Jack stepped through the gate with some help from Carter. Daniel followed, side by side with Avea, and Teal'c brought up the rear.

"Colonel O'Neill?" General Hammond's exclamation was laced with disbelief. Not that he had doubted they'd return, but the speed of their return and the accompanying alien were both somewhat surprising.

"In the flesh, sir."

A medical team had been summoned to the gateroom as soon as SG:1's signal had been received, and they bustled in at this very moment. Dr. Frasier was leading them. Seeing the Colonel leaning slightly toward Sam, she went and met them at the base of the ramp. When she arrived, Jack threw her for a loop. He enveloped the small woman in a bear hug, lifting her off the ground and spinning her around.

"Colonel?" she squeaked.

"Doc, have I ever told you how wonderful you are?" He finally put her down when the room started spinning and leaned again on Sam.

"You're usually too busy trying to get away from me."

"Ah. Well, henceforth I will try to be much more appreciative. Even when large needles are involved."

General Hammond interrupted the reunion with a sentiment everyone was feeling. "Major, what happened?"

"It's a pretty long story, sir, but suffice to say that the Colonel has had a rough few days."

"Rough, Carter? I got shot. Twice!"

Janet's eyes widened as she searched him for the wounds he spoke of, but found nothing except the holes in his vest and pant leg.

"Where? You seem mostly ok now, except maybe a little weak."

Daniel took his turn at interrupting next. "Actually, we owe our new friend the thanks for that."

For the first time, all eyes seemed to focus on Avea. She had hidden her wings behind her again, but she hadn't worn her cloak. (It and a few of her other clothes were packed in one of her bags, which Teal'c had volunteered to carry.)

Daniel made introductions. Again. "General, this is Avea." She bowed slightly and gave him a small smile in greeting. "Avea, this is General Hammond. He's in charge of things around here."

General Hammond still had a confused look on his face, and so did Janet, so Sam took up the narrative. "She helped us with a power source for the long range communicator that helped us get off the planet."

"It would seem that we do owe you thanks," the General told her.

"Sir, that's not all." Jack had regained his bearings by now, and he felt he should speak up. "All joking aside, sir, she saved my life."

A moment of surprise and curious silence followed.

"It's true," Sam said. "We thought we were going to lose him the first or second day, and we would have if she hadn't shown up."

Another brief pause followed, and this one was somewhat awkward. Finally Janet ended it with a firm order for the Colonel. She pointed at him as she spoke. "Infirmary. Now."

"Whatever you say, Doc."

Janet looked at Sam with a surprised smirk on her face, as if to say 'he really did have a rough time, didn't he?' Sam returned with an affirming, if sympathetic, look.

General Hammond nodded in approval.

"We'll debrief at 1600 hours."

When 4:00 pm finally rolled around, Janet allowed Jack to attend the briefing on the condition that he came straight back when it was over and stayed for a couple of days to regain his strength. She also wanted to run a couple of tests to see if Avea's particular healing methods had left any detectable signs.

SG:1 had finally explained everything that had happened while on the planet, and Janet now understood why Jack had been so happy to see her. The 'hell' he had been through, though for his own good, would have made anybody long for home with all its comfortable drugs.

Jack had introduced Avea as their faerie good luck charm. After the initial shock of discovering the wings that went with her pretty purple coloring, everyone seemed to pretty much take it in stride. Janet did want to collect some data, and Avea had agreed to go with her after the debriefing. She had also agreed to meet Cassie, whom Janet and Sam were sure would be eager to meet her (and possibly go catalog shopping).

Once all this information was out of the way, the group moved on to discussing the details of leaving the planet and other miscellany, most of which was fairly irrelevant.

They had managed to make contact with a passing Tok'ra ship after about 2 and a half days of trying. According to Sam, three days was a really short time span to have gotten so lucky. The passing ship was on a fairly important mission, so they couldn't take the team home. Instead, SG:1 and their new friend had been deposited on a nearby planet with a stargate.

Avea had let Sam finish healing the Colonel, which was part of the reason he was still weak from blood loss and fatigue. The other part was that no matter how skilled the healer is, that kind of trauma takes significant recovery time.

Avea had brought some of her more mobile things with her, including the majority of her ornate kitchenware, her assorted collection of tools, and most of the medicines and spices from her treehouse (which Janet wanted Sam and Avea both to help her study).

Sam's skills with Goa'uld technology had improved significantly in the past few days.

Daniel was just glad to have found a new friend, and such a wise and interesting one at that. (They had finally shared a brief kiss, not too long before they made contact with the Tok'ra. Neither had mentioned it to anyone yet.)