Daniel’s eyelids flickered open and the first person he saw was Jack. He was sitting beside him in one of the molded plastic chairs, propped against the wall balancing on the two back legs. He looked like he was dozing, though how he could nap in such a precarious position Daniel couldn’t fathom. Daniel must have made a noise, or perhaps it was the colonel’s built in radar honed to the sounds of his team, either way, one brown eye popped open.

"Hey." He pushed back against the wall with his shoulders and the chair righted itself to its intended position. "How ya’ doing?"

The archaeologist took a moment of self-assessment. He was still tired, however the bone weariness was gone. "Fine." He sat up and winced as his head protested at the movement. "Nail through the skull."

"Here." Jack picked up one of the water bottles lined up next to his chair and the aspirin bottle from his pocket.

Gratefully he swallowed two of the pills. He glanced to his left confirming Annika was alright. Not that he need the visual verification. The first thing he’d done was check in with their bond and had felt the contented drowsiness of her slumber. Next to Jack was Sam and then Janet, both still out like a light. Beside Janet’s bed were another two chairs.

"I sent Teal’c and Cassie to get a late lunch."

"How long was I out?" He pinched the bridge of his nose in an effort to ease the pounding of his head.

"Heading on to four hours."

Daniel didn’t need to ask if Jack had been sitting vigil for all that time. He or Teal’c, or both, wouldn’t have left them alone until they were all awake. His gaze shifted back to Janet sleeping peacefully. One arm had been moved above the cotton blanket, an indication that Cassie had needed the physical contact with her mom while she waited for her to regain consciousness. He went over those heart-stopping minutes when they had almost lost her.

Jack saw the frown crease his friend’s forehead. "The Doc’s okay. Brainwave patterns are normal."

"Hmmm? Oh, I remember that from before I zonked out." He took another swig of water.

When Daniel didn’t elaborate on what was troubling him, Jack prompted, "So…"

"Did I thank you?" he blurted out.

He colonel cocked an eyebrow. "For what?"

"That vision…" He trailed off.

Jack saw the haunting pain that touched his still bleary eyes and knew he was talking of the horror dream from two days ago. "What about it?"

"I…I was a zombie after Annika…" Unconsciously his head twisted back to his wife, reaffirming that she was alive. "You got me back into the world of the living."

"By falling into my lake, as I recall," Jack quipped though his expression was serious. He figured that since this ‘chapter’ had been skimmed over in the briefing that it had been along those lines.

"More than that, Jack." It didn’t matter that the events of the dream hadn’t happened in reality, that because of their actions today that future had already been altered. Daniel knew that heaven forbid should some other event take Annika away from him that Jack’s ‘role’ wouldn’t change. "You stopped me from drowning in grief."

"Just returning the favor," he responded gruffly. It was something that neither man had acknowledged out loud before, but it had been Daniel who had yanked him back from the suicide precipice he had been about to jump into after Charlie died.

The two best friends shared smiles of gratitude and thanks.

Something tugged at the back of Daniel’s mind and his eyes swung between Annika and Janet like a tennis match.

"What?"

"I thought that Annika and I had worked out why we had that vision. Now I’m not so sure."

"Okay." Jack waited patiently for an explanation.

"At first we thought it was solely to warn about the destruction of the SGC. Then we figured out that it also provided us with the answer to the…er…repercussions of our bond…"

"The double act thing, if one dies…?"

"Right." Daniel hurried on, not wanting to dwell on that. "So to ‘fix’ that we had to examine Jacob and Selmak’s blending…"

"Where is Dad by the way?" Sam’s groggy voice interrupted him.

"How’re you feeling, honey?" Jack was already reaching for another bottle of water and came to sit on the bed beside her.

"Drill to the brain covers it." She struggled to sit up.

"Hammond mentioned something about him going to visit Mark." Jack tapped out the white pills and the major quickly swallowed them.

"Sorry, Daniel, you were saying?" Sam leant into the arm that Jack had automatically looped around her shoulders.

Daniel blinked for a moment to regain his line of thought. "Jacob and Selmak’s blending, right…well, in the process of doing that, we discovered by accident that I can use Annika’s abilities through our bond, which we needed to do to get the nanite out of Janet."

"I was gonna ask you about that. You were using Casper’s hocus pocus? You going to start making things zip around the room too now?"

"No." Daniel refrained from shaking his head. "I can only step in if she is already using her gifts…at least I think that’s how it works." He pondered the idea then put it in the too hard basket, to be picked up again when his head wasn’t aching. "Anyway, now I think that the whole point of the dream was to prep us for saving Janet."

"Does it have to be one or the other?"

The aspirin bottle was tugged by an invisible force from Sam’s fingers, flew passed Daniel to land in Annika’s hand. She didn’t wait for Daniel’s offer of water, just swallowed them dry. "Can’t it be a three pronged vision?"

"Headache too, huh?" Daniel slid off his bed and went to join his now conscious wife.

"Pounding like a hammer." Annika looked beyond her teammates to Janet. "But it was worth it."

"Amen to that," Sam agreed.

There was a soft groan from the far bed and Janet’s eyes slowly fluttered open.

"Hey, Doc, welcome back." Jack was the first off the bed, but that was only because he was the only one without a rock band practicing loudly in his head. "Headache?"

Very carefully she nodded.

"We’ve got a construction thing happening here. Nails, hammer and drill," Jack flapped his hand at the other walking wounded who had gathered around the bed. "I figure you can have a jackhammer or a two by four."

"How about both?" she grinned weakly.

"Works for me." Jack tipped two pills out onto her palm. When she motioned for another he hesitated.

"Who’s the doctor here?" Before he could protest she grabbed the bottle and popped another of the pain relievers into her mouth.

At that moment Cassie and Teal’c returned. The teenager’s relief and joy at seeing Janet awake was tangible as she rushed across to give her a hug. Teal’c’s face also broke out into a wide smile at seeing everyone awake.

"So what happened?" Janet couldn’t really remember anything from when the EMP had gone off. The fact that everyone was so incredibly relieved to see her awake told her that something had gone wrong.

Jack’s eyes darted to Cassie. He hadn’t gone into details with her, wanting to spare the young woman the stress of that knowledge. "What we thought would happen, happened. We…fixed…it, got the bug out of you and everyone took a nap."

"That’s it?" Janet studied the members of SG-1 who suddenly were looking everywhere but at her. "Cassie, would you mind fetching me a coffee?"

The girl nodded. She knew it was just an excuse to get her out of the room. Jack had been holding back a lot and to tell the truth she was of two minds about that. The rebellious teenager in her wanted to demand that they stop treating her like a child. She was old enough to hear what had happened. The other part of her had pointed out that Jack had never sidestepped the truth with her before. He’d always been up front after a few mandatory wisecracks. That he hadn’t told her meant it had been pretty bad and the child in her really didn’t want any more fodder for her nightmares. "Sure. Everyone else want some too?"

"Sounds like heaven," Annika sighed.

Daniel agreed. "Even if it is the base sludge."

After her daughter had left, Janet turned her attention back to SG-1. "Now what really happened?"

Sam started. "Your heart stopped. The epi didn’t work the first time. We used the defibrillator and then another epi shot and we got your heart beating again."

"Annika was able to locate the nanite and with my help we got it out," Daniel finished.

"That’s it?" Janet was unconvinced.

"Pretty much," Annika confirmed.

The diminutive woman fixed them with ‘the look’ that had generals snapping to. "So why are all of you sporting contact bruises?"

Startled the five of them scanned each other, only now noticing the bruises that Janet’s flaying limbs had caused. They all had the grace to look sheepish for trying to gloss over the event.

"Oh, that is so not right," Jack grumbled. "You’re supposed to be all weak and pale, not be able to conjure up ‘the look’."

"I’ve had a lot of practice with ‘the look’ since working with you lot," she retorted dryly. "Now let’s try again, shall we? What really happened?"

Reluctantly they retold every moment of those minutes where her life had hung in the balance.

When they finished Janet was pale, but she was glad to have all the details. Her caramel eyes focused on each of them. "Thank you seems so trite…"

"As Daniel Jackson said earlier," Teal’c reiterated. "You have saved us many times, it was our turn to reciprocate."

A  A  A  A  A  A

General Hammond was just on his way up to check on Doctor Fraiser and SG-1, when he saw Cassandra making her way from the mess hall carefully balancing a tray of coffee mugs. From her wide smile he surmised that everyone was now up and about with no ill effects. He returned to his office to give them a few minutes of privacy before paging them to the briefing room. He also called up to the lab for Anise to join them. The Tok’ra had continued on with the analysis of the enzyme that had been abandoned earlier. The results would still be important in the future.

While he had been waiting for word that all of SG-1 and Doctor Fraiser had regained consciousness he had updated the President on the current situation, putting forward the request that the official report be sealed, keeping Doctor Fraiser’s identity concealed. He’d also suggested a new protocol that everybody, from himself to the cleaning crew, be randomly tested once a week for the zatarc enzyme. The President had agreed to the first and insisted on the second. Then Jacob had alerted him to a glitch that they had not considered regarding the EMP and the rest of the afternoon had been spent in damage control.

Apparently Jacob had planned to be back on base by thirteen hundred, however he was currently stuck in traffic. The town of Colorado Springs had suffered a power outage at 12:32, affecting homes, businesses and traffic lights. Mysteriously, cars that had been driving fine one second inexplicably stalled in the middle of the road, unable to be restarted. Noticeably it was the newer models that had high tech computer components in their engines that were affected. The general didn’t need to double check his notes to discover the time coincided with the EMP. He’d immediately ordered his assistant to find out how far the effects of the pulse had spread and what the damage was.

Thankfully it had been minimal considering what could have been. The outages had been intermittent except for a one mile radius around the mountain. The key systems housed at NORAD were blessedly already in shielded rooms and the rest of the base had switched to back up power. Hammond heaved a sigh of relief when it was confirmed that no aircraft, military or civilian, had been airborne in the vicinity at the time. He shuddered to think of the effects of the EMP on the electronics on the flying machines. Fourteen car accidents were reported however none had been serious. The electricity board was slowly restoring power, returning things back to normal.

Another phone call to the President and a cover story was worked out which had been released to the local media. By the time he joined SG-1 and the others he was confident that all angles had been covered and the consequences of the EMP, while inconvenient, were not serious.

Hammond smiled, taking his seat at the head of the table. "It’s good to see all of you up and about." His gaze lingered on the doctor and she smiled back.

"It’s good to be up and about, sir."

Without further ado he launched into what would hopefully be the last briefing of the day. "Doctor Fraiser, providing you feel up to it, we want to take advantage of Ba’al being unaware you are no longer under his control."

"Of course, sir." Janet had guessed as much and had in fact been hoping for it. If she could help undo some of the damage she had unknowingly caused, then she was all for it. Perhaps it would help ease the guilt she was being tormented with. "I take it you want me to feed Ba’al disinformation?"

Hammond nodded. "Anybody have any suggestions? Bear in mind this will be a one off occasion." He directed his comment to Anise. "Regardless of whether the disinformation works, we will find a way to inform Ba’al that the zatarc technology has been removed. I do not plan to continually use Doctor Fraiser in such a manner as you did with Tanith."

The Tok’ra nodded in understanding.

They spent the next half hour tossing around ideas, being joined within a few minutes by Jacob who had finally managed to navigate around the chaotic traffic above.

"You know, out of everything that we have done, there’s one thing I wish we could reverse."

Everyone turned to Daniel.

"We convinced the Goa’uld to unite against Anubis." He saw the others grimace, sharing his regret and rushed on. "Which at the time we needed, but once Anubis is out of the picture there is nothing stopping them from maintaining the alliance."

Teal’c continued the grim picture Daniel had painted. "If they turn their attention to Earth, there is no way we would be able to defeat the combined forces Ba’al has rallied together."

"He is the key instigator holding this alliance together," Sam mused. "What if we convince him that the Goa’uld on his ship are plotting against him?"

"Most likely he’d disband the alliance," Jacob concluded and Anise agreed.

"Or kill the Goa’uld we named," Janet added.

"Either one is good for us, right?" Annika asked. "For all of us?"

Both the Tok’ra and the people of her home nodded.

"Even if Ba’al finds out at a future date that the information was planted," Teal’c was thoughtful. "Should he try to renege the disbandment, there is little probability the other Goa’uld will trust him again."

"Sounds like a plan to me." Jack raised a questioning eyebrow to the general.

"Agreed. We have to assume that Ba’al knows Doctor Fraiser’s shift rotation." Hammond glanced at his watch. "So we have two hours." He turned to Janet. "With your permission, Doctor, we’ll set up our own surveillance within your house, have the van across the road out of sight of any windows Ba’al’s cameras can see. We’ll set you up with an earpiece to help with any questions he may ask. At the first sign that Ba’al suspects anything amiss we go in." He began delegating assignments. "Colonel, Major and Teal’c, you’re to set up the cameras and microphones. Doctor Jackson and Annika help prep Doctor Fraiser on what sort of questions Ba’al is likely to ask."

SG-1 nodded.

"Okay, people, let’s get to it." Hammond rose and the others followed suit. "Jacob, I’m guessing you’d like a full debrief on what’s happened?"

The Tok’ra nodded. He’d surmised the basics of what had occurred while he was off base, but he’d need all the details for when he reported back to the High Council.

"We can do that in my office, or Anise can fill you in."

"General, I’d prefer to finish the enzyme analysis," the scientist said.

Hammond acknowledged her request then looked to his friend. "My office it is then."

Everyone except Daniel, Annika and Janet, hastened off to do their assigned tasks.

"Why don’t we grab something to eat and go to my office?" Daniel suggested.

Both women were happy with that. They weren’t particularly hungry, but their bodies needed the sustenance especially considering the draining trauma they had just recovered from.

While they waited in line at the counter, they couldn’t help but notice how different the atmosphere was compared to the morning. People were laughing and joking, demeanors totally relaxed. Even though the lockdown had finished hours ago and the recalled personnel were allowed to leave, many had chosen to remain wanting to celebrate the end of the ‘Spy Hunt’. The three people who knew that it wasn’t quite over did their best to look relaxed and not taint the jovial atmosphere.

Ferretti, who had been waiting with his team for the opportunity to approach the primary team, sauntered over to them as they reached the dessert bar. "I got dibs on the last of those popcorn things!" He playfully nudged his way between Annika and Janet and grabbed up the last of the sweet creations that Annika had made. He draped an arm around the redhead. "Annika, if ever you get tired of cooking for Rock Doc, my door is always open."

"Ferretti, can’t you wait at least until after our honeymoon before hitting on my wife?" Daniel chuckled.

"Well, if I must." The major heaved a mock sigh. "We have a little dessert party happening here," he gestured to his team, who all had at least two different sweets in front of them. "Trying to come up with wonderful acts of revenge on Ba’al for messing with one of our own." He casually nudged Janet with his elbow. "Doc, I bet you could come up with some great ideas."

Janet tried to mask her surprise. It was clear from the mix of compassion and concern in the major’s eye that he knew she had been the zatarc. She also saw the steely anger in his dark depths, but knew it wasn’t directed at her, rather at Ba’al. There was also a protectiveness she had never before seen in the tough military man that touched her to the core. "I do have a few," she managed to get out.

"You’re welcome to join us, Doc." Dodger appeared beside them, his hand snaking out to snatch the forgotten popcorn ball from Ferretti’s hand. When the team leader gave a howl of protest the captain innocently tapped his bandaged shoulder. "Injured party, gotta rebuild my strength to kick Ba’al’s ass."

"Sorry, I’ve got a few things to take care of." She gave them a shy smile. "But thank you."

"Hey, you know where to find us." Dodger flashed that model grin of his, leaving no doubt in any of them that he was referring to more than the invitation to the impromptu party, then scampered off to the table with his prized stash.

Ferretti reached over for another dessert to replace the one ‘stolen’ from him. "The things I sacrifice for my team." He pretended to moan at the dish of blue Jell-o that was infinitely less appetizing than Annika’s treat. When he spoke next his voice was low so only Daniel, Annika and Janet could hear. "If you don’t want to blow your cover story, you might want to follow through with Cassie’s supposed checkup."

Before they could acknowledge the advice, the major was swaggering back to his team.

Janet was quiet as they made their way to Daniel’s office.

"You okay?" Annika asked clearing one of the tall desks for their trays.

The doctor gave a single jerk of her head up and down, then after a pause from side to side. "They didn’t care either….care that it was me."

"Janet, I’m pretty sure that no one who knows you would think less of you or blame you."

"Then why all the secrecy? Why not announce it?"

"I can think of three reasons straight off the bat." Daniel was setting up his trusty coffee pot, spooning in his preferred blend into the filter. "First, so people like Kinsey won’t have ammunition. You know if Kinsey got a hold of that report he’d use it in an instant….against you, against Hammond, spouting his usual spiel about lax security etcetera. Who wants that headache? It’s unnecessary and untrue." He leant against his desk while he waited for the liquid caffeine to drip through. "Second, you underestimate your position here. Officially you’re everybody’s doctor. Unofficially you’re mother, sister and aunt, who takes care of not only our physical scrapes but our emotional hiccups as well. It would be demoralizing to every person on base if they knew that Ba’al was able to get to you." He could see that his words were getting through to Janet.

"And the third?" she asked.

"Ahhh, well, Hammond would have a mass exodus on his hands."

Both women saw the mischievous glint behind his glasses.

"Why?" Janet played along.

"Since you’re mother, sister and aunt it creates a massive protective instinct," he shrugged. "Everybody would be through the Stargate in a flash to exact revenge and wouldn’t come back till Ba’al was tarred and feathered and hanging by his entrails."

"Nice image," Annika grinned.

"Couldn’t agree more." A smile played on Janet’s lips. "But I’d like to do the tarring."

Daniel tapped at the data pad that held all the transcripts of Ba’al’s interrogations. "First lesson on tar and feathering coming right up."