Sam, Jack and Janet met Daniel and Teal'c at the end of the darkened corridor. "Which way?" Daniel asked in a hushed tone.
Sam tried to visualize the path they'd taken when they entered the building and were taken to the isolation rooms. "I think it's this way." she said, pointing to the right.
"You think?" Jack asked.
"Okay, I'm sure it's this way." Sam replied.
The group began to move quickly down the corridor to the right. Daniel grabbed Janet's hand as he noticed that she was having difficulty keeping up with the fast pace.
"Hey!" said a voice echoing off the walls.
The group stopped moving. Sam turned around, recognizing the voice. Bonnie was running down the corridor after them, waving her arms.
"Hey." Bonnie said again, slightly out of breath after catching up with them.
"Come with us." Sam said.
Bonnie shook her head. "I can't. I just wanted to say good luck. I can't leave, if anyone finds out what I've done, I'll be thrown in jail or worse. I should stay here."
"Are you sure?" Jack asked.
Bonnie nodded. "I'm sure. You guys can do one more thing to help me though."
"What's that?" Sam asked.
"There's a room, it's marked as 55D. I'll give you my keycard. Inside are some weapons, zats and that sort of thing and there are some explosives. I need you to plant the explosives in the building."
Sam looked horrified. "Not with you in the building." she said, not wanting to let her friend die.
"It might be your only chance to take down these aliens." Bonnie said. "Please don't waste it."
Reluctantly Sam nodded and she knew that what Bonnie had suggested had to be done.
"Go." Bonnie said. "They must have noticed that Doctor Fraiser isn't locked up anymore. I'll do my best to keep them off your tails."
Sam smiled at Bonnie. "Thank you. For everything." she said and Bonnie nodded. The group turned away from Bonnie and continued down the corridor.
____________
"Everything set?" Jack asked.
"Yes sir." Sam replied. "I've rigged the devices to detonate in approximately four minutes. We'd better get moving if we don't want to get caught in the blast wave."
"Let's move people!" Jack said with a sense of urgency. With Jack's words, they all started to run across the cement, heading towards the check-point.
The guards at the check-point were taken by surprise and easily taken out with several well-timed zat blasts. Sam checked her watch. "30 seconds!" she said and they continued to run.
Behind them, the entire complex burst into a giant fireball. The group stopped running and turned around to watch the destruction. The entire night sky was lit up as the fires burned and the smell of acrid smoke began to drift towards them.
"Where do we go now?" asked Janet, who was still getting her breath back.
Jack looked upwards and pointed at a helicopter that had just come into view. "I think that's our ride right there." he said, pointing at the chopper. A searchlight lit them up and the chopper began to drop down towards a large empty area.
They ran towards it, shielding their eyes from the wind created by the rotating blades.
"Colonel O'Neill?" yelled a voice from the chopper. "Do you have everyone with you?"
"Everyone is present and accounted for!" Jack yelled back. They approached the chopper and were helped inside of it.
"Our orders are to return you immediately to Cheyenne Mountain where you will report directly to General Hammond to be debriefed." said the sergeant who had helped them into the helicopter.
Jack nodded wearily, leaning back against an equipment box. Sam had sat down next to him and he could still feel her chest heaving. The chopper began to rise and through the window, Jack watched as emergency crews began to arrive at the scene.
____________
"So, let me get this straight." Hammond said, staring at Jack and Sam in disbelief. "This Bonnie woman who you two befriended while undercover, was actually undercover herself and working for the enemy."
"That's correct sir." Sam replied.
"And she's now dead?"
"Yes sir." Jack replied this time. "Along with what I presume to be the base of operations for these aliens and the rogue members of our government. If you don't mind me asking sir, what prompted you to send in a helicopter to look for us?"
"When you failed to report in at the designated time, I decided that I wasn't going to take any chances." Hammond said.
"Well, thanks." said Jack. "You probably saved our asses, again."
Hammond nodded, looking pleased. "You two are dismissed." he said. "I'd appreciate it if you would find Doctor Fraiser and send her in. I need to get her report of the events.
Sam and Jack stood up and exited Hammond's office. Teal'c was standing passively against a wall and he greeted them. "O'Neill." he said. "I have been asked to inform you that Doctor Fraiser has retired for the night."
"I don't blame her." Sam said. "I'm feeling pretty tired myself."
Jack nodded in agreement and stuck his head back inside Hammond's office. "The Doc's gone to bed!" he called to Hammond.
"Very well." came Hammond's reply. "I'll speak with her in the morning."
"You heading home?" Sam asked Jack.
"I thought I'd just spend the night on base." Jack replied.
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking too." Sam replied. "But I'm feeling a bit hungry. You up for something at the commissary?"
Jack contemplated that for a moment before nodding. "Sure, and I wouldn't mind stopping off at the washrooms. I knew I shouldn't have had all that water to drink when we were locked up."
Sam smiled slightly and the two of them headed off.
___________
"So, uh, Carter...about what happened between us..." Jack said, picking at a chunk of carrot cake with his fork.
Sam looked up from her bowl of soup. "Yeah." she said, sighing a little. She really hadn't wanted to talk about it, after all that had happened.
"It was all part of the act, wasn't it?" Jack said.
"The act?" Sam asked, feeling a bit confused.
"You know, the whole pretending to be married act."
"No! Jack...I..I don't know what to say, but I can tell you that what happened between us in the basement that day wasn't part of the act."
Jack raised his eyebrows and flipped the cake over on the plate. A bit of icing oozed out and Jack scraped it up with his fork. "Nothing can happen." he said finally. "Not while we're serving together."
Sam nodded. "I know." she said softly. "Do you remember what you said to me when you held me?"
"Maybe there's a way." Jack murmured. He put the fork down and gave up entirely on the carrot cake.
"What did you mean by that?" Sam asked.
Jack sighed. "It's complicated Carter. To tell you the truth, retirement's been on my mind a lot lately. But now with this new threat..." his voice trailed off.
"With this new threat, you'd feel as if you were abandoning Earth." Sam finished for him. "I understand."
"Exactly. I have to keep fighting."
Sam put her spoon down and gazed at her half finished bowl of soup. "I think I'm going to bed now." she said. Jack nodded. "I'll see you in the morning." she said and pushed her chair away from the table. Jack watched her walk away and as he looked at his cake, he let his mind wander back to the pink house on the quiet street.
___________
As Daniel passed by the infirmary the next day, he paused to look inside. He was eager to speak with Janet and hear what Hammond had said to her. Jack had told him that Janet was due for a debrief that morning.
Inside the infirmary, Janet was settled in front of a microscope.
"Hey Janet." Daniel said. "I'm not interrupting anything important, am I?"
Janet looked up from the microscope and shook her head. "No, it's nothing."
"What are looking at?" Daniel asked, coming closer. He glanced at the slide. "Is that blood?" he asked.
Janet looked almost embarrassed. "Yes, it's my blood." she said. "I just wanted to know if..."
"If that whole Ebola thing was just a ruse." Daniel said nodding. "I understand. I'd probably do the same thing. Have you found anything?"
Janet shook her head. "From what I can tell. I'm perfectly healthy."
"That's good to hear. Jack said that you spoke with Hammond this morning?"
Janet nodded. "Yeah, he kept me in his office for well over an hour. He wanted to know exactly how I'd been contained on that base and who was involved. He's put me on stand down for a few days."
"Then why are you here? Shouldn't you be at home with Cassie?"
"This was really bothering me Daniel. I couldn't go home to Cassie unless I knew for sure that I wouldn't be a danger to her."
"You can go home now." Daniel said. "You need a ride?"
"No, I have my car here. Thanks anyway. Did Hammond put SG-1 on stand down?"
Daniel grimaced. "No, he's got us scheduled for an off world recon mission in five hours. I think he should have though. I get the impression that Sam and Jack could use some time off."
"They have some things to work through." Janet said, not wanting to elaborate too much as she didn't know how much Jack had told Daniel of what happened between himself and Sam.
Daniel suddenly looked extremely interested and Janet instantly regretted saying anything. "What sort of things?" Daniel asked.
"Nothing." Janet said quickly. "I'd better get going before someone gets injured and I can't leave. If your mission doesn't last too long, feel free to drop by. I'm sure Cassandra would love to see you."
Janet scooted off her stool, put the slide into a bio-waste container and threw her lab coat down on a table and took off. Daniel stood rooted on the spot, wondering what exactly had happened between Sam and Jack.
___________
"Jack!" Daniel yelled over the noise of a vacuum cleaner. "Can I talk to you?"
Jack switched off the vacuum and stared at Daniel. "What about?" he asked, obviously not in a good mood.
"For starters, why you're vacuuming your quarters. There are people that do that for us you know."
"I know." Jack replied. "It just looked extremely dusty and I felt vacuuming it, okay? Be thankful that you aren't wearing a towel right now."
"What?" Daniel asked. "Why would I be wearing a towel?"
"Never mind." Jack muttered.
"I just had an interesting conversation with Janet. She said something about you and Sam having work some things through."
"The Doc still here? I thought Hammond put her on stand down."
"She just left. She had to um, check something before she left. What happened between you and Sam, Jack?"
"Nothing! Nothing happened, alright?" Jack said angrily. "We came, we pretended to be married and we left. End of story."
Daniel shook his head. "I don't think so. Something else is going on here. You two didn't..."
"Didn't what Daniel?"
Daniel blushed. "You know."
"Did he say what it was about?" Daniel asked.
Sam shook her head. "He didn't elaborate. I imagine it has something to do with our scheduled mission today though."
Jack threw down the vacuum cleaner wand and marched out of the room, leaving Sam and Daniel to follow. "Sam." Daniel began.
"Don't even think about it Daniel." Sam said, cutting him off.
"Don't even think about what?" Daniel asked, trying to sound confused.
"Think about asking me what happened."
"I wasn't. I was going to ask you why Jack would think I'd visit him wearing only a towel."
Sam snorted. "Was he vacuuming when you came into the room?" Daniel nodded and Sam actually laughed. "Let's just say that we had a bit of an incident while I was vacuuming one day." she said.
"Oookay. Not sure I really want to know!" Daniel replied.
They entered the briefing room just behind Jack and found Teal'c already seated and General Hammond standing at the end of the table. He nodded to each member of SG-1 as they entered the room and took a seat.
"What's this meeting about General?" queried Jack.
"As you know, we've contacted the Tok'ra regarding these aliens that seemed to have infiltrated our government." said the general. "They obviously knew about them if they had a spy planted on Earth. We've just received a message from the Tok'ra and they're sending a representative over to speak with us."
"Do we know will be coming?" asked Sam, who was eager to see her father, no matter what the circumstances.
"They didn't say." replied Hammond. "But as we don't know when to expect this Tok'ra to arrive, I'm cancelling your mission today and putting SG-1 on standby. You're free to leave the base, but you must remain within contact range."
SG-1 nodded and looked at Hammond expectantly to see if he had anything more to say. "That's it people, you're dismissed." he said.
___________
A while later, Sam found Daniel pulling on his jacket. "Heading off Daniel?" she asked.
"Yup. Janet told me that I could drop by if I had the time, so I thought I'd go and see how she and Cassie are doing. You stayin' here?"
Sam nodded. "Yep. Thought I'd stick around in case something comes up."
"For what it's worth Sam, I hope it's your dad that comes through the gate and not Anise/Freya. Even if she did make me read really fast, she certainly made a mess of everything else."
Sam smiled sadly. "Yeah, she sure did."
Daniel looked quizzically at Sam. "You okay?" he asked.
"Fine. Fine. I'm fine. You have a good time at Janet's, say hi to Cassie for me, okay?"
"Yeah sure." Daniel turned to leave but then turned around again. "And Sam? You might want to talk to Jack. I don't know what happened between you two, but I think you'd better work it out."
Sam gave Daniel a withering look and Daniel turned and headed off down the corridor. Sam checked her watch and noticed that it was past noon. Her stomach growled, confirming Sam's notion that she should eat something. She started off for the commissary, hoping that whomever the Tok'ra were sending, would come quickly.