Author's notes: Well, this one took me a long time to write, mostly cos i'm on holidays now, but her it is. Many thanks to my beta reader, Sciout, for all her help and input.

Across the Great Divide

It was a day that SG-1 would remember for a long time, and for all the wrong reasons.
They stepped from the event horizon and into the middle of a battle. As Jack was the first one out of the ‘Gate, he was the first to be seen. In less than a second, he had spun around and ordered Carter to dial out.
He fired a round at the struggling men around him, all armed to the teeth with swords and pikes.
“Hurry it up, Major!” He barked, the men closing in on him despite the hail of bullets. Sam whipped her sleeve up, frantically entering the iris code.
“All done, sir!” She turned to shoot at a soldier who was getting too close. Jack yelled above the noise oft he fight.
“OK, let’s pack it up. Daniel and Carter first, we’ll cover you!” Daniel dived back through the now open ‘Gate, followed an instant later by Sam. Teal’c and O’Neill backed towards the wormhole, trying to hold the soldiers back. Teal’c fired one more blast from his staff weapon as he disappeared into the shimmering event horizon. Jack turned and was about to follow, when he was knocked from his feet as an agonising pain shot through his shoulder. Twisting his head, he saw the shaft of an arrow protruding from his shoulder blade, the head just punching through the material of his BDU’s. Dragging himself upright, he took a wobbly step towards the ‘Gate, falling face first onto the dais as the flat of a sword caught the back of his head. His vision jerked sharply and receded down a dark tunnel as unconsciousness claimed him, and he knew no more.

Sam paced at the base of the ramp, her eyes scanning the ‘Gate. She started to relax as Teal’c stepped backwards out of the wormhole, his staff weapon still raised. Expecting the next figure to come through to be Jack, she took a step up the ramp.
She was caught totally off guard as a soldier clad in chain mail burst forth from the Stargate, his sword raised in a killing stroke. His war cry was drawn out into a final rattling breath as he was knocked back by a blast from Teal’c. His lips moved silently, mouthing unheard words as the Stargate disengaged and the iris slid shut, a medical team rushing into the embarkation room to check the rest of the team out.

Sam sat up on a bed in the infirmary, her arms crossed. Janet sighed as she made a note in her folder.
“Sam,” She said. “Physically, there’s nothing wrong with you, aside from the adrenaline high you’re coming down off. You have a scrape or two from coming out of the ‘Gate a bit fast, but that is all.” She pulled out a penlight and flipped it on, shining it into each of Carter’s eyes. Sam jerked away abruptly, blinking rapidly.
“Photo-sensitive?” Sam rubbed her eyes for a moment, facing away from the Doctor for a split second.
“No. Why?” Janet frowned slightly, sensing something deeper wrong.
“No reason...” She looked harder at Sam’s eyes, noting the faint red rim to them, and a slight moisture build up. “Sam,” Janet said softly, checking to make sure the others were out of earshot. “You want to tell me what’s wrong?” She already had a fair idea, but she wanted to confirm her theory. Sam took a shuddering breath trying to calm herself, and failing. She wrapped her arms around the Doctor, tears running down her face. Janet patted Sam’s back, making soothing noises as Sam said,
“Where is he, Janet?” Janet didn’t need any explanation to see who the Major was talking about, hell, you’d have to be blind and deaf not to see it. “He’s out there, millions of light years away, and we left him behind!” Janet took Sam’s anguished face in her hands and looked her in the eyes.
“You didn’t leave him, Sam. He covered your retreat, just like he has done a hundred times before, and you have done the same. It wasn’t your fault, Sam. I don’t blame you, and I know for sure that Jack wouldn’t either, so don’t go feeling all guilty for something that was out of your control.” Sam swallowed and wiped her eyes.
“I know that in my head, Janet,” She said. Dropping her voice, she went on. “But that’s not the part of me that’s not listening. That part is saying ‘you left him back there to die, you left him’.” Janet sighed, her suspicions confirmed. “And arguing with your heart isn’t very effective, Sam, we both know that.” Janet pulled a tissue out of her sleeve and handed it to Sam. “Wipe your eyes, and take a minute to fix yourself up. The General wants to debrief as soon as possible.” A flash of her humour returned as she said “And you wouldn’t want him to see you with puffy red eyes and a sniffly nose, now would you?” Her teasing comment got the desired chuckle as Carter stood up and went into the washroom. Janet smiled slightly now that Sam was a little better, moving over to her most common patient to check him for scrapes.

Sam walked into the briefing room and took her seat, the others not far behind. Hammond straightened in his chair.
“OK, people, what happened out there?” He glanced from face to face. Sam swallowed, speaking first.
“The MALP showed a grassy plain, with some woodland in the distance, and a village a few clicks away from the Gate, sir. Things were slightly different when we got there. There was a full scale battle going on, and we stepped out right into the middle of it.” She paused, thinking. “The Colonel told me to dial out as soon as he could. I got the Gate open, and transmitted the GDO. He told Daniel and I to go, he and Teal’c lay down cover fire. We came back through, and waited.” Sam turned to look at the Jaffa seated next to her, raising her eyebrow. Teal’c continued where she had left off.
“Colonel O’Neill and I retreated towards the Stargate, firing as we went. I reached the wormhole first and held the attackers off as O’Neill made his way. When he was no more than a few meters from me, he told me to go through. I fired one more blast, and went into the wormhole. Anything more than that, I do not know.” General Hammond raised his voice to the Airman on duty at the door.
“I want SG units 2 and 3 in the Gate room in ten minutes. I want a MALP sent back first before I’ll authorise the rescue mission.” The Airman left the room at a run. “And now we wait...”

The Stargate engaged with it’s usual spectacular display, and the remainder of SG-1 watched anxiously as the MALP made it’s way into the wormhole. The screens above them flickered as the images came to life. Lt. Simmons looked at the General and said,
“We have audio and visual, sir.” Hammond nodded as he watched the screen. There were bodies everywhere, and the pall of smoke hung thick in the air. Simmons adjusted the MALP’s controls, panning around the base of the Stargate. The only thing in the entire scene to move was the smoke, drifting around the corpse like a lost shade itself. The Lieutenant swallowed, his face white.
“No signs of life, sir. Should we send the teams in?” He waited as Hammond considered it for a brief moment, before he reached down and pressed the button on the microphone.
“SG teams two and three, you have a go.” He turned to face Carter as the teams went through the Gate at a jog. “Ferretti and Makepeace are good men, Major,” He said, trying to reassure Sam. “If the Colonel’s there, they’ll find him.”
The minutes dragged by slowly, and Sam began to pace agitatedly as time went by. Everyone’s heads jerked up at the sound of the gate beginning to engage. The iris slid closed as Simmons checked the computer screen in front of him, saying,
“We have an incoming wormhole, sir.” He paused as he checked the incoming iris signal. “It’s the rescue teams sir.” He opened the iris as the teams stepped out of the event horizon. Ferretti looked up at the people in the control room and shook his head slowly, not needing to say anything.

Hammond put down the red phone on his desk and sighed as someone knocked on his door.
“Come.” He looked up as Major Carter came in and seated herself in front of him. He spoke before she had the chance to get a word out.
“Major, I know what you’re going to ask, and I’ve just got off the phone with the president about it. All SG teams are to be on the lookout for any signs of the Colonel off world, and the number of missions assigned to that sector of space has been doubled. Unfortunately, no more effort than that can be expended looking for him.” Sam gave a half-hearted smile as she stood back up, saying,
“Thank you, sir.” Just as she was about to leave, the General said,
“Oh, and Major, why don’t you and the rest of SG-1 take a few days off? You look like you could do with some R&R.”
“Yessir.” She closed the door and went to tell the others.