A Promise Belatedly Kept
On another anniversary of Charlie's death, Jack wonders again: does he have another child? This time, he is determined to find out. Episode referenced: One Hundred Days, Season Three. Rated "T."
Disclaimer: These are not my characters. I'm just borrowing. There is no profit involved, unfortunately
Promises I never did keep that promise to bring you to a Colorado Rockies game, Charlie, thought Jack, holding his late son's old softball and with bleary eyes examining the leather for scuff marks. Jack had emptied the shoe box of its memories, as he did every year on the anniversary of Charlie's death. Another beer finished, he threw the bottle to the carpeted floor, where it spat a few leftover drops of amber liquid before joining the others.
"Damn! Damn it all!" exclaimed Jack aloud, slamming his fist onto the surface of his dining room table and roughly pushing aside mementos and photos. The ball spun off the table and onto the floor below. Jack's head slumped downward into the cushion of his folded arms.
I'll be back. That was another promise he had made and not kept – to Laira, before he left Edora six years ago. He remembered vividly the shock of losing his only way home to planet Earth, his anger at the circumstances, and finally, his somewhat-less-than-complete resignation to living another life with another people, with Laira and her son.
One hundred days, altogether.
Jack opened another beer. "T'ealc, you are one stubborn son-of-a-bitch!" Jack repeated his words from six years past, when T'ealc rescued him. He raised the bottle of beer in a solitary toast to his friend. "Although I did learn to be a pretty decent farmer, truth be known," he added. The silence of the house consumed his words as he spoke.
Laira. He stared at the bottle as if a Genie would emerge and conjure her up. "A fine woman," the villager had suggested. "Yes, she is," Jack had agreed. He remembered her pretty yet strong face, her ready smile, the way her wavy hair framed her features. I want you to give me a child, she had said to him, on what would turn out to be his last night on Edora. Jack closed his eyes and let memories of that long-ago night wash over him.
What were the chances, if Laira was fertile that night? About one-in-four, thought Jack, remembering back to the time he and Sara were trying to conceive Charlie. I have about a one-in-four chance of having a child on Edora.
He considered that. A daughter...or a son. A replacement for Charlie? He cringed at the thought. Never! But still, a child, one I'm responsible for.
Jack knew he must go back. If there's no child, at least I'll be keeping a promise, he thought wryly.
I'll talk to the General tomorrow, and then he fell asleep, head in arms, emotionally and physically drained.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Jack stood outside General Hammond's office. His head ached, his brain felt fuzzy, but he was determined not to put this off. He rapped on the door.
"Come!" the General's voice responded sharply. "Oh, come in, Jack. Forgive my tone of voice. I'm just preparing yet another defense of why Stargate Command is an integral part of this country's...hell, this world's...defense, and that sort of thing always gets my dander up."
"Yes, Sir, I..." Jack began.
"Come in, come in," welcomed the General. Jack sat down. "So...you came by to check on the office that will be yours the first of the month?" he asked, shoving a bunch of papers into the top drawer and smiling. "You're inheriting a can of worms, to be sure." He leaned back in his chair.
"General," began Jack, trying to feel his way. "When I take over your job... I won't be going off-world anymore." It was a statement rather than a question.
"Correct," answered General Hammond, wondering where this was leading.
"Sir..." Jack took a deep breath and came out with it. "Before that happens, I have to go back to Edora."
The General stared for a moment. "And just why is that?"
Jack took another deep breath. "I may have a child there, Sir."
"A child? A child of yours?" The General shot forward in his chair.
"Yes, Sir. The woman I was staying with, Laira..."
"Let me get this straight. You had consensual sexual relations with that Endoran woman? I don't remember anything like that in your mission report, Colonel," the General said.
"Sir, in my own defense, I had no idea if I was ever going to be able to make it back to Earth. She wanted a child by me, so I..." Jack left his sentence unfinished. "If I have a child there, I need to know that, Sir, and to make sure that he or she is taken care of, while I still have that chance."
The General sighed. Nothing was easy with Jack. "The fact that you may have a child with Laira complicates things. However, I just can't authorize a mission without a solid scientific or technological reason for doing so."
Jack was ready with a response. "If you remember, Sir, we did find naquadah on the planet, and in sufficient quantities to make a trade agreement feasible. We just never followed up on it."
"Let me think this over, Colonel, and I'll discuss it with the others. Dismissed."
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Only a few hours passed before the General approved the mission for the next day at 9:00 hours. Sam approached Jack shortly afterward. "Sir, I just want to tell you...I think you're doing the right thing."
"Thanks, Carter," answered the Colonel softly. "Should've done it a lot sooner." What he didn't see was her troubled face when she walked away.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Jack stood for a few minutes on the doorstep, watching the children playing and listening to the sounds of their excited voices. Mentally he tried to figure their ages by their size, but without much luck. It had been so long since Charlie was little, that he forgot what a five-year-old would look like.
Several times his hand reached toward the door, then faltered and fell. He finally gathered his courage and knocked.
The roughly hewn door opened. "Jack!"
She looked just like he'd remembered her. "Laira," he returned.
"Come in, come in," she urged, her face aglow. Jack stepped inside the familiar, simply furnished home.
"Garran?" he questioned.
"Married, four years now," replied Laira. She wrapped her arms around his neck and looked up into his face. "I missed you." It was a statement and not a reproach.
She smelled of homemade bread, of lavender, and of her own womanly scent. He returned the hug, pulling her close to him and burying his face in her auburn curls. When he finally opened his eyes, he noticed with a slight shock a man's coat on a nearby chair, well-worn boots resting nearby.
"You're married?" he queried, pulling away from her and looking into her eyes.
Laira did not return his gaze. "Yes, four years now. It was a double wedding," she stated matter-of-factly. She moved away and started to fidget with her apron.
"You don't love him," said Jack, flatly.
"He's a good man, and he provides well. I have loved but two men, my first husband..." he voice faltered, "...and another, who left some six years ago."
Jack felt his heart fill with that old familiar feeling – guilt.
"We have a child, a boy."
"That's good," Jack said softly. "He must bring you and your husband great joy."
Laira turned toward Jack. "He does, although he is not my husband's." Laira watched as the full import of her words reached her long-ago love. "He's ours, Jack."
A lump quickly formed in the Colonel's throat. Tears welled up in his eyes. A boy! "Tell me about him, Laira."
"I'll do better than that. I'll show him to you." She took his hand and led him over to a window. They could clearly see the children outside, playing. "He's the one in the blue pants...there!" She pointed to an auburn-haired, freckle-faced little ball of fire. He was arguing over some rule of play with a taller and obviously older boy.
"Feisty little thing, isn't he?" Jack commented, his eyes full of his son.
"He says his peace," granted Laira. "But he's got a heart of gold, too."
"Like his mom."
"I was going to say, like his dad. I'll call him in." She moved to the door and called out – "Jon? Jon, come here." He bounded over to the door. "Come have something to eat."
"Jack, would you like something?" He shook his head. "Something to drink, then?"
"Sure, anything but that rot-gut stuff I had before," answered Jack, referring to the community dance they attended so long ago. Laira smiled and poured him some cider. Then she poured their son a mug of milk and cut him a slab of homemade bread, spreading honey liberally to the very edges.
"Sweet tooth, eh?" observed Jack. Like his dad.
The beady brown eyes settled on Jack. "Who are you?" he asked forthrightly. Laira started to scold him for being rude, but Jack intervened. "It's okay. I'm a visitor from the stone ring," he said. The child's eyes grew wide.
"He has heard the stories from before his birth, of the fire rain and of the time when many of us relocated to a far distant place – to earth. And of how we had to stay awhile before returning," explained Laira.
"Yes, and I don't want to go there!" asserted the child, wiping his sticky mouth with the back of his hand and then licking off the leftover traces of honey.
"That's okay. You'll never have to," assured Jack gently, knowing that the Endorans were free from the cyclical "fire rain" for another 150 years. His eyes took in every feature, every aspect of his child. He mentally chastised himself for forgetting to bring a camera. "He looks like a healthy kid," observed Jack.
"Oh he is, praise the ancestors," replied Laira, handing her son a dampened cloth and urging him to use it. "Two years ago, a sickness swept the village. Very few of us escaped it. Jon was the only child who did." She squeezed the child's shoulders, and he squirmed beneath her touch.
"We hope to enter into a trade agreement with your people, the mineral naquadah for medicine, tools, and anything else you have need of," said Jack.
Laira nodded. "Our needs are few, but the tools and the medicine...the medicine especially would be welcome."
Jon slid off his chair and ran for the door. Laira swept him up, grunting with the effort of lifting the five-year-old. "Can you not stay for a little while and visit with our guest?" she asked her son.
"That's okay. Let him go be a kid," said Jack. The child was out the door and in the midst of a group of children in a moment. They both stood in the doorway and watched. Then Laira closed the door firmly. A sadness came over her face, and she looked down.
"You must leave now, Jack. My husband will soon be returning from the fields." Her voice was hardly audible.
"Yes, of course." Where did the time go? Jack reached out and lifted her chin. "I won't give you empty promises, not this time," said Jack quietly. "I'll try, but I may never be able to come back."
A little noise caught in Laira's throat as a few tears trickled down her cheeks. He caught her up in his arms, his lips found hers, and he kissed a chaste goodbye to the mother of his child.
"Oh, I almost forgot," said Jack, retrieving a photo and handing it to Laira.
She took it as one might take a priceless gift.
"It's me, in military blues. Taken a few years ago, when I had a few less gray hairs."
"I will cherish it always, Jack."
"Oh, and when you do tell Jon... tell him that I love him. He needs to know that."
"I will." She took another look at the handsome man in the photo before sliding it into the pocket of her apron.
Their eyes met, and held. "Goodbye, Laira."
"Goodbye, Jack." She followed him with her eyes.
He did not look back, at either the door or the group of frolicking children. He couldn't. He hadn't gone far when...
"You!" The strong hand of Laira's husband grabbed his arm roughly. "You shouldn't have come back." The man raised a machete with his other hand.
In a moment, Sam, T'ealc and Daniel had surrounded the two. Jack heard the welcome sound of zats engaging, then Jon's small voice, questioning, "Daddy?" Both men looked toward the boy.
"He was just visiting!" Laira explained from the doorway, her voice pleading.
The two men stared at each other for a long moment. Slowly the other man relaxed his grip and lowered his weapon, then nodded.
"You have a fine son, there," said Jack.
"That I do."
Then Jack turned and left.