"What?" Jack started. He stared at the room in confusion, sitting himself back into his chair. "Sorry Sir ... I just ..."

"It's all right Colonel." General Hammond paused, his silence telling in the arrested stillness of the room. He turned back towards Daniel. "Go on son."

"Yeah." Daniel gave Jack another worried, surreptitious glance before continuing with his debriefing. "They led us back towards their base ... It was more of a camp really ..." Daniel looked over at Jack again, as if to jolt him into helping him recount their tale.

"Anyway ... they took our weapons and locked us in some sort of holding room ... Ah ... I guess it was then that Jack suggested that we try for a chance to break out and get back to the Stargate."

Teal'c backed Daniel up in his recounting. "Colonel O'Neill voiced his opinion that it was our best chance of escape. He deduced that once Heru'ur was notified of our capture, he would take all steps to ensure our continued imprisonment. Hence the best opportunity of making our escape would have been before Heru'ur was notified of our capture, and we all concurred."

Jack was still staring off into space, although he was actually listening now. He forced himself to concentrate on the debriefing, otherwise General Hammond would court martial his butt. One outburst was bad enough for the second-in-command of the entire base, two would not be tolerated.

"Right." Daniel gave Jack yet another look, but the Colonel kept his gaze resolutely fastened onto the table. "We waited until night fall ... Ah ... when the guards were being changed. Um, then we, ah, attacked." He paused helplessly to look around the table. Describing military tactics and manoeuvres were quite beyond him and at normal debriefings, Daniel would be the last person to have to outline them. But with Jack refusing to say anything, Teal'c being even quieter than usual and Sam ... well, with Sam not being there, the responsibility sat very uncomfortably on his shoulders.

The General seemed to sense the archaeologist's discomfort. "Colonel O'Neill, would you care to elaborate on what exactly happened?"

Jack frowned, and appeared to make an immense effort to meet General Hammond's gaze.

He rubbed his hand over his face, a weary, tired expression sweeping across his haggard features. "We waited until the guards had been changed. Teal'c's idea, something about religious meal times or something."

"Each jaffa is extremely disciplined. Their routine is to be followed strictly, since this promotes obedience and discipline." Teal'c interjected.

"Yeah that. Anyway we got Daniel to say a few words, lure them in. Teal'c and I were hiding near the doors. Once they came in we disabled them, took their weapons. We got ourselves out of that hole ..." Jack paused painfully, and Daniel could almost sense his own pain at the memory radiating from him. That was just before ... before Sam getting hurt.

He saw Jack sigh resolutely and pushed himself on. "We'd almost gotten out of the compound until we were spotted. We had no choice - we just ran for it." He swallowed slowly. "The terrain was mostly forest anyway ... we ran for the nearest one ... in the general direction of the Stargate ..."

Daniel closed his eyes, unable to keep the events from replaying themselves in his mind. After they had been spotted it had been useless to try to remain hidden. Jack had yelled, "Everybody to the trees ... *now*!!" and there had been no turning back from Daniel.

It was a fairly mad dash towards the forest. To his untrained eye the distance hadn't seemed all that great, but with every gasping breath the nearest cluster of trees seemed to be getting further and further away. In the distance he could hear the rumbling caused from staff weapon blasts as it connected with the soft, mushy ground, and the aggressive shouts emanating from the Horus guards, getting closer and closer. He ran and ran and ran, yet the trees didn't seem to be getting any closer. Daniel was faintly aware of Jack and Sam in the distance, the darkness descending upon them obscuring their figures and silhouetting them against the dark expanse of the forest. Teal'c was running just behind him - he sensed, rather than saw, that the jaffa was returning fire sporadically.

They were almost to the trees, and then ...

And then it happened. Almost as if in slow, agonising motion he saw a blast headed straight for Sam. He opened his mouth to warn her but even in that instant that Daniel took to register the threat Jack was there, shoving her to the ground and returning mad, desperate fire. But the blast hit the first of the trees bordering the forest, sending the tree toppling - and straight onto Sam.

"No!" That was all Daniel heard coming from his own mouth as he mustered his remaining strength and sprinted toward his fallen friend. At his cry Jack had turned around; he emitted no sound as he absorbed the sight of Sam nearly obscured under the pile of leaves and debris, lying still and unmoving.

And then all three of them were there, Jack first, trying maniacally to pull off all the debris single-handedly. Teal'c arriving at a full sprint, bending down to pull off layers and layers of splintered branches to uncover Sam's prone body. And Daniel ... he couldn't explain it, but he had instinctively known to take Jack's abandoned MP5 and fire off round after round, heedless of his own safety, the only thought reverberating around his mind was that maybe, he could give Jack and Teal'c enough time to get Sam to safety ...

"Danny we've got her - move out!" In mindless obedience he turned and ran into the depths of the forest. He didn't know how they were going to survive in there ... the trees just meant that they had more places to hide ... but there was no way the three of them could hold off a whole camp-full of Horus guards.

Daniel didn't know how long they ran - but suddenly, amazingly, all was quiet. As his astonished mind wondered how that could possibly be true, Jack suddenly slowed his break neck pace and rolled to a stop. Teal'c, his burden made heavier with the addition of Sam, slowed along with him.

The three of them stood in the eerie stillness of the forest.

"Maybe we lost them?" Daniel asked, unthinkingly. He didn't really care ... as long as they weren't there.

"Yeah." Jack replied shortly, breathing in short, sharp rasps. Tiredness and fatigue racked Daniel's body, making him half-stagger on the spot as he tried in vain to listen as Jack considered tactical possibilities. "We've got to get ourselves back near that gate ... by tonight. Dark's going to help us ... We need to keep moving, make sure we're not spotted." His eyes fell on Sam, unconscious and her head displaying an alarming gash. "No matter how long it takes us, right?"

Daniel had nodded grimly, but inwardly he had trembled. He really hadn't thought they were going to make it out of there.

But they had - just. His attention wandered back to the present, with Jack continuing his tale.

" ... just kept walking. Don't know how long. We got back to the gate ... Made it seem like we were going to hide out in the forest for a while before trying to get to the gate ... the forest was close enough to mount a surprise attack on the guards around the gate. We did just enough to get through ... *just*." Jack almost muttered the last few words out as he seemed to get lost in his own thoughts once more.

General Hammond sighed, wishing there was some other conclusion to the tale. "So that explains why you all came toppling through the gate."

"And Major Carter's injuries." It was the first time Dr. Fraiser had spoken during the debriefing, and Daniel almost looked up in surprise at her presence. "The force of the falling debris must have been quite a lot, judging by the contusion on Major Carter's head."

"What's the prognosis?" The General swivelled around slightly to face the doctor.

"I won't lie to you General, it's not the best I could hope for. It's been twenty-four hours and ... the earlier you wake up from a coma, the better the chances are for full recovery. I ... I just don't know Sir. The best I can give you is that it's all up to Major Carter now." Dr. Fraiser's voice remained neutral as the rest of the room absorbed her opinion. It definitely wasn't the best moment of her life.

The General stood up. "Okay people, I'd say that just about does it for today. It's been a rough day, and I want you all to go on stand-down, and get some rest." He glanced momentarily at Jack, "And that includes you Colonel O'Neill. However ... " his voice softened as he shot a sympathetic look across the room, "I understand the stakes you people have here with Major Carter in a coma, so ... just take it easy, okay?"

Daniel and Teal'c nodded slightly in acknowledgment, while Jack remained stone still. General Hammond appeared to not notice.

"Right. Dismissed." As Jack stood up he heard the General mutter softly to him, "Can I see you for a minute Jack?"

Jack would much rather have raced back to Sam's bedside after the debriefing, but General Hammond had voiced his request in such a tone that suggested that he wouldn't take no for an answer. He acquiesced, and followed the portly General back to his office.

"Close the door, Jack." Under normal circumstances, Colonel O'Neill would have been a bit apprehensive at the General's serious tone, but juxtaposed next to the prospect that Sam may never wake up, he found that he wasn't concerned about whatever the General wanted to talk to him about.

The General looked across his imposing mahogany table to the younger man, giving him a faint, sympathetic glance.

"Jack ... I know you're worried about Major Carter, we all are." He paused, not quite knowing how to phrase what he had to say. "But I've noticed these past few days that your behaviour has suggested that ... well, that your relationship with Major Carter isn't ... as platonic as the regulations would allow."

It took a moment for the significance of the General's statement to register with Jack, and then he exploded. He couldn't help it - all the pent up frustration at Sam's injury, the sense and the guilt that he hadn't been doing his job properly in protecting her, that it wasn't fair that she was the one lying there - it all poured out of him in that one, irrational instant.

"Carter is in a coma! A *coma* dammit, and you ask me to come here to talk about regulations?! Don't you get it - I don't care what happens to me or my career! If Sam never wakes up my life is over anyway, don't you get it? My life would be *over* ..." Suddenly the tide of irrational anger ebbed away almost as quickly as it erupted, and Jack was left with no energy to fight.

General Hammond was right - the past few days he *had* displayed a heightened emotion towards Sam, he couldn't help it. He just couldn't care about protecting his career, or her career, any more ... especially not in the face of the fact that she could never wake up again. It was the first time in a long time that the suave, confident Colonel Jack O'Neill had lost control entirely over his emotions, but the strange thing was, he didn't seem to care. There was only one thing he truly, truly cared about now - and that was Sam.

He had all but admitted to the General that he and Sam's relationship had crossed that boundary, the boundary over which Air Force regulations did not allow, but the General's expression was not one of shocked incomprehension as Jack half-expected it would be. It was one of comfortable resignation.

The General seemed to brush aside Jack's momentary insubordination as he sighed. "Jack, do y'all think I'm stone deaf? Or blind? I ..." he seemed embarrassed by the admission, "I've long observed that you and Major Carter were never going to be just friends. You don't get to be General by not observing what your subordinates are up to ..." Jack was surprised at that. He thought that while patient and forgiving, General Hammond was an officer who played by the book, and would not have taken contravention of military regulations quite as easily as what he was demonstrating now.

He coughed. "You and Major Carter are adults, and it is absolutely none of my business what you do on stand down ..." He hesitated. "I've seen during the past few years that it hasn't really affected the workings of the team ... As far as I'm concerned SG-1 is still the finest team we have here on base."

General Hammond's unabashed praise touched Jack's heart completely. "Thank you Sir. I ... I don't know what to say."

"Well ..." General Hammond cleared his throat again. "The point is, the past few days you've shown very clearly that ..." he sighed again, testament to how truly difficult this talk was. "Some of the Appropriations Committee's representatives happened to be doing a routine tour of the facilities yesterday, and even with Major Davis working for us at the Pentagon ..." The General's voice trailed off as the full impact of what he said hit Jack.

The Appropriations Committee ... It immediately reminded Jack of Senator Kinsey, and how he absolutely detested the secrecy of the Stargate Program. So much so that as soon as he heard about Jack's behaviour the past couple of days he was bound to cause trouble for him, for Sam, and for the SGC. Jack sighed as he buried his face in his hands. On top of Sam's condition, he also had to worry about his career, and more importantly ... Sam's career. What had he done?

General Hammond clearly followed Jack's train of thought as Jack dejectedly said, "What can I do?"

"Jack ... I don't think there's anything else you can do besides resign. Retire. I'll back date it a couple of days ..."

Jack's face almost blanched. "Retire?" He said blankly, not really comprehending the suggestion. Retire from the SGC? Retire from the life he had managed to create for himself here, at the base? Retire from commanding SG-1, and going on missions? He was no spring chicken, and he knew that one day in the not-too-distant future he would have to retire, but ... surely it was too early for him to do so? Sure, there were aspects he didn't like - the trees they always seemed to encounter for one thing, but then ... There were other aspects that he really *did* like ... Daniel's incessant buzzing about rocks and other ... stuff ... Sam's unquenchable enthusiasm for all things scientific ... Hell he even liked Teal'c's constantly monotonous expression ... Himself getting things wrong all the time and having to be corrected by Sam or Daniel ...

"I'm sorry Jack, I can't think of any other way." The General's kindly voice interrupted his thoughts. "I'll give you a few hours to think about it ... After that it'll be too late."

"Yes ... Sir, I ... appreciate what you're trying to do for me. I'll get back to you on that." Jack slowly stood up and headed for the door, the possibility of retirement that having really sunk in as yet.

General Hammond watched Jack's retreating figure with regret. It was a sad day for the SGC to have Colonel Jack O'Neill retiring, all because of one useless regulation. If only there was another way. If only.