Dsiclaimer - The characters and events portrayed in Stargate SG1 do not belong to me, but I like them enough to borrow them for stories.

-Reality-

"Jack! WATCH OUT - "

There was terrible pain and then nothingness.

xxxxxx

Jack O'Neill came to with a start. The last thing he remembered was Daniel screaming him a warning as he ran to retrieve Carter, lying motionless. Scarily motionless. She had been in a direct line of fire, out in the open when she went down. Their cover fire had done nothing to deter the shots and he couldn't have just left her out there.

He just couldn't.

So despite all his training, he had run out onto an open plain of fire to drag Carter back to cover and must have... been hit?

He was fuzzy on the details.

Jack looked down at himself. He was wearing soft, cotton white pajamas and he could see fuzzy blue slippers on his feet. He figured he was either in hospital recovering, or in hell. He tried to move an arm and was worried that his limbs weren't responding when his brain finally cottoned on to the fact that he was restrained to the bed with large Velcro straps. He looked about the room slowly, his eyes hurting as if they hadn't been exposed to light in a while. He saw four white walls, one broken by an open door. There was a television riveted to one wall and beside him was a hospital table on wheels with a basin of water and a cloth next to it. He craned his neck so he could see the bed head behind and he saw an IV, which he knew he must have been attached to.

He realized there was a weight on his arm and looked to his left. Beside him was a single chair and a girl slumped in it. He couldn't see who it was. Her head was down on the bed, forehead resting on his arm. She had long blonde hair and was wearing a light jacket. He racked his brain, trying to think whom he knew with long blonde hair that would be sleeping next to him in a hospital and vaguely wondered where Sam, Daniel or Teal'c were. They had developed a kind of tradition over the years, at least one of them keeping a vigil next to the hospital bed of a fallen teammate at all times. He had woken from unconsciousness a number of times, always to one of three faces. He shoved the thought away; scared it would lead to a realization or a remembrance that maybe one or all of them weren't around to keep vigil next to him. He couldn't really remember the details of the firefight. He knew they had been pinned down but Carter had been hit and he suddenly wondered if Daniel had actually been screaming him a warning, or screaming his name for another reason.

He shuddered just thinking about it and the movement jolted the sleeping figure. She looked up and it was Sam.

"Muh..." Jack tried to talk but his throat was dry and only a ragged sound escaped. Sam sat bolt upright, her blue eyes wide.

"Jack? Jack!" Sam exclaimed. "Stay with me this time." She said. He furrowed his brows at her, not really knowing what she meant but something about her was making him worry. The fact that her hair was so long. He wondered vaguely just how long he had been out but his mind skittered away from the thought as urgently as it had the idea that the other members of SG1 hadn't made it.

Jack tried again. "Ca... Carter?" A recognizable word had managed to push passed his resisting throat and Jack didn't understand the hurt look that flittered across her face. It was gone an instant later and the usual 'brave Sam' smile she used when she was upset but trying not to show it replaced it. "Jack, it's Sam. Remember me? Your wife?"

"What?" Jack exclaimed. Darkness washed over his thoughts, drowning him in a sea of unconsciousness.

xxxxxxx

"Hey, welcome back. You scared us there for a second." Jack opened his eyes to a smiling Daniel, relief plain on the younger man's features. Jack looked around quickly. He was in the SGC infirmary, in a bed and not restrained.

"Crap. What a freaky dream." Jack croaked, feeling sleep tugging him down into the depths again. He resisted, but Daniel's hand on his arm and soothing tone telling him to rest lulled him back to sleep.

xxxxxxx

When Jack opened his eyes again, Daniel was still standing over him, but he had on a white lab coat and had a folder in his hands. He was speaking quietly to Sam, the longhaired version. They both looked over and noticed Jack watching them. Jack thought for a dream the whole scenario felt a little too real. He could feel the cotton pajamas and the gentle pressure of the restraints on his body. Sam approached him and leant down to drop a kiss on his forehead and he could feel the gentle touch of her warm lips against his skin.

"Mr. O'Neill." Daniel said, flicking pages.

"Okay, if you guys think this is funny, you won't be finding it so amusing when I get out of these restraints and kick your ass Daniel." Jack grumped. Daniel looked at him with a patient tolerance that Jack didn't like very much. It was a detached look and lacked any of the warmth Daniel usually possessed. It made him look like a different person. "Who do you think this is?" He asked, gesturing towards Sam. She smiled at Jack encouragingly.

"Major Samantha Carter. Got any more dumb questions? Have I got a concussion or something?"

Daniel was shaking his head and Sam looked visibly upset by his response. "Although he's coherent, he's still deeply ensconced in the delusional world." Daniel said and Sam nodded slowly, glancing towards Jack with pain in her eyes.

"What are you guys talking about?" Jack demanded.

Daniel sighed heavily and dropped the clipboard he'd been holding onto the end of Jack's bed. He crossed his arms and his tone was professional. "You've been in a semi-catatonic state for about 2 years now. You come back every now and again but are always claiming to be a Colonel in the Air Force and part of a ... what did he call it?" Daniel looked to Sam.

"Stargate Project." She supplied with a tight smile.

"Yes, part of a team called SG1. You've brought your wife into this delusion as one of the characters. Me also apparently, although I'm a Doctor of Archeology in your little world as opposed to the real world where I'm a psychiatrist whose been treating you ever since you were committed."

"Committed? Are you trying to tell me I'm NUTS?" Jack exclaimed, barking harsh laughter. Daniel and Sam both looked taken aback by his outburst. "Look, guys, obviously you've both been exposed to some kind of Goul'd brainwashing. Just let me out of these restraints and we'll all get out of here." Jack tried reasoning.

"Right. So, just for arguments sake, let's try something." Daniel said, his tone like that of a person trying to calm a wounded animal. Jack sighed. "Sure. Shoot."

"Okay. So, scenario one, my version. You had a breakdown after the death of your son. Your wife committed you to a mental health care facility and you invented a dream world to escape from the harsh reality. Every now and again you come out of a near catatonic state and tell us about aliens and the adventures you have saving the world." Daniel said and held up a hand when Jack opened his mouth to comment. "Your version. You are part of a team of four people who travel to different worlds through a metal ring via means of science that you have admitted that you don't understand. Also an alien has brainwashed Samantha and I to believe that you are actually making all this up in an attempt to... I don't know what."

Jack blinked. "When you put it like that, it does sound... kinda crazy." Jack said warily.

"Look Mr. O'Neill. Every time we have a breakthrough, you kill me off in your delusion. How many times can a man die and be resurrected, honestly?" Daniel smiled. "Although I do appreciate you bringing me back."

Jack felt a sharp pain in his arm. A nurse had come into the room while he was distracted and a syringe had been depressed before he could react. "No.." He protested weakly.

"Get some rest. We can start again tomorrow."

xxxxxxx

"Hey Sir. You passed out again." Sam was smiling at him. She had on a black t-shirt and cammo pants and her hair was short. Her hand touched his forehead lightly and he didn't know whether she was checking for fever or merely trying to comfort.

"I think I'm going crazy Carter." Jack sighed.

"Listen Sir, the doctors think you were drugged when we were on P34-XCY. That's probably why you keep passing out. Apparently it's a strong hallucinogen. You keep talking in your sleep. Something about being brainwashed and in hospital." Sam was running her thumb lightly over his forehead, back and forth and Jack realized she was just trying to keep her with him, awake and alert. The touch was anchoring him and he could focus while her hand connected to his skin.

"I keep flashing back to a hospital and Daniel's a shrink and he keeps trying to tell me that I made up the SGC and everything about it because I had some kind of break down. You're there and you look upset every time I call you Carter." Jack felt the now familiar blackness creeping back in on him. He bit into the skin on his cheek to try and stave it off but he felt himself slipping. Sam looked concerned and when she stood to call for a Doctor, her fingers stopped touching him and he felt the last cable break between him and the waking world.

xxxxxxxx

"The mind is a complex and wonderful thing and it came up with a reason to support your delusion." Jack had been allowed out of the restraints and now threw an arm over his eyes with a groan. "For cryin' out loud Daniel-"

"Doctor Jackson."

"Daniel. This here." Jack said, thumping the bed he was sitting on. "This is the delusion. Carter explained it. It's a pretty nasty delusion when you have the power to put me in restraints." Jack sighed, kicking the slippers off his feet with a grunt of distaste.

Sam entered the room and Daniel gave her an exasperated look before leaving. She crossed the room and stood so that Jack's legs rested on either side of her hips. Jack couldn't help but think how well she fit in that space and how it had seemed natural and right that she did. In the real world, Jack thought, either Sam or he would have pulled away. While he noticed that when sharing a joke with Teal'c she would place her hand on his shoulder and she would always be quick to hug Daniel, she touched him very rarely with the same easy affection, as if every slight touch pained her too much. There was none of the same reservation with this Sam and he found himself almost hoping that the place he was in now could be the actual reality.

Sam brought her arms up and rested them on his shoulders, her fingers lacing through the hair at the nape of his neck. "Is this world so horrible that you need to escape it?" She asked, a deep abiding sadness in her gaze. Jack's heart hurt to hear her say those words. It was all he could do to not give in completely to this delusion, to pull Sam into his arms and forsake any ties to the other world, but he knew that he couldn't. Sam's eyes were searching his own, trying to figure him out.

"If I could keep this world and you, I would... but it's not real." He said. Sam winced and Jack again felt his heart ache for her. "Even if it was the real world, I don't think I belong here anymore. The other place needs me more. I need to look after Daniel, the non-pompous other Daniel, he's likely to get himself killed... again." Jack said, his eyes ticking to the ceiling. "Also Teal'c. Who else is going to correct his mixed metaphors?" Jack's eyes finally returned to Sam's. It would be such an easy thing to lean forward and kiss her, they were mere inches apart, but for some reason Jack knew that doing so would mean truly forsaking the other world he had lived in for so long, breaking all the rules he had adhered to for so long. "And then there's you. Without me, you'd never get out of that lab you love so much. I'm yet to have you agree to go fishing."

"I'll go fishing with you." Sam said, pleading in her tone. "Just don't go away again."

"I... have to. I have to believe that this is the fantasy, and I'm going to wake up from it. The other place is the world I'm going to have to live in." Jack felt the now familiar blackness encroaching on him. He smiled, already feeling light-headed. "Ah, screw it." He said and brought his arms up and around Sam, crushing her against his body. They did fit together, he thought vaguely as he felt himself let go of the world where he was crazy, and Sam was crazy too.

She had to have been to marry him.

xxxxxxx

"... that it's all the way out now?" Jack faded back in to hear Sam's voice. He opened his eyes and she was standing in the doorway of his room, talking to a doctor. He felt a hand in his shoulder and looked up to see Daniel standing by his bed. "Hey sleepyhead. Ready to join us this time?" He said. Sam was nodding at the Doctor and then she walked into the room, smiling. "Apparently the Doctors have been able to flush the drug out of your system. You should be able to stay awake now." Sam was grinning.

"Doctor Jackson to the embarkation room." A voice over the loudspeaker called. Daniel grunted in annoyance and then looked to Jack. "Damn. I've gotta go. I'll come and see you when I get back." He said, patting Jack on the shoulder and giving Sam's arm a squeeze on his way past. Jack and Sam were now alone in the room together. Jack sat up slowly and rubbed his head. "Sir? Are you feeling yourself?" Sam asked, worry creasing her brow. Jack gave her a reassuring smile.

"Come here for a sec, I want to try something." He said, holding out a hand to Sam. Sam smiled warily and let her arm be taken. Jack pulled her to him so she was standing between his legs. He realized this would be the only position where they would be eye to eye. Sam tensed when she was brought so close to him. "Sir, are you sure you're ok?" She asked. Jack got the feeling that Sam felt trapped by their close proximity. He realized that they would never have the easy affection she and Daniel shared only because of the underlying feelings.

"I'm fine Carter." He said, releasing her. Sam immediately took a step back.

"So, when am I allowed out of here?"