be home in plenty of time for your race," he reminded her. Corey closed her eyes and nodded. "I gotta go. I�ll see you in a week." Daniel leaned forward and kissed her.

"I love you," Corey whispered, the early hour and the late night seducing her back to sleep.

Daniel lightly brushed his fingers across her cheek. "I love you too, Corey."

"I can�t wait for you to come home," she said, patting his chest.

"I�ll be home soon. Don�t worry."

"Send me a postcard?"

"Uh, not where I�m going."

"I was kidding."

"Oh."

"Be safe."

Daniel pressed his lips to her neck, felt the warmth of her skin, the slow and steady beat of her pulse. He breathed in her essence: rosemary-mint shampoo and sated musk. Closing his eyes to capture this moment, Daniel pressed his face deeply into her hair.

"I will be, Corey. I�ll leave the heroics to Sam and Jack."

"Don�t you always?"

"Whenever humanly possible."

Corey reached up and touched his face. "You worried about something?"

"Um, no. No, I don�t think so."

"This mission. It�s a no-brainer, right?"

"Right." Daniel took her hand in his and kissed her open palm. "I�ll be home soon. I promise." He stood up and began to leave.

"Think of me," Corey called out in a sleepy voice.

"Always," Daniel told her.

*****

"Calling Dr. Jackson. Dr. Daniel Jackson," Jack called out in a nasally voice. He checked his watch again, found it had been 45 seconds since the last time he checked, and summarily flipped the cover. He bounced up and down on his toes nervously. "Calling Dr. Mit, Dr. DAMMIT!!"

"He�ll be here, sir," Sam assured him. "He just wanted to get an extra battery for his camera."

"Couldn�t he have done that earlier?" Jack asked petulantly.

"Apparently not," Sam said. "Sir, if he runs out of batteries, then we�d have to come back through the Stargate at an enormous cost just for a $4.95 fuel cell. With all due respect, I think we can wait."

"I hate it when you �with all due respect� me, Carter. That�s just rhetoric for �hey, look, you big dork.� "

"With all due respect, sir, you don�t know that for sure," Sam said, smiling mischievously. Jack glanced at her sidelong.

"Hi, guys," Daniel absently said, entering the embarkation room, fiddling with the fastener on his vest pocket.

"Good morning, DanielJackson," Teal�c said.

Daniel looked up at the Jaffa surprised to be greeted by him. "Yeah, yeah, um, morning, Teal�c."

"Have your batteries?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, thanks."

"Enough tapes for the camera?"

"I think so."

"Lens cleaner?"

Daniel cocked his head to one side and eyed Jack. "Jack, is there a problem?"

"No. No problem. Just want to make sure you have everything. Wouldn�t want you to have to come back for anything," Jack said, peevishly turning from his teammates, waiting for the gate to engage.

Daniel stepped in line with Sam and grabbed her elbow. "Lovely mood."

"Tell me about it."

The Stargate exploded toward them and just as suddenly imploded. The four members of SG1 stepped up the ramp. At the top, Jack turned to face the control room.

"Good luck, SG1," General Hammond stated through the PA system.

"Thank you, sir. We�ll see you in a week. That is unless we forgot something. Which I highly doubt," Jack said. He and his team strode up and through the event horizon.

On the opposite side of the worm hole, SG1 found themselves caressed by the gentle, arid wind of a desert planet. Jack put his sunglasses on immediately; Sam cupped the brim of her cap to better shade her face; Teal�c maintained the elegant nonchalance that characterized all their arrivals.

Daniel walked blindly, uninhibited by the intense light, almost as if he were drawn to the ruins.

"Uh, Daniel. Why don�t you wait for the...didn�t think so," Jack said as he watched Daniel walk excitedly to the ruins.

"Sir, I�ll start setting up camp here," Sam said.

"Fine." Jack watched with a modicum of concern as Daniel circled around artifacts, ran his gloved hands over obelisks and columns. "Say, Daniel. Shouldn�t you be taking a little more care with those priceless...things?"

Daniel placed his glasses high on his head and peered at the inscription on the side of a ten-foot column. "Jack, this is...Wow! This, this is a Djed pillar--granted a very large Djed pillar. It�s the symbol of Osiris� backbone." Daniel walked around the circumference of the artifact, never taking his eyes off the ridges encircling the top. "The Egyptians would place small Djed pillars in the hand of the deceased. They believed it gave the dead the strength of Osiris� backbone after death."

"Osiris. The god of the dead. Responsible for the Nile�s yearly flooding--Osiris?" Jack asked.

Daniel turned to look at Jack, widened his eyes, shook his head: a look of absolute shock on his face. "Um..."

"I listen," Jack told him. "Sometimes."

"Anyhow, there are some incredible artifacts here. Apparently, the woman who�s memorialized in these must have been quite a big wig--so to speak." Daniel continued. He stepped in front of an obelisk with an intricate carving of a knot on top. "The Isis knot. Um, this is..." Daniel�s fingers skimmed over the carvings frenetically, "incredible."

"So you�ve said, Daniel. But what does it mean?" Jack asked.

"Well, it means...I mean, okay, so here it says...anyway, this person was a giving, resourceful woman who gave her life so that others...may...live." Daniel�s eyes darted to the funerary Stela and then back to the Obelisk. His pulse began to increase in speed as his eyes focused on the inscription. "Uh, Jack?"

"Daniel?" Jack answered, sensing the look of concern on Daniel�s face. He stepped toward Daniel and took the safety off his weapon.

Daniel moved cautiously to the false door and crouched down to read the hieroglyphics at the bottom.

"Jack, we should...we need to..." Daniel stood up, brushed off his hands and backed away from the false door.

"Predicate, Daniel. I need a predicate for either of those subjects," Jack said.

Daniel turned to face Jack. His face was pale and the muscles were tense. "This is a tomb dedicated to the woman who brought Osiris back to life," he said.

"Isis?" Jack asked, secretly proud of himself for having remembered that part of Daniel�s tutorial.

"No," Daniel nervously said, "Sarah Gardner." His mouth was dry. He felt the blood rush from his extremities. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. "I have a really bad feeling about this, Jack."

"Okay, well, let�s just leave," Jack said starting toward a visibly shaken Daniel.

In a blinding flash of light, amidst the grinding metallic sound of transporter rings activating, Daniel suddenly found himself surrounded by the terrifying Goa�uld technology. He tried desperately to scream out Jack�s name, but the sound was drowned out by the cacophonous whining of the rings.

Jack charged toward the rings. "Daniel!!"

In an instant, Daniel Jackson was gone.

"Sir, what just happened?" Sam asked, racing up to the scene with Teal�c.

Jack spun around in frantic circles, looking in a million different directions at once, trying to figure out from where the rings had originated. "Some son of a bitch just rung up Daniel." Jack grasped his radio. "Daniel. Daniel! Daniel, it�s Jack." He let go of the button, allowed enough time for Daniel to respond. "Daniel, if you can hear this, we�re coming to get you. Just hang tight."

Daniel stared at his radio in the Jaffa's hand as Jack's voice came over the speaker. "Just hang tight."

The Jaffa threw it caustically against the wall. "Your friend is mistaken, Taur�i. They will not find you," he said.

Daniel strained against the pair of arms that held him. "Oh, I think the odds are pretty good that they will. And then you�ll die along with the rest of your playground bullies."

The Jaffa�s eyes burned with anger. "Remove his equipment and outer clothing! Shackle him!" he ordered. The two Jaffa holding Daniel did as ordered, stripping off his jacket and vest. They bound his wrists with chains, and then connected him to a line hanging from the ceiling. When the connection was firmly in place, Daniel�s arms were raised high above him. The muscles in his shoulders quaked involuntarily. He futilely tried to control his swinging motion with the toe of his boots. The links in the chains around his wrists ground more and more into his skin. His breath began to come in short gasps as his awkward position made lung expansion difficult.

"Perhaps our guest needs a few moments to become acclimated to his new surroundings," the Jaffa said, maliciously circling Daniel. "Perhaps a few moments left on his own will help him to be more cooperative."

"That�s going to take more than a few moments," Daniel muttered, unwilling to look the Jaffa in the eye.

"Then we�ll allow extra time," the Jaffa said, staring at him, a mere breath away from Daniel's face. The Jaffa motioned for the chain to be raised. Daniel felt himself being hoisted completely off the ground. He grimaced at the pain. "Like your friend said--hang tight, Taur�i." The man turned to the other guards in the room. "Jaffa, kree!"

"It�s been a pleasure meeting you," Daniel called out as all four of the Jaffa guards left him.

In his years with the SGC, Daniel had come to understand the effects of fear on the body. Hanging precariously in the center of the darkened room, Daniel began to catalogue them: increased heart rate-- oh, yeah. Got that; sudden perspiration--yup, yup; lightheadedness--one good reason to be strung up here, I guess; inability to think clearly--goes without saying; involuntary muscle spasm--that, too; a sense of foreboding or dread--both, in spades. Pretty sure I�m fearful, he thought to himself.

The pain in his shoulders had increased tremendously in the short time he was left to hang. It seized the breath in his lungs and he found himself helplessly groaning. "Could have had...an easy life," he said to no one in particular. He swallowed painfully as sweat poured down his back and past his waist band. "Could have had a...nice, easy, cushy...life. But no!" Daniel closed his eyes and tried to ratchet himself up the chain with his finger tips. Anything to take the weight and pressure off his wrists. "I had to figure out the...connection between the...pyramids and the aliens. Oh, yeah. That was well-thought out. Does the phrase...'Warning, Will Robinson! Warning!' mean...nothing to you, Dr. Jackson? Okay, well, not until...Jack explained it, but...Oh, God!" Daniel yelled as his fingers slipped and he felt the biting pain of the skin scraping away from his wrists.

"Doctor Daniel Jackson. I have been anxiously awaiting this meeting for many seasons," the voice of a Goa�uld said. "Release him, Jaffa."

In an instant, Daniel�s body fell to the floor. Daniel ground his teeth together to ward off the searing pain of the blood returning to his limbs. A guard grabbed hold of the chain and jerked Daniel to his knees.

Sarah Gardner stood before him, dressed in a sheath of gold. Atop her head was the tall Atef crown, symbolic of Osiris. In her hand was a crook and a flail which she held regally. Her eyes glowed as she spoke.

"Do you know me?" Osiris said through Sarah Gardner's body.

Daniel continued to catch his breath as he took in the figure of the Goa�uld before him. "You are--or were--Sarah Gardner. Now you probably introduce yourself as Osiris, god of the underworld. Interesting career change. One day a working stiff; now just a...stiff."

"I am also the god of eternal life. It would please me greatly to have you join me in this, the eternal afterlife." Osiris stepped forward and lifted Daniel�s chin.

"You�re not a god," Daniel informed him.

"Do not speak such blasphemy to my god!" the closest Jaffa ordered. He pummeled Daniel across the back with a staff weapon. Daniel sprawled to the ground in front of the guard. "Get up, you impudent fool!" he said, jerking the chain attached to Daniel�s wrists.

"Jaffa, kree!" Osiris bellowed. The guard let go of the chain and stood back obediently.

Daniel lay panting on the floor. "You are a Goa�uld. You are of an alien race that enslaves and imprisons other races to do your bidding. You are not a god; you are a snake." He licked his dry lips and tasted the blood dotting them from his impact with the floor. "You take over a host body and do that...weird glowing eye thing just to make people believe you�re a god. But you are not. You are a parasite."

"Silence!" Osiris yelled. He pulled back the flail in his hand and whipped it brutally across Daniel�s back. The pain made Daniel twist on his side. "I am Osiris! You will worship me! Or you will die!"

"Just like Sarah Gardner?" Daniel moaned.

Daniel�s question earned him another flagellation, the force of which cut through his t-shirt and into his skin. He choked on the hideous pain, gasped for air that would not come.

"Daniel?"

Daniel�s eyes cautiously opened. Surely it was the pain speaking, he thought. Surely he had not just heard the soft, gentle British accent belonging to his old friend and former lover.

"Daniel."

"Sarah?"

"Yes, Daniel."

Daniel turned his head slowly and tried to focus on the blurred figure above him. "But that�s not possible. The host is suppressed by the symbiote."

Sarah helped Daniel sit up. "My lord Osiris is a benevolent god, Daniel. You know that."

Daniel stared at her, confused by her seemingly effortless ability to switch between her own consciousness and that of the Goa�uld in her body. "Are you saying he allows you free will?"

"When he deems it appropriate, yes."

"That�s not my definition of free will, Sarah."

"Daniel, my lord has given me more free will to explore my passion than anyone has ever given me in my life," she said.

"Sarah, surely you now know the secrets of these false gods," Daniel said, slowly moving his knees below him, resting his elbows on the ground. He had to find a way to take the pressure off his shoulders and back, give them a moment to relax. "Can�t you see what�s happening here, Sarah?"

"I can, Daniel. I don�t believe you are able to, my love," Sarah said, touching his face.

"Don't...don't call me that," Daniel said as he turned his face from her. "Come on, Sarah. If he were a benevolent god--which, by the way, he is neither--would he have me strung up here and beaten?" Daniel looked deep into her eyes and saw the frightening change from host to symbiote, an almost imperceptible change. He saw it in her eyes first--the life bleeding from them replaced with cold doll's eyes. The tension in her lips straining against her teeth. Daniel felt his skin crawl at the sight, felt his innards twist in fear.

"It becomes a necessity when one such as yourself is not worthy of the graces from your god Osiris." The Goa�uld stood in front of Daniel and addressed his Jaffa. "Perhaps Dr. Jackson needs more time for reflection." The guards reconnected Daniel to the central chain and violently winched him up and off the floor. Daniel groaned pitifully as the abused muscles and tissues in his back shifted and pulled, stretching flesh that was desperate to be left alone.

"Daniel, I�m sorry you must endure this agony. Really, it�s for your own good," Sarah said.

"I have a hard time...understanding that...argument," he moaned.

"Daniel, let me make this easier for you. Come join my lord. Help us in our quest," she said as she caressed his cheek.

"There�s not a...chance I would...ever do that." Daniel said, jerking his face away from her hand, sending more pain down his back quot;Tell me you...don�t feel the...terror I feel, Sarah."

"I most certainly don�t, Daniel. I feel the excitement. I feel the brilliant knowledge of the Ancients that you knew all along. You were so selfish for keeping it to yourself, Daniel," Sarah said, addressing him with reproachful eyes. "I was so angry with you for not having shared your knowledge with me. I was your associate, and you chose to keep me in the dark."

"You left me first, Sarah."

"Yes, but when I asked you as a friend to bring me up to speed with your findings, you denied me."

"I had to, Sarah."

"It doesn�t matter. Not anymore. I have what I�ve always wanted now."

"Which is what?"

"Absolute knowledge and divine benevolence." Sarah circled his body, trailing her hand around his waist. "At first when my god entered me, I was horrified. And then I was...enlightened. For the first time in my life I knew what love was. I knew the meaning of giving one�s self utterly and completely to the one you love. All that I have is because of my god�s love for me. I am his as surely as he is mine."

"Sarah, don�t..."

"You were right all along, Daniel. Why didn�t you tell me?" she asked, running a hand up the back of his head.

"I couldn�t."

"Surely you must now feel the relief of being able to freely discuss the glory of it all with someone from your past. Someone who understands the ostracism you endured for your belief. Doesn�t it feel wonderful to be able to talk with someone who understands your past and shares your future?"

"Somewhat, yes, but..."

Sarah stepped passionately before him and pulled at his shirt. "Then join me, Daniel. Let me share with you my world. Join me and my god for an adventure beyond your wildest dreams!"

"I have enough nightmares, thank you."

"Join me. Together we can be free to explore the wonders of the galaxies together," Sarah said.

"No, Sarah. I won�t."

"But it�s the stuff we used to dream about. The stuff we used to whisper to each other." Sarah stepped to his side and slid her hand across his chest. "Do you remember making love to me, Daniel?"

Daniel closed his eyes and tried not to feel her hands on his body. Tried not to hear her words. Tried not to remember those sweltering Chicago nights. "Don�t, Sarah."

"Do you remember how we would recite Egyptian love poems to each other?" She trailed her fingers down over his belly and across his hip.

"That was a long time ago." The intimacy of her touch repulsed and frightened him.

"But it could be us again, only better. No secrets; no one to have to protect," she said, kissing his back. "Free to discuss our findings. Free to love one another."

"Gee, that sounds...like a threesome, and...I�m not into that."

"Daniel, we could begin again."

"That�s never going to happen, Sarah," Daniel told her, aware that his teeth were beginning to chatter. "You are dead to me."

"Then you shall suffer, Taur�i!" Osiris stated, crossing in front of Daniel and raising his hand. "You shall feel the pain you cause my host, only ten-fold."

The ribbon device spewed its oscillating pain into Daniel�s skull. He clenched his jaw, groaning under the wrath of the Goa'uld. His mind screamed, pathetic demands that went unheard. The crushing heat and energy sent waves of slicing pain through his head, down his spine and into his arms and legs. Blinding lights and deafening noises pierced his mind, made it impossible for him to think, only to be aware. Every muscle constricted, every tendon strained. He sensed death near him, smelled its ocher scent. From deep in his throat, a scream began to build. When at last he let loose its primal acknowledgement of terror and agony, it drained him, left him unable to fight the effects. Daniel felt the merciful inchoation of unconsciousness creeping in.

Osiris lowered his hand and watched as Daniel�s head fell back, wobbled a bit, his mouth agape. A stream of blood trickled out of Daniel's nose and over his cheek.

*****

"Sir, it�s been over 30 hours since Daniel�s disappearance. We need to go back there full force to figure out what the hell happened," Jack barked. He leaned anxiously toward General Hammond.

"Colonel O�Neill," the general began, flattening his palms against the table, "there is an obvious Goa�uld threat on the planet, and I..."

"...General!" Jack interupted.

General Hammond raised a hand to stop him. "...I will not send any other personnel there without knowing what the magnitude of that threat is," General Hammond said, his voice reaching the edges of his tolerance.

"All due respect, sir, but this is bull..."

"Think hard about your next word, Colonel O'Neill. Choose wisely, sir," General Hammond warned, drilling Jack with ice-blue eyes. Jack backed off.

"In-coming traveler," the lieutenant�s voice stated over the speakers. General Hammond and SG-1 exchanged nervous glances before rushing down to the control room.

"Do we have a code, Lieutenant?" General Hammond asked as he reached the computer banks.

"Yes, sir. It�s a Tok�ra code, sir."

"Open the iris," the general ordered leaving the control room with Jack, Sam and Teal�c behind him.

The wormhole splashed forth, stabilized, and from within its center came Jacob Carter. Sam�s expression changed dramatically. Jacob walked down the ramp and was greeted by his friends and family.

"George, good to see you," Jacob said, extending his hand to General Hammond. The generals shook hands. "Sam, how are you, honey?" he asked, wrapping his arms around his daughter.

"I�ve been better," she said. She pulled away from her father in order to tell him the news. "Dad, Daniel was taken by..."

"...by Osiris. I know," Jacob said, closing his eyes and nodding.

Jack glanced at the other people in line to see if he was the only one shocked by the news. "You know? Let me guess: secret operative."

"And they say you�re just a pretty face, " Jacob said, leading the group up to the briefing room. �What we know so far is that Daniel is being held on Osiris� ship somewhere in the Vantium cluster."

"As far as I know, we don�t have any addresses for that section of the galaxy," Sam stated.

"That�s why I�m here. I have a ship cloaked on the closest planet to the cluster. We�ll gate there and fly to Vantium."

"How long�s that gonna take, Jake?" Jack asked.

"Let me put it to you this way, Jack. Bring supplies. Medical supplies. Daniel�s going to need them by the time we reach him."

"What are you saying, Dad?"

"Reports are that Daniel has been beaten several times and had the ribbon device used on him. He�s holding up, but the torture is sure to continue."

"What do they want with Dr. Jackson?" General Hammond asked.

"Osiris is very weak among the other system lords," said Selmak. "Surely he�s trying to gain Dr. Jackson�s knowledge of the Goa�uld."

"Daniel won�t give them squat," Jack pointedly said.

"Then Dr. Jackson will suffer," Selmak rejoined.

"Should Osiris not have apprehended me instead?" Teal'c asked. "I have much more knowledge of the Goa�uld than DanielJackson."

"You�re not Sarah Gardner�s former boyfriend," Jacob said, glancing at Teal'c. "Seems Osiris is playing a masochistic game of stick and carrot with his host--allowing her to speak to Daniel; allowing her to convince Daniel to join them using her unique memory of Daniel. We�ve never known a Goa'uld to be this giving, so it�s obviously part of a larger plan."

"Great," Jack groaned, rubbing his forehead. "Okay, well, when do we leave?"

"George?" Jacob asked. He looked to his old friend.

"I'd like you to take another team with you," General Hammond stated.

"Sorry, not enough room on the ship. If we go, we go light," Jacob told him.

The two old friends pensively sized up their options. The trust they held for each other's judgement ran deep, had history.

General Hammond pulled a mouthful of air percussively through his teeth and grudgingly nodded. quot;As soon as you�re ready, you have permission to leave," General Hammond said. "I would suggest you confer with Dr. Fraiser before you go."

"Yes, sir," Jack said.

"Then good luck, Colonel. Major. Teal'c. Jacob." And with that, General Hammond left for his office, and SG-1 along with Jacob went about preparing for their journey.

*****

"Daniel? Come on, Daniel. Wake up, honey."

"Corey?" Daniel uttered. His wife�s voice rang out in his muddled consciousness, cloaking him in warmth and security.

"Daniel, get up. We�re going to be late."

"I can�t go, Corey. Go without me."

"I�m not going without you, DJ."

"Please, Corey. Go. I�ll catch up later."

"I can wait."

"Well, okay. Hold on," he said, trying to lift his body from its slumber.

He opened his eyes and found he wasn�t cocooned in the safety of their bed, but hanging from his wrists, his bleeding wrists, in the middle of a Goa�uld room, light-years away from his home.

Her voice, the vision of her auburn hair glinting in the sunlight, dissipated, leaving Daniel alone in his torturous position, abandoned in his fear. He bit back on his terror and the useless tears that replaced the comfort of his dream.

If this is what came from memories of home, Daniel vowed not to allow the memories to surface at all. The pain was too sharp; the cost too high.

"I'll see you later, Corey," he whispered and cried.

*****

Arriving on Toprine, Jacob, Jack, Teal'c and Sam began to follow the course that Jacob had set for them.

"The ship is three miles from the gate," Jacob told them. "Hope none of you are wearing new boots."

"You know, Jacob--Dad-- we're not new recruits," Jack said, scuffing dirt over his boots to mask the newness of them.

"Right, Jack," Jacob said.

They walked the first mile in silence, each one consumed with preparatory thoughts, envisioning proportional responses to situations, pushing away thoughts of Daniel.

Of Daniel.

Of Dr. Daniel Jackson, whose intelligence was superseded only by his compassion; whose passion for his life's work was outweighed only by the pain of his past; whose life had just begun again to make sense, only to be cast back into an abyss of trauma and torment. It wasn't fair. If anyone deserved a free ride, it was Daniel.

There are a set of memories and absolutes we all hold deep within our minds, placed there in early years when belief wasn't questioned and absorption was complete. Those trinkets of faith, of prejudice, of familial lore, treasures found in secret corners of a home and of a childhood, found to be stored until, as adults, we sort through the tattered box, discard the ones that hold no truth, build on the ones that do.

It was from within his own gathering of memories that Jack pulled out an odd thing, one that he had handled often, never knowing to cast it off or hold it close. And it said that all the sorrows we endure in this life in the name of righteousness will be repaid in multiples in the next life.

For Daniel's sake, he held that thought close. For himself, it held no truth.

Jacob glanced at his daughter and then looked toward the horizon. Sam glanced at her father and then to the ground.

With a second look, Jacob spoke. "You're worried about Daniel."

"Well, yeah. If he's being beaten like your spy says, then, yeah, I'm worried," she said, never breaking stride.

"It could be bad, Sam."

"I know, Dad."

"Does Jack ever talk about his time in Iraq?"

"No."

"It may come up, Sam. At least subconsciously."

"Yeah, I know."

Jacob reached over and rubbed Sam's back, smiled sadly at her, and continued walking. "About another mile."

"Okay," Sam answered.

*****

He wondered how long he had been asleep. The child who peeked at him from behind the columns giggled.

"Tu'am, where is Sha're?" Daniel called out. He straightened his glasses.

The almond eyes flashed from behind the column. A hand rushed to her mouth, muffling a laugh. Tu'am ran away, her ebony hair trailing behind her.

"Tu'am!" Daniel called.

"Husband?"

Daniel spun around at the sound of her voice. "Sha're," Daniel intoned, her name more like a prayer than a title.

Sha're knelt down in front of him and leaned forward. She held his gaze intently, hoping to impress him with the urgency of her message. "You must send her away, Dan'yel."

"Who?" Daniel asked, reaching for her, barely able to close the distance.

"Corey. You must send her away. You must protect her." Sha're laid her hand in his, brushed her fingers against his palm, grasped it, pulled it to her lips, and kissed it.

"Like you sent away the child?" Daniel asked, outlining her face with his fingertips. "Sent him away to protect him from the Goa'uld?"

"No, Dan'yel," she said, shaking her head.

Daniel crouched closer to her. "Then what?"

"You must send her from your mind. She is not safe with you now," Sha're told him gently. "Do not allow her entrance, Dan'yel."

"But...she is..."

"Yes, I know. She is your wife," she said, nodding. "Hear me, Dan'yel. Send her away. For her sake. Hide her from your mind."

"I'm trying, but I can't." He began to form words to express his fear.

Sha're placed her finger against his lips to quiet him. "You must, husband. You must." She stood to leave.

Daniel tried to run to her, only to be pulled back to the ground. "No. Sha're. Don't leave me here! Please!"

"I am already dead, Dan'yel. I have seen the other side. Do not allow Corey to see it," she said. Sha're turned, held her hand over her heart and lowered her head.

"He's waking, my lord," the guard said.

Osiris stepped in front of the hanging figure. "Lower him. But only slightly." The guard slowly lowered Daniel's frame. When his feet touched the ground they held no purchase, merely folded limply underneath him. It was only when his knees were within inches of the floor that he was held in place. "Tell me where my queen is. Tell me where Isis is."

"I told you. She was in a canopic jar that was destroyed. Isis is dead," Daniel relayed weakly. He had little enough energy to anwer Osiris' questions, let alone try to lift his head off his chest. He had the strange thought that if someone were to unhook his neck, his head would simply roll down his body and across the floor.

But when the whip met with the tender skin of his back, slicing it, splaying open jagged edges, Daniel's head shot up as if the whip itself had raised it. His ears were filled with his own agonizing screams. His abdonimal muscles convulsed violently. He felt a warmth, a wetness cascade down his leg. He crushed his eyes shut at the shame of wetting himself, and prayed that that would be the only lashing. Daniel turned his face into his arm and tried to force the shuddering breaths to cease.

"My queen has powers over death. She is alive. Tell me, Taur'i. Where is my queen?" Osiris said, pulling tight on Daniel's sweat-soaked hair.

"I told you. She is dead, and there's nothing I can do to change that," he cried, unwilling to look the Goa'uld in the eye.

The second flagellation found the center of his back, the tip of the reed wrapping around the side of his chest, licking his ribs with a white hot tongue. Daniel screamed and screamed again, tearing at his throat, feeling it become as raw as his back. He gasped for breath, but with each expansion of his lungs, the swollen and bleeding skin on his back pulled. Daniel resorted to short ineffectual breaths, punctuated by involuntary whimpers. Unable to withstand the pain, unable to understand why he was being whipped, Daniel dropped his head and wept. His pants, soaked with sweat and urine, clung to him, turned cold against his trembling skin.

"Oh, my God," Daniel cried, incoherantly muttering about the mess and the pain.

Osiris gestured with his hand to raise Daniel. The order was carried out, and Daniel was raised to eye level with the god of the dead. Osiris reached forward and lifted Daniel's face. "Tell me, Taur'i. Do you have one who would heal you as Isis did me?" He stared hard into Daniel's liquid blue eyes, bloodshot and rimmed with red.

Daniel's mind barely registered the question. Muted and urgent came other words, words from another time and place--"You must protect her, Dan'yel." His body was aflame with wounds. He tried to hold back the sobs which only made them more explosive.

"Do you have one who would gather your remains and return you from death?"

"Come on, DJ!" Corey's laughter floated through the caverns of pain, teasing him with carefree thoughts of home. The pain of seeing her, knowing that he may die before ever seeing her again, stabbed at Daniel, tore at him with the same brutality as his captor's whip. He forced the recollection from his mind.

His chin trembled from the pain, as he muttered "No."

"Then I say again: join me. My host would be most receptive to having you as our eternal guest."

He had no idea why this, in the midst of terrific pain and agony, would sound so outrageously funny, but it did. Daniel began to laugh sardonically. "I'm sure she would."

The third and fourth caning crossed the raw tracks of the first two, bisecting them, scraping at exposed nerves, leaving instant wheals and future scars.

Daniel's screams pierced the otherwise silent room.

When at last the screaming stopped, he wept, near submission. "Please. No more."

"Such a waste of energy. Such a waste of time," Osiris said. He slowly circled the hanging figure. "You are stubborn and must be broken, Taur'i, or I will never be able to give you the gifts I have to offer."

"What gifts?" Daniel choked. The hypersensitive flesh on his back spasmed at the slight breeze created by Osiris' passing, making Daniel's breathing come in uneven, jarring gulps.

"The gift of my host."

"That's never going to happen, Sarah!" Daniel cried, hoping the host was listening, praying that she would somehow intercede on his behalf. "You know that, Sarah!"

Daniel was engulfed in a pain unlike anything he had ever known-- burning and freezing his skin at the same time, turning bone into molten flows and blood into vapor. Daniel felt a terror he had never known, inexplicable and all-consuming. He wanted to scream, to plead for his life. But his mouth was locked open, unable to produce a sound. Daniel stared at Osiris and the glowing black eyes. Osiris held the ribbon device directly to Daniel's side, focusing all its energy into his rib. Daniel's mind seized from the pain, but his subconcious retreated, sought sanctuary in the dark recesses of past comforts.

And then the electrification of his body stopped.

Daniel slumped forward, his chin tucked lifelessly onto his chest. The chains around his wrists dug into his useless hands. Fresh blood from the aggravated wounds mixed with the deeper dried blood as it formed deltas along the contours of his arms.

"Funny how a host can bend one's will. I merely wanted to discipline you; my host wanted to see you suffer," Osiris said, grabbing the top of his head and ripping at his hair.

But Daniel had slipped past the guards, past even Osiris, and had fled to a place where only Daniel knew. A place where he couldn't hear, couldn't see, couldn't feel. A place no one else was allowed admittance.

He stealthily made his way around the blackened edge of the room. Finding the door he was searching for, Daniel opened it, but only so far as was needed to slip behind it, out of view. He curled up on the floor inside the small room, covered his face with his arms and hummed a melody whose name escaped him. And he rocked. And he rocked.

"'Gymnopedies,'" Corey said stretching her legs.

Daniel opened his eyes and looked over his forearm at her. This was his room and his alone. No one should be in here, he thought. He questioned the voice. "What?"

"That song. 'Gymnopedies.' Erik Satie." Daniel's wife crossed her legs and bent over to touch the ground, preparation for running.

Daniel covered his ears. "No. No, Corey. You have to leave."

Corey stood up sharply and stared at him. "Why, Daniel?"

"You're not supposed to be here," he said, unable to hide the alarm in his voice.

"What's going on, Daniel, that I'm not supposed to be here?"

"God, Corey! Please, just go!"

"No, Daniel. I won't."

"You have to! Get out of here!"

Corey squatted down in front of him and looked at him accusingly. "What did you do, Daniel?"

Daniel tried to squirm away, hide his fear from her. "Nothing. I swear."

"Why are your pants wet?" she asked, disgustedly.

Daniel covered his eyes and shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it."

She crawled toward him. "What will you do, Daniel?"

"What?"

"What will you do," she asked, "for me?"

Daniel crushed his hands into his eyes, forbidding them to see her face anymore. "I...I don't know."

"For me, Daniel."

"Please, Corey..."

"For me."

"Please. Leave! This is my room! My room! You can't be here. You're not safe. Leave me alone!"

The guard let loose the winch, allowing the chains to scream past the crank and Corey's image to scream out of his mind.

Daniel's body crumpled to the floor in a heap. Slack chains piled over him and his abused body. The muscles in his back, chest and shoulders constricted and burned. He took in his first deep breath in days, filling abandoned sections of his lungs. Each new breath caused his ribs to crackle and slice, raw edges scraping against exposed nerves. Blood, thick and metalic, dribbled down the back of his throat and from his nose.

His stomach shuddered at the pain and the increasing nausea.

His mind shuddered at the loss of his only comfort.

*****

Two more days to go. Maybe three, but no more than that. Three more days until he's home, Corey thought. Three days, two days, three days, two days...A mantra, a rhythm that kept time with her running pace.

In just another testimonial of how perfectly suited she and Daniel were for each other, how easily and naturally they had created a partnership, Corey felt awkward and disjointed when he was away. She tried to go about her day as if it didn't matter that Daniel was half-way around the world--at least she thought he was. At night she tried to imagine that he was next to her, but without his arms draped across her, without the whispered assurance of his breathing, sleep did not come easily, if at all.

Running along the paths and sidewalks of her neighborhood, Corey tried to breathe deeply. She had been a runner all her life and never had she had so much trouble getting in the 'zone,' that place where respiration was fluid and unencumbered. The more she thought about Daniel, about him not being with her, the more erratic and forced her breathing became.

For the first time in many years, Corey stopped running, bent at the waist and tried to catch her breath.

"What the hell?" she questioned. As she pulled her sweaty hands up over her legs, her wedding ring fell off and bobbled on the ground. A chill went through her body. She leaned over to pick it up. She put it back on her finger and clenched her fist to keep it securely in place.

"Corey?"

Corey spun around, looking for him in anticipation. She was sure it was Daniel's voice she heard. Her eyes darted between the houses, past the trees, inside passing cars.

"Okay, this is getting weird," she said. She began to walk, began to get her breathing under control. Began to worry that all this was more than just a coincidence.

Then she began to run again.

*****

"There it is," Jacob said, pointing to a clump of trees in an opening.

Jack scanned the area, found nothing but dried grass and a few trees, and then scowled at Jacob. "Cloaked?"

"Yes."

"You know, Jake, that joke was funny the first couple times. Now, not so much," Jack told him. Jacob smiled, pressed a button and decloaked the ship. "Ah, now, that's a ship."

"Wow, Dad, looks like you went into the showroom with a bag full of cash," Sam said, brushing her hands over the skin of the hull.

"It is a fine vessel, General Carter. It should serve us well," Teal'c stated, walking around the ship, his hands clenched behind his back.

Jacob activated the hatch doors and allowed the party inside. "She's a beaut. And she's fast. I'm hoping fast enough," Jacob said, closing the hatch behind them and walking to the controls. He manipulated a panel beneath his fingers and the ship began to lift.

"Smooth," Jack stated, looking out the forward windows, seeing the ground disappear below him.

"I have not seen a ship of this kind before, General Carter," Teal'c said.

"No, I'm sure you haven't, Teal'c. The Tok'ra designed this recently using specs from Goa'uld and Asgard designs. She's fast. Not sure she's going to be fast enough," Jacob said plainly.

"Dad," Sam uttered, disconcerted by her father's lack of sensitivity.

"All I'm saying is Osiris is making his reputation known as a brutal SOB."

"You didn't tell us that back at the SGC, Jake. You might have mentioned that," Jack barked.

"Would that have changed your decision in anyway?"

"No, but..."

"Then don't worry about it. We're on our way, and we'll find what we find," Jacob said, sending the ship into hyperdrive.

Jack stared at him in disbelief. "It must be a dark little world in there with you two Mary Sunshines seeing who can depress the other faster."

"Jacob can be--shall we say--cold, but he means no offense. He is just as concerned about Dr. Jackson as you, and his negativity is his way of deflecting his apprehension," Selmak said, stepping in on Jacob's behalf.

"Wouldn't I have loved having you around when I was a kid," Sam said.

"I'm still here, Sam," Jacob added.

"Sorry," Sam added.

"How long will this leg of the journey take, General Carter?" Teal'c asked.

"It should take..." Jacob checked the heads-up display," 46 hours to enter the Vantium cluster and another three to four to find Osiris' ship."

Jack hunkered down on a nearby bench, laid back and crossed his feet. "Guess it's time for a nap."

"Yeah, Jack. Time for a nap," Jacob said, glancing back at his son-in-law.

"I shall be in the cargo area seeking Kel No Reem," Teal'c said, bowing his head and taking his leave.

Sam looked around the room. "Guess that leaves you and me, huh, Dad?"

"Looks that way," Jacob said, never taking his focus off the HUD.

Sam stepped to his side and thrust her hands in her pockets. "Dad, why...why do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Say such negative things, especially when you know it makes us all a little crazy."

Jacob glanced at her quickly. "I'm just preparing you for what we might find."

"Preparing us is fine, but instilling fear is another. We all know the score here, Dad. Your negative comments don't help," Sam said. She waited for a reply from her father. When none came, she shook her head and started to walk away.

"You're right, Sam. I'm sorry," he finally said. Sam walked to the other bench and laid back. "You're so much like your mom."

Sam sat up and squinted her eyes. "What?"

Jacob nodded. "Your mom used to say the same thing to me."

"She...she did?"

"Yup. Almost got me to stop saying things like that before she died. Then, what the hell, didn't seem to be a point to stop being cynical."

"You...you never told me that," Sam said quietly.

"Didn't I?" Jacob asked. Sam shook her head. "Oh, yeah, your mom was...well, your mom could find the positive in almost anything."

"I remember."

"Tried damn hard to get me to see the same. When she died, nope, I just couldn't hold onto that thought that everything would be okay. Didn't seem possible. So, I'm sorry if I seem skeptical about Daniel. It just seems unlikely that we'll find him in any condition other than bad."

"So if we find him and he's in bad shape, does your negativity give your comfort? Does knowing all along you'd find him that way make it better?" Sam asked, annoyed and displeased by her father's explanation. And annoyed with herself that she had often felt the same way.

Jacob remained silent for a long time and then tenderly smiled. "Yup. So much like your mom."

Sam regarded him with incredulity. She lowered her head to her chest, exhaled and decided to find some sleep before the chaos thrust her into days and weeks of sleeplessness.

*****

"Is it over?" Daniel whispered.

"Soon, my love," Sarah told him, drawing his head into her lap.

Daniel's shoulders shook as he wept. "I want to go home."

"You are tired," Sarah said, touching Daniel's face. Her blonde curls fell in golden spirals about her face.

"I am," he whispered, laying painfully on the cold floor, his weight pressing the raised gashes on his back into the ground. Next to him was a splashed puddle of vomit, dark red and coagulated. He closed his eyes and began to moan. His body ached from throwing up, ached from the violent spasms, ached from the continuous torture.

"Then you must sleep, Daniel," she said, gently sliding her fingers over his darkened eyelids.

"Okay." Daniel hated himself for accepting her comfort, and even more so for needing it. He looked into her green eyes, or brown eyes? Sha're? No. No. Sha're is dead. Sarah is dead. Green eyes, like Corey's...No. Sarah had...Sarah had...What color eyes did...Oh, God. Whose eyes? Who can see me?

Sarah Gardner stroked Daniel's face, grazing her fingers against his sideburns. "Sleep well, my love." She stood and turned to leave the room.

"No. Don't...please, don't go..." he whispered. Daniel felt tears fall from the corners of his closed eyes. The warmth of their trails tickled his burning skin. Everything--time, past, present, places--was becoming confused and jumbled, making it impossible for him not to jump between now and then. His arms burned, his chest seared, his back...He tried to shift his weight off the lacerations that clawed at the flesh on his back. Any movement only intensified the pain.

"Oh, God," Daniel sobbed. The blood on his wrists had dried, sticking to the chains. Even his subtlest motion caused fragile scabs to rip open and expose raw nerve endings. Daniel's jaw quivered under the unendurable and unrelenting misery.

"Calm down. Just breathe. Breathe. Jack's on his way. It's gonna be fine. Breathe," he told himself over and over, a litany of hope to bring forth merciful sleep.

And sleep did come. Quickly. Sleep that came in waves, sweet undulations of darkness, of light, of softness and comfort. Waves that lapped languorously across his muddled thoughts, organizing them, singing to him, lulling him, calling to him. Sweet notes of cool air, of sunshine and warmth; of laughter, of love. Of love...Of home...Of...

The burning tip of a staff weapon against his arm ripped him from his sleep.

"Wake up!" the guard barked in Daniel's ear. The staff weapon prodded Daniel again.

Daniel cowered from the pain, gasped for breath. He tried hard to focus, but the adrenylin that pumped through his veins made his eyes pulsate. "N..no. Sh...she told...me to sl...sleep!"

"That was many hours ago," the jaffa said.

"No, it wasn't," Daniel stated, shaking his head, sure that he had just fallen asleep.

"Do not contradict me, Taur'i!" the guard roared, grabbing Daniel by the arm and pulling him back to the center of the room.

Daniel hadn't the energy to do anything other than let himself be dragged. His mind whirled chaotically, desperately reaching for a reading on an internal clock, something to tell him that he was right, that he had just fallen asleep.

"Please. Don't... don't tell me I've been sleeping for hours. I know I haven't," he begged as the guard connected Daniel's wrists to the central line.

Daniel looked up and saw what was to happen. His body quaked in fear. "No. Pleasepleasepleaseplease..."

He could feel the muscles in his chest scream at the imminent onslaught.

"I can't.." he sobbed. Each gulping sob tore at his fractured body. The chains around his wrists clacked from the trembling in his hands and arms.

The winch began to click, drawing the chain higher and higher.

"No no nonononono..." he begged in a childlike cry. "Please don't do this!"

As his arms raised above his shoulders, Daniel heard the cracked ribs snap again.

Blackness filled the periphery of his vision. He was raised the rest of the way silently.

*****

"Because he is a new Goa'uld, unproven amongst the other System Lords, Osiris will have an army of inexperienced Jaffa," Teal'c explained to his shipmates.

"So you're saying Osiris hasn't made his bones yet?" Jack interpreted.

"Precisely, O'Neill," Teal'c answered.

"Okay, then let's go in fast and furious, take 'em by surprise, and get Daniel the hell out," Jack said.

"It may not be..." Jacob began. He felt Sam's eyes on him and decided to change tack. "Okay, Jack. Sounds good." Sam smiled. "We'll be within distance of his ship in an hour."

Jack looked uncertainly between Jacob and his daughter, clapped his hands. "Okay, then. Carter, Teal'c, let's get our gear in order."

"Yes, sir," Sam replied, following her CO into the cargo hold. Teal'c nodded to Jacob and followed as well.

*****

Osiris circled Daniel's body. He motioned for the guards to lower him, release him from the central line. The Jaffa did as he was told. Daniel's limp body was lowered slowly to the ground. The Jaffa to Osiris' side held a green bowl whose contents lapped over the side. Osiris told him to place the bowl on the ground. "Leave us," Osiris ordered. The Jaffa stepped out of the room.

"He is weak, my lord," Sarah said. She looked at Daniel lying awkwardly on the floor. His eyes fluttered open and shut. Dried blood from his chest wound adhered the torn t-shirt to his ribs.

"Perhaps now he will submit," Osiris said.

"Perhaps he will, my lord," Sarah said.

Sarah knelt in front of Daniel. She lifted his head gently into her lap and stroked his face. She caressed his face and neck, feeling his Adam's apple rise and fall as he tried to swallow. "Tatka'llam, Daniel?" she asked quietly. "Tatka'llam, my love?"

"Na ahm. Yes, I can speak." Daniel answered almost unconciously, his mind working through the language he had first learned as a child. He wept without even knowing it, as the bone-deep fatigue and extraordinary pain thrashed him in unending waves. He answered her question in a convoluted mixture of English and Egyptian, unable to distinguish between the languages. "Na ahm."

"We are together at last, my love," she whispered as she stroked his hair. "You are with me for eternity, my love."

"La'a afham," he whispered, coughing as the air scratched his ragged throat. His ribs burned with each cough. Daniel's eyes flickered. "Eternity? I don't understand. La'a afham. Please. I don't understand. La'u samaht."

Sarah Gardner took an amulet from around her neck, twisted the top off and offered its contents to Daniel. "Miya ah ma'daniya, Daniel. Drink." She tipped the small vial to his lips and slowly spilled water into his mouth.

Daniel gurgled and then painfully swallowed the liquid. The sudden show of compassion confused and frightened him. Were these the hands of his enemy or of his love? Was the soothing fluid water or poison? A sob shook his chest.

"Shhh..."

"Sa ahidnee, min fa'dlak. Sa ahidnee," he pled. He lifted his shaking hands in supplication.

Sarah brushed away his tears. "I am trying to help you, Daniel. Hush." She lowered his hands and helped him sit up. Daniel moaned as Sarah cradled him in her arms, lifting his weakened body off the floor. She positioned him sitting with a shoulder against a wall, careful not to aggravate the wounds on his back. His head fell forward.

Sarah pulled the bowl to her side and soaked a cloth in its contents. Tipping his chin up, Sarah began to recite a poem as she cooled his brow with the cloth, wet with perfumed water.

"Sae'bae ennah'arda...Seven days to yesterday I have not seen the sister, and sickness has invaded me," she said, drawing the cool cloth over his skin, wiping the caked blood from his lips and cheek. Frightened tears fell from his half-blind eyes. The ancient words niggled at his memory, harkened back to a time before care. "My body has become heavy, forgetful of my own self." Sarah tenderly kissed away each tear as Daniel began to mouth the words along with her. "If the chief of physicians come to me..."

"...physicians come to me, my heart is not content with their remedies," Daniel meekly recited, continuing the ancient poem. His eyes fluttered shut under the strain of excavating the latent words in a language he had not used since leaving Abydos, in a poem he knew back in Chicago. Long slender arms danced seductively in his visions, reached for him. These words came from his soul, he realized, but he couldn't remember why. "The lector priests, no way out is in them--My sickness..." he swallowed and tried to inhale, "...my sickness..."

"...will not be touched," she said. Daniel nodded sadly. Sarah soaked the cloth again and ran it over his shoulders and arms. "To say to me: Here she is! is what will revive me," Sarah chanted. She put down the cloth and lifted his bound hands over her head, ducked under his arms, and enfolded herself in his embrace. Daniel lowered his head to her shoulder, confused and vertiginous. "Her name is what will lift me up."

A name, a sweet whisper of a name flowed through his mind. Corey...

"The going in and out of her messengers is what will revive my heart," cooed Sarah, gingerly wrapping her legs around Daniel, pressing his shoulders to her.

"More beneficial..." Daniel's throat constricted around the words. "...more beneficial to me is the sister than any remedies." He hid his tears in her neck, touched the silk against her back. Her hair, her sleek, copper hair shrouded his pain. He took in a shuddering breath and persevered. "She is more to me than collected writings."

"My health is her coming in from outside," she said, pressing her hips to him, lifting his face and guiding his lips to hers. "When I see her, then..."

"...I am well," Daniel whispered, feeling the warmth of Corey's mouth next to his, yearning to disappear in her embrace. Trembling lips met an urgent mouth.

Sarah swayed with increased yet tempered movement. She moved her mouth to his neck, stroking it with her lower lip. "If she opens her eye, my body is young again. If she speaks..."

"...then I am strong again," he cried, watching Corey draw the bow languidly across her cello, seeing her green eyes dance with love as she sees him across the room. Corey lowers the instrument, her liquid body closing the distance between. "When I embrace her, she drives evil away from me."

Sarah arched her back and pulled her legs tighter around his hips. "But she has been gone forth..."

"...from me for seven days," Daniel finished, holding her body to his, enraptured by her closeness. "Seven days," he breathed, kissing the tender flesh on her throat, needful hands pressing against her back.

"One week, right?" Corey asked, looking up at him from their bed.

Daniel took in her resting form. "Yeah, seven short days," he told her, leaning over and kissing her.

"Sae' bae ennah'arda," Sarah chanted, pressing herself into him. "Sae'bae ennah'arda."

"Seven days," he answered, drawing her closer.

"One week, right?"

"Dan'yel!" Sha're cried. "Close your eyes to Corey. Open them to the evil in your arms."

Daniel's eyes snapped open and his heart skipped as terror gripped him. He felt the unfamiliar weight resting on his legs, saw the yellow curls of Sarah Gardner. "Oh, God!" He couldn't disentangle himself fast enough. Against his skin, Sarah's flesh felt reptilian. Bile gushed into the back of his throat as he pushed, kicked and scratched Sarah away. Daniel scrambled in agonizing pain to the other side of the room. "No! Don't touch me!!" he screamed, wrapping himself in a corner, retching and gasping.

Osiris roared from within, his eyes aglow and seething with anger. "Jaffa, kree!!" he bellowed. Two guards stormed the room and stood by his side. "You are a fool, Taur'i!" He angrily lifted his hand and focused the ribbon device at Daniel's skull with murderous intent. Daniel shielded his eyes from the energy, but was powerless to stop its effects. "You shall die for your foolishness!"

"Sssssaarrah," Daniel hissed, his mind seizing with pain. "Min fa'dlak! Sa ahidnee, min fa'dlak!"

Osiris stopped short of killing him, growled viciously and ran from the room. Daniel slid off his knees to the floor, losing his consciousness.

His head thumped against the ground.

"Daniel? Daniel, what just happened here?" Corey asked, scouring him with blistering eyes.

"Corey, you're not supposed to be here," he said, his tortured mind bringing Corey's angry expression into focus. His eyes darted nervously, hoping no one would catch them together.

"Dammit, I want to know what you did!" Corey demanded.

"I didn't do anything," Daniel bitterly insisted.

"Look at you! You must have done something!" she yelled.

"Just...just, please, Corey, leave," he begged.

"No. Not until you tell me..."

Daniel grabbed her brutally and shook her violently as he barked out the words. "Get out of here, Corey! Run! Run as fast as you can and get away from me! Now!!"

"I don't understand, Daniel," Corey cried, pleading for answers.

"Leave me! I bring nothing but death, Corey!! Oh, God! Leave me alone!!" he cried. Daniel threw Corey across the room, watched her slam against the wall. The look of shock and pain on her face was more than he could bear. He dug his fingernails painfully into his eyes.

"Daniel?" she called, her skin gray and translucent.

"GO!!!!"

"You will be quiet, Taur'i!" the Jaffa yelled, kicking Daniel in the stomach. Daniel coughed and choked.

It didn't matter. Kick me, he thought. Shatter my bones, dry up my brain, and drain my body. It doesn't matter because Corey is gone, safe from me.

Daniel coughed, and blood splattered the floor next to him. His eyes rolled in their sockets.

She was gone, and he wouldn't be able to hurt her. Ever. And she'd never die, and she'd never know the pain, and she'd never be able to see his scars. She was gone.

She was gone.

Corey?...

*****

"Avon calling," Jack said as the rings disappeared, taking the three guards by surprise. Jack, Sam and Teal'c took them out in mere seconds, leaving the room eerily quiet amidst the smoke. Jack glanced over at his team to make sure they were in one piece. Sam and Teal'c nodded to him. "Gees, Teal'c, you said they'd be inexperienced. You didn't say incompetent."

"They can't all be this stupid," Sam added, walking beside the two men as they stepped over the bodies.

Jack shot her a look. "A couple days with Dad really does a number on your disposition, doesn't it?"

"Sorry," she said.

"I believe we should follow this direction," Teal'c informed them.

"Okay, let's go," Jack agreed. The three stealthily made their way out of the transport room, weapons ready.

*****

"I was too kind to you, Taur'i. I was indulgent, just as a parent is to a spoiled child. I allowed you more time in my presence than you deserved, and now I intend to make amends for that mistake," Osiris explained.

Daniel pushed himself into the corner of the room, pressing his lacerated back into the walls, feeling the renewed agony of the exposed flesh scraping against the course surface. He pinched his eyes shut to the pain, feeling himself close to passing out.

Osiris calmly walked toward him, holding the crook and flail before him. "You shall die, you impudent Taur'i, just as your parents did--crushed and destroyed."

Daniel felt the ironic laughter building inside him. "You can't kill me," he sneered, bubbles of convulsive laughter shaking his body. "I'm already dead."

"Then you have joined me inseparably. Tell me what you know of the others. Tell me of Seth," Osiris demanded.

"He's dead."

"And Ra?"

"Dead."

"Cronus."

"Dead. He's dead. They're all dead."

"Then I alone will rule," Osiris stated.

"And die alone," Daniel reminded him, giggling strangely.

"Gods do not die!" the Jaffa yelled, slapping Daniel across he face, sending him toppling to the ground. Daniel grasped the floor.

A muffled explosion was heard from somewhere on the ship. Osiris waved the Jaffa away to ascertain its origin. The guard left, leaving Daniel alone at the mercy of the God of the Dead.

"I am most grateful to my host, and because of her, I will allow you to profess your love for her before joining me in the afterlife," Osiris said, standing menacingly above Daniel. "Tell me you love Sarah Gardner."

Daniel remained silent. He wouldn't allow this, wouldn't allow Osiris to take that from him. Daniel had given up everything else-- his body, his comfort, his dignity. He wouldn't not give up his soul. He ground his teeth together and tried to pull himself to the wall.

"Tell me!!" Osiris barked, thrashing Daniel across the back with his flail.

Daniel gasped for breath. His mind seized under the pain. He drew himself up on his elbows and once again labored at distancing himself.

"Tell me now!!" Osiris demanded, raising his hand again.

"I did!" Daniel screamed as he made the awful admission. Osiris lowered his hand. Daniel felt the stinging of bitter tears spring to his eyes. "I did." He had scratched and scraped his way to the wall where he rested his head against the rough siding. He wept for a time when her love mattered. "I did."

"Daniel, is that true?" Corey asked, lowering her face to his.

"Corey, I can't see you. You're gone, and I can't...I won't see you anymore," Daniel cried. "I can't see you anymore."

"You loved me once, Daniel," Sarah said, kneeling in front of him. "You could love me again."

"Do you love her, Daniel?" Corey asked. "You hate her for what she's doing to you. Will that hate turn on me one day?"

"You're not Sarah," Daniel whimpered, his body shaking from the pain. His nails split as he futilely tried to claw his way to standing.

"Look into my eyes, Daniel. It's me, Daniel," Sarah implored, cupping his face in her hand.

Daniel didn't need to see her. "You're dead," he cried. "You're nothing but a body."

"Then love my body," she begged.

"No." Daniel forced himself to one knee and clung to the wall.

Osiris stood and raised his hand. "Then you shall never love again."

A great explosion just outside the door, and Osiris' head was turned. In a sudden burst of energy, Daniel thrust himself away from the wall and had his arms around the Goa'uld's neck. Daniel pulled the chains that bound his wrists across Osiris' neck with enough power to make the two bodies fall to the floor.

Daniel did not, could not let up. His arms trembled from the force. Osiris grasped uselessly at Daniel's wrists.

"Daniel..." Sarah's crushed voice spoke.

Daniel glanced down at the curly hair, at the fair skin, at the frantic motions. He was killing her. With his own body, he was killing her.

"I can't do this," he cried, releasing Sarah from his hold. She laid panting in his arms, her back to him, pressing her hands against his bound wrists. He dropped his head to the ground and wept.

"Daniel, why?" Sarah whimpered. "Why would you try to kill me, when I am your god?!"

Without questioning the choice, Daniel renewed his hold on the neck of the enemy before him. The chains bit into her alabaster skin, rupturing vessels, scouring the surface with bruises. He yanked and pulled, wrestled with the frenetic movements, until he felt her trachea give, collapse under the pressure. He jerked the chains once, twice, gritting his teeth. The body became limp.

"Are you dead?" he whispered in her ear. Her golden curls tickled his face. "Tell me you're dead."

Silence.

"Tell me I've killed you."

Sarah Gardner's eyes dulled as sight left her. Her hands dropped clumsily to the ground.

The sound of rapid fire and staff weapons pierced the silence.

"Tell me it's over," Daniel said, releasing his hold, but not his victim. He lowered his shoulder to the floor and let Sarah's bobbing head rest against his arm.

"Daniel, what have you done?" Corey asked.

Daniel shut his eyes. His body suddenly became numb. He heard the sound, but he couldn't--wouldn't hear the words.

"Oh, my God, did you kill her?" she asked again.

Daniel turned away, and she was gone.

"Daniel?"

Daniel lay still, breathing shallowly.

"Daniel. It's over, Daniel."

"I don't think he can hear us, Colonel."

"Daniel," Jack said, leaning in close to him. "Daniel?"

Daniel opened his eyes half way, cautious of what he might see.

Sam's face paled as she saw the dead body in Daniel's arms, a body whose eyes were glass-like and dry, staring blindly out past the horizon.

"Get her out of here," Jack ordered, lifting Daniel's hands from the dead Goa'uld. Teal'c pulled Sarah's limp body away from Daniel. "Hey, Danny. Let's get you home."

Daniel didn't want to believe he was hearing his friend's voice. He didn't want to believe in the mirage, just to be crushed by reality again. "Jack?"

"Yeah, Daniel," Jack answered, working to disengage the chains.

Daniel painfully shook his head. "Leave me here, Jack. I'm dead. I belong with her."

Jack found the link that hooked all the others and quickly released Daniel's wrists from the constraints. "Can't do that, Daniel. You know how Hammond gets about unscheduled vacations."

"I killed her."

"I know."

Jack and Sam slowly lifted Daniel up to a sitting position. Anguish, soft yet deep, ran through his frightened moan as his eyes fell on the corpse.

Sam tried to comfort him by rubbing his back, but instantly felt the heat and the sticky wetness that covered his skin. She looked at his back and saw the gashes, pustular and oozing. Sam's eyes shot to Jack who had just seen the wounds himself. Jack pursed his lips and drew a quick hand across his face. Sam carefully pulled Daniel into her while Jack removed his own vest and jacket.

"What have I done?" Daniel asked, seeking answers through sluggish eyes.

"You killed a goddamned Goa'uld, Daniel. You did good," Jack said, wrapping his coat around Daniel's shoulders.

"I killed Sarah," Daniel whispered. "I made her go away." His head dropped lifelessly on Sam's chest.

"Try to be quiet now, Daniel. Save your strength," Sam said, gently touching his face. His skin felt hot, too hot. "We have to get him out of here now, sir," Sam told Jack.

"I killed Sarah," Daniel said before slumping over completely. "I made her go away. She's gone. I killed. I..."