As SG-9 and SG-11 returned through the gate from a routine exploratory mission on P9C-304, grey-haired Colonel O'Neill, pretty Major Carter, and stoic Teal’c stood at the base of the ramp, dressed in their base clothes. They were waiting for their friend and team-mate, Dr Daniel Jackson, who had accompanied the teams in his capacity as Archaeological expert. They looked on, concerned, as members were being carried on stretchers. O'Neill shouted for medical assistance, and almost immediately, Doctor Fraiser and her team came running in.

O'Neill, Carter and Teal’c looked for their friend, hoping that he would be alright. When the wormhole closed down, with no sign of him, O'Neill approached one of the soldiers, who told him sadly, "Sir, we were ambushed by a group of hostiles three clicks from the gate. They abducted Doctor Jackson and we took heavy casualties. I'm sorry, sir."

The rest of SG-1 looked crestfallen; even Teal’c could barely restrain his emotions. O'Neill immediately spun around and asked General Hammond, "Sir, we need to go back there and get Daniel. He's a civilian, and even though he can take a few blows, we don't know what those hostiles will do to him."

Hammond replied, in his Texas drawl, "Colonel, until we know the threat, I am unwilling to send you there. I've already lost men; I'm not going to lose more."

The three members of SG-1 walked out of the gateroom, all of them doing their best not to cry.

At the briefing table, the commander of SG-9 narrated the events that lead to Daniel's capture, "We found a town three clicks North of the gate. We came across a huge stone plaque, inscribed in Ancient, and Doctor Jackson got to work translating. SG-11 scouted the perimeter of the town, whilst SG-9 stayed within earshot of Doctor Jackson. Suddenly, from nowhere, these great stonking Jaffa appeared and began to fire on us. I notified SG-11 and they joined in the fire fight. We returned fire and I tried to grab Doctor Jackson, but I was zatted and when I could move again, he was gone. We lost Johnson, Akbar and Milinsky after they were zatted three times."

He sat down, and O'Neill remarked bitterly, "Great, now Daniel's got a load of snake-heads on his tail!"

Teal’c asked the head of SG-9, "Do you know which Goa’uld they serve?"

The head of SG-9 shrugged and said, "I don't know -- I've never seen them before in my life. They had silver tattoos that looked like pepper pots."

Hammond looked at him oddly, O'Neill raised an eyebrow, and Carter looked surprised. Teal’c said, "They are the famous free Dalek Jaffa, who serve no Goa’uld, but behave very much like how DanielJackson said that the Vikings of Earth behaved."

O'Neill remarked, "Raping and pillaging?!"

When everyone looked at him with surprised expressions, he remarked again, "What?! You steal one book from an Archaeologist, and they're all over you!"

SG-1 were gathered in the gateroom, in their combat gear, ready to go through the gate. Walter, in his high-pitched voice, called out, "Chevron One, encoded..."

But as he was about to say that the seventh chevron was locked, all power to the gate went down. O'Neill exclaimed, "Oh, fer cryin' out loud! What now?!" Carter ran to the control room as Walter called back, "Something interrupted the gate's power supply, sir."

Carter replied, from behind Walter, "It's like someone cut the line."

From then on, every time they tried to dial P9C-304, the gate's power shut down. Whenever they dialled co-ordinates for any other planet, it worked just fine. Carter contacted the Tok'ra, who informed her that it would take a year for one of their ships to reach there, even at maximum speeds. Since Daniel's abduction, Carter refused to leave her lab, as she tried to find some other way of rescuing her friend. O'Neill and Teal’c tried to persuade her to come out, but she flatly refused, saying that Daniel would have done the same had any of them been in the same position. After all, if it wasn't for Daniel, the second gate wouldn't have been discovered, and Carter and O'Neill would have died in Antarctica, believing they were on some sort of ice planet. In short, the remaining members of SG-1 owed him one.

Fraiser found Carter working late one night, and asked her, "Sam, don't you think that you need a rest?"

"Janet, I can't leave him there - he's had enough pain in his life with Sha're's death and Sarah's Goa’ulding, without being bashed around by a bunch of space pirates. He shouldn't have to be there."

Tears of frustration and love for her friend ran down her cheeks. Fraiser hugged her and asked, concerned, "You feel more than friendship for him, don't you? It's alright, you can tell me - he's not your CO."

Carter replied, as she dried her eyes, "He's Daniel, need I say more? He's the most wonderful man that I ever met. I kept meaning to tell him how I felt, but the time was never right, and now, he'll never know."

"Oh Sam, he'll be alright - he's got you on his side. Take some rest - you're useless to him like this."

Three months later, Carter finally came up with an idea. She told her colleagues at the briefing table, "Whatever is blocking the gate seems to be using the primary command matrix. If we were to overwrite that and re-order the crystals, we might, just might, be able to go to P9C-304. We would also need to hook up a Naquadah generator to boost the power. From my calculations, with the generator, power would be 300, so there could be the obvious danger of gate overload."

She took her seat, looking tired but elated, and Hammond said, "Alright, you have a go on this one. Good luck. Dismissed." ,/p

As they left the room, O'Neill looked at Carter with concern all over his face, and he remarked, "Gee Carter, it looks like you haven't slept in ages!"

After the preparations had been made, Walter dialled out to P9C-304. The gate was about to power down, but the generator kicked in, and the dialling sequence resumed. SG-1, SG-3 and SG-5, in their combat gear, stepped through the gate. They arrived on the planet and made their way to the town mentioned by SG-9's leader. SG-3 and 5 stayed in the nearby hills in case of a hostile situation. O'Neill noted, much to everyone's surprise, how the town looked similar to an Iron Age settlement. He remarked, "Despite what everyone thinks, I don't just read Simpsons comics!"

They were greeted by women in robes of coarse material, "Welcome to Shogala."

O'Neill asked them, "Have any of you seen a really good-looking man, apart from myself, with glasses and light brown hair?"

They looked at him, fear appearing momentarily, before they replied chirpily, "Let us take you to our leader first."

This time it was Carter who said, rather menacingly, "Cut the crap - where's Daniel?"

O'Neill ordered her, "Carter, stand down!"

She reluctantly stepped away from the women, and O'Neill said in his deadpan style, "Take us to your leader."

They were led into a large dwelling, where the tribal chief sat on a large wicker chair, flanked by young maidens, fanning him. O'Neill greeted him, "Hey, how're ya doing? You haven't seen a dashing Archaeologist round here, have you?"

The Chief replied austerely, "Where have you come from, strangers?"

O'Neill quipped, "From a galaxy, far, far away."

Carter stepped forward, and said, acknowledging her CO's testy glance, "We have travelled from afar to seek one of our own who may be lost here. He is a kind man, about my height and speaks many languages."

The Chief remained silent and O'Neill remarked, "Ring a bell?"

O'Neill noticed a movement from the corner of his eye. He turned to see some natives advancing on them with sticks. He remarked, "Oh please!" before saying, "You really don't want to mess with us. We have P-90's and zats which are no match to your wooden sticks!"

However one of the natives pressed a button and an electric charge was discharged from the end. O'Neill remarked, "Oh right... I stand corrected."

He brandished his zat gun and shot them once, and they immediately fell to the ground, writhing in pain. The Chief demanded, "What have you done?"

O'Neill replied, "Relax... they'll live. Now tell me where Dannyboy is. Don't think that I'm scared to shoot you too."

Just at that moment, the head of SG-3 radioed in, "Sir, we have found Doctor Jackson. He has been imprisoned in a iron building in the hills."

SG-1 ran out of the hut towards SG-3's position. They found SG-3 wandering about outside, and the head said to O'Neill, "Sir, we have no way of getting in, but I saw Doctor Jackson through the bars."

O'Neill snapped, "Don't you have C-4 on you?!"

He replied, "No sir... you confiscated it after Cooper and Roddenberry used it on that cat on P99-224."

"Ah... now I remember... Ok, hang on a sec."

O'Neill extracted some C-4 from his vest pocket and attached it to the door of the makeshift prison before igniting it. They stood back as the door blew open, and Carter, followed by the others, rushed in. She found an emaciated Daniel laid on the floor, barely aware of his surroundings. She exclaimed in horror, "Oh God, what have they done to you?!"

She picked his light frame up in her arms and carried him out into the sunlight. He winced, not used to the brightness. She whispered to him, "Daniel, you're coming home with us."

At that moment, they were ambushed by the notorious Dalek Jaffa. O'Neill, Teal’c, some members of SG-3 and SG-5 offered covering fire, as the head of SG-3 dialled home. He was shot in the leg by a staff weapon, so Carter carried Daniel on one shoulder, and the head of SG-3 on another, before going through the gate, followed eventually by her comrades.

Most of the SGC personnel stood outside the Infirmary to watch Daniel through the glass. Fraiser had told Hammond and the rest of SG-1 that Daniel had been beaten, starved and was dehydrated. She said tearfully that it was pure luck that he was still alive. Daniel was laid on a bed, his empty eyes staring at the ceiling, with an intravenous line going in and a catheter coming out. SG-1 stood guard at his bed as long as they could. Carter sat at his bedside, doing her best not to cry, as she held his hand and talked to him. Fraiser came by frequently to check the many monitors and to see whether his condition had improved.

One night, as Carter kept up her bedside vigil, she began to doze off. She was stirred by the sound of weeping. She opened her eyes and saw tears running down Daniel's face. She kicked her boots off, climbed in beside him, and hugged him. She was shocked at how frail he seemed in her arms. She had hugged him frequently on numerous occasions previously, but he was never that thin. As she hugged him, his tears subsided and she whispered to him, "Daniel, you're going to be alright. I'll be here for you always."

Over the next weeks and months, Daniel regained his colour and some of his weight. Doctor Fraiser deemed him fit enough to leave the Infirmary in a wheelchair, so Carter fought off stiff competition from O'Neill to be the one to push him around. O'Neill even ordered her to let him, but she refused. Finally, she won, and she wheeled everyone's favourite Archaeologist around the SGC.

As they walked and wheeled down an empty corridor, he looked up at her and said, "Sam, thank you."

She replied with a smile, "There's no need to thank me."

"Of course there is. You gave me hope when I was ready to give up."

"You wouldn't have given up - you're Daniel Jackson, the first person to open the Stargate."

"Those Dalek Jaffa beat me within an inch of my life in the name of some crazy custom. They beat and torture every thousandth person they come across, and I happened to be the unlucky one. I was ready to die, but..."

"But what?"

"Oh, um, never mind... forget I said anything. Is that Siler with a spanner?!"

"Daniel, what were you going to say?"

"Oh, um, ok... the only thing that kept me going was thinking of you."

"Oh... I don't know what to say."

"Ah, sorry... I shouldn't have said anything."

"No, no, I'm not offended. It's touching."

"Really?"

They both blushed profusely, and he said quietly, "Thanks for hugging me. I was in pain and had really bad nightmares, but I felt you and they went. Thanks."

"Hey anytime. What are friends for?"

"Stop the wheelchair."

She stopped and looked at him curiously. He said, "I heard what you said when you held me. You were crying and wishing that you..."

"Oh God, I'm sorry."

"No, it's alright, Sam... really. I was touched. It was like a dream come true."

She looked flabbergasted, "What?!"

He blushed and said, "I love you too... I've always loved you."

Four months later, when Daniel was 'as good as new', as O'Neill frequently said, there was a huge ceremony in a Colorado park. Doctor Daniel Jackson and Major-Doctor Samantha Carter were getting married. Present were all of the SGC personnel, Jacob, Mark, Mark's wife and children, and a few University acquaintances. A huge cheer rippled through the crowd as they tied the knot.