Season: 4

Category: Epilogue; drama, h/c

Rating: G

Episode: The Light

Warnings: None

Pairing: None

Summary: Visitors arrive before SG-1 has left the palace in the Light

Disclaimers: I don't own Stargate, but I would if I could.

Author’s Note: Jack and a kid. You can’t go wrong. But you know it never turns out well for Jack.

Dedication: With a huge thank you, this fic is for my friend and long time beta TK, who betaed for me for nearly three years, with consummate skill, with a fine eye, and always with a sense of humor; You made me laugh, you made me think, and you always made me a better writer; thank you for sharing your time, your talents and your vision of Jack while helping me to create mine. I miss you, mon ami.

**Jack**

I know better, or I should by now.

I should have steered clear.

I should have kept my distance.

I should have heeded my own internal warnings.

But I couldn't.

I tried, at first, I really did, tried to resist, but it didn't last, of course.

I couldn't walk away, and now look where it's got me?

You'd think I'd have learned my lessons long before this, learned not to let anyone worm their way past my armor. Much more destructive than that friggin' light.

==========

He was just a kid, and he was so alone.

And he reminded me of Charlie. Not that he looked like him at all, or even acted much like him. Okay, right, the only thing he had in common with Charlie was that he was about the age Charlie would be now if he was... if he was.... say it Jack, if he was still alive.

Got yourself blindsided again, didn't you, Jack old man?

Fool.

**********

I mean, he was a kid and he was alone and he was scared, and damn it, all my dad instincts went into overdrive without even asking me.

There were so many things he didn't know, so much he needed someone to show him, so much I could teach him about... ice cream and video games and fishing and, and curling.

There we were, stuck on that planet for three weeks, what did you expect me to do? The General sent us all kinds of diversions, or at least, all kinds of stuff that Carter and Daniel could divert themselves with. Daniel all but overdosed on the writings all over the palace walls, and Carter spent her time trying to take apart the devices she found in what must have been the maintenance closet, which left me, well, with nothing to do. Except spend time with Loren.

He was so eager for someone to talk to. The kid was full of questions, a million questions.

I wonder how long he was alone here? And hell, he'd been alone even when his parents were here with him because they were in there staring at that damn light.

I hate that thing.

Someday I'm going to go back there and smash it into a million pieces so it never does to anyone else what it did to Loren's parents, and those guys from SG-5 and almost did to Daniel.

Loren.

Shit.

Poor kid, had to bury his own parents.

I know a thing or two about burying your loved ones, and let me tell you, no matter what the circumstances, it sucks. Big time. Tears a hole in you that nothing and no one can ever repair.

So while Hammond sent a laptop for Carter and stacks of books for Daniel, I ordered fishing rods, ice cream and hockey equipment.

There was a big room in the palace perfect for teaching a kid to play hockey. We banged the puck around, and so what if it made few gouges in the wall along the way? Daniel almost had a hemorrhage when he saw the damage, something about defacing a holy place, but there’s nothing holy about those freakin’ snakes, so no, I didn’t care one iota.

In three weeks, you can get used to having someone around. You can get used to having someone follow you everywhere. You can get used to someone asking you questions day and night, not questions about science or mythology, but questions about real, everyday things, the kind of things I know.

He made me feel, I don’t know, important. Not that I’m not important as a Colonel with the SGC and the leader of SG-1, but important as me, Jack O’Neill, human being who misses being a dad more than words can ever say.

I think for a long time I didn’t realize how I felt, I didn’t let myself think about how I felt. Ska’ara and even, in a way, Daniel and the rest of SG-1, were my substitute kids. But lately, real often, I’d been feeling superfluous and unneeded.

We could walk out as far as the nearest beach without my headaches starting again, so the day my Daiwa rod and reels arrived via the Stargate, Loren and I hoofed it down to the beach. The weather was better, too, not the gray, damp, leaden skies we seemed to get about half the time, but a clear, though cool, day. There was a little rocky point where we climbed out to get away from the shore. I showed Loren how to cast, to wait and feel for the tug of a bite indicating a fish on the line.

“I don’t know if there are any fish out here,” Loren warned as we waited for a bite.

“It doesn’t matter. Catching fish is not the point of fishing. Fishing is about being a guy, about being outdoors.” I waved a hand out toward the water, blue-green in the sunlight. “Besides, even if we caught a fish, we wouldn’t dare eat it. Don’t know if it’s safe.”

So we hunkered down side by side on the rocks, dropped our lines in the water, and talked while we waited for the ‘fish’ to bite.

I tried to tell Loren about Earth, but it was hard. The kid had no frame of reference for anything, except for the magazines I'd had Hammond send, and a couple of videos. Still, the concept of cars, schools, jobs, baseball, the Olympics, dating, and the Simpsons aren’t easy to describe to a boy who has lived alone on an alien planet for several years at least. Maybe I’d have to enlist Daniel to help.

*****

We were only a couple of days from going home when they came.

I should have known it, SG-1 just can’t ever buy a break.

Another 48 hours and none of it would have happened.

But it did.

*************

The Dark and the Light

Part 2

Loren and I were out fishing. We’d actually caught a couple of fish-like things. Tossed them back of course, but it was something, gave us an excuse to be outside and talk about guy stuff.

Like baseball.

Ever try to explain baseball to an alien? It’s not easy.

“Well, the idea is to hit the ball so that the other team can’t catch it, then your runners can advance and score runs. So you win.”

Loren nodded politely. I could tell he didn’t have a clue.

I smiled. “Look, we’ll go to a game. You’ll understand it once you see it. And it’s great in person. Hot dogs, beer, ah, wait, no, you’re not old enough for beer, soda, peanuts, the crack of the bat, sunshine, you’ll love it. Promise.”

He grinned.

And then the whole day just went to hell in a hand-basket.

“Jack!”

I didn’t need to hear more to know we were in trouble, the sound of Daniel’s voice, despite the tinniness of the radio, was a dead giveaway.

“Jack! Someone’s dialing in!”

“What?”

“The gate… Someone’s dialing in.”

“Get Carter and get the hell out of that room. Hide back in Loren’s cubbyhole.”

“What about you?”

“We’ll be fine,” I paced. “We’re on our way. We'll meet you there.”

I grabbed the fishing gear, cringing inwardly at the horror of throwing away a brand new Diawa Master Fisherman Rod and Reel, burying the stuff in the sand beneath the rocks, Loren helping me dig frantically.

That done, we grabbed our jackets and ran for the palace.

My mind was racing as we ducked into the ‘back door’ of the huge building.

Carter and Daniel were waiting in the hallway.

“Goa’uld, Sir,” Carter informed me as she handed me my P-90.

“Damn!” I cursed, even as a bit of the gnawing worry in my gut eased, now that I had the comfort of a weapon in my hands. “How many?”

“One, Sir, and there are seven or eight humans as well. They're settling in.”

“Two are Jaffa, bodyguards, I think.” Daniel added.

“Where are they now?”

“They’re moving a lot of gear from the Stargate room into one of the suites down there,” Carter pointed down the hallway at the wing we’d dubbed the Presidential suite. It was gaudy even by Goa’uld standards.

“Any idea who this is?” I turned to Daniel.

“No. Not yet.”

“Well, first things first. Is our position secure? Any gear of ours they’ll find?”

“They might find some stuff of mine,” Daniel said softly.

“What?”

“Well, I was working in the bedroom down there. But they might think another Goa’uld left it behind.”

I nodded. “Okay. Carter?”

“Nothing I’ve left, but Sir, they’ll know something’s up when they find out the light is turned down.”

“Crap.”

“Any chance to fool them?”

“Unlikely, Sir. Once they examine the pedestal, it will be plain that the device has been turned down.”

“But if they turn the light back on?”

“Depends. If they’re used to the high setting, they may notice they’re not getting the ‘high’ they’re used to. But if they haven’t been here for a while…”

I turned to Loren. “When’s the last time anyone else was here?”

“A long time ago. Not long after my parents… died,” the boy insisted. “I hid until they left.”

“So, they might not notice they’re not getting as big of a dose of the happy juice?” I asked hopefully.

Carter nodded. “But they’ll still know the light was turned off.”

“We’ll just have to hope they’ll think some other snake was here and decided to save on the electric bill,” I decided. “At any rate, we need to get out of here.” O’Neill stared down the hallway. “Major, can we close the doors to that hallway?”

“Sure. But that won’t do us much good. There are other exits.”

“Right, but those exits lead outside. So the snakies and their pals would need how much time to go out and come in another door, say this one?”

“Not long, Sir, five minutes, certainly less than ten.”

“Enough time for us to dial up the gate and get the hell out of Dodge?”

Carter grinned. “Yes, Sir.”

“Okay, then.”

“Ah, Jack…”

“What, Daniel?”

“Aren’t you forgetting something? The, uh, addiction,” my team's archaeologist waved in the general direction of the light room.

“We’re near enough to being done we’ll just have to go cold turkey,” I answered, turning to Carter for confirmation.

“Yes, Sir, we’ve been stepping down the dose every day, so it should be do-able. It might be unpleasant, but it is do-able.”

“Okay, then. How do we make sure all of our visitors are down there…” O’Neill pointed down the corridor, away from the 'gate, “so we can lock ‘em up?”

“A diversion, Sir?”

I smiled. “Bingo, Carter. You get the prize.” I was rummaging through my pack, and found a small block of C-4. “We make a little noise, draw them down that hallway. Carter,” I handed her the larger block of C-4, “as soon as all those folks take the bait, you blow the hallway so they can’t get back while Daniel dials up the Stargate and sends the GDO code.”

“What if they don’t all go to look, Sir?” Carter asked.

Carter always has to ask the questions I really don’t want asked. I looked at her grimly, hefting my P-90. “Hopefully, it won’t come to this.” But if it had to, well, then it did. I wasn’t about to let any of us be taken by those slimy creatures with delusions of godhood.

“And what am I supposed to do?” Loren asked eagerly.

I’d all but forgotten the kid in our battle preparations. “You’ll stay with Daniel. Watch his back.” He looked unhappy with the idea, but I glared at him and he nodded. Turning back to Carter, I issued my orders. “I’ll wait five minutes, then place the diversionary device with a three minute timer. That will give you time to get back near the gateroom before the first explosion, and leave me time to get back to meet you. I don’t expect trouble but if for some reason I’m late, you are *not* to wait, go without…”

“But…” Carter started.

“Major, that’s an order,” I snapped. “Take Daniel and the boy and get the hell home. With or without me. You make sure you get them there safely. Got that?”

“But…”

“No buts, Major. You know better.”

She nodded, always the good soldier. “Yes, Sir.”

“Okay. Go .”

*********

The Dark and the Light

Part 3

I went back outside while the other three took a roundabout route back to the gateroom.

Cautiously, I worked my way along the outside wall to the next doorway to the west, the one that opened into the corridor where the snakes and their entourage seemed to be taking up residence. Snugged down along the wall, I inched upwards, chancing a quick glance into a window. There didn’t seem to be anyone close, just some dim figures moving far down the hallway, back toward the central hub of the palace where the Light, and the Stargate, were both located.

Working quickly, I packed the small block of C-4 against the windowframe, and inserted the timer, kneeling down to wait.

Sam, Loren and I walked around the outside of the circular palace before reentering in one of the hallways we’d found during our explorations of the building. This one had seemed rarely used, like a service corridor, perhaps. It was littered with old crates, dusty and dimly lit.

Despite that, Sam made us take our time.

The biggest risk was at the cross hallways, where someone walking in one of the other corridors might accidentally catch a glimpse of us. It was unlikely, and there was always the chance that even then they’d think we were just another member of their own large party, I reassured myself.

We were nearly back to the center of the palace when Sam signaled a halt. I stopped, putting out a hand to pull Loren to a stop beside me. Sam was crouched tensely behind a couple of crates, staring through a narrow opening between the stacked boxes. Finally, after long, breathless seconds that seemed to take forever, she motioned me forward. I stared, and gulped.

Oh boy.

A Jaffa was supervising several human slaves who were moving crates away from the Stargate and into a room adjacent to the lightroom. There were symbols on the boxes, but I couldn’t tell what they were from this distance. However, I could clearly see the marking that graced the forehead of the Jaffa.

I knew that symbol.

“Sam, that’s Ammut,” I whispered.

“Who?”

“The Egyptian goddess Ammut, head of a crocodile, body of a lioness, hindquarters of a hippopatamus. “

A frown creased her forehead. “Good? Bad?”

I shivered, thinking about the attributes of Ammut. “Bad. Very bad. Very nasty goddess. Not one you’d like to meet in a dark alley.”

Just then, I heard noise behind me, spinning around and aiming my handgun. A hand waved at me, and in a second Jack’s silver head, sans his usually ever present baseball cap, appeared.

“Hi, Jack, the Goa’uld, it’s….”

He was looking around, worriedly.

“No, she’s not here. Out there.” I waved a hand toward the corridor.

“Fine, the snake’s out there,” he snapped. “But where’s the kid?”

I looked around. Loren had been right behind me, and there wasn’t a sign of him now.

“I don’t know, Sir,” Carter stammered.

“What happened?”

“Nothing. We got here and into position, and he was right behind us. Daniel and I were observing them,” she nodded at our visitors. “I didn’t hear him leave, Colonel.”

I nodded in sudden understanding. “His stuff. I’m sure he went after his things, you know the pictures. They’re all he has left of his parents.” Pictures were all I’d had to carry with me during moves from foster home to foster home. They weren’t much, but I knew how important they were.

“Damn it,” Jack cursed, looking at his watch, then up at us. “The C-4 blows in about 90 seconds. I’ll go get him. Carter, blow that hallway, and Daniel, get that gate open. And don’t wait for us.”

Without another word, he slipped away and was gone.

‘God damn fool kid,’ I muttered under my breath. ‘Gonna get him and me killed,’ I continued as I worked my way through the now familiar maze of corridors.

Loren’s apartment was closer to the newcomer’s than I’d have liked, definitely a risky area of the palace with so many people now wandering around.

Almost to the boy’s hideout, I turned a corner, then slunk back against the wall as I heard approaching footsteps. A figure emerged from the dark hallway, and I reached out a hand, grabbing… and realizing it was Loren.

“What the hell were you thinking?” I hissed at him.

In his hands, he held the picture frame thingy he had, the one with the photos of his parents, and several of SG-1 taken during the last three weeks. “I couldn’t leave without this.” The boy answered.

“They’re just pictures. They’re not worth you getting killed over.” I whispered, dragging him down the hallway with me, keeping my hand on his arm so he couldn't pull his disappearing act again

He looked darkly at me. “You wouldn’t have gone back for the only pictures of your family?” he asked, innocently. I’d told him my son was gone, but I’d never explained.

His question deflated my anger, because I understood better than I could tell him.

“Okay, you got your stuff. Now we gotta go before…”

Kaboom!

The C-4 went off with a flash and a crash of falling blaster and breaking glass. There was a lot of yelling and running feet from the central hub of the palace as Loren and I raced to join my teammates. A few long seconds, and then I heard the second batch of C-4 go off, the larger brick that would be taking down the hallway ceiling and blocking the gould and her people from coming back.

Even from this distance, I heard Carter shout. “Come on, Colonel!”

We were running, racing around the corner of a hallway, just passing the last intersection when something, or someone, moved. I waved the boy on, raising my P-90 and touching off a half dozen rounds, aiming them so they’d bounce off the walls, driving back whoever was down that hallway.

“Colonel!” I heard Carter’s frantic yell, even as more shadows moved down the hall.

“Go!” I shouted into my radio. “Follow orders, damn it!”

I loosed another volley down the hallway, then turned and ran for the gate and home. Loren was waiting for me a dozen strides down the corridor. Damn fool kid. We ran, skidding around the last corner. I could see the flickering blue light of the wormhole reflected against the wall, could see Daniel and Carter hesitating, then, still looking backward, going through when I yelled. "Go."

‘We’re gonna make it. We’re gonna make it. We’re gonna make it’ I chanted silently as we ran.

We didn’t make it.

-----------------

The Dark and the Light

Part 4

I plunged into the gate, the disorienting maelstrom carrying me across the universe and spitting me out of the blue pool into the familiar surroundings of the SGC's Gateroom.

I skidded to a halt halfway down the ramp, spinning around to watch for the others.

A breathless Sam came through just seconds behind me, turning, too, to watch.

We stared at the Stargate.

"Come on, come on, come on," I chanted under my breath.

Nothing happened. No one came through.

The wormhole snapped, flashed and dissipated.

My heart skipped a beat.

"Wh-what?"

Sam turned around to look at me, her face frozen in a look of dread.

General Hammond's familiar tone voiced the question on all of our minds. "Where's Colonel O'Neill?"

"Sir, I don't know," Sam answered, still looking stunned, turning back to the gate as if , by looking hard enough, she could see an answer there. "The Colonel and Loren were right behind us..."

"What happened? Why did you come back, Major?" Hammond's gaze was full of questions.

"A Goa'uld showed up," I answered. "Jack set off a diversionary explosion. He and Loren weren't far behind us."

"A Goa'uld? What Goa'uld? Someone we know?" Hammond was staring at me.

"No, General. The Goa'uld's name is Ammut. I've read about her, but no, we've never met her before. “Ammut is a female demon, also called the Devourer, because she devours the souls of those who are weighed in judgement, and fail. The end of existence….”

"What kind of force did she have with her?"

"Several Jaffa, Sir," Sam reported. "We need to go back for the Colonel, Sir..."

Hammond took a deep breath. "Major, you know the protocol. We wait..."

"General, Jack and the boy..." I protested, but the look in Hammond's eyes made my blood run cold.

"We can't go back, people. You know that. The gate is most likely in enemy hands..."

"But the Colonel..." Carter objected. "We need to ready a rescue team..."

"Major Carter, there will be no rescue team at this time. Not only would our personnel gate into a likely ambush, but, because of the addictive nature of that light, I cannot risk sending a rescue team."

"I will volunteer," Teal'c was standing behind the General. "I am immune to the light's effects."

Sam stepped up beside me. "And I'll go back, too, Sir..."

------------------------------

I heard a shout of anger and then something hit me, knocking me off my feet, flinging me hard into the wall. I hit with a thunk of skull connecting with wall and body parts striking solid objects with bruising force. Lying there, stunned, everything spinning, I heard Loren’s frantic voice, “Leave him alone! Don’t hurt him!” even as I heard the dreadful sound of the wormhole cutting off.

Leaving us stranded.

With the Goa’uld.

Oiy.

Shaking my head, I managed to get my arms under me to push myself unsteadily off the floor. I felt someone helping me, an arm around my waist, and through the swirling flashing spots obscuring my vision, realized it was Loren.

“Jack, Jack, are you hurt?”

“Quiet,” I whispered, mumbling groggily. “Stop.” Hoping he’d get the hint, not to let the damn snake see that he cared about me, not to give him that wedge he could use against us.

But Loren didn’t understand, didn’t catch on.

“Jack, you’re bleeding, you’re hurt…”

“Leave him!” the shout was so loud, reverberating even without the gould’s weird double voice that my head rattled.

Humans and Jaffa both were gathering around us, opening a path to make way for a gaudily overdressed… being. One thing about the snakes, they don’t bother with camouflage. Look for the folks with the really cheap and sleazy wardrobe and you’ve found your snake. She was tall and thin, wearing too much makeup, and one of those nasty gold and bejeweled hand devices.

A Jaffa grabbed Loren, another one yanked on me, pulling me front and center before the snake. All the gold and glitter was blinding, like a cheap street walker from the sleeziest part of town.

“Hey, guess you missed all the hot fall sales on Rodeo Drive, eh?” I asked, blinking as I tried to force the double image in front of me to coalesce into a single gould. One of those creatures is more than enough, without my addled head creating a second.

“Kneel before your Goddess!” demanded the feminine voiced creature.

What is it with the snakes and kneeling, eh? The Jaffa holding my arm tried to push me down. I refused.

“Kneel!” ordered the snake.

“Sorry, that’s against my…”

Thwack. Something hard and heavy, most likely a staff weapon, crashed into the back of my knees. I hit the floor, hard, with a groan.

The snake stepped forward, a hand reaching out toward my face.

I yanked my head away, then felt a gloved hand in my hair, forcing me to let the long, soft fingers touch me, run along my chin, and tilt my face upward. They felt cold.

“If you wanted to look me in the eye you could just as soon have left me standing,” I suggested, glaring.

She laughed. “You have spirit, slave.”

“I’m nobody’s slave,” I kept my tone conversational.

The Goa’uld laughed. “Perhaps you were not, but you are now. You will serve your Goddess Ammut, just like these others serve me.”

“He won’t,” shouted the boy. “He won’t. His people…”

“Boy, no! Quiet.”

The snake turned her attention from me to Loren, walking over to where the other Jaffa had forced the boy to kneel. The kid struggled, trying to pull away. “Another fighter, young, and healthy. A very good slave.”

“Never.”

Gouldette laughed, walked back towards me, then turned back to Loren and without so much as looking at me, backhanded me across the cheek, her heavy gold ring slicing the skin. I felt the warm trickle of blood sliding down my face and dripping onto my chest.

“Leave him alone!” Loren yelled.

The Goa’uld was watching the boy, her eyes bright with excitement and, I thought, anticipation. “Ah, you care about him, then. Good. Perhaps you can answer all my questions…”

“He doesn’t know anything,” I snarled.

The ringed hand backhanded me again, laying open a second cut just below my right eye. Goauldy leaned over and whispered, low, so Loren couldn’t hear. “I was not speaking to you. I think I shall only speak to him. You are troublesome and stubborn, but he will speak. With the right inducements. Which I know already.”

By force of will I pulled partially free of the Jaffa holding me, getting one leg under me and surging toward my feet, my hands reaching vainly for the Goa’uld’s throat.

The snake swung her right hand this time, palm outward, and a beam of intense energy from her hand weapon struck my chest, flinging me backwards. I landed hard, the wind knocked out of me. The Jaffa was quickly standing above me, strong hands flipping me onto my stomach and pinning my arms behind me before I could suck in enough air to fuel my muscles. Something was quickly wrapped around my wrists as I was held on my knees once more.

Loren looked scared. “Don’t hurt him. Please.”

Ammut’s voice was husky and rich with promise. “Then you shall tell me where you are from, and how you came to be here.”

Loren was looking past the Goa’uld, at me, and I was shaking my head, telling him no with my eyes and my glare, praying he understood.

“Nnno,” he said, hesitantly. “I can’t tell you. I don’t know…”

The Goa’uld, eyes flashing white in anger, swung round and threw another energy bolt at me, this one tossing me effortlessly across the room, and into the wall. I felt something in my ribcage give way as my chest impacted against one of the gateroom's fancy gold columns.

“Do not lie to your Goddess!” The Goa’uld shouted at Loren. “Tell me!”

“I don’t know!” the boy cried as the Jaffa dragged me back to my knees.

“Tell me or I shall kill him,” the snake demanded, stalking across the room to stand above me, her right hand, the one bearing the hand device, palm outward toward where I knelt gasping for air and fighting the dizziness.

“I don’t know!” Loren insisted.

Ammut flexed her hand and energy slammed into my chest, throwing me backward, tumbling me into a pillar and then the wall.

Dimly, above the roaring in my ears and the throbbing blackness in my head, I could hear Loren screaming at the snake, pleading, insisting he was telling the truth, that he didn’t know the address to his homeworld. “I don’t know. Please, I don’t know how to get home. I was little when I came here. W-with my parents.” The boy was crying, and the sad fact was, he was telling the truth.

“He is your father?” The Goa’uld turned gleaming eyes to look at me, then back at the boy.

“N-nno. My parents died. He-he-he just came here. He makes me work for him. I work for him.”

“But you like him.”

“No. He’s mean, and stubborn.”

Good job, Loren I thought as I painfully struggled off the floor, the Jaffa grabbing my arm near the elbow and disdainfully dragging me back across the room. He dropped me in a heap in front of the still angry and disbelieving Goa’uld.

“You are a poor liar, boy. If he is not your father, then he is someone you care for. It shows,” the snake looked from the boy to me. Her booted foot poked me in the chest, once, twice, then kicked harder. I felt my cracked ribs give further under the pressure, bit my lip to keep from gasping as pain flared and I fought for breath. She raised her gaze to look over at Loren once more. “If you want to save this worthless creature, you will tell me the truth, tell me why you are here and where the others went…”

“What others?” Loren asked, fearfully. “It’s just him and me.”

“Now, yes. But others were seen escaping through the Stargate. We were unable to see the location they dialed. Where did they go, boy?”

“They must have gone home, left us behind.”

“And where is home, boy?” Goa’uldette asked, not looking at Loren, but instead nodding at the Jaffa who held me. My wrists were untied. The first Jaffa held my right arm cranked up high against my back, an effective hold even without the excruciating pain the position exerted on my broken ribs. The second Jaffa pulled my left hand around and held it in front of me.

A bad feeling twisted through my gut, or maybe it was just the nausea flaring up. I had the sudden urge to throw up, but managed to bite it back.

Ammut looked over at the boy, a malevolent expression on her face. “Boy, I asked you where your home is?”

“I don’t…”

Goa’uldette reached down and, with a single practiced motion, popped my little finger out of joint with a snap of cracking bone.

“Arrgghh!” I hollered, struggling to jerk my hand away, kicking out at the Jaffa behind me. He knew what he was doing, however. He simply shoved my right arm higher up my back, straining bones, muscles and tendons to the verge of snapping, and leaving me gasping with the pain.

“Stop!" Loren was frantic. “Please, stop. I’ve told you. I don’t know. Please.”

Ammut still held my left hand, her long fingers stroking softly across my skin. Ignoring the boy, she took hold of my ring finger.

I braced myself, but even then, the pain was unbearable as delicate bones and tissues gave way. In desperation, knowing they were braced against me pulling back, I surged forward, toward the bitch, taking her by surprise as I jabbed my damaged hand straight into her soft belly. Oh, the look on her face was worth what followed.

Well, almost.

Agony exploded through my hand and then the Jaffa were wrestling me back to the floor, fists or feet or knees probably all of them, impacting my back and legs. I tried to curl into a ball to protect myself as much as I could.

Ammut was on the floor, moaning, waving away a solicitous slave. Struggling to her feet, she turned her face toward me, livid with rage, and shouted “Hold him,” at the Jaffa. Screaming something in Goa’uld, which I assume wouldn’t be repeatable in polite company, she flung out her hand.

A beam of light from the hand device bored into my forehead, triggering pain beyond description. A burst of intense light seemed to shear through my skull, dissolving bone and shattering tissue. Agonizing, molten fire ripping my brain into shreds. My teeth vibrated, my jaw rattled, my nerves caught fire and the flame poured down my backbone, spreading everywhere.

Oh God.

It went on and on.

Dimly, past the roaring in my ears, I could hear Loren screaming at them to stop. My eyes were focused on the snakehead, on her smile as she relished the pain she knew she was inflicting. The look of glee turned to sudden anger when I didn’t give in and start begging for mercy. The gloating smile turned into a snarl and the beam intensified.

My vision grayed out as I felt my body go numb, all control lost as warm blood begin to trickle, then gush, from my nose and my ears, and the darkness engulfed me.

********

The Dark and the Light

Part 5

Coughing. Choking. Agony. Light spearing into my brain. Nauseating movement. Limbs unresponsive. Pain everywhere. A low moan escaped from my throat, but the strange sensations continued. Coppery taste in my mouth. Arms numb and useless. Thumping, echoing noise.

I closed my eyes, and reopenied them, trying desperately to focus, to make sense of the sickening swirl of motion. A split second of utter confusion as my brain wasn’t processing what I was seeing into anything that made sense.

I gave up, and closed my eyes again, concentrating on the sound and the feel.

Heavy rhythmic sounds, like marching.

Something cold, hard, smooth sliding across my back.

Dragged, I was being dragged by my feet across the floor of… someplace.

I must have moaned again because an angry voice ordered something in Goa'uld words that I knew had to be “shut up.”

Movement stopped.

I took the opportunity to open my eyes again, hoping that lying still I’d be able to figure out something about where I was or who I was with, but I still couldn’t focus. It was like everything was gray and shimmering, sliding around, like I was looking at the world through an out of focus camera lens. I thought I was looking at the floor, and something else, but I couldn’t see what, and I couldn’t bring my hand around to feel what the hell it was in front of me.

And then it moved.

Jaffa foot.

I was dragged a few feet further, and then the hands released my ankle and it fell to land on the floor with a thud.

The sound of footsteps, departing; a door closing, rattling like keys in a lock; and then the footsteps faded away.

Another sound, not too far away, like sobbing.

God, that wasn’t me was it?

No. Then what the hell?

“Ummmm,” I was lying on my back. I tried to raise my head to look, but that made the indistinct fuzzy walls do a loop de loop, my brain spinning out of control and I lost the battle to move my head.

So, start elsewhere, Jack. Legs. Good place to start. They seemed to be in one piece. I could move them, actually, could pull up my knees and then let them fall to the side, giving my body some momentum to roll onto my left side.

Pain stabbing in my chest. Shit, ribs definitely busted, but I was moving now, no time to stop. Use the momentum, flop over onto your side. Risk opening the eyes.

Everything was still gray and formless and shadowy, but there was a definite blob, over there by the wall, making noise.

I tried to take a breath to say something, and started to cough, which prompted the nausea to flare which overcame what little control I had left, and I started retching, coughing up the blood I’d swallowed from my bleeding nose. God damn freakin’ hand device. Nasty thing, that.

The blob moved.

“Jack?” the voice sounded shaky but I recognized it.

It was the boy, that boy, Lor, Lord, Lorna Doone, no, Loren. God, thinking made my head hurt.

In a moment, he was by my side. “Jack? I thought you were dead. I thought you were dead. I thought she killed you. She said she was going to kill you…” Words tumbled out of his mouth in a terrified stream.

“Lor…en. Stop.”

He didn’t seem to hear me. I figured he was in shock.

“Lorn…”

Still no response.

Taking as deep a breath as I could, which wasn’t much under the circumstances, I shouted, or tried to, but all that came out was a weak croaking sound. I tried again. “Loren.”

The babbling stopped. He leaned down, his face close enough now I could actually recognize it as a face, a bit of a gray and blobby face, but human.

“Jack?” he asked in a very small voice.

“Yeah. I’m still here. I think,” I mumbled.

“Jack. I’m scared.”

“Ssss okay.”

“I didn’t know what to do.”

“You did good.” I coughed, spitting up more blood. “Now I need your help.”

His trembling hand reached out and touched my shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I lied. “Now untie me.”

Loren reached around and I could feel his fingers working at whatever they’d used to bind my wrists. After a bit, I felt the tie release. With a grateful moan I pulled my hands around in front of me, numbed fingers on the right hand instinctively cradling the swollen, damaged digits on the left. After a moment, I raised my good hand trying vainly to scrub the dried blood off my face.

I tried again to see where the hell we were. I brought my hand up and ground the palm into my eyes, blinking and squinting, hoping that would improve things, but my vision was still all warped. Nothing would hold still, everything was fuzzy and indistinct, pale, like dimly seen shadows. “Is it dark in here?” I asked hopefully.

“N-no,” said Loren. “Can’t you tell?”

“Headache,” I lied again. “Really bad headache. That hand device… I’ll be okay in a bit,” I muttered, eyes closed, falling back to lie once more on my side while I tried to figure out what to do.

I heard rustling movement, and then felt something laid over me, Loren’s jacket, the SG-1 camo jacket I’d had Hammond send through for him. There was more rustling, and another moment passed before his hand was touching my hair. “I’m going to raise your head,” he said, and did so, gently, and then eased it back down. Something soft was between my skull and the floor, his shirt, maybe.

“Thanks,” I said, gently, meaning it. The kid was scared, hell, I was scared, I was just better at not letting it show.

I could feel his presence as he knelt beside me, hear the shakiness in his voice as he asked, “Are you really going to be okay?”

“Yes, Really. Once this headache goes away. Gotta rest my eyes until then.” What’s one more lie, huh, Jack? “Now tell me about the room. Where are we?” I asked, hoping the boy could help.

“In one of the storerooms.”

“Tell me what it looks like.”

“It’s like my apartment, only smaller, about half as big.”

“Anything in here besides us?” I queried hopefully. “Water? Blankets? Pillows? A mattress? Maybe a first aid kit? And my P-90 would be really nice.” That’s me, ever the optimist.

I sensed rather than saw him shake his head before he answered, “Oh, no. Just us.”

“Damn.” I tried opening my eyes once more, raising my head a little. Big mistake. Things started swirling around, pain spiking through my skull, vertigo flaring.

I gave myself a minute or so while I tried to think, actually, while I tried to think about what else needed to be done, but I knew there wasn’t anything else to do for the moment, no matter how much I didn’t want to do this. Sighing, carefully, so the ribs didn’t protest too much, I got to the point. “Loren, I need your help.”

“Sure-sure.”

“I need you to fix my hand.” Carefully, I raised my left hand with the misshapen fingers.

“What, what do you want me to do?”

“Straighten my fingers.”

I felt him cringe, heard the fear in his voice. “I can’t. That will hurt.”

I sighed once more. “Yes, it will.”

“I can’t,” his voice was rising.

“Loren, listen to me…”

“I can’t do that, can’t hurt you more,” God, he was so scared, and I didn't want to scare him even more, but we were in a desperate situation, and he was all the help I had. We would have to help each other to get out of here. He was going to have to grow up really fast.

“Loren,” I put a bit of my colonel’s bark into the word to steady him. “Loren, I *need* your help. I won’t lie to you,” at least not about this, I thought. “Straightening my fingers *is* going to hurt me, hurt me a lot. I’ll probably yell, maybe even pass out…”

“I can’t. I can’t.”

“Loren,” I barked once more, reached out with my good hand, clutching at the vague shape in front of me, and luckily managing to grab his arm. “Loren, it will hurt when you do this, yes, but you will save me a lot of pain later. It’s a good trade. A little pain now for a lot less later.”

“Really?” he asked uncertainly.

“Really.”

“How do you know?”

“I’ve had broken and dislocated fingers, and other things, in the past. The pain’s bad, but it’s fleeting. And you’ll save me much worse in the long run. Believe me.”

“I don’t know…”

“Yes, you do, Loren. You can help me here.”

I think he nodded, or so it seemed. “So,” his voice still sounded scared,” so what do I do?”

I tried to smile reassuringly, but fearing it came out only as a sick grimace. “You’re going to use your left hand to take a good hold on my wrist and then you’re going to take your right hand and straighten my fingers, one at a time. Pull hard, hard as you can. Then wrap them together, tight as you can, with my middle finger. Don’t stop no matter how much noise I make.”

I could see his head shaking now and it was definitely a no.

“Loren, you have to do this. I can’t do it myself. I *need* your help.”

“But… “

“I know it’s not pleasant for you, and I know it won't be pleasant for me, but I want you to do this. I *need* you to do this. I need your help, Loren. You can help me here. You can.”

“Jack…”

With my right hand I grabbed hold of his left, wrapping the fingers around my left wrist. “Hold there.” Gritting my teeth, spitting out the words, I took his right hand and guided it to my left pinky which was pointing outward at somewhere near a 90 degree angle. “Pull it straight, and hard. Do it!”

I was afraid he wouldn’t. I could feel his fingers trembling, sense his fear and his distaste for doing this. “Do it!” I hissed, my voice rough. “Please. Now.”

I thought he wasn’t going to, and then I heard him take a big deep breath, and he pulled.

I didn’t scream, not that I didn’t come damn close. His first hard jerk wasn’t hard enough, and somehow I managed to order him. “Again. Harder. Pull damn you!” and he did.

With an excruciating and audible snap, bones and tissue popped back into place.

I couldn’t hear him over my own gasping breathing, but I had to get him to do the other one now before his courage deserted him, and consciousness deserted me. “The other one. Now. Now.”

This time, he didn’t hesitate. Loren’s fingers curled over my gnarled ring finger and jerked hard. Bones, nerves, tendons, ligaments, flesh all slid back into place as I bit my lip to hold in the scream, to hold it down to just mumbled curses as agony flared from my fingertips all the way to my shoulder. I thought I could hold it all in until I felt him wrapping the cloth around my hand and pulling it tight. That was the last I could bear.

I moaned, coughed and retched, curling into a fetal position, my right hand wrapping around my left as the pain flared and subsided in sickening waves. And then my hands were flying to my ribs as the dry heaves started again and each wracking movement left me gasping. Dark spots wavered in front of me as I battled my body’s intense desire to just give in to the agony and fold up into a quivering lump.

------------------------------

The Dark and the Light

Part 6

After interminable minutes, or maybe it was years, decades, centuries even, the agony stopped hammering from my hand clear through to my already overloaded skull, and I could breathe again.

This time, it really was me making that sick moaning noise.

God, I wanted some water to rinse the foul taste out of my mouth, and a case of aspirin to stop the pain ratcheting through my hand and my head.

“Jack?” Loren’s voice was soft and scared, his shaking hand touching my arm as he placed his jacket over me again. Guess all that thrashing around had knocked it aside. “Jack?” he asked again.

“Still here,” I announced, though I wasn’t really certain of that.

“What are we going to do?”

“Find a way out of here.”

“How?”

“I don’t know that part yet. But I know I will. We will.”

“If you say so.”

“Yes, I say so.”

I think he nodded, or maybe it was still my vision doing loop de loops. Well, it didn’t matter. They don’t call me Jack ‘NeverSayDie’ O’Neill for nothing. By keeping my eyes closed, I managed to use my good arm to push myself into a sitting position, leaning my back against the wall. After a couple of minutes my breathing had settled back to something near normal, normal enough at least, that I could talk again. “We’re gonna get out of here. First things first, find a way out of here…”

“I know how to open the door…”

Okay, that snapped me wide awake, hand device addled brain and all. “What?”

“I know how to open the door.

I opened my eyes and sat up straight, too quickly, everything whirling around so I had to close my eyes tight shut for long minutes, counting to a thousand while the pain subsided back to a tolerable, though remarkably still unpleasant, level. “*How*?”

“Through the control panel. All the rooms have them, hidden behind those fancy decorations.” Dimly I could see his arm waving toward the wall behind us.

My brain was pretty non-functional, what with the half dozen jackhammers apparently drilling holes in my skull. I had to ask again, because I still wasn’t sure I’d heard right. “There’s a way out of here? Through the panel?”

“Yes.”

“But how…?”

“It opens,” Loren answered simply.

Okaaaay. “So why’d they put us in here if there’s a way out?” I was thinking out loud.

“I bet they don’t know,” the kid said, proudly. “I had lots of time to explore, when my parents were in by the light, and then after…” He didn’t finish.

I understood. “So that’s how you hid from our first team that came here?”

The blob that I had to assume was his head nodded up and down.

His voice sounded excited. “Yes. Yes. Some of the rooms have two doors, one in the front and one in the back, so I’d go in one, close the door, and go out the other. That’s why the first of your friends didn’t find me here. I showed Daniel. He said he thought they were hallways for the slaves to move so they wouldn’t be in the way of their masters.”

I would have nodded in agreement, but I figured that much movement might make my head fall off.

“So, we could go out that way," his tone suddenly dropped, his enthusiasm waning. “But you’re hurt.”’

“Not too hurt to get the hell out of Dodge,” I answered hastily. Okay, I wasn’t going to be able to stand up straight, and walking was going to hurt like hell, and I for damn sure couldn’t *see* wherever the hell I was going, but I could rely on the kid. “We’ll get out of here and lay low…” Okay, yeah, it wasn’t much of a plan, but still and all, it beat the hell out of sitting around, locked up in a room, waiting for that snakehead SOB to come back and start whomping on me some more.

“So we’ll hide?”

“Yes.”

“For how long?”

“As long as we have to. Until ol’ Ammo the mutt there quits looking for us. Or the General sends reinforcements.” I grinned. “We’ll outlast the bastards.”

I think that flash of white was Loren smiling.

I reached out my good hand to clasp his shoulder, patting his arm awkwardly as in my out of whack vision I misjudged the location slightly. Weird feeling. I closed my eyes once more, realizing my head hurt about as much as my battered hand and broken ribs. Opening my eyes carefully, this time I managed to get my hand squarely on the boy’s shoulder and with his help, levered myself generally upright with only a small groan. Leaning on the kid, we hobbled over to the wall. His hands reached high, touching some symbols that I couldn’t make out, then the door slid open.

Carefully, I stuck my head out into the hallway. My vision was still all fuzzy and weird, but I couldn’t *hear* anyone out there. “All clear?” I asked Loren.

“Yes, Sir,” he answered.

So what the hell. I’m always up to a challenge. Grinning, I asked, “Loren, did anyone ever teach you to play hide and seek?”

“No.”

“Great game. You’re gonna love it, kid,” I said, waving him forward into the corridor.

*********

The Dark and the Light

Part 7

With Loren’s help I managed to stagger down the passageway. I’ve been dizzy before, had vertigo before, but this was weird. Whatever Ammut’s ribbon device had done to my head included throwing my sense of balance so badly out of whack that I could hardly put one foot in front of the other. It was as if the floor was undulating under my feet, but I knew it wasn’t because Loren wasn’t having any trouble walking. What I really wanted to do was shut my eyes, because my headache was spiking like another dozen jackhammers had joined the party inside my skull. Finally, I just walked, er, shuffled, forward with my good hand on Loren’s shoulder.

If the kid noticed there was something really wrong with me, he didn’t say anything.

At least not then.

********

We’d been moving for a couple of minutes when I heard the sound of footsteps, the unmistakable rhythmic tread of Jaffa feet.

Shit.

Loren heard it too, turning back to look at me, his eyes, or at least what I figured were his eyes, seemed to get bigger and darker and scared.

There was a cross hallway we’d just passed, so I waved a hand in that direction, and we hurried down the new corridor. We moved along quietly for a couple hundred yards, turning a sharp corner. This passageway was obviously rarely used, it smelled of dust while cobwebs, or something similar, brushed across my face as we walked. We continued on for another stretch, I could have sworn it was 80 or 90 miles from the way my legs were getting all leaden and wobbly, before Loren turned again, into an even more narrow passageway.

Putting his lips very near my ear he whispered, “I know where we are.”

Once again he reached up high on the wall and touched what must have been another magic door opening panel. A doorway, narrower than a regular door, opened with a slight hiss. Loren turned to look at me. “I haven’t been this way in a long time, but this will take us outside,” he offered. “Not by the beach, but on the other side…”

Nodding, I urged him forward.

It was dim in there, and between that and my still-unfocusable eyes, it was like walking through thick fog.

We kept moving, it seemed like a really long time. Part of the time, I just let my eyes fall shut and tried to drown out the pounding in my head, but to be honest it didn’t help the situation much. And then I don’t know how it happened, but my legs just sort of folded up and I found myself on the floor. Next thing I knew, Loren's face was inches from my own, so close I could pretty much see the worried expression as he called my name urgently. He sounded really scared again. “Jack!” he whispered. “Jack, are you okay? Jack. Jack, please. Talk to me.”

“Yeahsureyoubetcha,” I mumbled in response. “I’m fine, very fine, perfectly goddamn fine. I just needed a little rest, kid,” I said, straightening out my legs and leaning back against the wall, letting my head fall back to rest against the cool stone. “Give me a couple more minutes. I've still got that headache...”

I dozed off.

**************

When I woke up, Loren was gone.

Damn that kid knows how to make trouble. Typical kid, no patience, no goddamn sense, I railed silently.

I’d go look for him, if I could see where the hell I was or knew where I was or could think straight, much less walk straight.

So all I could do was sit there and worry.

And you know how good I am at doing that.

************

About the time I was considering sending out a search party consisting of one slightly the worse for wear Colonel, he finally came back. I’m not sure how much time had passed, since my vision was far too wonky for me to read those little numbers on my watch. But I know he was gone way the hell too long for my peace of mind.

Loren was smiling as he hurried through the hallway, and I could see he was carrying something in his hands. The middle of his face was a white shiny spot I figured must be a smile, that nervous smile he gets when he’s done something he wants to be proud of but is afraid I’ll yell at him for doing.

He was right. I was proud, and mad, too.

Proud because the package he shoved into my arms was my vest and some of my gear.

Angry because he’d gone back for *things*, things which could have cost him his freedom, maybe even his life.

A damn fool stunt.

But one I appreciated.

My hand was already digging around in the vest in search of whatever I could find. “Where’d you get this?”

“I went back to my apartment. We’re not very far away from it. Not really. There’s good stuff in there,” he said, proudly. “And I got your flashlight and your water container, too.”

“Canteen,” I corrected as he handed it to me.

God, it tasted heavenly, water for my parched throat. I took just a couple swallows, then handed it to the boy. "Drink a little. Save the rest. We don’t know how long before we can get more.”

He put the canteen to his lips and I heard him drink and then he carefully put the cover back in place and set it down beside me.

Meanwhile, I’d been searching through the pockets of my vest. Hadn’t found a lot, but I did come across my usual water proof matches, useful if we managed to get outside; my radio; monocular; the GDO; three clips of ammo, which wasn’t much use without my gun; a couple of energy bars; and best of all, some first aid supplies. I gratefully popped three of the Tylenol out of the packet and swallowed them with another mouthful of water, praying for fast action.

“Help me up,” I ordered Loren, and he did, and we started down the narrow hallway once more.

The Dark and the Light

Part 8

The corridor seemed to stretch on forever.

The pills I'd taken finally kicked in. They helped some, not much. The headache still pounded, the ribs protested every breath, and my hand still throbbed, but it seemed somewhat more bearable, at least for the moment. Enough that I could go on.

It seemed like we walked unendingly, like we’d never find a way out, like we were lost in the dark, or at least I was. Just about the time I’d decided we really were lost and would have to go back, we reached the end of the passageway. For a moment, I thought we’d hit a dead end, and then I realized we hadn’t.

In front of me, my questing right hand encountered a familiar shape: evenly spaced narrow bars extending up as high as I could reach, bordered by thick long upright rails: a ladder.

“It’s not very wide, but we’ll fit,” Loren whispered.

I reached out my hand and felt the space above me, since I couldn’t rely on my eyes to give me anything but general outlines, and fuzzy ones at that. Hmmm. Not very roomy, but plenty wide enough for my shoulders. The thought of climbing anything in my current mangled physical state didn’t seem like fun at all, though.

Beggars can’t be choosers, Jack, I reminded myself. This beat the alternative, which was to let ol’ Gouldy catch us and resume damaging various and sundry body parts until she got to something vital.

Using my right hand, I reached up, pulling myself up onto the first step. My ribs protested vociferously, my breath catching painfully as I managed to get up another step by hooking my left forearm around the rail on the ladder while making a fast grab at the next rung up with my right.

It was awkward, but it was working.

With my right hand, grasp the rung above my head and hold on while I stepped up with my feet, then hook my elbow around the rung and hold on for that brief moment while I reached up and grabbed the next rung.

Hold on, step up, hook the elbow, reach up…

Hold on, step up, hook the elbow, reach up…

Hold on, step up, hook the elbow, reach up…

Hold on, step up, hook the elbow, reach up…

Five steps.

Six.

Seven.

Until my elbow slipped.

I lost my balanced, started to slide backwards, and in desperation caught myself by using my left hand.

Pain shrieked savagely from my broken fingers all the way up through my shoulder, my whole arm going numb.

I managed to catch myself with my other hand.

I don’t think I passed out, because I didn’t fall. I remember deciding I needed to just stay there for a minute and catch my breath and figure out how to breathe again, dropping my throbbing head to rest against the rung of the ladder.

God damn snakes. Broken bones and bruised body parts and a head that felt ready to split in two if I moved, but I had to move, because that freakin’ Goa’uld was gonna be looking for us real soon. So, breathing shallowly, I eased my way awkwardly forward, catching myself up with my good hand, the other arm held tightly against my chest, protecting my battered hand and battered ribs.

Thankfully, it wasn’t much farther. Reaching ahead in the dark space, my hand suddenly encountered empty air. “Loren?”

“We’re there. There’s a little ledge here by the door…”

With Loren’s help I managed to shinny on up next to him. He turned to the wall then, and began pushing at shadowy decorations on the wall. I couldn’t really see what he was doing, even from this close, because every time I tried to focus on something, everything started to shimmy and sort of waver. It was like the worst case of being seasick you could imagine. Sighing, I closed my eyes. “Those doohickeys open the door?”

“One of them should,” Loren answered confidently.

Minutes passed.

The door wasn’t opening.

“Loren?”

“The door won’t open. One of these switches should open the door…”

He sounded scared and sort of panicky. “Hey, it’s okay. Take your time. I need a rest,” I reassured him.

“But this should work!”

I opened my eyes, slammed them shut quickly when I damn near fell right off the ledge, and tried to sound confident. “You’ll get it in a minute. Take a deep breath, relax, and start from the beginning. You can do it.”

I heard him draw in that deep breath, and then begin mumbling to himself. He sounded so much like Daniel I almost laughed, but *that* would have been a big mistake, so I sat and waited, impatiently. Finally, after what seemed like a really long time, I heard a little snap-click noise and then a squeaking like long unused, un-oiled hinges and there was a gust of fresh, cool air.

“I got it!”

“Way to go, Loren,” I praised.

With his help, I got to my feet and we squeezed through the partially open door. Braced safely against his shoulder, I opened my eyes, squinting. The light was dim, dusk maybe, hell, it could even be dawn, I had no idea anymore of the time.

We were outside, on the landward side of the palace, where the huge building was sort of built into the gently sloped hillside. Loren and I had walked around this way once. I remembered that there was a barren rolling plain here, the landscape broken here and there by big house sized rocks. They stood angled into the ground like a giant hand had tossed them around like oversized toys. Turning to look behind us, in the distance I could just see big gray blobs that must have been those big weird statues along the beach. Disappointed, I tried to explain to the kid, “Loren, they’ll see us…”

“No they won’t. There’s a hiding place.” He guided me along the side of the huge building we’d called the palace, then along a rocky seam. Maybe a hundred yards further, there was another building, half buried in the ground. Loren pointed at it proudly.

He slipped his supporting arm off my shoulder, and I swayed but stayed upright, squinting to watch as he felt along the edge of what looked like giant blocks of stone. Suddenly, one of the blocks moved, revealing a narrow, cave-like opening into the dark interior.

“In there. Another hiding place.” Loren beamed, and slid down inside.

I could just see the top of his head.

Hiding place was good, more climbing was not, even if this time the climbing was down. And how in the hell was I going to get in there? The space was wide enough for my shoulders, sure, but not very tall. And the drop off… oiy.

“There’s steps,” he added, seeing what must have been a worried look on my face.

Sitting down carefully, I reached forward and down as far as I could, my fingertips finally brushing across something smooth and hard. “Got it,” I whispered

Swinging awkwardly gasping as broken ribs grated, and my stiff and sore body protested the movements, I somehow managed to turn myself around. Half on my belly, feet first, I felt for the step with a booted foot.

There. Got it. Sliding down, bracing myself with my right hand, trying to keep my ribs clear… my foot slipped and I felt myself fall, landing with a grunt of pain on something softer than I’d expected.

Lying on the floor on my back, staring upward as I fought to calm my breathing, clutching my damaged ribs with an equally damaged hand, I stayed still for a long time. I heard the soft sounds of Loren moving around, the sound of the door closing, and then he flipped a switch.

The light seemed blinding.

“A glowstick, like your flashlight,” he explained proudly.

Raising my head to look around, my vision still fuzzy and out of focus, I tried to see where we were. It was a small area, not much more than 6x6 because I could just barely lie stretched out on the floor. The ceiling seemed low, I reached up and my fingertips brushed the surface. “Where?”

“This is my best hideout. My parents helped me find it,” his excited voice got lower and slower, “when we first came, before the light… before it made them…” he paused, and waved an arm around. “I waited here the other time the aliens came. It’s okay, isn’t it?”

I reached out my hand and patted his arm. “It’s a perfect hideout.”

“I’ve got blankets, and even some food and water… are you hungry?”

I was too nauseous to be interested in food, but the thought of more water… “I could use a drink.”

He scooted across the floor to a large trunk like box, rummaging around and finally brought out a small container. He showed me how to open the lid and drink.

I sipped carefully. “Is there more?”

“Oh yeah, lots, three more bottles.”

Three might seem lots to him, but I knew it wouldn’t last the two of us very long. I wasn’t sure how long we’d have to hide out from snaky and her minions, but we’d have to be damn careful.

“And there’s food cakes and blankets…”

“First aid kit?”

He shook his head no. “I was just a kid when they set this up. I wasn’t allowed to have medicines.”

“Damn,” I muttered.

Loren looked downcast. “Your hand still hurts?”

I nodded and tried to pull myself into a sort of semi-sitting position, one where my ribs hurt less and I could breathe easier. I stuffed a blanket behind my back and finally managed to find a position where I was partly comfortable. “I need to sleep. Sleep is healing.”

"I'll keep watch."

"Good, Loren, you did good. Thanks."

I saw him smiling again at the praise, and then Iclosed my eyes and tried to sleep.

As much as I needed the rest, I didn’t get much. Hard to sleep when you’re hurting as much as I was. And worried, too, about what we were going to do next.

I didn’t know how long we’d be here, and we had at least three major problems. First, Gouldette’s Jaffa were going to be looking for us, so we’d have to be damn quiet, and damn lucky, not to be found. Second, we were going to need more supplies if we had to stay here for more than a couple of days. Three, and this was the worst one, was the Light. I wasn't sure if we were out of range of the device, I doubted it. But we'd been so close to the end of our step-down program that I was pretty sure we'd be okay now, I had to hope so for Daniel and Carter's sakes. However, the real problem on our end was that sooner or later, most likely sooner, our friendly neighborhood snake was going to realize the Light wasn’t functioning up to snuff, and then she’d turn it up, and we’d be re-addicted all over again. Which meant, even if we got to the gate, that we couldn’t go home.

Think, Jack. Hard to do, what with the way my head was throbbing. All that walking had worn me out, not to mention the fact that I still couldn’t see straight, which I had to admit was beginning to scare me a little.

I’d be better with a little rest, I convinced myself, and finally, dozed off.

**********

The Dark and the Light

Part 9

I awoke to pitch darkness.

For a terrifying moment I thought my vision had gone completely, and then I realized that Loren must have turned out the little glowlight.

My shuffling around must have awakened him, or maybe he hadn’t been sleeping at all.

“Jack?” he asked as he turned on the light.

I squinted against even the meager illumination. “Yeah. I…” and then I heard a sound, like Jaffa footsteps. Damn. They were looking for us.

I raised a finger to my lips in the universal ‘Quiet!’ motion, hoping it really was universal. Loren understood. His eyes got big and round and scared, or so I imagined, because I still couldn’t quite see good enough to tell.

The footsteps got louder and louder, and then they stopped. They had to be, hell, right above us. Their voices were low, indistinct rumbles, but it really didn’t matter because I couldn’t understand the language they were speaking anyway.

I hardly dared breathe.

Finally, they moved on.

I sighed, slowly expelling the breath I’d held for too long.

********

By the second day in our hideout, I was going not-so-slowly nuts.

Okay, I’m an impatient man.

Waiting, hiding, is *not* my thing.

And then, okay, I’ll admit it, there was the fear thing.

I don’t handle that well, either.

I still couldn’t see.

At least, not much more than gray, fuzzy outlines.

Most of the time, we kept it dark in our hideout, and that was good, because then I couldn’t see how little I could see, you know?

But then we’d need to turn the light on for a bit, and I’d be confronted with it all over again, it being the fact that my eyesight was all out of whack. Pretty damn useless, in fact.

Not permanently, I kept telling myself. After all, Daniel had been zapped with one of those hand devices, by Amaunet, and I knew for a fact that he’d had a blinding headache for at least two days. Those had been the exact words he’d used… ‘blinding headache’. I prayed that Daniel, a man whose life was words, would have been using the most accurate ones.

I also know, from far too much personal experience, that damage to one’s head usually did similar nasty things to one’s eyesight. Concussions, for example, made a man dizzy and nauseous. And then there’d been those skull fractures, all those years ago, when I’d spent nine days seeing three of everything…

So I kept telling myself that waiting here, mostly in the dark, was the right thing to do. Hell, it was pretty much what Doc would have made me do if I’d been back at the SGC. She’d have counseled patience and rest.

Not that I was capable of doing anything much besides rest, anyway. Moving hurt. My ribs complained every time I so much as took a real breath, and my hand was a constant throbbing ache. It looked really ugly too, all the fingers black and blue and so swollen they looked like sausages.

So while my body was working at about 50% normal, my brain made up for it, running somewhere in excess of 150%, racing around in circles as I vainly searched for a way out of this mess.

Who knew how long the snakes would stay?

If they were only here for a long weekend sort of thing, they’d be leaving tomorrow, and Loren and I could just wait until they’d all cleared the departure lounge and dial home. Easy as pie.

Except, it was just as likely, as far as we knew, that the snake was here for the summer holiday. That she’d invited all her fellow snakelets for a family reunion and the place would be crawling with Goa’uld… pun intended. Hell, maybe this was her retirement home and she was never leaving.

Hammond couldn’t send a rescue team. I could count on him to make sure my team didn't try some foolish rescue. First, if they reopened the gate, they’d see the aliens were still around. Second, even if the coast looked clear, there was no way to tell if the Light thingy had been turned back up, which meant anyone except Teal’c would be addicted, and the General had already stated he wasn’t sending anyone else to the planet. And as much as I thought of Teal’c’s warrior skills, even he would have trouble going alone against a snake, several Jaffa and a bunch of humans.

So, don’t be counting on a rescue, Jack.

Rescue yourself, and the kid.

Maybe I should just sleep on it. Come up with a plan while my body healed enough to make a move.

*************

The Dark and the Light

Part 10

**Loren**

Jack looked awful. I knew he was trying to hide it from me, how badly he was hurt, but I could tell by the way he wasn't making jokes, not trying to make me feel better. And he was so still.

Jack is never still, he’s always moving, always doing things.

His hand looked awful, all puffy and discolored, like a gefelgeter stepped on it. Gefelgeters look a lot like… elephants, Jack showed me pictures of elephants. He showed me a lot of stuff.

Like fishing.

I like fishing.

I like Jack. He gets angry sometimes, upset, and I wonder why. I don’t think it’s something I did, I think it’s something that happened to him before. He told me his son died, so he understood how I felt when I lost my parents. He knew how hard it was to lose the people most important to you, and not blame yourself. He kept telling me not to blame myself for what happened to my parents, that I was trying to do the right thing, and that’s never bad. He said the Goa’uld, the nasty aliens, were to blame.

After meeting one, I understood why he hates them.

Jack is a lot like my Dad, or at least, how my Dad was before the Light made him different. He’s patient with me. Jack likes teaching me things, and telling me stories about what he did when he was a kid.

He’s introduced me to lots of neat stuff from his planet, like ice cream. What a surprise! I’ve never had anything like that before. And his General sent along this machine that plays ‘tapes’ Jack called them, moving pictures that tell a story, sort of like a book made into real life. They were from something called ‘television’ that Jack says nearly everyone on Earth has, and that I can have one when I go there. We watched something called ‘The Simpsons’ and Jack laughed a lot, and I laughed too… not because I thought the ‘tape’ was funny, but because Jack’s laugh is infectious.

I don’t think he laughs a lot.

That’s sad.

It’s really sad that he’s like me, that he doesn’t have a family, although he explained that Sam and Daniel and Teal’c are sort of his family, in a special way. He wouldn’t look at me when he told me that, which is the way Jack acts when he’s telling me something important.

So I asked Daniel to explain Jack, and Daniel just laughed and said no one could explain Jack, not even Jack. He said that Jack was a very good and a very brave man, and that I shouldn’t get upset when Jack yelled, because usually he doesn’t mean it. But that I *should* listen when Jack tells me things, because Jack knows a lot about life, learned all his lessons "the hard way" though Daniel didn’t explain what that meant.

But I would have listened to Jack even without Daniel telling me I should, because there’s something about him that’s special. He is, like Teal’c told me, a good man, and a good friend.

I wanted so much to help him.

He was so pale and still, and there were deep lines around his eyes and mouth, showing how much pain he was in. He told me he'd used up all the pills except for his last two, his emergency stash, Jack called them, and we were almost out of food and water. We would have to leave my hiding place soon.

I would be afraid, except I knew Jack would come up with a plan.

He said he would.

And I trusted him.

************

**Jack**

It wouldn’t be so bad if I was alone.

Okay, amend that.

It’s good that I wasn’t alone, because without Loren’s help I wouldn’t have escaped in the first place, much less found this hideout. So I guess I’d be dead, which wouldn’t be good.

But it’s bad, because I have to take care of Loren. He’s just a kid, and damn, you know how I feel about kids. I guess when I should have been in line to get a helping of smarts, I was in the other line, getting a double helping of paternal protectiveness.

The sleep helps. Every time I sleep I wake up feeling a little bit better. I’m a fast healer, always have been, thank goodness. It’s one of those things you need, when you’re in my line of work. Maybe my body just has so much practice over the years. But whatever the reason, I recuperate quickly.

Not that I’m anywhere near 100%, and it will be damn long time before I am, but my head isn’t hurting quite so bad, and I can move around, uncomfortable, sure, but I’m more mobile now than I was two days ago.

Two days.

Seems like a hell of a lot more than that.

Seems like forever.

Mostly, though, it seems like I haven’t been able to come up with any stunningly brilliant ideas to get us out of this mess. So I'll go for the desperately stupid, which sometimes work... how else do you think I've survived this long?

I don’t know if Ammut is still searching for us. Most Goa’ulds are pretty persistent though… just think Apophis, who keeps coming back for more and more and more… but I’m hoping the Light has her distracted enough to let us fall into the back of her snaky little mind.

Otherwise, Loren and I are toast.

Because the only plan I’ve been able to come up with, is for us to just sneak out of here after dark and go looking for supplies, help, escape, whatever we can find.

I know it’s not much of a plan, but we’re in an ugly situation… cut off from help, low on supplies, half of us hurt, and the other half too young and inexperienced to be much help. Not that the kid’s not willing to help. He’s a good kid.

I don’t want to get him killed.

Don’t want to get myself killed, either.

But I’ve got enough guilt for one lifetime, so I don’t need more.

So, guess I’ll call this Operation Get the Kid Home Safe.

I’m gonna nap now, save up my strength for later.

**************

The Dark and the Light

Part 11

**Loren**

I opened the door to my hidey-hole just as the sun was setting. The sky was that bright yellow color to the west, where the sun had just set. Jack said sunsets on Earth are orange, not yellow. Seems odd. I can’t wait to see, though.

He was still sleeping, which is what he’d been doing a lot of the last two days. He said sleep is healing, and that he heals fast. I don’t see it though, I think he looks worse, now that the bruises are all black and blue and purple.

I woke him with a hand on his shoulder, and his eyes popped wide open.

“Dark?” he asked.

“Y-yes,” I nodded.

“Okay then. Time to hit the streets.”

I stuck out my hand and he took it, levering himself to his feet carefully. Jack grimaced but didn’t stop until he was standing upright, right by the door. Then he turned to me, and there was this look on his face, all serious and stern, and he put his good hand on my shoulder. “Loren, promise me that you’ll do what I tell you. That you’ll go through the gate if we get it open.” I nodded, remembering what he’d told me, that I couldn’t go through the gate until he’d sent the code with the little device strapped to his wrist, and until the red light on it turned green… that was important.

Cautiously, he crawled out of our hiding place.

I took one last look around, carefully tucking my most precious possessions into my jacket pocket, and buttoning the flap so the pictures and the other stuff wouldn’t fall out. Then I climbed out of the hideout and followed Jack.

*************

**Jack**

The first thing I realized was that I’d underestimated how damn much it hurt to move. And I’d overestimated how much my eyesight had recovered. It *was* better, to my immense relief, but things were still a little hazy, even taking into consideration the lowlight conditions. Worst of all, now that I wasn’t lying prone with my hand elevated, the damn thing hurt like a sonofabitch, even though I’d saved the last two Tylenol for tonight.

My ribs weren’t much better, protesting with every step, though they didn’t hurt too much when I did unimportant stuff like breathing. At least as long as I kept my breaths shallow. So much for winning the 100 yard dash at this Olympics.

The plan, of course, called for not getting myself into any position where running was a requirement.

I just hoped I could stay with the plan.

With Loren following, we started back through the rock field toward the palace’s back door. I took a good, long, cautious look around before I opened it, but there weren’t any signs of anyone else having been there in the last couple of days. Easing my way inside, I stood on the ledge and looked down at the ladder. Damn. I was so not looking forward to this part. Moving as carefully as I could, I slid my left foot down to the first rung, holding on with my right hand. Moved my right foot down to the second step, and then, with a sigh, maneuvered my arm around so my left elbow was hooked on the rung. Cautiously I let my weight settle onto the awkward hold, and then quickly dropped my right hand down to the next handhold.

I was sweating by the time we got to the bottom of that ladder. Damn good thing it wasn’t any longer. I slouched against the wall, resting and gathering my strength for a moment, but we had to go on.

I let Loren lead the way now as we entered the maze of passageways. I didn’t remember coming through here the other day; of course, I’d been mostly blind and barely conscious at the time, so I guess those were adequate excuses.

With my eyesight still hazy, I concentrated on listening for the slightest sound of movement, of other people, as we worked our way closer and closer to the gateroom. As we crossed a hallway, I heard talk. I grabbed Loren’s shoulder, pulling him back, and we hurried into a room as footsteps approached.

Two Jaffa walked on by.

But it wasn’t good news. I’d really been hoping everyone would be together in the same wing of the palace, so we’d only have to watch one direction. Actually, I’d been thinking maybe they’d all be in that one room, watching the Light. As we approached the gate, I could see the Light’s reflection flickering in the hallway. Don’t look, Jack, I silently warned myself.

Loren, thankfully, had both eyes focused steadily on our route.

This was going to be tricky. Not only did we have to dial up for home, we’d have to wait for the confirmation code.

Duh. Why hadn’t I thought of that before?

Don’t be an idiot, Jack.

The Dark and the Light

Part 12

New plan firmly in place I tapped Loren’s shoulder. “Change of plan. As soon as the gate finishes doing that kawoosh thing, go through. Don’t wait. Got it? Don't wait.”

He nodded.

Moving stealthily along the far wall, I moved from pillar to pillar. A brief look into the Lightroom showed at least half a dozen people, probably more, standing and staring. I jerked my own gaze away and concentrated on the DHD.

It was set off to the side, out of sight of the starers in the Lightroom. Besides, I didn’t think they’d even notice… none of us had, when we’d been addicted. Of course, if snaky had figured out the addictive thing in the Light was turned down, and turned it back up, our trip out of here was going to be almighty short-lived.

Don’t think about that, Jack. Nothing you can do about it now.

Motioning to Loren to get ready, I stepped away from the pillar and toward the DHD. My hand reached out to tap the familiar symbols. With the first touch, the gate began to revolve, clanking noisely. Cripes, you’d think someone smart enough to have invented the damn thing could have fitted it with a silencer or something. Symbol two, then three, four, five, and six. My hand had just reached symbol seven when I heard someone yell.

“Kree!”

Damn. I hate that word.

So I ignored it, punching in the seventh symbol, and ducking.

A staff weapon blast split the air inches from my head. I felt my hair stand on end, felt the electrical charge snap and sting as the energy beam splattered against the wall, sending golden sparks flying as it gouged a fist sized hole in the wall. Daniel’s really gonna be pissed now, I thought, as I rolled away from the DHD, ignoring the feel of broken ribs grating together as I rolled up onto my feet.

And came face to face with a Jaffa.

He was grinning.

And then Loren stepped out from behind the pillar.

“Get away from him!” the boy yelled.

“Loren!” What the hell was he doing? And what the hell did he have in his hand? My vision was still far too fuzzy be sure, but he was holding something that looked amazingly like a pistol of some kind. It wasn’t from Earth, and it wasn’t a zat, it was something I’d never seen before. Where had he gotten it?”

The Jaffa was looking at him, uncertainly.

Loren stuck out his hand, waving the weapon. “Back away. Or…or I’ll shoot you.” The kid’s voice was trembling but he looked at me, waving a hand.

Not wanting to waste a second, I took the three steps back to the DHD, leaning my weight into the center orange ball and the gate kawooshed.

Loren was already backing away from the Jaffa, toward the gate.

“I’ll use this on anyone who tries to follow us,” the boy promised.

We were side by side now, still backing toward the gate, Loren’s gaze focused on the Jaffa.

Suddenly, I could hear shouting from down the hallway. Damn. The Goa’uld was coming. “We better go now,” I grabbed Loren’s arm and we turned and dived into the maelstrom.

Bad move.

I tucked my injured hand against my chest and tried to roll, knowing this was going to be a memorably bad landing.

I hate being right.

We came out of the wormhole on the stone platform, into darkness. Even though I’d tried to protect my ribs, I hit hard enough that I saw stars. Gasping for air as I scrambled to my feet, I reached for Loren’s arm. “We gotta get away from the gate. In case they come.”

Running with broken ribs is not something I’d advise. Ever. But when your life is on the line, you do what you have to do, and worry about the consequences later.

And we didn’t have far to run.

The only light was the faint blue glow of the still activated gate as I staggered into the trees, Loren beside me.

Nothing happened.

No one followed us.

Blessedly, the gate shut down.

Loren was looking around in confusion. “Is this Earth? I thought your people…”

I was still trying to breathe, despite the condition of my ribs. “Not…Earth,” I managed to whisper hoarsely. “Land… of Light.”

“But it’s dark here.”

“Long… story... I’ll… explain… later.” I’d managed to get nearly upright once more.

Staggering back to the DHD, working as much by feel as by my still warped sight, I tapped the seven symbols and hit the ‘start’ button. Loren punched in the numbers on my GDO and we waited. And waited. Finally, Loren smiled as the little lights turned from red to green, and, leaning on the boy, I stumbled up the steps and through the gate.

We landed in the SGC for real this time. Daniel, Teal’c, Carter, and the General were all standing at the base of the ramp, right next to the usual gaggle of guys holding guns. “Hey, thanks… for the big welcome,” I smiled.

“Jack,” there was a genuine smile on Hammond’s face.

“O’Neill,” Teal’c wasn’t smiling, but he did give me that stately little nod thing.

“Jack.” Daniel was beaming.

“Welcome home, Sir,” Carter was grinning.

“What happened?” Hammond asked.

“Long story, General,” I was still wheezing a little, though I was able to glower at Doc Fraiser, enough to keep her at bay for the moment. I raised my good hand to Loren’s shoulder. “Loren saved the day.”

The boy held up the gun.

The SF’s weapons all snapped to attention.

“It’s okay! He’s a friendly.” I rasped.

“Stand down!” Hammond ordered.

But it was the look on Teal’c’s face… I could swear he was grinning, really, truly, actually grinning.

Loren’s smile was so big I thought his face would break. He stepped toward the Jaffa, and handed him the weapon. “You forgot this, when you left. I was going to bring it…”

Teal’c nodded, the smile still in place, frightening thing that it was.

And then he took the small device in his large hand, and pressed a button, and flashing lights inside the thing lit up…

We all jumped backward. Well, okay, the others jumped, I sort of staggered out of the way.

“Do not be alarmed,” Teal’c explained. “It is only a toy.”

“Teal’c birthday present,” Loren added. “It was mine, from my father, but I wanted to give it to Teal’c.” Loren turned to look at me, shrugging. “It’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s just a toy.”

“A toy? A toy?” I suddenly felt weak kneed. We’d held off the Jaffa with a kids toy? “Oh for cryin’ out loud,” and then I let myself sink down to sit on the step at the base of the ramp. After all that running and such my battered body had finally decided that enough was enough and that it was time to stop, sit and smell the roses.

Teal’c walked over to where I sat, and handed me the still flashing weapon. “A welcome home gift, O’Neill,” he said.

***********

The Dark and the Light

Part 13

I didn't see Loren for a while then, he and my team got pushed out of the way by Doc and *her* team. Despite my protests that I was perfectly able to walk to the infirmary, that my hand was injured, not my leg, Doc insisted that I ride a gurney up to her domain.

I hate those things, lying there, with everybody staring down at you and you able to do nothing but stare upward at a dizzying kaleidoscope of ceiling, lights, and wires overhead; in this case, a fuzzy, blurry, kaleidoscope.

Soon as we started moving, my headache ratcheted up another dozen points, so I closed my eyes.

"Colonel?" Doc's worried voice grabbed my attention. "What's wrong?"

I kept my eyes closed, waving a hand up toward the ceiling. "Dizzy."

I felt the gurney ride up over a bump and then stop, a familiar part of the trip... we were in the elevator. I opened my eyes, but the overhead light was too bright, and I flinched.

"Sir?" Doc was still concerned. "Still dizzy?"

"Headache," I mumbled.

By then, the elevator stopped with a familiar lurching motion, then the gurney went into motion again as I was wheeled the rest of the way to the infirmary.

I opened my eyes a tad, to see more people standing around, all of them staring at me. Oh great, just everyone gather around and stare at the sick guy. The gurney stopped, and Doc's face, fuzzy but clearly recognizable, reappeared right in front of me as someone put one of those blood pressure wraps around my upper arm. As soon as that was done, somebody else was inserting a needle into my hand for an IV line, taping it into place before drawing blood. My clothes were cut away and I was covered with one of those ever so delightful backless hospital gowns.

"How did you get these cuts?" Fraiser asked, her hand on my chin, turning my face side to side to study it.

"Snake slapped me. Her ring thingy made the cuts."

"Where else are you hurt, Sir?"

"Ribs got banged up a bit," I said and then added, as non-chalantly as I could, "and then there's the headache of course."

I saw her eyes narrow in concern. "And the reason for the headache?"

"Might be related to Ammut's hand device."

Doc's face got grimmer. "The Goa’uld used a ribbon device on you?"

"Yeah." I tried to make it sound like no big deal, and failed. Maybe the failure had something to do with the way I had to stare at her to keep her in focus.

"How long was it used on you?"

I shrugged. It had seemed like forever. "Don't know. Couple minutes maybe."

"Did you pass out?"

"Sort of. Yeah. For just a little while."

"Did you hit your head?"

"Yeah."

She was feeling my skull with firm but gentle fingers, and done, nodded in satisfaction.

"Any other symptoms besides the headache? Ringing ears? Nose bleed? Blurry vision?"

"Yes. No. Yes. Yes."

"Nose bleed and blurry vision?" She reached into her pocket and pulled out that damned penlight I hate.

I raised a hand to brush the light aside.

"Colonel, I have to check..."

"Isn't there some other way?"

"No."

"Can't you turn the damn thing down a little then?"

She pulled back and stared intently at me. She knows I don't like that thing, and that we always have our little argument about it, and then I give in and she does her test and she's happy but I've made my point and things are all hunky-dory, both of our honors intact. But I'd broken the pattern, and she was worried. Her voice was gentle. "Colonel, I know you're sensitive to this, but I need to do the test. I'll be as quick as I can, okay?"

I nodded.

She flicked the light on, aiming it into my eye. I flinched, then steadied as she checked one eye, then the other.

"The blurry vision started when the hand device was used on you?"

"Yes. It was worse at first."

"How bad?"

"Couldn't see my own hand in front of my face."

"How long ago was that?"

"Right after we got caught, just after Sam and Daniel left. A couple days ago now I guess."

"It's better now, though?"

"Some. A lot. Still not right, though," I admitted reluctantly.

"And the headache?"

"Better. Still bad."

She wrote something on a chart, and held it at arms length away, which was toward the foot of the bed. "Can you read this?"

I squinted, and honestly, could hardly see anything but a blob that was the chart. "No." I tried to keep the fear out of my voice. I'd avoided thinking about my sight, too busy trying to keep the rest of me alive. But now that I was home, I was going to have plenty of time to worry.

She moved it closer. "Now?"

I could see squiggly lines that might be letters, but still couldn't read it. "Not yet."

Once more Doc brought the chart closer, about the distance it would be if I held it at arms length myself. That was better. Concentrating, I could read the letters: 'Cassie has a boyfriend.'

"What? She's too young!"

Doc smiled. "I thought you'd figure that. He seems like a nice boy."

"No teenage boy is nice, not at that age. I know. I was one."

Doc laughed. "I bet you were." She patted my arm. "Okay, Sir, we're going to take you for an MRI, x-rays on your hand, and some more tests."

I love getting home from mission, and I hate it, too, you know, this whole infirmary part at least, shuffled from one test to the next and ordered around by nurses: move here, Colonel; move there, Sir; just sit and wait, Sir; look here, Colonel; lay there, Sir; pee in this, Colonel; this won't hurt a bit, Sir; this will only hurt for a moment, Colonel. Always polite, always insistent, always a pain in the ass, and elsewhere.

I did tell you I hated this, didn't I?

Done at last, I finally got taken back to a spot in the far corner of the ward, helped into a bed, and, though I wouldn't have admitted it in return for a week's leave, I was damned tired.

Doc returned and added something to my IV, and I quickly felt the mellowing effect of a painkiller. "That should make you more comfortable, Colonel."

"Uh huh."

Doc put a couple of x-rays up on one of those light things on the wall, flipping on the switch. I didn't need to be able to see the films to know that had to be my hand.

Fraiser pulled up a chair.

Oh, oh, that could only be bad news, I thought.

She held up a stack of papers. "Test results," she explained.

"Did I pass? Please tell me I won't have to repeat the third grade."

She grinned, the smile erasing her grim look, but it returned all too soon.

"That bad, huh?" I asked quietly.

"Well, there's good and bad, Sir. First, there's no sign of the addiction to the light. All of you were very fortunate that this incident happened when you were nearly done with the light step-down therapy, ready to leave. A few days sooner and..." she shrugged. "More good news, the CT and other scans didn't show any physical damage to your skull. You're not the first to get ribboned. Like Daniel, your blurry vision and headache are what I expect. His vision cleared up completely in a few days, and, although I believe your exposure was longer than his, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't have the same outcome. We'll keep checking, but there's no reason to anticipate anything but a full recovery, especially since you're already improving."

Doc paused, then went on. "The x-rays, however, show you've got a couple of broken ribs, but, as you know, there's nothing we can do there, except give them the time to heal. Which you'll have, while we work on your hand." She nodded at the lump of white bandages which was propped up on a pillow. "You'll need surgery. There's some damage there to the small bones, and we'll need to set and pin them. Then, after six weeks, in a minor outpatient second surgery, we'll pull the pins, and within a few weeks, you'll be back on full duty. Total time, 8-10 weeks."

I nodded, digesting the news.

"We'll be transferring you to the Air Force Academy Hospital in the morning. They'll do the surgery there, and send you home in a few days." She paused, giving me that kindly doctor sympathetic look that I hate, because it invariably means I’ll be seeing way too much of her and her staff over the next little while. "Any questions, Sir?" When I shook my head no, she stood. "I'll leave you to rest, then. You have some visitors, but five minutes, then they're out."

Fraiser left and my team came in, Loren with them. The kid was looking at everything with wide eyes, asking questions constantly, Daniel and Sam stumbling over each other to answer. The five minutes went by quickly, and then I was on my own with time to think.

Eight weeks.

Damn.

A long time.

I'd be bored in half the time, less actually.

Hell, a quarter of it most likely. Once I caught up on the episodes of The Simpsons that I’d missed, read the latest issue of National Geographic and caught up on the NHL standings, I’d be climbing the walls. That’s me, a well of impatience.

Eight interminable weeks.

Oiy.

Can we all spell b-o-r-e-d-o-m?

*********

The Dark and the Light

Part 14

Didn't turn out that way, though, because I talked the General into giving me an assignment while I recuperated... teaching Loren about Earth.

It wasn’t hard, not at all.

Everything was a wonder to him, cars and TV and the internet. I took him to a baseball game, fishing up in the mountains, even let him try ice skating which was a bit of a disaster but his ankle was only slightly sprained, taught him to play chess and poker, and to appreciate Monty Python.

Funny how fast you can get used to having someone around.

Loren was as eager for a Dad as I was to be one.

I was enjoying it, having the kid around.

And then one day, Carter and Daniel showed up on my doorstep, both grinning from ear to ear.

"Hi kids, what's up?" I asked as I let them in to my living room.

"We've got news for Loren," Sam smiled as the boy came down the hallway, GameBoy in hand.

"Hi," he greeted them cheerfully.

"Is the Colonel keeping you busy?" Carter asked.

"Very. He's taught me all the things a guy needs to know, like how to play chess and poker..."

Carter threw me a disappointed look.

I shrugged.

The room got quiet.

Finally, I broke the silence. "So, what's this big news?"

"We think we've found Loren's home planet," Carter announced.

"That's great!" Loren smiled.

"You'll be able to go home," Daniel added, smiling.

Loren looked at me, and suddenly his big smile dimmed. "Home, but..."

"In one of your father's journals, that you gave me to read before we left the planet," Daniel explained, "it was in with some of the stuff we'd already shipped back to Earth, before the Goa'uld came."

Loren nodded. "Yes, I couldn't read them."

"Well, I figured out that he was using a language similar to ancient Latin. It just took me a while to decipher the symbols, but once I did, I was able to read his notes. And I found this," Daniel handed the boy a sheet that had been copied from the note book. "The translation is under the symbols." He pointed at the sheet. "This names your home planet, as Procus. Most importantly, a few pages later, there's a set of other symbols, Stargate symbols." Daniel handed him another piece of paper.

I leaned over to look. Sure enough, Stargate symbols, plus a series of squiggly lines. Written under then in Daniel's neat hand were the names of Loren's parents, Hayden and Deena. "Your last name is Relarken," the linguist added.

Sam took up the story. "We sent a MALP through yesterday, Loren, and found your people, the Farner."

"And it appears you have relatives eager to see you again, your father's brother, Aifen."

"They were saddened to learn about the death of your parents," Carter continued, "but very glad to know you're alive. Your family hadn't been heard from in so long, they feared you were all dead."

Daniel pushed his glasses up. "They're anxious for you to come home."

Loren had been very silent throughout the revelations, and then he turned to me. "I... Jack..."

"You've got family, Loren," I said gently, hoping I was hiding my own disappointment, feeling selfish for wanting him to stay, when I knew I should be glad for him, but I couldn't force myself to be.

Damn fool, Jack, getting attached. You know better. You've always known better.

A boy belongs with his family.

I knew that, but it didn't make it any less difficult.

********

The next day, I helped Loren pack his things, the clothes, the sports gear, the GameBoy and extra batteries, and last, his picture/camera thing, that held the photos of his parents, of Teal'c and Daniel and Carter, and of the two of us, me smiling and Loren holding up the fish he'd caught.

When he was packed, I helped him carry his stuff out to the truck, and drove us back to Cheyenne Mountain. Neither one of us said much. Loren pretty much didn't look at me and I kept my eyes fastened on the road, blinking at the bright sunshine.

Through the lobby, down the elevators, dodging personnel in the crowded hallways, we made our way at last to the briefing room.

General Hammond was waiting. "Colonel, good to see you. Loren," Hammond walked up and shook the boy's hand. "I'm glad we were able to find your people and send you home."

"Y-yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir."

"You're welcome, Son." Hammond was smiling as we descended the spiral stairs, nodded at Carter who sat at the control terminal and she began dialing up the gate. By the time Loren, the General and I had reached the gateroom, the wormhole was engaged. Teal'c and Daniel stood waiting to escort Loren home.

I walked with the young man to the base of the ramp, and paused.

"You're not coming with us, to meet my family?"

"No. I think it's better..." I couldn't finish, I just knew I shouldn't go with the boy, make this any harder on him. Or me.

"T-thanks, for teaching me about Earth," he said, stammering.

I nodded, knowing I should think of something profound to say, but, as usual for me, totally at a loss for words. "You're welcome."

"I... " The boy looked at me, and I thought of the other kids I'd said goodbye to, Skaara, Merrin, the reetou's Charlie, and my own.

"Come and visit, if you like. We'll go fishing," I offered.

"And eat pizza and ice cream."

I nodded. "Yup."

And then Loren straightened up, and threw me a damn perfect salute, and I felt my eyes well and sternly commanded myself to buck up. I saluted back.

Then Loren turned and, walking between Teal'c, Daniel and Carter, stepped into the wormhole and out of my life.

I stood watching silently, and when I turned, General Hammond was waiting, watching me with that knowing look he has, the one that says he understands, but he'll never mention a word of it.

Good man, George Hammond.

**********

So I went home for the final two weeks of downtime, kept myself busy with mowing the lawn and washing my truck and cleaning out the garage. My house had never been quite so shiningly clean. Or empty.

It's been a couple of months now. I'm back on SG-1, my eyesight back to normal, my hand good as new, though it aches now and then when the weather gets cold and damp.

I know I told Loren I'd go and visit, but I don't think I will. I'm not good at that kind of thing, at standing by and looking in as an outsider. I want him to find a home, a place he belongs, with his family.

But that doesn't make it hurt any less to say goodbye.

---the end--