DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters and property of Stargate SG-1 belong to MGM/UA, World Gekko Corp. and Double Secret Productions.  This fan fiction was created solely for entertainment purposes and no money was made from it.  Also, no copyright or trademark infringement was intended.  Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.  Any other characters, the storyline and the actual story are the property of the author.  Not to be archived without permission of the author(s).

We keep to the trees as much as possible. My first instinct is to head straight for our cars, but that might lead us straight into a trap; we don't know which road Red and company came in on.

*God, I wish to hell I'd told somebody where I was going...*

Daniel's holding up pretty well, but he's a long way from top form...

I broke open one of the MRE's at our last break and he picked at his share...probably just to keep me from nagging. He's too damn quiet....

His body's going through the motions, but his mind....

*How far away is Abydos, anyway?

Life, Fate, God...Somebody...owes Daniel bigtime...*

The stuff he's already been through in his life is bad enough, but now he gets slammed down by this one and isn't even allowed enough time to start to deal with it when life slams him again...

*Strange thing that Daniel doesn't like sports...he sure gets thrown enough curve balls...*

I can see in Daniel's eyes that he's balancing on a thin line; trying to control that soul-deep grief that shouldn't need to be held in...can't be held in. There may not be any visible injury, but there's not a doubt in my mind that my friend is walking wounded...and part of me is just waiting for the other shoe to drop...

I just hope he can keep it together long enough for us to get out of this mess....

There's a clearing up ahead that we're going to have to cross and I scout the woods around it visually. If we can get across, there's a good chance we'll come out just below the cars in a couple of hours. With the dense brush all around the road, it should be easy enough to scope out the area around them and see if it's safe...at the very least, maybe I can slip in and use one of the car phones...

If I know Hammond, he's called out the troops by now, but they have no idea where to even start looking....

Daniel's looking around, too...and I can see the effort it's costing him to stay focused, to hold back the floodgates of emotion and handle the immediate situation...

I want to say something, do something, to reassure him, but...

He's too close to falling over that line.

He looks my way and his eyes confirm my fears...telling me all too clearly to leave well enough alone...

I will.

For now.

*Life just plain sucks.*

We break cover at a run and head for the next patch of trees....

We're nearly there when automatic weapons plow up the dust at our feet as the shooter tries to target our range. The next pass comes closer and I urge Daniel to pick up speed as I dive into the bushes...

Daniel flies in beside me and lands heavily. Too heavily?

I look around to see him laying there, breathing hard...

"Daniel?"

Something isn't right....

"C'mon, Jack...they know where we are now...."

That's obvious, but I don't make any comment as we get up and take off again....

I spot a dense patch of scrub and lead Daniel into it. There's less than an hour until dark and we've been running nearly non-stop since daybreak. It's time for a break; after dark, we can check out the cars...

In our first real patch of luck, we discover that the brush conceals a sort of a cave...really just a big overhang of rock, but at this point...I'm not looking down any gift horse's throat.

I push the brush back into place to cover our entry and Daniel collapses underneath the rock. In the fading light, he doesn't look so good.....

"Daniel...?"

He opens his eyes and looks up at me, there's more there than just the shaky control I've witnessed all day...

Daniel pulls a hand from underneath my jacket....

It's covered in blood

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