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Duncan met them at the bottom of the ramp, asked Jack and Daniel to tell him what had happened. "Well, one thing is for damned sure," he said, looking around the room, "anybody stupid enough to get between Casey and Daniel or Sam and Jack won't make the same mistake twice." Chuckles filled the air. "Is there any chance that we'll ever be able to establish any sort of relationship with these people?"

Daniel grinned. "I'd wait a year or so. Right now the people there have a lot to take in. Everything they knew is being proven wrong."

"Could this result in a civil war?" Jack asked.

"Oh, god, I hope not," Daniel moaned.

Casey shook her head. "The government will find a way to cover up everything that happened. We'll be called terrorists, or a rogue group of enemies from somewhere, we might even be explained away as nothing more than a hallucination brought on by something in the air or the water. It was too early in the morning, too few people to see us. Those in power will not let go of that power easily. We shook the cage, rattled the door. Might even have cracked that door open. But we weren't there long enough to do more than cause them heartburn."

"I hate to say it, but she's right," Sam said. "I only hope that 'Those Who Search' won't suffer for any of what happened."

"Let's put this on the 'call later' list," Duncan said, making a mental note to do just that. "Now. About that Goa'uld. Was it Pelops?"

"As far as I know. He never introduced himself, and I wasn't going to give him the chance to use his ribbon device," Daniel reported. "The only way he could survive would be if someone took him back to his sarcophagus."

"Could that have happened?"

The young archaeologist shrugged. "Anything is possible."

Duncan frowned. "Okay. I'll get word to Methos to keep an ear open for the name. Now, the good news. Just before you came back through the 'gate Major Parker sent word that they've run into a bit of trouble. Seems that the spy that gave Jonas' people the intel on Garreth totally screwed them. They're taking heavy fire. I want you and Marine 2 and 3 to get there as soon as possible. We need to get them out of there," Duncan said grimly.

Jack nodded. "We're on it. Get cleaned up people, armed and ready to go in fifteen! Let's move!"

Fifteen minutes later SG1 and the two Marine teams were running through the 'gate. Straight into a raging battle.

Sam was hit almost immediately, Casey grabbed the straps of her pack and dragged her to safety behind a stand of trees. And found Tony hiding there, giving them cover as she pulled the dead colonel behind her.

Tony looked up at her, his face covered with sweat and grime. "Welcome to the party."

"Hey, couldn't let you have all the fun," the young blonde Immortal grinned. She dropped down and began firing her weapon. Looked over and smiled when Daniel slid into place beside her. "Hey, handsome."

"Hey gorgeous. Imagine meeting you here."

She giggled, and continued firing.

"Major, what's the situation?" Jack's voice asked over the radios that each of the team members were carrying.

"We've been pinned down here for about forty minutes. We were almost to the 'gate to dial home when we got hit. Don't know how many Langarans are left, haven't heard from them in about twenty minutes."

"Roger that. Any idea where the bad guys are?"

"Seems to me that we're surrounded," Major Parker's voice replied. "Haven't had enough manpower or cover fire to check for sure."

"Turk, take your boys and head to the backside of the 'gate. Take 'em out if any bad guys are there. Culley, take your boys and head west. One and six will give you cover fire. Okay, people. Let's show 'em some SGC attitude!"

Weapons that had been silenced, long enough for those whose hands wielded them to receive new orders, filled the air with noise and danger once again. That there were more weapons being fired now was clear to those who had pinned down the small group of infiltrators.

Jaffa began to run forward, aiming staff weapons toward those places where the fire seemed to be coming from. All but three lost their lives. Those three retreated to the cover of the fallen rock wall where they had been hiding.

"Case, tell me something," Jack's voice demanded.

She closed her eyes. Smiled when she felt that familiar, gentle presence in her mind. She reached out, moved above the ground, tried to see where, and how many enemy Jaffa they faced. As often happened, things were a bit hazy. But she could see enough. "Looks like three groups; at the front of the 'gate, and both sides. Not more than twenty now. But they've called for back up. Should be here very soon."

"How many?" Jack asked.

"I'm not sure. Looks like a lot."

"Okay, we're getting out of here. Marines, back to the 'gate, double time. Report when you're in position."

Corresponding acknowledgements came over the radios. "We're ready, general," Turk's voice said.

"Daniel, get to that 'gate and open it up. Everybody else give those Jaffa hell!" Jack ordered.

Sam was sitting up now, her P90 in her hand. "Go with him, Casey. Just in case," she said softly.

Casey nodded, followed Daniel in a crouched run as he made his way toward the DHD. She lay at his feet, firing continuously as he dialed for Gamma. When he took a staff blast to the back, and dropped to the ground, she knelt up and finished the dialing sequence. The 'gate opened, and she grabbed her dead husband and dragged him toward the shimmering surface. Tony and Sam were running toward her, firing their weapons toward the Jaffa who were beginning to advance on them.

"Take Daniel and get out of here!" Casey ordered Tony.

With a nod, the dark haired man obeyed. He understood that Casey and Colonel Carter-O'Neill were Immortal. He wasn't. He pulled Daniel over his shoulders, and ran for the watery blue event horizon.

Jack and Teal'c had made it to the DHD as well. Major Parker and Texas carried a wounded Trenton through the 'gate. Marine 3 held position until Marine 2 had made it through, then followed their corps brothers.

Jack tried one more time to reach any of the Langaran team. There was no response. "Go! Go! Go!"

The four SG1 members rolled down the ramp, the iris closing behind them. Casey sat up and looked around. "Well that was an invigorating fifteen minutes!"

Everyone in the room laughed. Duncan came in from the control room, checked his people, then frowned. "The Langarans?"

Major Parker shook his head. "We lost contact with them about half an hour ago. They're either dead, or prisoners."

The Highlander nodded. "I'll contact Jonas. Any chance for a rescue party?"

"Not until things quiet down there," Jack said. "I don't figure the 'gate will be left unguarded. A few concussion grenades might get us through the 'gate, but into what will be the question, and problem."

Daniel took a deep breath, sat up. "Damn! That hurts!"

Casey reached out and took his hand. "Usually does. Welcome back," she said softly.

He grinned. "Thanks. So, did we win?"

"Everybody made it home. Except for the Langarans," Casey replied.

"Dead?"

"We're not sure," she said softly.

Duncan crouched down beside her. "Can you do a search for them?"

"I can try," Casey replied. She laced her fingers with Daniel. Waited until she felt him, then reached out. She searched carefully, but could find nothing. "I'm not sensing anything. There isn't any…activity…as if there were prisoners," she reported finally. "I'm sorry."

"Me, too," Duncan said quietly. He rubbed her shoulder, then stood to his feet. "Did the rest of the mission go as planned?"

Major Parker nodded. "Yes, sir. Took the entire place down. Nothing left but rubble."

"Good. At least they didn’t die for nothing," the Highlander said softly. "Okay, people, get cleaned up, checked out, and we'll debrief in an hour."

A  A  A  A  A  A

Casey walked into the commissary, dropped onto the chair. She put her arms on the table, rested her head wearily on top of them. Smiled when a hand began to rub her shoulders…strong, warm, familiar.

"Are you okay?" he asked, sitting down beside her.

"I’m fine. Just tired."

"Yeah, it has been one hell of a day."

"Yep. I can't help but wonder if Talla and the others are all right," she said.

"We can only hope," Daniel replied. "Angel, you need to eat something. You haven't had anything since breakfast."

She nodded. "I am a bit hungry."

"Ready to go home?"

"What about the debrief?"

"Duncan said we'll debrief on Menefer tomorrow. We weren't with 6 long enough to have anything to say. Jack said he can take care of that tomorrow as well."

She nodded wearily. "Can we just stop at Tyrone's? As late as it is, Mom will have already fed the kids their dinner."

"Not a problem. We can grab a couple of hot dogs for them, just in case. If they see us eating, they'll want something. Come on, Angel, let's go home." He stood to his feet, offered his hand. Smiled when she put her soft fingers against his.

Casey smiled in return as his strong, warm, slender fingers closed around hers. She let him pull her to her feet. They were silent as they rode the elevator to the surface. She shivered when she looked at the jeep in their usual parking space. "So, when are we going to see about that new car?"

True to his word, on Sunday evening he had sat down at the computer with her, and they had gone online to find a vehicle to replace the jeep. Two hours later, they had made up their minds what they wanted. "How about we take tomorrow afternoon off? We'll see what it will take to get a new Chevy Trailblazer delivered here. Still want the red one?"

"Yep. With leather interior."

Daniel put an arm around her and hugged her. "I promise, Angel. You'll have a new car as soon as we can get it here. We'll use this one for trade-in."

"I don't care what you do with it," she said softly. The bad memories connected to this vehicle far outweighed the good. She couldn't count the number of times she and Daniel had made love in this vehicle. She could remember every detail of that Sunday afternoon after they pulled out of her parent's driveway, right up to the moment she had died from gunshot wounds.

He glanced over at her as he pulled out of the parking lot. Normally she would be chattering away, either about the mission… missions they had just been on, or something she had planned, or the kids...or something. Not that he was complaining. He loved to listen to her, loved the way she made him laugh with her observations and impersonations. "Casey, is something wrong?"

"No, why?"

He shrugged. "You're just…quiet."

"I'm tired."

"So you said." He glanced at her again. "Are we okay?"

She smiled, reached over and took his hand. "We are so okay like you couldn't believe."

He smiled in return, raised her fingers to his lips, kissed them gently. "Guess I woke you up too early this morning, huh?"

Her smile widened. She had awakened to find his mouth on her breast, his hands arousing her body even before her mind caught up. "You don't hear me complaining, do you?"

"No." He stopped at the red light on Main Street. Thought about what seemed to be an insatiable desire…need for her. He had woken up with such a hard-on he was in pain, the need so bad he couldn't stand it. He'd only had that problem twice while she had been…gone…and the moment consciousness filtered into his brain, the grief had overridden his need. By the time he had stumbled to the shower, it was his tears that needed to be washed away, not his desire for her. Tomorrow would mark eight days since her return. Maybe he just needed more time. She had been gone for a month and a half…

"Daniel?"

"Sorry, what?"

"The light is green."

He started out again, turned into the drive-through lane for Tyrone's Burger Barn. "Usual?"

She shook her head. "Just a small burger. Plain. And a coke."

Something was definitely wrong. He said nothing as he gave the order, then pulled forward. He was reaching into his hip pocket to pull out his wallet when she jumped out of the jeep and headed indoors. Toward the restroom, her hand over her mouth. He picked up their order at the window, then parked and went inside to wait for her. He had taken the cell phone from the console, was talking to Erin when she came out, her face pale, her eyes wide. "Come on, Casey. I'm taking you to the hospital. It's closer than the base."

"I'm fine, Daniel," she insisted. Although she didn’t argue any further when he helped her back into the jeep. That alone alerted him to the fact that something was terribly wrong.

Erin was already calling Dr. Montigue, to have the man meet her daughter in the emergency room.

Daniel gasped when he saw Teal'c and Carly pull up at almost the same time. Carly was driving, and Teal'c looked like hell.

"Daniel?" Her voice was soft, weak.

"Right here, Angel."

"I don't feel very well." Her head fell back against the headrest. She was unconscious.

His heart pounding in his chest, Daniel carried his wife through the double plate glass doors into the Emergency room of the Hope General Hospital. A gurney was pushed up against the wall, he gently put her on it, hurried to help Carly get Teal'c inside. Between the two of them they managed to get him to a chair before he passed out.

"What's happening?" the Spanish woman asked, her brown eyes wide with fear.

"I don't know, Carly, but we'll get if figured out," Daniel said, gently rubbing her shoulder. He went back to where Casey lay, her face pale, her breathing shallow. "I'm going to call Duncan and Jack. Something is going on, I think they should know about it."

"Go ahead. I'll see about getting them looked after." With a specific task to focus on, she walked determinedly toward the nurse's station. "We need a doctor. Two actually. Teal'c of Chulac, and Casey Jackson are ill." Her heart was pounding. She remembered the virus that had nearly destroyed the entire Immortal population on Gamma. Never before had Immortals fallen ill, not like that. Now, her husband and one of her dearest friends were ill again. She glanced over to where Daniel stood, talking on the phone, his hand caressing Casey's cheek. Something was certainly wrong; she wanted to know what it was, and she wanted to know now!

Dr. Montigue hurried through the door. He stopped to check Casey, then took Teal'c's pulse. "Let's get them into an isolation room stat," he said to an approaching orderly. "I want complete blood workups, done yesterday. Do full cranial and sinus x-rays as well."

"CT or MRI scans?" one of the nurses asked.

"Not yet. Let's move people, we're losing them."

Daniel felt his world tilt out of control at those words. When he tried to follow, an orderly held him back. When he would have fought the man, Carly put her hand on his arm.

"Let them do the tests, Daniel. Then we'll insist on seeing them," she said gently.

He nodded, ran his hand over his face. "Did Teal'c get sick?"

"As soon as he walked through the door," she reported.

"We were picking up dinner at Tyrone's. She jumped out of the jeep and ran inside. She'd been quiet ever since we got back from…wherever the hell it was where 6 was pinned down."

Within minutes Sam and Jack, and Duncan and Tessa were in the waiting room as well, all demanding to know what had happened. Daniel and Carly explained what they knew. And then they waited.

A  A  A  A  A  A

It seemed like it had been hours, but in reality had only been about forty minutes when Daniel caught sight of Dr. Montigue hurrying toward them. The short gray haired man headed straight for Sam. "I want blood from all three of you. And sinus x-rays. Then I need all the records you can find that Doctor Fraiser had on you, Jack, and Teal'c after you returned from the planet where you were led to believe Daniel was dead." He turned around, not bothering to see if they were following him. They were.

The first stop was the imaging lab, where the three waiting members of SG1 were quickly scanned. Dr. Montigue rushed them to the phlebotomy lab.

Two technicians drew blood, Sam left as soon as the needle was withdrawn from her arm. "I'll be back as soon as I have them. They should all be on disc."

"Bring the discs," the doctor said. "I know what I'm looking for."

"Were they really dead?" Daniel asked softly.

"I don't know, Daniel. That's what I want to find out. It's possible that the Triad released them from the rubble, and the Oannes did a little bit of experimenting before sending them home."

"How? Their entire city was destroyed," Jack reminded the older man.

"That city, yes. Was it their only city? Or even their largest? Perhaps not all of it was destroyed?"

"Oh now, see, that pisses me off," Jack said, hissing a breath of frustration.

"Goddamn them!" Duncan muttered. He flipped open his cell phone, dialed quickly. "Troy? Mac. Do me a favor. Lock PY2 498 out of the dialing computer. Then send a warning to Alpha, Beta, Langara, Terra, and Earth. That's right…Lock it out. And make sure that any incoming messages from that address are blocked as well."

"We can't do that," Daniel argued. "What if they come under attack by the Goa'uld?"

"When was the last time the Goa'uld bothered with them?" Duncan asked.

"But still-"

"Daniel, we have no idea what they did to Casey and Teal'c. I will not deal with a group of people that underhanded. They knew that there was little or no chance for Sam to save that city-" he broke off as the thought formed in his mind.

"Those sons-of-bitches!" Jack breathed, thinking the same thing as the Highlander.

"They set the entire thing up!" Daniel said, wide-eyed. "They wanted all of us, I'll stake my reputation on that! When you and Sam made it back, they couldn't keep us. Had you not, they probably would have killed me, too!" He began to pace. "But the…people…we saw, that we worked with, they were really afraid. They were hoping that Sam could fix their power grid. Maybe it was just a small group that did this…and those who worked with us were totally ignorant of what was going on, being planned."

Tessa and Carly looked at one another. "Those people, they did all of this on purpose?" Tessa asked, her voice trembling.

Duncan put his arm around Tessa's shoulders. "I don't have Casey's gift of sight, but it sure as hell looks that way."

Dr. Montigue was walking back toward them. "The three of you are clean. Teal'c and Casey have implants. Only these implants affect their physiology, unlike the implant that Casey had before, which seemed to affect her neurologically."

"Why?" Carly asked, tears in her eyes, and voice.

"I don't know, my dear. I do know that the implants are once again sending signals."

"Can we jam them?" Jack asked.

"That is beyond my scope of expertise," Dr. Montigue said. "I'm sure that Colonel Carter would be much better prepared to answer that question."

"I want to be with her," Daniel said. His mind was reeling, his heart breaking. How many times would he face losing her? How many times would she return to him? How long before not even the Triad could intervene to bring her back to him? Retirement was sounding damned good right now!

"Yes, of course. This way." He motioned with one arm, waited until Daniel and Carly had walked passed him to join them.

"This really ticks me off," Jack said.

"I have an idea," Duncan said. "Doc, wait up!" He looked at Tessa. "Sweetheart…"

The lovely French woman smiled. "Go. I'll call Erin and let her know what's happening. I'm sure that the Immortal Council will be interested to know about this."

"I'm sure they will be," Duncan replied softly. He dropped a kiss on her forehead, grabbed Jack's arm and pulled him to where the doctor, Daniel and Carly waited. "Daniel was able to communicate with them before. Maybe he can do it again."

Dr. Montigue nodded. "Good idea. Let's go."

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