Author Notes: This story had to be completely rewritten. The first version I wrote didn't work at all. This one works somewhat better, but still not completely satisfactory.

Dark Side

The shadows had eyes, the man decided, just a little nervously.

He wasn't here of his own free will, he was here because he owed someone a favour, and the someone he owed a favour wasn't a nice person. They'd called in the debt and so he was out in Colorado Springs on a cold wet Friday night in April, instead of home and warm in bed beside his wife.

A group of late-night partygoers stumbled past the mouth of the alleyway, chattering and laughing. He flinched and pressed himself closer against the wall behind the pipe, pulling the hood of his anorak further over his head and shadowing his face.

Then they were gone and it was just the fine misty rain sprinkling down in the white glow of the lamplight.

And then the shadows moved.

There were two of them - slim spectres that emerged from the darkness like twin visions of angels.

Except that these two were no angels.

"Mr. Smith," said the first, slightly taller, with a swagger to his walk. Brash, bold, and confident in himself. "Having a pleasant evening?" The thread of amusement in his voice raised hairs on his neck. If a voice could be connected to someone who would smile while strangling your child before your eyes, this voice was it. It was the polite, cultured voice of someone who didn't have boundaries to keep him in check - or who saw the boundaries and disregarded them for his own pleasure.

"It'll be more pleasant when this is over." He forced himself to sound curt and businesslike.

The second shrugged as if the contact's state of mind couldn't concern him less. "Receipt?" The voice was husky and oddly modulated. The movements were brisk, precise, with no effort wasted.

He handed the 'receipt' over to the second shadow. It was a sealed envelope that he was to exchange for the parcel.

The first one produced the package, a slim, string-and-brown-paper bound item maybe big as both hands fisted.

He knew better than to ask what it was. It would be dropped off at 'the usual place' and no questions asked or answered.

His contacts angled themselves carefully, such that if he'd had a gun there'd have been no way he could take them both out before the other one got him. Not that he had a gun on him. Whoever he'd been sent to meet would be professional - they'd have checked out the area for spies or snipers before revealing themselves. And, at least until he got the package to the drop-off point, his life was in no immediate danger.

He made certain not to try to see their faces. If he did, he was as good as dead. Whatever these two people did for a living, the person who commissioned this pickup didn't like them. And that was more than enough reason for him to ask no questions and get the hell out of here in one piece.

The parcel had been collected, the debt was paid, and he would never have to do this again. He hoped. These things had a habit of snowballing so easily.

"It's been a pleasure doing business," said the first shadow with a faade of good cheer. "We'll see you around."

Then, with a nod, they vanished back into the shadows, moving like thieves in the night.

Leaving behind them a man with a parcel in his hands and a thousand questions in his mouth.

Not one of which would ever be answered.

*

Jack was restless. The last mission had taken a lot out of them, and they'd been off-duty for nearly a week. After a couple of days up at the cabin (once again, alone - none of his team could be persuaded to come with), he was feeling decidedly at ease and ready to go out and kick a little more Goa'uld butt. Or whatever else there was to do.

Beside him, Daniel was doodling: real, honest-to-god doodling on his pad. Not writing notes on the artefact SG-7 brought back from their last jaunt, not structuring a thesis about how the social structure of the civilisation of planet X resembled the Earth-bound culture of people Y and what the differences were and how they'd all come about; but doodling. Big curlicues of doodle in elaborate twine-y patterns all over the legal pad.

Diagonally across from Jack, Teal'c was sitting forward in his chair, his hands resting on the table, waiting for Hammond to make his grand entrance. Actually, they were all waiting for the general's grand entrance.

Carter was leaning back in her seat, staring up at the ceiling and smiling slightly.

"Something funny?"

She blinked at him, surprised. "No, sir."

"But you're smiling."

The smile got broader. "Good observational skills, sir."

He half-smiled at that. Carter was evidently in a good mood today. "Well it is fairly obvious you're in high spirits, Major. Even to someone as slow as me."

She rolled her eyes at his derogatory statement.

"Why do you do that, Jack?" Daniel asked from beside him. "Pretend you're stupid, I mean."

"Because I am."

"Are not."

"Are too."

"Are not."

"Are too."

"Dee too. And don't think you're distracting me from the question. You're not stupid, Jack, so why play at it all the time?"

Jack was saved from having to answer the very direct question by virtue of General Hammond coming into the briefing room. They scrambled to their feet and the general waved them back to their seats, looking grim.

As Jack took his seat he ignored the look from Daniel that indicated that his team-mate was not about to let the question go unanswered. Hopefully, whatever Hammond had to say would take that question out of Daniel's mind - Jack didn't care to answer it. And if Daniel wasn't bright enough to realise why Jack feigned stupidity, then Daniel was slower than Jack had ever given him credit for.

Hammond laid a file down on the table and got straight to the point. "We have a problem. In the last few days, we've had several catalogued items from SG-1's last dozen missions go missing from the labs." He opened the folder and handed out five sheets of paper around the table. "These are the items that have been found missing."

Jack vaguely remembered the items. The acquisition of technology to assist in fighting the Goa'uld was still a priority among SG-teams, but SG-1 had lately been more instrumental in liaising with the various races with whom the SGC had made contact. The individual skills and histories of Jack's team made SG-1 the perfect choice for first - and repeated - contact with alien cultures.

Which Jack didn't mind too much. It was his job to keep the team together and make sure everything was running smoothly so his people could do what they did best.

But a leak in the SGC... "Would this be one of Maybourne's old crowd?"

"We're not ruling out the possibility, Colonel."

"How was the theft discovered?" Carter asked, looking up from a sheet of paper. She looked annoyed as she pushed the sheet across the table, unintentionally sending it careening over the polished wooden surface to Jack.

"Lieutenant Graff was being disciplined for inappropriate behaviour. The quartermaster ordered him to do an inventory of one of the storerooms and noticed the theft when his inventory sheets failed to match the storeroom contents. Further investigation revealed that these were the items taken." Hammond regarded Carter, "Major Carter, do you have any idea what any of the devices do?"

"I think I recall this one," Daniel said, interrupting Carter and brandishing a sheet of paper with what looked like the handle of a fencing epee without the blade. "We thought it was a translation device of some kind. When you held it in your hand and spoke, it emitted radio waves. We never worked out exactly what language it was transmitting. It was supposed to be sent to Area 51..." He trailed off, looking at the general in silent question.

"Right now, Area 51 is investigating a number of thefts from their own stores. Six weeks ago they requested that all technology gained from off-world sources be kept in the SGC until they plugged the leak. As of two days ago, they had not." Hammond glanced around the table, but his eyes came to rest on Jack. "It seems that we have a leak on this side of the chain as well."

Jack grimaced. Peachy. Just what they needed: another leak. At least this time he wouldn't be expected to go undercover to flush out the traitor. He'd sworn never again after the last time and he meant never again.

"We have observed the theft of technology before," Teal'c stated. "Is it possible that the revelation of the smuggling within the SGC did not capture all the possible suspects?"

"It's more than possible, Teal'c. It's probable." Hammond looked back at Jack. "Colonel, I'm going to need the assistance of you and your team. This news came to light at a bad time for us. Kinsey's calling another inquiry into the workings of the SGC - specifically you and your team."

"Ah, Kinsey. Where would we be without him?" The thought of the self-righteous Senator did nothing for Jack's peace of mind. Over the years, he'd made an enemy of Kinsey through his actions, through his words, through his encouragement of his team in flouting the rules Kinsey thought should be followed by the SGC.

"The Senator has been appointed the Head of the Oversight Committee..."

"Appropriations wasn't enough for him?"

Hammond continued as if Jack hadn't spoken, "...and is sending a team of his people to personally oversee the investigation into these thefts - both here at the SGC and at Area 51. They're due to arrive in...thirty minutes."

"That's not a lot of time to get a head start on them," Carter noted with alarm.

"I think that's the idea, Carter," Jack said. It didn't really surprise him, - not really. Kinsey had always been a power-monger from day one of the SGC. At the very least from year one of the SGC.

Kinsey wasn't interested in Earth - at least, he wasn't interested in the preservation of Earth from the Goa'uld. Kinsey was interested in Kinsey, and what could help him achieve the Presidency. And if that meant using the Stargate and the SGC as a pawn at the cost of Earth's safety, he'd do it without hesitating, trusting in 'God' to save them.

In Jack's opinion, the only thing worse than untamed greed was unfettered ambition. Add to that Kinsey's blind faith that 'God' would rescue him from his own idiocy...

"So...what's going to happen?" Daniel asked, a little disconcerted. "We'll have people wandering around the SGC? For how long?"

"That will be the state of it, Dr. Jackson," a shrug from Hammond indicated his helplessness in this matter, and his expression indicated how sour was the lemon he'd had stuck in his mouth.

"So it's a witchhunt?" Carter asked. She certainly wasn't mincing words.

"More or less."

She grimaced. "Wonderful."

Jack blinked twice at her sardonic comment, but turned his attention to Hammond. "How long before you said these people would be here?"

There was the clatter of shoes on the stairs, and a moment later Sergeant Davis appeared. "Sir, there's a call from security on Level 4. They're escorting the NID investigation team down."

"Thank you, Sergeant."

Hammond dismissed Davis, and glanced around the table. "Colonel, I expect you to co-operate with the NID team. Captain Liu's security team is being assigned to them, but SG-1 will be detailing them regarding the SG teams of this base and our off-world operations. As the flagship team, you have the most extensive and varied experience in the operation of this base and what might be found where." The deceptively mild gaze of the general moved around the table, looking at each member of SG-1.

"Do we know anything about the NID agents assigned to this case?" Carter asked intently.

"Nothing, except that they were initially introduced to the NID by Colonels Maybourne and Simmons."

"Delightful," Jack said. "There's no way you could get the President on the phone and ask him to get Kinsey off our backs?"

"I'm afraid not, Colonel. The President was the one who authorised the Senator and the NID to investigate the SGC."

"I knew I shouldn't have voted for him," Daniel remarked.

"You vote?" Jack asked, surprised. He didn't know why he was surprised, he'd always figured that Daniel would be the kind to ignore the state of world politics in favour of studying the state of ancient civilisations.

"Colonel." Hammond drew Jack's attention back to the matter at hand. "I have no doubt the President gave Senator Kinsey permission to investigate, but I doubt he gave him carte blanche on this base."

"But the Senator's going to push the boundaries as far as is possible, right?" Carter sounded less-than-happy about the situation. As well she might. Jack was in full accord with Carter's dissatisfaction.

"We can safely assume so." Hammond looked around the table. "SG-1 will be required to comply with the investigations of the NID - within reason."

"And within reason means exactly...what?"

"Answering their questions, assisting their checks..."

"Being general lackeys, huh?" Jack huffed in annoyance. "Peachy."

Hammond had evidently wearied of his team's sarcasm: "Our goal, Colonel, is to have these people in, find them their mole, and get them out of here at the first available opportunity."

"Their mole?" Daniel asked, curiously.

"Our mole." Hammond's mood was not getting any better.

"And the mole?"

Hammond looked even grimmer, "I want to know who they are and who's behind them."

"SG-1 is on the case. Sir." Jack knew his team was giving him 'those looks'. But, hey, in serious situations, sometimes you had to lighten the mood a bit. Humour was Jack's way of doing that.

"Thank you, Colonel." The kind of commander Hammond was meant he didn't mind that Jack occasionally used humour to defuse situations - and Jack appreciated his superior officer's latitude a lot. Especially after that damn fool Bauer...

Then there were footsteps on the stairs up to the briefing room.

Captain Liu took two steps in as they rose from their chairs. He nodded at Hammond with a carefully neutral expression and stepped aside, letting the NID people come through. They filed in, impeccably suited, impossibly smug.

Jack decided he didn't like them. It was impulsive and purely on the basis of their purpose here in the SGC, and their expressions as they sized up General Hammond and SG-1. Completely irrational and for no reason that he could have expressed to anyone else. He just didn't like the look of them.

"General Hammond." The NID agent didn't salute. "I'm Agent Marcus Sykes, NID." A wave of his hand indicated his compatriots. "These are Agents Hawkins, Rostal, and Atkinson. We are under authorisation from the President to instigate a thorough investigation into the thefts of technology reported from this base two days ago. You are to comply with our requirements and to offer all assistance possible to my people and I." He handed a folder over to the general to read and gave SG-1 a quick, calculating once-over.

His own team was eyeing the NID agents with narrow-eyed caution. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Carter's mouth pull to one side in a twisted smile. It wasn't a smile that boded well for the NID agents.

The whole scenario was almost like 'Showdown at the OK Corral' - all they needed was dramatic orchestral music to set the scene.

"Agent Sykes, this is SG-1. Colonel Jack O'Neill, Major Samantha Carter, Dr. Daniel Jackson, and the Jaffa Teal'c who was once First Prime to Apophis." Jack wondered why Hammond had thrown that one in, before he realised: a reminder that Teal'c wasn't just 'an alien' but 'a dangerous alien' would inspire them to treat him with more caution than they might otherwise have bothered. Sneaky. "They will be assisting you in your investigation."

One hand cut through the air, dismissing that assistance. "We do not require people to look over our shoulders, General. Our directives are clear and we will carry them out."

The only display of anger at the agent's offensive dismissal of Hammond's offer was a faint narrowing of the general's eyes.

"Agent Sykes, it is in the interests of the SGC to find these people and have them summarily dealt with." Hammond fixed the man with a stern gaze and Jack stifled a smirk. The kid might have the authority of the NID, a Senatorial directive and the White House behind him; but it was borrowed authority. From the outside, not the inside. Hammond had seen, done, and commanded for more years than Sykes had been alive. "I expect to be kept updated of the results of your search as new information is brought to light."

"Naturally, General." If Sykes had been initially disconcerted by Hammond's proactiveness in this matter, he didn't pay it very much consideration. Arrogant bastards. "My people will start with the video security tapes of the SGC for the last two weeks. If we have questions, we will be sure to ask for SG-1's assistance." The mocking glance he slanted at SG-1 indicated what he thought of their assistance.

Yup, it was business as usual between the SGC and the NID.

"Very well. The SFs assigned to you and your team-mates will show you to your rooms and then to the security center on sub-level 16. We will be continuing to run regular operations out of the SGC for the duration of the investigation."

The agent raised both eyebrows in skeptical questioning. "With all due respect, General, is that wise?"

"Your mandate is to investigate the leak in the SGC. Mine is to continue missions through the Stargate aimed at locating anything that might offer the planet protection from the Goa'uld." Jack silently cheered as Hammond stared down the NID agent. "If you have concerns about one of my people, bring the appropriate proof to me and I'll have them taken off the active roster."

"Sir, with all due respect, if we cannot lock down the base..."

"Agent Sykes, this is my command. You have authorisation to locate the person or persons who are responsible for the theft of technology, not to dictate to me how my base should be run." Hammond was cold and final with the insolence of the man. "If you have concerns about my people, bring the appropriate proof to me, and I'll have them removed from the active roster and placed under security." He nodded at Captain Liu and his team, who had lined themselves up against the wall. "Captain Liu will take you through the procedures."

And that was it for the briefing.

They led the NID group to their quarters and were summarily dismissed. One of the female agents had the gall to smirk as she shut the door in Jack's face.

"Lovely people," Carter remarked, airily.

One of the SF's snorted softly before quickly resuming a blandly neutral expression.

"We'll leave you folks to it, then," Jack told the SFs, ushering his team away from the closed door. Daniel looked like he was about to blow a fuse, while Carter looked like she wanted to bite something.

His team mates kept their tempers until the elevator doors shut behind them.

"Am I the only one having trouble with the idea that this guy was sent to head up an investigation?" Daniel demanded. "The man has all the tact of a train wreck."

Jack refrained from making the comment, Look who's talking, Daniel. However, Carter gave Daniel a 'look' that seemed to serve pretty much the same purpose so Jack didn't labour the point.

Instead, he commented on the agent. "He's a cheerful little thundercloud - and so polite, too!"

Carter was frowning, staring at a point in the middle of the elevator. "I got the feeling the NID have some other axes to grind, sir. They were very reluctant to accept our help."

Jack shrugged, "For all they know, we might be the technology thieves they're trying to catch."

"It's more than that, sir." She slanted a cautious glance at him, judging whether he wished to listen to her theory or not. Jack was open to her thoughts. One of the best things about Carter was that she at least attempted to tailor her train of thought to her audience, even if she didn't always explain it in terms they'd understand. "Logically, it's in their best interests to make use of any assitance we offer them. We have the insights into the base and the people who work here, they don't."

"They do not intend to gather any goodwill from the personnel who inhabit this base," Teal'c observed. "I agree with Major Carter. Agent Sykes was not inclined to even accept the assistance the SGC was willing to render."

"So what do you think the ulterior motive is this time?"

In spite of himself, Jack snorted. "Daniel, it doesn't have to be a specific motive, you know. It's just in their work contract. 'If at any time in your career, you are called upon to attend the SGC, it is your bound duty to find something to screw up on their base...'"

Carter's mouth twitched, but after exchanging a glance with Daniel, she turned back to him as the doors opened at the lab levels. "We should look up the backgrounds of each of the agents, sir. It might give us some information about their modus operandi - and any weaknesses they might have."

It wasn't a bad suggestion - even if the idea of prodding at the NID agents' weaknesses sounded odd coming from Carter. His 2IC had sneakier sides than he'd ever expected to find. "Right, your office or mine, Carter?"

She thought a minute, leading the way out of the elevator, before turning down the corridor that would take them to his office. "Yours. They're less likely to be expecting you to access the records."

"Very sneaky."

"Good sense," Daniel commented. "And Sam's computer is probably monitored since they know she can get in and out of the systems so easily. We'll dig the dirt on your computer, Jack."

Jack felt his eyebrows raise at Daniel's phrasing, but just glanced at Teal'c and shrugged.

Something about the NID really had his team-mates annoyed. He wasn't sure what it was - not specifically - but the NID itself was enough incentive to annoy him without needing specifics.

It seemed that the NID simply wasn't content with what they were getting - they never had been. In the last couple of years - pretty much since Maybourne got caught running the smuggling ring, the NID had been attempting to get more action regarding the Stargate.

The rivalry between the two organisations was almost legendary now, Jack was barely kidding when he said that disruption of the SGC's order was probably a clause in the contract of any NID recruits sent their way. And whoever these technology thieves were, they were giving the NID a gift-wrapped opportunity to run amok through the SGC.

That in itself was enough to make Jack growl..

Unfortunately, the best he could do about this situation was to help find the culprits and present them to the NID wrapped up on a plate. It wouldn't get the NID quite out of their hair, but it would be a damned good start.

Although a fist in the face would be kinda fun, Jack mused as he listened to Carter and Daniel discuss possible angles to search on the NID agents. At the least, it would be immensely satisfying.

Then they were in his office and the two were headed for the computer, exchanging jargon like children swapped lunches. Teal'c settled himself against the bench, and Jack joined him there.

He was going to enjoy this.

• * *

They hadn't been able to find any dirt on the NID agents. They were clean. No shady pasts, no particular political leanings, not even their performance reports for the last couple of years.

Instead, it was the NID agents who found dirt on them.

Daniel stared at the security footage in disbelief.

*You have =got= to be kidding me...*

"That isn't us," he said flatly.

He exchanged a glance with Sam, saw the anger in her eyes as she glanced over at him, then looked back at the smug NID Agent.

Culprit caught. Case closed.

Frustration rushed through Daniel. This was definitely not something that they needed right now.

"The evidence says quite clearly that it is you, Dr. Jackson."

"Evidence can be manufactured," Sam pointed out with the kind of icy coldness that she usually reserved for those who rated lower than dirt on her list of least-favourite people. "Tapes can be doctored."

"These were taken directly from the security archives of the SGC. Our experts will look them over, but as a preliminary indicator..."

"As a preliminary indicator," Jack snapped, "It's wrong."

There was definitely something to be said for team belief, Daniel thought, seeing the faintest of curves on Sam's lips as Jack leaped into the fray. Jack knew them well enough that he wasn't even questioning that they hadn't taken the technology, he just moved in to defend them.

"Perhaps," Sykes said, quite obviously firm in his belief that he was right. "However my job is to follow leads wherever they may take me. Major Carter and Dr. Jackson are to be confined in a secure area until we have a chance to investigate this matter further."

"Oh, I don't see any need for them to be imprisoned in the holding cells," Jack said, looking at Hammond for support. "They're trusted members of this base. Confinement to quarters should be sufficient in this situation."

"General..." Sykes' protest was immediate. He looked like a boy whose favourite teddy bear had just been given to his brother with the injunction to play nice.

Hammond's eyes were a steely blue as he looked at the NID agent. "As Colonel O'Neill has pointed out, Major Carter and Dr. Jackson are both trusted members of this base. Since the situation involves the theft of technology and not crimes against person, confining them to their quarters should be sufficient..."

The agent's eyes narrowed in annoyance, but he evidently decided that, having found his guilty party, and with 'incontrovertible proof', he could afford to allow some leeway in the matter of keeping the suspects under guard. "If you insist, General. However, in return, I will require that one of my people be on duty guard at all times."

Daniel had always found General Hammond to have an impressive stare. It carried the weight of many years of command in it and could fixed errant personnel like butterflies to cards. He used it now on Agent Sykes. "Are you suggesting that my people might seek to allow Major Carter and Dr. Jackson to escape from custody, Agent Sykes?" The words were deliberate and calm. Daniel hid a smirk, but glimpsed the same amusement lurking in Sam's eyes.

"I am suggesting that the people in this base may be sympathetic to the plight of two of their own."

"You suggest wrong," Jack retorted.

"With a reaction like that, it would seem my concerns are valid."

"With an accusation like that, what the hell else do you expect me to say?" Teal'c's expression became carefully bland. Sam's mouth twitched. Daniel smothered another grin at their team leader's insouciance. Only Jack.

"Colonel O'Neill has a point," Hammond said, keeping his gaze fixed on the NID agent. "You're certainly not going out of his way to make any friends around here."

"My objective isn't to make friends, General Hammond, it is to get down to the heart of this matter."

Jack openly snorted. "Oh, that's one way of packaging attitude - 'It's my job to be an asshole...'"

"On the matter of technology theft, we can't be too careful," Sykes snapped back, ignoring Jack's open insult to him. At least the man had the wit to know not to make things personal when he wasn't on home ground - and when the ref was unimpressed with his ego. "The last time we had to investigate this situation..."

"The last time this situation occurred," said a new voice, "The NID were responsible for the thefts." Teal'c's voice was swift and incisive for all it's heavy softness, and the air of casual menace he exuded was enough to give even the angry agent pause. Jack's open hostility was one thing, but Teal'c could stand so still and silent that you'd never notice he was there - until he slit your throat.

"And there was no 'we' about investigating the situation," Jack added, his voice laced with fury. "It was your organisation that jeopardised our alliances and I was the one who had to make things right while the NID played games with our planet's future!"

"That was a rogue body of..."

"It was the NID, and it was stupid," Jack snapped.

"Although the NID have never been known for their brilliance," Sam injected smoothly. Her face now held a cast to it that always made Daniel think of a cat toying with a mouse. He loved how Sam had a variety of moods other than the 'obedient Major' - moods that most people never saw. She was varied and complex and constantly surprising him - and Daniel liked it how the women in his life had always been able to surprise him once in a while.

"Colonel. Major." It was decidedly telling that General Hammond had let his officers go this far without reprimand. Daniel hid another smirk as he noted the vein throbbing in Sykes' temple and the uncomfortable and outraged expressions of the other NID agents at the table.

Agent Sykes gathered his expression into a semblance of neutrality and attempted to regain control of the discussion. "Whatever you feel are the shortcomings of the NID, Colonel, the fact remains that the tables have turned. Your team mates are..." He hesitated - most likely over the world 'guilty', choosing to replace it with, "...prime suspects in this matter. They must be held under guard for questioning." His eyes flickered to General Hammond. "Do you agree, General?"

"I agree that Major Carter and Dr. Jackson are suspects in this matter," the general said, "And they will be confined to their quarters. However, I expect you to treat my people with the respect they are due as members of this command, Agent Sykes."

In short, we've earned the kind of respect you're merely demanding of us, Daniel thought with satisfaction as Sykes's face briefly turned ugly.

"Very well, General." There wasn't much Sykes could do other than agree. Hammond wasn't about to allow Daniel and Sam to be chained up and paraded through the corridors of the SGC like spoils of war. Sykes would just have to quietly gloat.

Nothing new there.

It was funny, however, to have Jack and Teal'c insert themselves between the NID agents and the 'condemned pair.' Daniel smirked faintly at Sam, making sure that Sykes could see them through the shoulders of their team-mates.

Sam looked distinctly annoyed, which Daniel could understand.

But they'd come through more difficult scrapes than this one - this situation was a walk in the park by comparison.

Or maybe not.

They were shown to quarters. "Separate or together?" Sykes asked, politician-smooth but with an ugly inflection in his voice.

Jack's fingers twitched a little. The agent's incessant goading was evidently taking its toll on Jack's temper.

There was no question of them being put into the same room, which was a pity. Sam was quietly seen to her room, and Daniel went quietly to his.

At least, they went quietly for the moment.

*

The investigation was not progressing well.

At least not for Major Carter and Daniel Jackson.

The security tapes turned out to be valid, and O'Neill went to break the bad news to their team-mates. Exactly what pithy remarks he had to say to them in the privacy of his audiences, Teal'c didn't know - but he was very much aware of his friend's frustration.

There were political bodies who were enjoying this situation - among them the NID. They were, as O'Neill would say, 'having a field day' with the news that not one, but two of the SGC's most trusted personnel were guilty of 'misappropriating technology'.

Teal'c inclined his head at the SF who stood guard at the door of General Hammond's office, knocked and entered.

The General was on the telephone, but he glanced up as Teal'c entered and indicated that Teal'c should close the door and sit down as he made the requisite noises required of someone listening to another speak over the phone.

Teal'c shut the door behind him and seated himself, folding his hands in his lap. He didn't know exactly why General Hammond had summoned him here, but it would have to do with the situation his friends and his team were in.

There was no doubt in Teal'c's mind that Daniel Jackson and Major Carter had not performed the theft. It was not in their natures to be so underhanded. Major Carter's nature did not tend towards subterfuge, and subtlety was not one of Daniel Jackson's more notable qualities. These thefts were not their actions, it merely remained to discover who had set up this situation.

"Yes, sir. I understand, sir."

General Hammond hung up the phone. "I've managed to persuade the president that the Major and Dr. Jackson will submit to being held on the base under arrest, but other political bodies are holding out for more...stringent measures."

"The NID?"

"They want Major Carter and Dr. Jackson to be held in their custody for questioning."

"We will not permit that." Teal'c had no care for the NID - they had tried to 'appropriate' him too many times - as if he were a thing and not a person. He would do everything in his power to ensure that his friends were not judged guilty by the NID of that for which they were not responsible.

"No, Teal'c, we won't." General Hammond looked him full in the eye. As the commander of the SGC, the general could have commanded Teal'c as someone under his authority. It pleased Teal'c to know that, even if his team-mates could underestimate him, General Hammond was well aware that the total of Teal'c's knowledge and experiences exceeded his own - and would occasionally accord him the deference due to an equal, not to a subordinate. The moments were exceedingly rare, but treasured. "I'm going to ask you and Colonel O'Neill to find out more about these agents and what the NID are trying to get out of framing Major Carter and Dr. Jackson."

Teal'c studied the general. "You have something in mind."

"Colonel O'Neill has worked with certain...people before. They've proven helpful in the past when dealing with the NID, I'm hoping they'll prove helpful in turning up something this time." There was little doubt int Teal'c's mind as to exactly whom the general was referring. O'Neill's interaction with Colonel Maybourne was nearly legendary among the personnel of the SGC.

And Colonel Maybourne had his ways and means of getting around.

"Have there been no other possible explanations given?"

The general leaned back in his chair. "Various people across the base are suggesting possibilities. They don't believe Major Carter and Dr. Jackson guilty either. The most likely one - that they were impersonated using the illusion devices that the armoured aliens used in the foothold situation several years back - has been shot down. There were only twelve devices recovered, and Major Carter was not one of the people who had a device created with her image." General Hammond frowned, "Teal'c, have you noticed anything out of place with the Major and Dr. Jackson recently? Anything that might explain this?"

Teal'c considered everything that had happened in the last few weeks. While he had not been watching his friends for such signs, neither had he noticed anything that might have contributed to their current state of mind. "I have not, General Hammond. I am sorry."

"I am, too, Teal'c." The man sitting in the chair looked tired and old. "This is one big bureaucratic circus - and I don't know if we can keep it from leaking out to elements we'd rather keep uninformed of the Stargate."

Teal'c tilted his head, curious. "Do you believe Major Carter and Daniel Jackson did what they have been accused of?"

"No, Teal'c," the general said, simply. "I don't. But the NID do - and, as much as I hate to have to accede to their wishes, they have a case against Major Carter and Dr Jackson which will stand up in a court of law."

Teal'c understood what General Hammond was saying: as the evidence stood, there was little hope that Major Carter or Daniel Jackson would be acquitted of the accusations of theft.

It seemed a dire situation.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door. "Come in."

An airman opened the door for a suited man to walk in, his rather youthful face neutral as he entered the general's office. "Thankyou, airman."

Teal'c didn't allow any of his surprise to show at the man's courtesy, but he wondered at it.

"Agent Barrett."

"General Hammond."

"Agent Malcolm Barrett, meet Teal'c of SG-1."

"Pleased to meet you," Malcolm Barrett said.

An inclination of the head served as greeting - Teal'c didn't know this man, but the man's title of 'Agent' indicated that he was most likely a member of the NID. However, it was also evident that General Hammond had summoned him here for some reason.

"Take a seat. Do you have anything for us, Agent?"

"I'm afraid not, General." Agent Barrett seated himself in the chair beside Teal'c. "Neither anything good nor bad."

"What do you mean?"

"The SGC keeps track of all the technology it brings in from abandoned worlds. Since the rogue NID operation was uncovered, the NID has kept careful watch on the major routes where technology stolen from Area 51 or the SGC would go. It would either be snapped up by private companies looking for a new technology to sell, or would end up being passed through the technological underground. No contacts in either area have heard so much as a murmur about the technology which was stolen."

"Perhaps they have found other means to dispose of the items?" Teal'c suggested.

"It's possible, but unlikely. We have contacts at every level of the black market, from the highest eschelons down to the street. None of them have reported anything vaguely like your stolen items."

There was a knock on the door and General Hammond granted permission to enter.

O'Neill walked in. "Sorry I'm late, sir." He looked a little surprised at Agent Barrett's presence, but glanced at General Hammond for confirmation that he was okay.

"Colonel. How did they take the news?"

O'Neill's expression bordered on a grimace. "They loved it, sir. They can't wait to spend a lifetime in incarceration for something they didn't do." The gaze he directed at Agent Barrett indicated that he'd met the man before and knew him for NID. "Daniel was using some dreadful language when I left him."

"Dr. Jackson was swearing?"

"No, but he switched to some dialect that sounded like his mouth was full of rocks," O'Neill commented. "I just let him rave. And I wouldn't recommend letting Agent Sykes anywhere near Carter for a good while, sir."

"She was angry?"

"Oh, I don't think 'angry' quite covers it, sir." O'Neill's dry tone of voice indicated the nature of the understatement. "But it would be one way to rid ourselves of Sykes." He indicated Agent Barrett, "So what's with the spook?"

Agent Barrett's expression set, almost mutinously. "General Hammond called in a couple of small favours around the NID to get us to locate the technology that your personnel have been accused of taking."

"It's your personnel who are causing the trouble around here," O'Neill said in a tone of voice that made no concessions.

"Not all of the NID are as...tactless as Marcus Sykes, Colonel."

"If he's so tactless, why was he assigned here?"

"It's not my business to keep track of--"

"Which is one way of passing responsibility--"

"Colonel--"

"I think that will be enough, gentlemen." General Hammond's interruption was timely and welcomed. Teal'c shared O'Neill's distrust of the NID wholeheartedly, but he acknowledge that it was possible for individuals within an organisation to have different goals and standards to those of the organisation.

Teal'c, himself, had headed up Apophis' army for many years, all the while knowing that the Goa'uld were not the gods his peers thought them.

The two men glared at each other, silently staring the other down until General Hammond coughed.

"The NID haven't been able to find the technology which your team-mates are accused of stealing," Agent Barrett said at last. "If they can locate where the technology has gone, then we might be able to find a papertrail."

"No luck, I take it."

"No."

General Hammond indicated Teal'c, "I have already given Teal'c some instructions to pass on to you, Colonel. SG-1 is no longer on active status - your mission is to find out who's at the root of this, and why."

"It's the NID, and it's because they're assholes. Sir."

O'Neill's bluntness did not sit well with Agent Barrett and the NID agent drew breath to deliver a blistering retort.

Once again, General Hammond intervened looking from one man to the other. "Your personal feelings on this matter don't count, Colonel. I've given you and Teal'c a job to do, and I expect it done." The portly General captured O'Neill's reluctant gaze and held it. "Have I made myself clear, Jack?"

"Perfectly, sir."

"Dismissed."

Teal'c rose from his chair and followed his fuming friend out the door. He regretted that O'Neill had lost his presence of mind before the NID agent, but he understood his friend's frustration.

They walked in silence along the corridors of the base, answering the hails they received from base personnel. The atmosphere within the base was grim. Everyone who worked in the SGC knew Major Carter and Daniel Jackson, and while most believed in their innocence, Teal'c was well aware that there were those who could be persuaded otherwise - especially with the proof provided by the NID against his team-mates.

It wasn't until they were in the elevator going up that O'Neill spoke. "So, exactly what did Hammond ask us to do, Teal'c? Seeing as I missed all that while trying to kick Barrett's ass?"

Teal'c watched the changing patterns of light on the walls of the elevator. "General Hammond asked us to contact Colonel Maybourne."

O'Neill sighed. "Yeah, I knew that was coming sooner or later. All right. Let's go contact the little weasel. God only knows what he's going to want this time."

"Perhaps your soul?"

The solemn attempt at humour failed. O'Neill merely grimaced. "He already has that, Teal'c."

*

Jack was sitting in his deckchair with a beer on the table beside him and a notepad in the other.

Two lists of names descended down the notepad.

The first was a list of people who had an axe to grind against the SGC and SG-1. It was a long list, headed up by Senator Kinsey.

The second list was somewhat shorter. It was a list of people who owed the SGC or Jack O'Neill a favour. It was headed up by the President.

Jack had never been good at making minor allies or enemies. It was all or nothing. Usually all.

Aliens like the Asgard probably weren't going to be all that much help- not in this situation. It would require sneakiness or diplomacy, which the Asgard had - just not in the right way.

The Prez wasn't being much help at this point in time - he was a man of practical evidence, and the evidence said that Carter and Daniel were guilty.

Nope, Maybourne was it.

Now if the sneaky little weasel would only turn up...

"Hello, Jack."

There'd been no noise, no sound - nothing to indicate that Harry was anywhere in the vicinity. But then, that was probably how Harry Maybourne had survived outside the law for the last couple of years. Sneaky bastard. "Harry. Have a seat."

"Thanks, Jack, I think I will." Harry picked up the other deckchair and flipped it around so he was facing Jack.

"So whatcha got, Harry?"

"No time for the small talk?" The rat had the gall to look hurt. Jack didn't care for Harry - much. He wanted his team-mates back and the NID out of the SGC. "Your kids are in trouble, Jack."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"The NID believe they have a watertight case against them. Sykes might be a bully and a thug, but he's thorough. When he accuses someone, they stay accused."

Oh, now that was just what Jack needed to know.

"You're a cheerful soul, Maybourne." Jack took a drink, deciding against offering Maybourne a beer in spite of the fact that the cooler was in plain view of the rat.

"I'm a realistic one, Jack. Short of an act of God, your team-mates aren't going to get off the hook."

Jack choked and spat his beer over the balcony railing. "You're an act of God, now, Maybourne? Jeeze, got room for the ego there?"

"I appreciate your faith in me," Maybourne was amused, and Jack realised that his statement had indirectly affirmed his belief that if anyone could get Carter and Daniel off the hook, it would be Maybourne. "But wait until you hear my terms before you agree."

Yup, the rat was getting cocky. "Terms?"

"Why, yes, Jack," Maybourne said cheerfully. "Little things. Nothing big..."

"You help us get them off the hook, Harry, and then we'll talk terms."

"You talk terms, Jack, and then I'll help you get them off the hook. My timetable isn't as urgent as yours."

Jack scowled, "What do you mean?"

The roll of blue eyes indicated that Jack had, once again, missed his cue. "Jack, Jack, Jack..." Maybourne chided, "The NID have been waiting to get their hands on Major Carter for years. But as long as the protection of the President, General Hammond, and the SGC was over her, it was more trouble than it was worth to try to kidnap her. But with her facing capital treason..."

"You're saying that Sykes is pushing this so hard because of Carter?"

"Dr. Jackson is incidental. The NID has no real interest in him. Major Carter, on the other hand..." Maybourne watched Jack's face tighten. "You don't have time, Jack. Take my terms, or she'll spend the rest of her life - hopefully her very short life since it won't be pleasant - as a lab rat for the NID, and there won't be a thing you can do about it."

That damned snake again. It might have died four years ago, but its ghost still haunted Carter.

Jack glared at Maybourne who held up his hands. "Don't shoot me, Jack, I'm just the messenger."

"What do you want?"

"A full pardon. One of those ones that presidents tend to give out when they don't care about being re-elected. I'm tired of living on the run, Jack."

"What else?"

"You think I'm that greedy?" Maybourne mimed hurt. Jack waited for the dramatics to finish. "I want my job back."

Jack laughed. "You want your job back?"

"I was good at what I did..."

"What? Stealing technology?" Jack snorted.

"Protecting the planet," Maybourne retorted. "If that meant stealing technology, then so be it."

"And if it meant wrecking the treaties we had set up in place to protect the planet? Maybe you would someday have found something to defeat our enemies, Harry, but when we finished blowing them out of the sky, all our one-time allies would have been lining up to take a potshot at us for stealing what they wouldn't give us!"

"Touched a nerve, did I?" Maybourne smirked. "I've reformed, Jack. I'll play by your rules..."

"Until you decide you can't be bothered..."

"I remember my debts, Jack. You should remember yours." The smirk was gone now. Maybourne was serious. "You and Hammond get me a pardon and a position back at the SGC, and I'll get Major Carter and Dr. Jackson off the hook." He reached over, flipped the cooler top open and picked himself out a beer, ignoring Jack's glare. "I promise."

"Easy to say, much harder to keep."

"You've got a lot more to lose without me than you do with me, Jack," Maybourne toasted Jack with the beer. "I'll just be going now. You know how to contact me when we've got a deal."

When, not if. God, the rat was getting cocky.

"Sure, Harry. Whatever."

"Good to see you again, Jack."

Jack continued to glare as Maybourne vanished with his appropriated beer into the scrub surrounding the house.

And the weasel was gone.

• * *

Sam woke up in a holding cell.

A holding cell?

She shut her eyes and used her senses to catalogue where she was. Harsh fabric against her cheek, a pillow that was so stiff it nearly crackled, a plastic mattress under her shoulder and hip, and the vague echoing sound of cement and steel beyond.

Her eyes opened and she stared at her surroundings.

There was no mistake. It was a holding cell.

More specifically, the holding cell on level sixteen, with the split cells and the bars between them.

Why?

'Why' was not her typical kind of question - just as the Colonel had said over a year ago. 'How' was the question that intrigued her, not 'why'.

Well, she was asking now.

Slowly, Sam got up and winced as she creaked. Her head ached and her mouth felt groggy. She was stiff and achey all over - as if someone had hit her with a board. And cold. It was definitely colder than the temperature in her quarters.

What the...?

Thankfully, she was wearing fatigues, not pyjamas. When sleeping on base, she always wore fatigues since she never knew when she'd be woken up at 0400 to deal with some emergency that had just cropped up. But she hadn't been wearing boots when she fell asleep, so her feet were cold.

Trying to force back the grogginess, she looked at the cell around her. It was empty of furniture, but for the bunk in the corner, and a pair of boots by the door.

As she went over to pick them up, she noticed the dark lump on the other bunk and squinted into the partial gloom of the cells. "Daniel?"

The bundle on the bed grunted in his sleep

Charming.

Sam smiled in spite of herself. She still hadn't worked out why the infirmary nurses insisted her team-mate was cute when he was sleeping. Maybe it was because they only saw him when he was at his physical worst, so the other fun little aspects of his personality didn't come out.

Like the lack of coherent conversation before a cup of coffee. Or the range of grunts, snorts, wheezes and snores that emitted from him off-world. The occasional moroseness he displayed when he just wanted to sulk...

So many faces of Daniel Jackson - and lucky Sam - as well as the others they worked with - got to see them all.

"Daniel," she called, more sharply now. He wasn't rousing, and she decided she'd go for the full 'annoyed commanding officer' bark, "Daniel!"

That got him up. He reared up like a snake disturbed from sleep. "Sam, why are you..." He paused, taking in his surroundings. "Where are we?"

She spread her arms open. "Holding cells."

"Uh-huh." He scratched his hands through his hair. "Why are we in the holding cells?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. Probably better." Her job at waking her team-mate done, Sam sat back on the bed. "I don't know about you, but I went to bed in my quarters and woke up here. How about you?"

Daniel blinked. "Same here." He looked owlishly at her, his vision brought down to a short few metres by the lack of glasses. "Have you tried asking?"

"Not yet."

Behind her, there was the beep of someone swiping their card. "And I guess we won't need to," Daniel said, climbing unsteadily to his feet as the door opened. "Hi, Jack. What's going on?"

The man on the other side of the bars stared neutrally back at them, first at Daniel, then at Sam.

"Sir?"

"Carter." There was no invitation in the voice, nothing to indicate what was happening.

"What's going on?"

"I might as well ask you the same thing," he said harshly.

The harshness confused her, rare as it was. He could be cold, forbidding, untalkative, grumpy, moody, and bitter but never without a reason - or something approximating an apology.

"Sir?" She was confused.

"What's the deal with the NID being on our backs?"

Sam exchanged a look with Daniel. NID?

"NID?"

"They're all over the SGC," he said curtly. "Just what we didn't need right now."

Right now? Sam frowned. We never need the NID poking around at the SGC. It wasn't that his words were odd, it was just that they were...odd.

It was a measure of her confusion that she was getting a headache.

Daniel glanced at her for something - reassurance? Sam didn't look back at him. Instead she studied the Colonel. There was something different about him - nothing she could immediately pinpoint - but it jarred.

Foothold situation? She wondered. Had the base been taken over by aliens again?

If it was a foothold situation, then what was the significance of Daniel and herself being imprisoned? If it had been she and Teal'c, that would have been understandable - the naquadah in both their bloodstreams and the protein marker in hers set them apart. But her and Daniel...?

She couldn't give him any cues - she had none to give. After a few seconds, Daniel seemed to realise this and began talking, striking out on his own in the hope that the Colonel might let something drop.. "How about you explain what's been happening around here for the last couple of days, Jack? Sam and I are a little confused..."

"You're not the only ones," Colonel O'Neill bit back. He looked from one to the other, "You're being cooped up for technology theft. Maybourne's pretty pissed about it."

Maybourne? They called Maybourne in?

Sam knew the incomprehension showed on her face - all the more because he noted, "But I guess you still don't have any idea about that." There was an odd glitter in his eyes, and Sam got the impression that he was looking over them as if he'd only just met them.

She cast a quick glance at Daniel who shrugged. "No, Jack, we don't. Why don't you enlighten us?"

The Colonel didn't respond, instead looking from one to the other. While his expression only shifted a little, Sam suddenly got the impression of amusement from him. The impression solidified as he murmured, "No." Now the wide mouth curved up into a smile that was one part amusement, four parts jaded cynicism. "I don't think I will."

"Jack, you're not helping things," Daniel snapped. "Look, whatever Sam and I have done, we don't know about it. We've only just woken up in these cells and we're a little disoriented. Why don't you tell us what's going on - and we might be able to help in getting us out of here."

The little smile persisted for a few seconds longer as he looked each of them over, then shook his head - more in amused derision than negation - swiped his card, yanked the door open and strode out.

Sam went back to the bed and sat down on it as Daniel huffed. "That was helpful."

"Technology theft..." She considered it for a moment. "There's no sense to this, Daniel. Technology theft -Maybourne? What's he doing back at the SGC?"

"Maybe they asked him back to help out with the investigation."

"Then why would he be annoyed at the technology theft?" Sam asked. "Colonel O'Neill mentioned that he was annoyed..." But it was more than the mention of Maybourne.

Daniel threw up his hands, "Maybe it jeopardises Maybourne's own plans or something..."

"No, it's more than that." Her eyes narrowed, focusing on a spot in the air somewhere between them. "There was something about the way he said it. It wasn't..." She struggled to explain. "It's the manner of it, Daniel. The Colonel sounded as if Maybourne was in charge of this investigation."

"It's not possible that they would have handed it over to him after reinstating him?"

Sam shook her head. "Highly unlikely - unless he had very specific, very definite skills that were absolutely necessary in this investigation..." Sam was well aware of Harry Maybourne's capabilities and connections. The man was a weasel, as Colonel O'Neill noted. But she still couldn't see General Hammond or the Colonel handing over the authority to him just like that.

His shrug echoed her own bewilderment. "Then, I don't know." His words vanished into a yawn as he sat down on the bed opposite her. "Okay, we went to bed in our own quarters and woke up here. Jack's both annoyed and amused about something. Technology theft is involved and we're implicated." He considered the situation. "What day is it?"

Startled, Sam checked her watch. "0800, Thursday." Thursday? She met the blue gaze of her team-mate. Not just hours missing, but days.

"The last thing I remember is Monday night."

"So we've been drugged."

"Or put under some kind of influence."

"How?"

"Isn't that the question Jack usually asks you?" Daniel half-smiled, before he eased himself backwards onto the bed. "No idea. We weren't working on the same thing last night...uh...Monday, were we?"

"I was working on the phase-particle adaptor we exchanged with the Vendici. You were looking at those runes on that statue from P4V-912."

"Can you remember anything between Monday night and today?"

She stretched her mind. "Nothing. You?"

He shook his head. "Nope. So what happens now?"

Sam blinked and tried to reason through the ramifications of their situation, based on what she knew. "They must have enough evidence to make it stick, or we'd be being held under guard in our quarters."

"False evidence," Daniel corrected her.

"You're preaching to the choir, Daniel."

He grimaced, "Sorry. You know it would be much easier if we knew exactly what we were accused of."

"Technology theft?" She offered and got a mild glare from him. "Sorry."

"You've been around Jack too long."

They all had.

"Well we're not going to be able to break out of here," she pointed out, "and until someone else comes in, we're not going to be told anything."

"So we just sit and wait," Daniel said, flopping backwards on the mattress and hitting his head along the way. "Ouch."

Sam felt a giggle - slightly hysterical - rise in her. "Concussions are bad, Daniel."

"Thank you, Sam, I think I know that." He rubbed the back of his head. "Well, they can't keep us in here forever. I don't know about you, but I need a shower."

Sam decided that, since they were stuck here, she could do a little ribbing. "I wasn't going to say anything but..."

Daniel glared at her and she smiled.

And grimaced as the headaches hit her again.

Something wasn't right.

*

There was a certain pleasure in walking through the SGC and observing the shocked and surprised expressions of the personnel who knew him by name and reputation.

In particular, Harry knew he'd savour the moment Marcus Sykes had first seen him in the SGC and realised that Maybourne was back - and not in the pay of the NID. While Simmons had been a sneaky bastard, he at least had the grace not to tread on everyone's toes as he was going around being superior. He'd just smirk, knowing that you knew he was smirking.

So far, with the exception of Jack, the SGC personnel had been polite. They were very helpful when Harry asked for information, but one and all glanced at Jack first. They didn't trust Harry further than they could throw him. Of course, Harry hadn't done all that much to gain their trust over the last couple of years.

They'd better get used to having him back.

He was on his way to Jack's office to 'report in'. So far, he'd snooped around a bit - usually with Jack looking over his shoulder - but found nothing.

It galled Harry to admit it, but this problem had him stumped.

Of course, he wasn't going to tell Jack or General Hammond that. He would work just as hard as the next person to get Major Carter and Jackson off the hook, but he wasn't so stupid as to reveal that he had no new information. Not yet, anyway. He had far more contacts than the NID or the SGC dreamed of, more ways to achieve what he needed to achieve.

So he took the twists and turns of the corridors and tried to work out what was going on here.

He agreed with Jack's assessment. This kind of action was way beyond anything that the Major or Jackson would ever do. It just wasn't in them - especially not when they'd been hanging around O'Neill all these years.

They'd been framed. That was the only explanation.

The motives for the framing was easy enough. In one fell swoop the NID would show that the SGC couldn't keep tabs on its own people. It would split the flagship team, demoralising the personnel who worked the SGC, and it would leave the SGC open to the NID's machinations.

And the icing on the cake was that the NID would be able to get hold of Major Carter. Out of sight and out of mind as the old saying went.

Maybourne knew there was a file kept squirrelled away at NID headquarters full of tests and experiments to perform on a Goa'uld or on a Goa'uld ex-host. There had been in his days back at the NID, and he saw no reason for them to have deleted it in the three years since his fall.

Carter had just been lucky in that she'd been in favour at the time the Tok'ra died in her. Between saving the world from the two motherships and being needed in the SGC, the NID hadn't been able to touch her. Not that they hadn't tried. But when they came up against the interest of a number of high-placed Generals - among them a two-star General's concerned for his daughter, they'd been forced to retire, empty-handed.

Then the alliance with the Tok'ra was formed and she was completely out of their reach. The Tok'ra wasn't a fantastic alliance, but it was all Earth had - and not even the hope of being able to run tests on a one-time host was worth risking that. The Asgard came in on the deal and High Commander Thor had to develop an affection for O'Neill - and Major Carter along with him. That put paid to any further hopes of the NID - although not to Adrian Conrad's ambitions.

Conrad had proven useful to the NID in their way. Unfortunately, Simmons overplayed his hand and ended up in jail - and the NID lost control of Conrad's Goa'uld.

Harry was well aware of the politics behind the scenes. And, with so many good results for the NID, it was unthinkable to suppose that Carter and Dr. Jackson weren't innocent of the accusations.

Of course, Harry's job - the job for which he'd been brought back to the SGC - was to find proof that the NID had framed them. Which would mean nailing Marcus Sykes' hide to the wall - an activity in which Harry would take great pleasure.

He'd never liked Sykes anyway. Uppity sonovabitch.

The corridor outside Jack's office was marked by only one SF. Harry gave the man a quick smile, enjoying the faint grimace of discomfort on the face of the guard, and walked right in.

"...the Eye of Ra?" Jack looked up at Harry as he entered. "Maybourne." His tone was curt, by which Harry judged that solutions had not been forthcoming. Pity Harry couldn't help him. He was, in his own way, quite fond of Jack and his unruly team. They'd been a pain in the ass while Harry worked for the NID, and he found the irony stupendous - that once their penchant for upsetting NID plans was no longer his concern, he'd become quite fond of them. "Found anything?"

"It's good to see you, too, Jack," Harry responded. Just for that, he was going to go out of his way to irritate Jack "Teal'c."

Teal'c eyeballed him. Harry had no doubt that the Jaffa would never fully trust him. Any value Teal'c placed on him was strictly through Jack's endorsement.

"Well?"

"Patience, Jack."

"Which means you haven't found anything, right?"

Harry regarded Jack, irritated by the other man's insistence. Okay, so maybe Jack still had the ability to rub the fur up his back the wrong way - but Harry was willing to deal. At least for the moment. "Not yet. But I'm still looking."

Jack sighed huffily, and glared at his intray.

That was one thing Harry wasn't looking forward to - the paperwork associated with working in an organisation like the SGC. Not that NID had been paperless - if anything, the paperwork had been horrendous. However, at the NID, Harry had been able to pile his paperwork onto other people rather than do it himself. Somehow, he suspected that at the SGC, it was up to the individual to get it done.

"So what's the deal with the Eye of Ra?"

"It is a symbol," Teal'c informed him. "A heiroglyph."

Harry knew that. He also guessed that Teal'c knew he knew that and was deliberately being obtuse.

"It's also some pendant Daniel got from Catherine Langford that first time we went to Abydos," Jack muttered.

"So what about it?" He saw the look exchanged between the two men and scowled. "Jack, you didn't bring me in here to hide things from me. If I'm going to be able to help your team mates, you need to tell me this stuff."

Jack shrugged, "It's nothing much. Daniel got himself a tattoo recently."

"Of the Eye of Ra?"

"That's what Teal'c says."

Harry shrugged. "So?"

"This is Daniel, Maybourne. Can you really see him getting a tattoo?"

Harry frowned. A tattoo didn't really sound like something Dr. Jackson would do - even a private tattoo. But people could surprise you. SG-1 certainly had surprised him. He was about to say as much when there was a quick knock at the door and the door slid back to reveal a dark-haired woman in military uniform looking worried.

"Sir?"

Jack seemed to be expecting her, he sat up with a bit more interest in his pose. "Ah, Sergeant Westerholme. I take it Major Carter's all cleaned up now?"

The dark-haired women glanced at Harry before turning back to Jack and nodding. "Yes, sir. You asked me to keep an eye out for anything unusual."

The change was immediate. Jack sat forward, the irritating insouciance of his former pose gone. "You found something?"

Sergeant Westerholme was apologetic. "It may be nothing, sir, but... Do you know if Major Carter recently got a tattoo?"

A tattoo? First Daniel, then the Major... Mental cogs began to turn over - only slowly, but considering the coincidence of the situation.

"Was it the Eye of Ra, by any chance?" Jack had seized on the similarity immediately.

Something tickled at Harry's consciousness. He tried to chase it down, but it was slippery and difficult to pin. He attempted to hunt it down and couldn't. Not just yet. It was waiting for another piece of the puzzle.

Sergeant Westerholme blinked, "I don't know what the eye of Ra looks like, sir. But it looked like one of those Egyptian hieroglyphs that Dr. Jackson studies. In the shape of a dog, but with rectangular ears that stood up on its head."

"Rectangular ears?"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "A Setesh?"

Harry didn't have the faintest idea what a Setesh was, but exactly what the tattoo depicted was unimportant -the significance was Dr. Jackson and Major Carter both having tattoos - and ones of which their team-mates were unaware.

"Sergeant," Jack asked, "Do you know if Dr. Jackson has a tattoo?"

The woman shook her head, very definitely. "Not unless it's been done very recently - or in a very private area." She paused and, although the light wasn't all that good, she seemed to be blushing. "The infirmary staff would have noticed it and mentioned it, sir." Harry repressed a snort at the evidence of the gossip network in the SGC. "Is this regarding the accusations made by Agent Sykes?"

"I can't answer that, Sergeant."

She nodded, "Yes, sir. I'll keep an eye on Major Carter."

"You do that, Sergeant. And thanks."

The thought tickling at Harry's brain exploded into a full-blown idea. And, with perfect timing, Jack looked up at him.

"Harry?" There was both encouragement and warning in Jack's voice. "Whatcha got?"

It was just a possibility right now. Harry told himself he didn't want to disappoint Jack. Of course, he rather enjoyed the sensation of having secrets, too. So, instead of answering, he leaned over the desk and took the phone.

Four buttons into the dial, Jack depressed the handset sensor, ending the call.

"What have you got, Harry?"

Harry felt a thread of the old irritation at Jack O'Neill's interference with Harry's work. Jack might be getting antsy by the lack of information about his team-mates, but now that they were working back together again, some degree of trust would be necessary.

"Jack, I need to make the call before I can tell you anything..."

"You tell me what you're doing and we'll work from there."

Harry silently reminded himself that he'd agreed to come and work for the SGC for several reasons - the chiefest one being that he was tired of being on the run. Over time, he would be able to see and determine if there was any point in attempting to secure the next phase of his plan.

"Don't you trust me, Jack?" Injured innocence was always fun to play, especially around Jack.

"Strangely enough, Harry, I don't." The finger remained firmly on the handset button. "Cough up."

The phone was put down. "Several years ago, an item was moved from the SGC to Area 51. It was scheduled to be destroyed - although exactly how that was to be accomplished wasn't specified." Harry glanced at Teal'c. "My people diverted it from Area 51 and indicated that it was destroyed. It was put away in a safehouse for further study." He could still remember the interior of the house, the musty scent of the draperies and furniture, the elderly couple who lived there, uninterested in what happened in the cellars below them.

Harry wondered what happened to them.

"We never got around to looking at it. Six months later, our corner of the organisation was shut down, courtesy of Jack here. Not all our safehouses were known, though - as far as I'm aware, it's still at the safehouse."

There was no mistaking Jack's exasperation with Harry. "What's still at the safehouse?"

"The quantum mirror."

• * *

It was ridiculous. Crazy. Insane. Did he mention ridiculous?

And yet...and yet it made some kind of ridiculous, crazy, insane sense.

Or maybe Jack just needed an excuse - hell, any excuse would do.

The people under armed guard aren't my team-mates because my team-mates don't steal. Instead, they're the evil twins of my team-mates from another world that seems to be as real as ours but isn't...

Jack had a headache, and it wasn't those tropical escape tremors either.

So far, they hadn't alerted Carter or Daniel - or their doppelgangers - about the mirror. Why get hopes up? Or down, as things might go. Besides, they didn't even know if the mirror was still there - three years had passed since Maybourne and his merry band of thieves were captured. A lot could happen in three years.

They needed to get permission from Hammond to go into the safehouse fully armed. Jack wasn't going into an NID 'safehouse' without being armed to the teeth and fully protected.

Hammond was doubtful, but he'd seen enough crazy stuff to believe it was possible. Jack sensed that the difficult bit for his superior was to accept the hypothesis on such a small thing as a tattoo.

"I don't need to tell you that this is pretty far-fetched, Jack. You're expecting me to believe that Major Carter and Dr. Jackson are from a different reality on the basis of a couple of tattoos."

"Yes, sir." Best to keep it as formal as possible.

Hammond wasn't finished. "And if these people aren't from our world, where are our Major Carter and Dr. Jackson?"

"Don't know, sir. That's what we're hoping to find out."

The general thought it over, "What about those...tremors that Dr. Carter was going through?"

Jack didn't know and said as much. "Maybe they found some way to stop it, sir. I don't know. Carter's the expert on quantum physics..."

Maybourne wasn't in the office as Jack tried to persuade his commanding officer to at least give the idea a chance - he was trying to check up the details of the NID's movements these last couple of years with Agent Barrett. At least one NID agent was looking for the truth and not merely strutting smugly around the place.

"And Colonel Maybourne thinks that the stuff he stored away might still be there?"

Jack shrugged, "It's worth a try."

Hammond authorised it.

It was worth a try, but in the end it was a worthless try.

They crashed through the front door, but even as they ran along the wooden floorboards to reach the stairs leading down to the dark oblivion of the basement, Jack knew they wouldn't find anything. The smell was all wrong - a house left standing empty too long.

Nobody had been here in years.

They came out of the deserted house, disappointed and disillusioned by the lack of mirror - or anything else other than shrouding layers of dust. Jack handed his weapon over to the quartermaster waiting to take it and didn't bother to ream Maybourne out. There wasn't any point and he didn't have the heart.

"They must have moved it," Harry said in the car on the way back to the SGC.

Jack didn't bother replying.

"It's not at Area 51."

Jack stopped at a set of lights and tapped his fingers arrhythmically on the steering wheel.

"I wonder if the NID know where it is."

The lights went green. Jack moved the truck back into the traffic.

"Jack..."

"What do you want me to say, Harry?" Jack asked, irritably. "It's not there. We don't know where it is, and nobody's come forward reporting its existance."

Harry grumped. "You could at least make agreeable noises."

Jack snorted and didn't say a single thing on the remainder of the drive back to the SGC. If he said one thing, he knew he'd say it all, which would be of no help to Carter and Daniel.

But, boy, did he want to give Harry a very big piece of his mind!

Instead, he held his temper all the way back to the SGC and all the way through the briefing, and all the way through the SGC until he reached the gym where he took out his frustrations on a hapless punching bag.

It wasn't until he felt the punching bag was well and truly beaten that Jack glanced up and realised Teal'c was standing at the edge of the mat watching him. He rubbed at an itchy spot on the end of his nose with one bit of the glove. "Wanna fight?"

Teal'c regarded him inscrutably. "You are angry, O'Neill."

"Just a bit." Jack indicated a 'bit' between the punching gloves on his hands. "I feel like we're going around in circles. First Carter and Daniel are innocent, then they aren't. First they're from our reality, then they're from a different one." And a part of him was fully cognisant of Hammond's disbelief. A couple of tattoos was a thin lead on which to base their suspicions.

Of course, they could always walk in there and just ask. That'd go down like a lead balloon.

"Cheyenne Mountain is a large site, O'Neill." The statement came from nowhere, but Jack knew Teal'c better than to assume that Teal'c had made the comment casually.

Jack stared at his friend. "You think they hid it on the base?"

"There are many places in which to hide even an item the size of the mirror."

Jack didn't care that he looked a sight, walking through the corridors of the SGC in his sweats. He didn't care that Teal'c had the faintest of smirks on his face as he got into the elevator beside Jack to descend to Level 26. He didn't care that Hammond had his doubts about Maybourne's truthfulness.

"Jack, are you sure Maybourne's telling you the truth about the reality mirror?"

"As sure as I can be in anything we get from Maybourne, sir," Jack said, adding, "And it wouldn't take up that much time. We've done things on less proof before."

"I know, Jack. I'm just asking if you're sure about his motivations."

"They're exactly the same as what they've always been, sir. Maybourne looks out for Maybourne first. But he owes us - and, weasel though he is, he pays his debts."

Harmmond granted them the authorisation to search the base, and fifteen minutes later, the briefing room was filling with curious SFs who'd been called out to assist in the search.

Jack eased himself into the flak jacket and vest. He'd authorised issue of intars to the SFs with a real weapon for backup as necessary. They had no idea what they'd find on their search through the base, and Jack had found that hoping for the best only worked in concert with preparing for the worst.

A glance around showed about twenty SFs who'd been summoned. That was fine. Twenty was a good number - enough to handle anything minor and to call for backup should anything major manifest itself.

"Right," he announced as the men and women quieted. "We're doing a base-wide search for an item of technology that's gone missing. It's roughly three feet by six feet, and looks like a mirror set into a weird-shaped stone-like frame. If you locate it, don't touch it. There may be a smaller thingy nearby...a controller. Teal'c, do you remember what colour the controller was?"

"I do not, O'Neill."

"Well, keep an eye out for anything weird." Jack indicated the weapons on the table. "You've been issued intars and zat guns. If you find someone who can't immediately identify themselves, take them into custody using non-lethal force as necessary." It was possible the breach - assuming there had been a breach at all - went no further than just Carter and Daniel, but it was worth keeping out an eye for any odd behaviours. For all they knew, half the base could have been replaced with counterparts.

And God, he hoped not! That would be beyond a headache.

There wasn't any reason for it - not really. Not unless they were escaping from something else on the other side. Which might very well be the case - after all, Kawalsky and Dr. Carter had come through the mirror escaping another world.

Please let it just be Daniel and Carter. He could deal with that.

Jack watched as the SF's armed themselves from the equipment on the table and waited until most were armed and ready to go. Then he indicated half the room. "You guys are with me, we're taking the eastern corridors. You guys are with Teal'c, and you're checking out the rooms along the western corridors. Are we clear?" He glanced around and got nods of assent. Even if they didn't have the faintest idea what had intiated this search, they understood what was expected of them.

Jack nodded at his group. "Let's go!"

*

They moved with the practised fluidity of soldiers accustomed to both stealth and battle. Rooms were searched efficiently and thoroughly, beginning at the lowest levels of the base and moving steadily upwards.

Lights shone into places that otherwise did not see illumination, and cobwebs gleamed ghostly amidst swirling dust.

Teal'c moved through the rooms with the Special Forces men and women assigned to him. He barely had to command them, so competent were they. Each storeroom, office, and lab was searched with clinical neatness.

He was not so sure about the wisdom of this course of action, although his initial thought had been what spurred O'Neill to instigate this search. Were Major Carter and Daniel Jackson not from this reality, and were there others, then searching the base would only alert them to the fact that they were discovered.

But he led the SFs through the complex, room by room. Finding nothing but dust and fluff gathering in old, unused corners.

Level after level was searched with no luck, and Teal'c was beginning to doubt his suggestion. It had been merely an impulse with little enough proof or rationality behind it. And yet, with the solution Colonel Maybourne presented them, he knew that this could so easily explain the odd behaviour of his team-mates.

And then they found it.

It was tucked away behind a maze of shelving in a storeroom filled with odds and ends that were rarely used. Storeroom P on level 20 - filled with old filing cabinets, paper files mouldering in the dark. "It's the perfect place for it," one of the SFs remarked as his colleague sneezed. He glanced around the room with a sharp eye. "It's somewhere people don't go too often, but not completely out of the way, useful but not used - so no cameras." He shone his gun-light at the empty corners of the irregularly-shaped room.

Teal'c thumbed his radio and called the other search group. "O'Neill"

It crackled to life. "Found anything?"

"We have located the transdimensional mirror in store 20-P." Teal'c shone his light on a pink and blue item nearby. "There appears to be a controller with it." He felt intense satisfaction that his guess had been correct.

"Copy that, Teal'c. Is the area locked down?"

Teal'c glanced at the captain of the SFs who made a few gestures to his teams and then nodded at Teal'c. "It is locked down."

"Right. I'll inform Hammond. I guess they aren't ours after all." His reference to Daniel Jackson and Major Carter seemed weary. "Hold a defensive position, buddy, we'll be there in a minute."

While waiting for his friend to arrive, Teal'c studied the mirror. It seemed harmless enough at first sight - just another strange item in a galaxy full of strange items.

But through it, realities could be reached where things were vastly different to how they were here. Worlds existed where Teal'c had never been challenged to give up his allegiance to Apophis. Worlds existed where the Jaffa never knew the truth of the parasites they served. Worlds existed where he and O'Neill and Major Carter and Daniel Jackson were dead and gone - to the Goa'uld, to a mission SG-1 had survived in this world, to a catastrophe averted in this reality by some small thing of which they were completely unaware...

Jaffa were not trained to speculate. Speculation led to independent thought and independent thought led to rebellion - and the Goa'uld did not want a Jaffa rebellion. But the two people impersonating Teal'c's team-mates were close enough to Daniel Jackson and Major Carter to pass at a first and second glance and yet be subtly different.

There would be people outside the SGC who would demand to know why those closest to Major Carter and Daniel Jackson had not noticed the change, and why it had been brought to the attention of the SGC only through the investigation by the NID. Politicians like Kinsey, detractors of the Stargate programme, people who had no concept of the daily pressure under which the SGC operated - they would see the situation and demand changes.

Teal'c felt responsible for not having noticed the difference in his friends earlier. He also knew that between the NID's intrusion into the SGC and Agent Sykes' machinations, there had been neither time nor place to question the slightly odd behaviour of two people - even close friends.

There was the sound of boots outside the door and O'Neill entered the room. "Hammond's informed. He's getting Daniel and Carter out of detention. Or whoever they are." A glint in dark eyes indicated that O'Neill was decidedly unhappy about this turn of events. Like Teal'c, O'Neill disliked having the wool pulled over his eyes. He glanced over at the mirror. "That's it, huh?"

"It is."

A thought occurred to Teal'c - if they were to clear their team-mates' names in the eyes of the NID, they would require witnesses in the form of the NID agents. "O'Neill."

"Yeah?"

"Agent Sykes should witness this." If they were to see their team-mates cleared of the accusations being levelled against them, the presence of the agents of the NID was imperative.

"Good idea." O'Neill called up to the general's office again and they listened as the PA system hailed Agent Sykes to storeroom 20-P. Then, upon hanging up, O'Neill placed another call - this one apparently to the SGC quartermaster's office. "I need someone down at storeroom 20-P with a videocamera pronto. Actually, send two."

Upon seeing Teal'c's faint frown, O'Neill elaborated. "We need video proof of this - both of their responses and of the mirror in action. It'll make the case for Carter and Daniel's acquittal much easier."

Teal'c acknowledged the cunning in what O'Neill had said. While the proof would be there for Agent Sykes, it would be best if the SGC could procure concrete evidence that the people who had been accused of the technology theft were not the people they appeared to be.

The camcorder arrived just ahead of Daniel Jackson and Major Carter. O'Neill gave the SFs soft instructions about what to record, and, although their surprise was evident, the two men merely nodded, trusting O'Neill's wishes in this.

When their 'team-mates' were escorted in, Teal'c observed them very carefully. Now that he was certain of the difference between these and his team-mates, he saw many small habits of movement that were not quite the habits he had become accustomed to in his team-mates over the years.

To the casual observer, the pair looked as if they were merely taking a stroll, in spite of the guards at their back, hemming them in. If they had reactions to being brought here, they were carefully disguised.

Daniel Jackson - or the man impersonating him - reacted first. "Hey Jack, hey Teal'c. What's going on here?" The casual curiosity indicated the storeroom and the camcorders spotting their reactions.

O'Neill indicated the shadowy form of the mirror behind an SF. "I might ask you the same thing, Dr. Jackson."

The use of the formal name and the sight of the mirror caused Daniel Jackson's brows to rise in apparent surprise. However, it was feigned. Teal'c saw the faint tightening of the eyes and knew that they had arrived upon the truth. The people who claimed to be their team-mates were not.

A glance at Major Carter bore out that supposition. There was no expression on her features and it was this that screamed more clearly that this was not the woman Teal'c knew. Over the years, Major Carter had learned to maintain a neutral expression in all situations, but her team-mates had become adept at reading the slight changes in facial musculature which she could not control.

This woman who was not Major Carter - not the Major Carter that Teal'c knew - had learned complete control of her face. However, in this instance, rather than betraying no emotion, her lack of emotion betrayed her.

"You are not they," he said quietly, all warmth gone from his voice. "Where are they?"

"Teal'c?" Major Carter asked, feigning concern. "What do you mean by 'they'?"

O'Neill snorted. "You're no fool, Major. In this reality or any other. What have you done with our team-mates?"

"Your--"

"And what did you do with the technology you stole?"

"Ah, Colonel O'Neill." Agent Sykes entered the room, pushing past the bulky SFs who cluttered the narrow aisles between cabinets. "So glad you've come around to our way of thinking."

O'Neill glared at the man's smug attitude, but his tones were civil, if curt. "Not quite the way you're expecting, Sykes."

Behind Agent Sykes, another man slipped in, slimmer and less bulky, but the cool grey eyes flickered over the room and missed little. He remained silent as his colleague asked, "Oh? Not quite the way I'm expecting? Technology theft is technology theft, Colonel."

"Yeah, but it's who's stealing the tech."

"It's your team-mates stealing the technology, Colonel," Agent Sykes said with quiet unpleasantness. "We have them recorded on film and experts have confirmed that there's been no tampering with the tape. So, unless you're going to claim that these two people here aren't Major Carter and Dr. Jackson."

"Agent Sykes," O'Neill drawled, "That's exactly what I'm going to claim."

The agent snorted, contemptuous of O'Neill's assertion. "And exactly what do you base your claim on, Colonel?"

O'Neill's gesture sent the NID agent's gaze to the mirror. Agent Sykes looked back at him with no comprehension. "And?"

"Watch, Marky," O'Neill drawled. From the malicious glint in his team-mate's eye, Teal'c surmised that O'Neill was doing his best to be a thorn in the flesh of Agent Marcus Sykes. "And learn. Controller?"

One of the SF's brought it forward and offered it to O'Neill. O'Neill indicated Dr. Jackson.

"Now, Dr. Jackson, you're going to open the mirror and find your own reality."

Daniel Jackson's eyes were hard. "To what purpose, Jack?"

"To getting my team back and sending you home." Dr. Jackson's mouth opened, but O'Neill held up one hand. "Save it. You'd have to have a way of getting back where you came from..."

"Maybe we don't," said the other Major Carter in carefully uninflected tones. "Maybe we want to stay here."

O'Neill shrugged, ignoring the satisfaction he must have felt at gaining an admission - however oblique - from the pair. "Then stay here." Faster than the eye could watch - faster than either Dr. Jackson or Major Carter could track - O'Neill drew his sidearm from its holster and had it pointed at Daniel Jackson's counterpart. "But you're going to stay here in a long, wooden box buried six feet below ground. That's assuming that I care enough to actually have you buried instead of thrown into an incoming wormhole."

"Such a way with words," Daniel Jackson remarked sardonically. "You wouldn't shoot me."

O'Neill bared his teeth, "Try me."

This was a side of O'Neill that Teal'c had only seen once before, previously emerging when people under his command had been in danger. Then, the rage had been hot and fierce; now, the anger was icy and white. The hand pointing the gun at Daniel Jackson didn't shake and the face was set in deadly intent. O'Neill would pull the trigger on the man who wore the face of their friend if he deemed it necessary.

As the other Daniel took the pink and blue item in his hands, he hesitated, shooting a glance first at Major Carter's counterpart, then at O'Neill. O'Neill responded to that look, his words soft and deadly. "Find your world, Dr. Jackson."

• * *

It wasn't quite a migrane. Close, as Jack would say, but no cigar.

His temples throbbed lightly and his forehead felt curiously constricted, but it wasn't quite a migrane.

Something was seriously wrong - and Daniel wasn't talking about their incarceration in the cell. Something felt wrong about this scenario. He glanced over at Sam, who was sitting on the side of her pallet, her head in her hands.

Her knuckles were white.

Concern for her knocked all other considerations of wrongness from his mind. "Sam? Sam, are you okay?"

More slowly than he liked, she raised her head. "Daniel?"

"How are you, Sam?"

For a moment, Daniel wasn't sure she was going to answer. Then, "Headache."

"You, too?"

"The last...couple of days."

"And you didn't say anything?" There were people who kept a stiff upper lip, and then there were the Sam Carters of the world. "And Jack thinks I don't take care of myself," he muttered as he went to the corner of the cell - the closest corner of the door and started yelling to attract the attention of the guard. "Hey! Hey there! You outside! Hey!"

He didn't need to turn around to know that Sam was wincing with his every yell. His own skull throbbed in sympathy - but he had to get some medical attention for Sam - and possibly for himself.

At last, the door opened and an SF looked in. "Yeah?"

"Got any Tylenol? We've got major headaches."

The woman smirked at him. "Dr. Jackson, they don't issue Tylenol in big enough tables to fix what ails you."

"And what ails us?" Daniel leaped on the fact that the SF knew what was happening.

She seemed indifferent to his interest. "It won't kill you. You might wish to die, but it won't kill you - not for another couple of years anyway."

Cryptic. And very unhelpful - both in a specific sense and in a general sense. Daniel decided to try another tack. "Why haven't we seen anyone from the NID around here?"

Since Jack had come to see them and dropped the news about the NID and Maybourne, there had been no further visits from either of their team-mates. Food was delivered and collected, they were permitted to go to the bathroom, but they were heavily guarded along the way.

The SF looked narrowly at him, her mouth firmly closed around anything she might have otherwise said. Daniel nearly sighed. She wouldn't be giving them any information. Or any tylenol, judging by her expression.

"Question time's over, Dr. Jackson." The door shut behind her mockery with a harsh steel clang.

Daniel looked over his shoulder at his suffering team-mate and grimaced. "Helpful bunch aren't they?"

Sam was staring at the closed door as if she'd never seen it before. "Daniel."

"Yeah?"

She stood up and came over to the bars, holding out her arm to him. Daniel stared at her arm, not sure what was happening here. "Pinch me."

"Uh, why?"

"Because I'm not sure if I'm dreaming."

"I'm pretty sure you're not," Daniel said mildly, reaching out and taking her shoulder in his hand. "When was the last time you dreamed about being imprisoned?"

She looked at him, now, focusing on his face. "After the Conrad kidnapping."

"Oh." Whoops. "Um...I mean that if you had a choice to dream about anything..."

"...I wouldn't dream myself in a holding cell - I know, Daniel." The circles under her eyes were large and dark and made her seem fragile. Sam was almost never fragile - even under the worst of pressure there was a resiliance about her that made her seem like she could carry the weight of the world on her shoulders. Still... "Something's wrong here."

"Off-kilter."

"Out of tune."

"The translation doesn't convey the correct meaning." Daniel was enjoying this.

So was she. "The program has a syntax error."

The shared moment of amusement swept the weariness from them - if only briefly. Then seriousness returned.

"The woman guarding the door..." Sam paused, a frown creasing her brow. "I think... She's supposed to be dead."

Daniel blinked. "She looks pretty live to me."

"I know. That's what's got me confused." Her gaze tried to pierce through the solid metal of the door, as if she could divine an understanding of what was happening here. "She was one of Maybourne's rogues - one of the group that the Colonel infiltrated and captured."

He filed the matter of the SF being one of Maybourne's people away in his mind for later perusal.

"Weren't they on death row?"

"They were. She skipped the jail term and hung herself." Sam's face was slightly stiff. It seemed the woman's death had been personal in some way.

"You knew her?"

"Sort of. Lieutenant Claire Tobias. Mechanical engineering and metallurgy at the Academy - top of her year. Applied for the SGC once she got out - back in the first year of operation of the Stargates. At the time, they didn't need or want any more people in the sciences, though."

Daniel glanced in the direction of the door. From this angle, he could barely see the SF in question - just the line of her jaw through her shoulder-length blonde hair under the cap. "So she ended up with Maybourne."

"I guess so."

"And you're sure she's dead?"

Sam gave him a hard glance. "I went to the funeral. In the year between when General West kicked me off the Stargate project and when General Hammond opened it back up, I did some teaching at the Academy. She was one of the students I tutored."

That was the personal link, then. Sam had her 'proteges' in the SGC scientific fields, just as Daniel did in the linguistic, archaeological fields.

"So she's supposed to be dead."

"But she's not."

"And she's working in an installation where the merest hint of her presence is completely wrong." Daniel shook his head and looked back at Sam. "Does it strike you how ironic it is that we're accused of technology theft, but someone who's been convicted of it is guarding the door."

"This isn't about the technology theft, Daniel."

"I know," he responded. "There'd be a lot more procedure."

"And there'd have been NID and other government bodies climbing over each other to interrogate us," Sam said. "The technology theft is an excuse to keep us in here. If we really had been caught stealing, the subsequent investigation would make a circus look like a Sunday afternoon spent watching 'I Love Lucy'." She huffed and turned away, headed back for the bed, her hands coming up to massage her skull. "Nothing is making sense, Daniel. It's like the world's gone topsy-turvy."

Topsy-turvy... A trickle of lightning and ice ran the length of Daniel's spine. "Or back-to-front," he murmured.

Sam glanced over her shoulder, her expression plainly puzzled.

And suddenly everything fit. "Mirror-image," he said. "It's all the wrong way around... Sam, we're not in our reality at all!"

She blinked. "We destroyed the mirror."

"No, we didn't," he said, seeing the error in her logic - the gap between the two stages that made the situation possible. "We sent it to Area 51 to be destroyed. What if someone intercepted it and took it away?"

"It's useless, Daniel. Without the controller, we had no way to determine where the mirror opened."

He held up one hand, "What if they thought they could create one? You know what the scientists at Area 51 are like." Daniel had briefly met Rodney McKay as he saw off General Chekov of Russia at the airfield. He'd been very glad it was only a brief meeting. And I thought I could get pretty arrogant.

"Speculation, Daniel." But she had turned around and come back to meet him at the bars.

"It's the best explanation we have so far. And just because we don't have the controller doesn't mean that someone else doesn't have one which they can use to reach our reality." And it would be just like Maybourne and his group to fail to consider the consequences of leaving the 'door open' between their reality and any other that cared to invade.

"We're in another reality?"

"Yes."

"We can't be. We've been in here longer than forty-eight hours - cascade tremors should have taken over by now."

"The headaches."

"Cascade tremors are a lot stronger than headaches."

"Kawalsky didn't get the cascade tremors when Dr. Carter did. Maybe we're not getting the full force of it because our counterparts aren't in this reality."

"So where are they?"

Daniel shrugged, indicating that he didn't know. "Back in our reality?"

"Being us." Now she was starting to warm to the idea. "So they're in our reality being us..." Sam made her own leap of understanding. "Stealing technology from our reality."

Daniel blinked. It was appalling, but it made sense. "You think..."

"Tobias became one of Maybourne's rogues and the Colonel mentioned technology theft."

In all the realities they'd yet met - all two of them - they'd always come across their counterparts doing pretty much the same kind of thing that they themselves were doing. They went through the Stargate to explore new worlds, make new allies, and find technologies useful in defeating the Goa'uld.

Of course, Daniel had been dead in both realities, which wasn't a good thing from Daniel's point of view. Now, having found a reality where his counterpart was both living and involved with the SGC, the Dr. Daniel Jackson of this world didn't seem like the kind of person Daniel would be particularly proud to be.

It wasn't a nice thought. It wasn't a pleasant contemplation to think that there, but for the grace of God, went they. That a darker version of themselves existed.

"So how do we get back, then?" Daniel asked.

"Why are you asking me?"

"You're the scientist. I'm just the translator."

Again, humour helped. "Yes, Daniel. Assuming that your hypothesis is right and we're in another reality, we're stuck here. At least until they decide to return us." She winced, grabbing hold of the bars to steady herself. "If these are cascade tremors, why aren't you feeling them like I am?"

"Are you okay?"

She grimaced, but straightened and walked back to the bed, her back ramrod stiff. Daniel watched her, anxiously. "We could try to get medical help for you and stage a breakout," he suggested, not entirely joking.

The look she gave him halted that idea at the outset. "And run where? We don't know where they're holding the mirror. We don't know how to find our reality or where the mirror is there. We don't even know what they plan for us - for all we know the exchange might be permanent - especially if our counterparts were involved in technology theft of some kind."

"The ultimate getaway."

"Something like that." Sam leaned back on the bunk with an audible sigh.

"Are you sure you're..."

"Daniel, just leave it." Little Miss Stiff-Upper-Lip struck again.

Daniel left it and went back to his bunk, his mind full of questions.

At last, he ventured the only one that really worried him. "What if they don't intend us to go back alive? What we can't tell, they can't fear."

She grimaced, "Then we're in trouble, Daniel."

The faint beep of the card reader outside the door was their only warning before it was opened and Jack, Teal'c, and two SFs walked in. They all carried zat guns and one of the SFs turned to deactivate the locking mechanism for the cells.

"Hey kids," O'Neill said. His tone of voice was playful, but the eyes were hard. "How's it going?"

"It'll get a lot better if you tell us we're going back to our universe," Daniel told him.

"You guys always were the brains of the outfit. Good to see some things don't change."

"Sad to see some things do, Colonel." Sam's voice was carefully uninflected, but O'Neill regarded her with harsh eyes.

"You do what you gotta do, Major. Or don't they teach that in your military?"

"Did it have to be this way?" That was Daniel's question. He expected some kind of regret, some kind of anger - something that could connect this man with the Jack O'Neill whom Daniel worked with.

There was nothing. Just sardonic contempt for them.

"There are other ways, Colonel."

"Perhaps," he said, smiling unpleasantly. "But what's done is done and cannot be undone - as Daniel is always telling me." The doors finally slid back and the muzzle of an activated zat was pointed at each. "Now, come along quietly and nobody will get hurt."

They looked at each other, reading the uncertainty in each other's eyes, until Sam shrugged and stepped forward to follow one of the SFs out the door.

"Good girl, Major," crooned O'Neill. He stepped in behind her, keeping a step or two behind, and leaving the zat trained on her back.

Daniel followed, with Teal'c behind him, feeling decidedly itchy between his shoulderblades as he walked along the corridors. Sam glanced backwards once, just to check on him; he gave her a quick smile to show he was okay.

"Keep moving, Major," O'Neill sounded pissed off about something.

Understanding dawned a few minutes later as they were ushered into a room guarded by six more armed SFs - and containing the trans-dimensional mirror. It was on and through the mirror could be seen a very pissed off Jack holding a gun to the head of...one Daniel Jackson.

"Wow," Daniel muttered. "Jack's really not happy about this..."

Sam gave him a sidewise glance and appropriated one of Jack's witticisms, "Ya think?"

A comedic mime followed where the two Colonels both attempted to indicate that they weren't going to step through the mirror to the other side for the exchange of prisoners, and neither side seemed to be willing to send their prisoners over lest they fail to get their people back.

It was really quite funny when all was said and done.

"Wouldn't it be easier to get a pen and paper and write your demands on it?" Sam asked, her voice dripping honeyed innocence.

O'Neill glared at her, "Shut up."

But he sent someone out to get paper and pen.

"Actually," Daniel suggested after another mimed exchange bore no fruit, "It would make more sense for you to go through the mirror."

"And why would that be, Dr. Jackson?"

"Because you're people started this, Colonel," Daniel responded. "You owe us the gesture of trust."

O'Neill glared at him, venomously. Daniel held the gaze. He'd had worse from Jack in his time - and he'd survived. Not without scars of course, but survived.

At last, he glanced at Teal'c and jerked his head towards the mirror. "All right then." He took his zat and laid it against Sam's nape. "Turn around, Carter." The tone of his voice was silken, and yet razor sharp. "Slowly."

Sam turned, and as she turned, he stepped around her until he was between her and the mirror, facing the people in the room. The hand with the zat touched her neck - almost caressing it, and Daniel saw her stiffen in sudden tension. With his other hand, he reached behind him, touching the mirror's surface...

And they were gone.

*

She was facing a room full of people. Familiar people. Known people.

Dark eyes met hers for a considering moment, before the Colonel's mouth quirked, "Good to see you again, Carter."

"Technically, sir, you've been seeing 'me' these last two days." Her eyes flickered to the woman standing proud and tall with Teal'c's bulk behind her. She'd done this before with Dr. Carter - although at least this time there weren't going to be any hair jokes. She hoped.

"It always has to get technical with you, doesn't it?" Yes, she'd missed this. The affectionate teasing of a friend instead of the harsh tones of a stranger.

A faint buzzing noise heralded Daniel and the other Teal'c's emergence through the mirror. "Hey Jack! Hey Teal'c! Miss us?"

At least Daniel was feeling ebullient.

"Am I always like this?" Daniel-the-other asked with a faintly disgusted tone in his voice.

"Nope," the Colonel - Sam's Colonel - said. "Sometimes you're worse."

"Gee, thanks, Jack." Daniel didn't seem fazed by the Colonel's sarcasm.

"I hate to interrupt the homecoming speeches," drawled the O'Neill behind her. "But what now?"

"We swap prisoners, you go home, you don't come back."

Sam didn't need to turn around to know that the peppered eyebrows rose in curious query. "What? We don't even sit down for peace talks? We have stuff you could use, you know."

"You have stuff that was ours," the Colonel said. "The stuff that you were caught stealing on the security cameras?"

"Ah, yes," Dr. Jackson said. "That stuff. Unfortunately for you and your Agent Sykes," he gave a mocking little bow to a man Sam hadn't seen standing in the dimly-lit background of the storage room, "The items that we took were passed through to our side and have since been passed along to...certain organisations happy to receive them."

"But it wasn't my team-mates who took the items, correct?" The Colonel seemed very determined to prove this point. It seemed that the mention of technology theft by O'Neill in the other reality hadn't been all the far off.

Sam's mind attempted to race through the ramifications, but was dragged back from her speculation by Major Carter's next words.

"No, it wasn't your precious team-mates, Colonel." Mockery dripped from her tones, clipped and brutal. "But the offer still stands. We have a lot that we could offer you..."

"Items stolen from other worlds?" Sam qualified, meeting her counterpart's eyes squarely.

"The only way to get them, Major," Major Carter's eyes sparkled.

She restrained the retort she wanted to give, and turned to look at the Colonel. In his eyes, she saw the proud inflexibility of his honour system - she understood this man and what drove him. "It's not worth having, sir."

"You'd do the same if you had to keep your world free of the Goa'uld," Dr Jackson spat, turning his head to glance from the Colonel to Daniel. "If you had no other choice."

"There were other choices, Doctor Jackson," Teal'c said. "It appears you chose not to take them."

"We kept this world free of the Goa'uld," the Colonel said. "We haven't had to stoop so low as to steal technologies from our allies or from other worlds."

Behind her O'Neill snorted, "And if you had to, Jack?"

"I haven't yet." The Colonel retorted.

"And never will?" O'Neill's lip curled. "Commendable. Stupid, but commendable."

"Just think of what you could do if you had the technology," said Sam's counterpart. She met Sam's eyes squarely - it was like looking into a mirror. Yet Sam was sure the harshness in the eyes of the other woman had never been seen in her own. She hoped it hadn't. The woman before her had forgone honour in exchange for security - and if Major Carter was anything like Sam, then surely there would be moments of guilt, of introspection, of dissatisfaction. The other woman would have to live with what she had made of herself - and the question remained whether that could be done. "Think of what you could achieve if you had just a little of what we have..."

"How about we just do the prisoner swap and get you guys the hell out of here?" The Colonel said. He prodded the other Daniel forward as Teal'c pushed the other Sam Carter towards her team.

The 'handover' was conducted with a little awkwardness and a lot of wariness. It was plain to see that neither Colonel trusted the other as far as he could throw him and the exchange was nervous for all parties. She breathed a sigh of relief when both Daniel and she, and Dr. Jackson and Major Carter had edged their circular way back to their own 'side' of the room.

They eyed each other off, very aware of the similarities between them but too conscious of the differences.

Was this what we could have become, given the chance? This woman whose eyes mirror my own with a mirror's corresponding hardness - what is it that drives her to do what she's done? What things have made me into her?

Then her counterpart moved towards the SF with the controller still in his hands. Instinctively, he made a move to give it to her but was stalled by the Colonel's sharp movement.

"We're keeping that."

One of the SFs flipped the safety catch off his weapon as the alternate O'Neill asked, "Oh really?"

Colonel O'Neill was serene, in control of the situation, "Yes, really."

"So you can do what we've done?"

"So you can't do what you've been doing," Colonel O'Neill replied. "At least not to other realities."

The other man's eyes narrowed and for a moment it looked like he'd lunge for the controller. Then he jerked his head at the mirror. "Back through, guys."

"Jack..."

"Daniel, we're going."

"Sir, the controller..."

"Carter, I'm well aware of that!" It seemed that whatever O'Neill had spotted in the Colonel's eyes, he knew they weren't going to get the controller back. "We. Are. Leaving."

"Wait."

The interjection surprised them all - they stared at the Colonel - Sam's Colonel - as if he'd lost his mind. He pointed his beretta at first Daniel, then Dr. Jackson. "Shirts off."

"What?"

"Jack..."

"Just strip. I want to check something."

Daniel obviously wanted to protest, but he trusted the Colonel enough to obey without question - even if he was going to take him to task later. Dr. Jackson smirked. "You know, if you really wanted me, you only had to say..."

"Ha-ha, Dr. Jackson." The Colonel was decidedly unamused as Dr. Jackson stripped off the fatigues jacket and t-shirt in an unexpectedly showy manner.

"Exactly what did you want to check, Jack?" Daniel sounded grumpy. He also sounded faintly embarrassed. Probably comparing himself against his counterpart and finding himself lacking.

"Turn around."

The two backs were more or less identical - save for the tattoo - an eye staring balefully from within a triangle.

"Right. Just checking that we have the correct people. You can get dressed again." Daniel immediately took his t-shirt back from the SF holding it. Sam saw the grimace as he pulled it over his head. Their clothes must truly reek by now - they'd been gone for...what...nearly five days? First things first, Sam was going to have the longest, hottest, most soapy shower ever known in the history of the SGC.

"Prurience satisfied?"

The Colonel's eyes narrowed, but he answered the question. "Quite."

O'Neill's show of good cheer dropped like the mask it was. "Then we're out of here."

The Colonel waved his hand out in a gesture of sweeping mockery. "Be our guests, SG-1."

"So kind."

The other SG-1 backed off towards the mirror, but it appeared Colonel O'Neill couldn't resist one more jab. He waved. Jauntily. "Have a nice reality."

The insincerity of O'Neill's smile was practically poisonous. "You too." The softest crackling sizzle of energy, and the other team vanished through the proverbial looking-glass to their own world.

"Close it down," the Colonel ordered.

The world on the other side of the mirror faded to black; their paths left to diverge again and move in concert with their own choices. Without the image of the other room, the storeroom suddenly seemed very small and dimly lit. Almost claustrophobic.

Sam took a deep breath and let it out. She wanted a shower. And some decent food - a nice restaurant where she could have something fresh, not the MREs they'd been fed in the cells. And she wanted to go topside and look at the stars. God, she'd missed the stars during those five days underground.

And there was nothing standing in her way.

Her headache was gone, her team-mates were here, the charges of technology theft were gone...

A man coughed by the door. "There is the matter of the accusations of stolen technology."

Sam looked up, surprised. The speaker didn't look like someone who belonged in the SGC. He looked 'foreign' - not in terms of nationality, but in the way he stood, in the wary, watchful manner of someone who knew that this was not his place and no quarter was to be given. The man standing behind him, further in shadow, seemed to hold a similar pose. However, that man made it clear that, while he was no part of the SGC, he was also distant from the man in front.

"Ah. Agent Marcus Sykes. I don't believe you've met Dr. Daniel Jackson and Major Samantha Carter." No doubt about it - the Colonel was enjoying this to the hilt. "You've met their evil twins--"

"People responsible for the theft of technology--" Agent Sykes interrupted.

"People who admitted it," snapped back Colonel O'Neill. A harder note had entered his voice. No doubt he could sense the fight in the other man the way Sam and the SF's could - the tension growing in pace with the Agent's frustration with the situation.

She guessed that the man had been brought in to investigate the technology theft and found all his Christmases come at once when her counterpart and Daniel's turned up guilty. The sound of the hallelujah chorus must have been deafening at NID headquarters when the news was relayed to them that Major Sam Carter and Dr. Daniel Jackson were stealing alien technology.

"If their counterparts could do such a thing, the whole situation bears further investigation..." It appeared that Agent Sykes was less than willing to give back the ground he'd taken.

Colonel O'Neill snorted. "Nice try, Sykes. But there isn't a court in the country you could take that argument before. Assuming they even bought your story about alternate universes and decisions, they are not us. And you don't have a single thing to bring against Carter or Daniel - not in this world - and probably not in the next." He didn't bother to disguise his satisfaction in the situation - or his dislike of the Agent. "So you and your coterie of little hanger-on Agents can get the hell off this base."

Sykes' expression went ugly - really ugly. Sam tensed slightly as her instincts responded to the undisguised menace of the other man against her CO. Then a SF stepped forward, deliberately cocking his weapon, although the muzzle of the gun was pointed up at the ceiling. The reminder that the room was full of military personnel, not one of whom had a reason to particularly like the NID agent, reined his temper in - just.

"I think," said the man behind Sykes quietly, "That the SGC has done an excellent job of finding out the truth behind the missing technology." With a start, Sam realised she knew the man whose voice issued from the shadows. "It's very unfortunate that the zeal of the NID was, in this case, misplaced."

"Quite," said the Colonel, flatly.

Agent Sykes looked like he was capable of spitting nails. The look he shot the man behind him was deadly. "You think they'll be nice to you for taking their side, Barrett? You're NID, same as me."

"And so I am," Agent Barrett said with no particular inflection.

It seemed that Agent Sykes was less than willing to give up his fury at being cheated of his prize - a free investigative rein in the SGC. His glare was decidely malevolent. "You realise, I'm going to press for a full investigation into your colleagues, Colonel." Then he was gone, his footsteps clipped and angry against the cement floor.

Agent Barrett watched him go, then glanced beyond the Colonel at Sam and Daniel, and his gaze held Sam's for a moment longer than anyone else's. "There's no doubting you have a way with the NID, Colonel."

He turned on his heel and was interrupted by the Colonel. "Agent Barrett."

"Colonel?"

"The NID can have the mirror if you like."

Sam stared at the Colonel, wondering if she was in the wrong reality after all. Offering the NID the AU mirror was tantamount to offering them a 'get all the technology you want free' card. It would start with 'judicious exploration of other universes' and end with going through the mirror with exactly the same intentions as the other Major Carter and Dr Jackson.

"Jack, you're not serious!" Daniel exploded, not bothering to wait for any hint of what the Colonel was planning - and he had to be planning something.

"I'm deadly serious, Daniel."

"You're going to give them a licence to do exactly what that other reality was doing--? "

"Oh hush, Daniel."

Agent Barrett stared at the Colonel for a long quiet moment. Sam knew the agent was no fool. "You don't have the authorisation to give us the mirror, Colonel."

"But I can put a good word in."

"And, even if you did get to say what happened to the mirror," Agent Barrett said in thoughtful tones, "you'd keep the controller, correct?"

The merest hint of a smile gleamed on the Colonel's face. "You're good. Yeah, we keep the controller."

"Colonel, as you know, without the controller, the mirror is more or less useless - except as a magnet for people travelling between worlds. You want the NID to expend energy and output on an item that has no practical use without the controller?"

"Why not? Carter here spends a lot of time trying to get gadgets to work. Even once they do, they're not always useful."

"Think of it as an exercise in co-operation between the SGC and the NID," Daniel offered. "If you want to work with the mirror, you'll have to reach an agreement with us. And vice-versa."

Barrett looked from Daniel to the Colonel, and on to Sam. He looked at the mirror, his mental processes opaque to Sam as he contemplated his options.

Finally, he lifted his gaze and said, "Very well. If you're going to offer us the mirror without the controller, we'll take it. Never look a gift horse in the mouth. Even if the gift horse is a nag." There was no mistaking the pointedness of that comment and the Colonel looked, if not precisely abashed, at least not entirely triumphant. "Or should I fear the Greeks when they come bearing gifts?" A wry smile quirked his lips. "Major Carter, Dr. Jackson. Welcome home." And with a slight inclination of the head at the Colonel and Teal'c, Agent Malcolm Barrett took his leave with considerably more grace than his fellow NID agent.

"I can't believe you gave them the mirror, Jack!" Daniel expostulated almost the instant the agent left the room. "Now if we want to go through the mirror we have to negotiate with them."

"Hey, you supported it!" The Colonel was non-plussed by Daniel's sudden attack. "Besides, we won't want to go through the mirror, Daniel. Hammond doesn't like it - hell, I don't like it."

Daniel glanced at Sam and rolled his eyes.

The Colonel pointed at the controller. "You know, if you don't want to be here, Daniel, we can always send you back."

Sam grinned. "It's good to be back, sir."

"It would be even better if we could get to the locker rooms for a long-awaited shower," Daniel added, picking at his jacket. "Another day and my clothes will be moving of their own accord."

"I think that classifies as too much information, Daniel." The Colonel wrinkled his nose. "And you reek."

"Try being stuck in a prison cell for...what day is this?"

Colonel O'Neill checked his watch. "It's been so busy I don't know what day of the week it is." He blinked and tapped his watch. "Saturday. Yeesh. That's the whole week gone."

"Saturday. That's five days without a shower, Jack. You try smelling like peaches after that!"

They'd moved out into the corridor, leaving the SFs to sort out what was to happen with the mirror. SG-1 had other concerns.

"Daniel, if your ultimate goal is to smell like peaches, then you have your priorities all wrong."

"Hey, I'm not the one who uses that 'Wild Thing' deodorant," Daniel glanced at Sam and smirked. She shook her head at him, half-smiling at his teasing.

"Yeah, and who borrows it because the nurses like it?" Now it was Daniel's turn to go a distinctive shade of scarlet.

Teal'c regarded first one man, then the other. Then he turned to her. "Major Carter."

"Yes, Teal'c?"

"I have not missed this."

Sam ignored the offended expressions of her team-mates and laughed.

*

The stocky figure slipped into the house under the cover of darkness. The street behind him was mostly deserted, but he moved like a shadow. As he'd told Jack nearly a year ago, he'd always been good at hiding.

He'd considered leaving it at the Major's place. However, her apartment presented considerable difficulties since there were security measures all through the building. A leftover paranoia from the NID's invasion into her home or from her kidnapping by Conrad? Harry wondered.

Hiding the component was his insurance.

Not that he didn't trust Jack, just that Harry knew perfectly well that his return to the SGC was going to be rocky. It wasn't that the SGC saw Harry as bad - at least, not any more - it was just that Harry had a rather more flexible view of the world than the military encouraged. And, sooner or later, it was going to be a problem since the SGC didn't have a place for someone with that kind of latitude.

Of course, General Hammond had authorised Harry's reinstatement, but that had been desperate measures. What happened when the desperate times ended?

He had no fear that Jack would be home. SG-1 had organised a little dinner outing and Harry had done a drive-by check at the restaurant before turning up four streets away from Jack's house. Get-out-of-jail-free cards notwithstanding, some habits were hard to break.

The wooden door was hard under his knuckles, but the tumblers clicked with mechanical ease and Harry shook his head. Jack really needed to institute some serious security here. He had an entertainment system that would make a professional thief drool. And it was probable that Jack had at least one or two items of loaded weaponry around.

Dead children notwithstanding, some habits were very hard to break.

He knew where he was going - the house had hardly changed in the three years since Harry had invited Jack to join the 'black market' team of Stargaters and thereby paved his way into exile.

It was just a photo on a bookshelf - a bunch of men, in their early thirties, grinning at the camera.

Who were they? Harry didn't care. For this much, they were his cover - his insurance. At least one part of it - he had several.

He slipped the component he was rapidly coming to think of as 'the chip' into the space between the backing and the photo. It wasn't long - shorter than the length between his middle finger's top joint and the tip of the finger. And it was less than a millimetre thick.

He studied the photo by the street light, angling it to be sure that there was no suspicious bulkiness in the photo. There wasn't. He set it down, not seeing the men whose time-stilled faces looked out of the frame, flat and static.

He blew the dust gently back over the shelf, changed the angle of the photo a little, and then left the house, closing the door softly behind him.

FIN

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