Jack growled angrily at the heavy stone slab that served as a barricade between him and another member of his team. From what he remembered of the fire-fight, it was most likely Daniel or Carter. He thought he could remember Teal’c getting far enough back from the front lines to elude capture and escape to go get help. In any case, he wasn’t sure who was behind the slab. He searched for some sort of opening or way to pry it from its resting place. Kicking himself for his slow-mindedness, he checked his pockets. He’d woken up without his gun, but hadn’t been coherent enough to realize that maybe he had other means of escape. They had left his watch after all…

Ah hah, they’d left him C4, matches, and a clip. He smiled gleefully and carefully lined up the ammo, like one would dominoes, so that when one exploded the next would and so on. He hadn’t made colonel for nothing!

Satisfied that everything was in place to blow off a sizeable portion of the stone slab, he lit the match and ducked. An ear ringing explosion ensued. Jack shook the tintinnabulation from his head and grunted, moving the rest of the rock from the doorway and being rewarded with the hallway. He cursed. Where was his team?

He made his way into the hall silently, hoping that the noise of the blast hadn’t caught the attention of any of the guards, if there were any. Jack was fuzzy on that detail as well. He snuck down the hall, finding another slab. On this side of the walls, he realized, there was a lever that when pushed, opened the stone doors. Jack shoved the lever and opened the door of the rooms one by one, finding each of them empty as he progressed down the hall. Finally he came to the last one and was surprised at what he found.

In the middle of the room, sitting atop a stone table, was Carter. That wasn’t quite surprising. What was surprising, however, was that in her arms was a boy of about three or four. His head was covered in tiny golden ringlets that fell around his face. He was small, skinny, pale, fast asleep, head resting against Sam’s shoulder. Jack looked closer. The boy was wearing an oversized black shirt that swallowed him up completely and his face bore a curious resemblance to… Daniel?

“Carter?” he shouted questioningly, alerting him to her presence and inquiring about the identity of the little boy. Sam looked up, confusion evident on her features as well.

“It’s Daniel, sir,” she explained. Jack took a step closer and looked back at the child. He stirred slightly, whimpering, and then put his thumb back in his mouth.

“Really…?” Jack asked softly, reaching out and stroking the golden ringlets.

“Yes sir.” She whispered back. Daniel squirmed slightly as they heard the approach of footsteps. Sam stiffened.

“I’ll take him, Carter,” Jack offered, gently enfolding the sleeping child in his arms and letting her jump from the stone table. She thanked him and hopped down. Jack held Daniel tightly, relishing the feeling of holding a small sleeping babe. It had been too damn long since Charlie…

“Let’s go sir,” Sam whispered, letting him maintain possession of Daniel and motioning for him to follow her. They somehow managed to sneak out of the giant stone complex and make it to the gate, meeting SG3 and Teal’c on the way. SG3 knew better than to inquire about the identity of the sleeping boy in Jack’s arms.