Chapter 1 - Foundling

Jon O'Neill squinted through the heavy rain to make out the road ahead. The truck was a gift from Jack, his "dad," before they split. He cursed himself again for deciding to drive through the storm instead of stopping at a motel for the night. Why he let Cassie convince him to take her with on vacation at his cabin, his vacation was barely started and he wasn't feeling very relaxed.

As if repeating high school wasn't enough, the rumors that would start with this one trip would last for the rest of his high school career.

Up ahead in the road his eyes caught a flash of white in the beam from the headlights. Jon pressed down on the break hard and swerved, his truck sliding on the wet pavement as the truck fishtailed into the ditch.

"Jon," Cassie squealed clutching her seatbelt.

"Damn," he swore.

When the truck finally stopped, he could feel his heart pounding in his chest, the sound of breathing was heavy and loud over the steady flick of the wipers.

"What was that," said Cassie.

"Probably a deer," said Jon, unbuckling his seatbelt to get out and check.

He stopped, that was definitely not a deer. The truck had fishtailed, spinning almost completely around, the road now illuminated by the headlights.

"I don't think that was a deer, Jon," said Cassie.

Foundling

There was a teen standing there shivering in what looked like a silvery pajama suit, he might have be Jon's age possibly younger.

"Cassie," Jon called into the truck. "Hand me the blanket behind my seat."

Cassie reached behind his seat to grab the heavy wool blanket, and handed it to him.

Turning back to the road and the boy who was still there staring blankly away from him, Jon O'Neill carefully approached and wrapped the blanket around the boy's shoulders.

"Hey! You okay?" He said.

The boy startled for a moment before grabbing the edges of the offered blanket and pulling them tighter around himself.

"You're soaked," He observed.

"I didn't know rain would be so, cold," the boy's voice was barely a whisper.

Jon carefully picked up the kid and carried him back to the truck setting the boy in the passenger seat. He was closer to the cabin at this point than civilization it wouldn't be worth the hassle driving all the way back this late and he could use the phone at the cabin since his cell was getting spotty reception at the moment anyway.

Slowly he put the truck in gear and eased back onto the road. Next to him the boy stared out at the rain with wide eyes his shivering slowly easing as the heat warmed him.

"Feeling warmer now?" Jon asked, but didn't get a response, so he calmly talked to the boy as he drove.

"The cabin is up ahead, and while the fridge probably doesn't have anything worth eating in it, I do have some food in a cooler in the back of the truck," he said, pausing for a response.

"Once we get there you stay put on the couch while I bring the cooler in, then we're going to call Cassie's mom and I'll make dinner," he continued.

Fifteen minutes later Jon pulled into the driveway at the cabin, beyond the one sentence the boy said when Jon picked him up he'd been silent the whole trip. Jack's truck was already there, and Jon groaned.

"Not that I want to spend the week with the other me, but this simplifies things," Jon muttered.

Jon fiddled with the keys to unlock the door and pushed it open. Then he walked back to the truck and around to the passenger side opened the door and carefully picked the boy up carrying him into the cabin and setting him on the couch.

"Cassie, call your mom, I'm going to restart the fire and then I'm going back out to grab the cooler," Jon said.

He crossed the room to the fireplace, opened the grate and poked the ashes. The ashes appeared to have gone cold so he cleaned the remains out of the fireplace and grabbed new logs and some lint and paper to restart the fire, he lit a match and caught the kindling, he watched the flame carefully until he was sure it was steady before closing and securing the grate.

He turned got up and turned around to go back to the truck to see the kid staring out at him from behind the bangs of his dark hair. "Should get warmer in here with the fire going," Jon said. "Stay put and don't touch the fireplace. I'll be right back with that cooler of food."


"Jon? Is everything okay? You practically just left, is Cassie okay?" Doctor Janet Fraiser's voice came through the phone.

"Janet, we're fine, the storm caught us on the way up, but we're both okay," Jon sounded relieved to hear the doctor's voice.

"Do you need me to come up there," The doctor asked in a teasing tone.

"Actually, we were only a few minutes from my cabin when we almost hit a kid, he was standing in the middle of the road without a stitch on him. With the storm outside and how tired we both are, we're not going to drive back or I'd already have him at the clinic in town, but I'd like to have someone either head up here or meet me in town to look him over."

"You're not pranking me are you?" Janet asked.

"Do you think I'd be calling you at one in the morning to prank you doctor?"

"Only you Jon. The staff can handle everything here, I'll be right up as soon as I okay it with the general," Doctor Fraiser said.

"Jack's here, he's asleep though, so i'll fill him in when he wakes up in the morning. Why didn't you tell me he was going to be here," Jon said.

"I knew he was on vacation, Jon, not that he'd gone up to the cabin," the doctor replied.


"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" Major Samantha Carter asked.

"It seems Jon picked up a stray on the way up to his cabin," Janet replied as she put her stethoscope into her medical kit.

"I thought I was the only one allowed to do that," Sam said jokingly. "Isn't Cassie with him?"

Janet gave her a look turning away to grab a few of the smaller more portable diagnostic tools. "She insisted on going."

"Mind if I tag along?"

Janet turned back towards Sam, "You're welcome to join me, major, it's a fourteen-hour drive and I could use a second driver."

"So tell me what he's gotten into this time," Sam asked picking up one of the doctor's bags.

"From what the colonel told me he almost ran into a boy who was standing in the middle of the road in the pouring rain, being closer to his cabin than the town and given the situation, he wanted someone from the base to help take care of things," Janet said as she grabbed the other bag. "The general already called ahead to the local county sheriff to have them ready a missing person's report to see if we can match."


Jon groaned as he awoke. The curtain was pulled back from the window allowing the sunlight to flood the room and the bed was angled just right so that it shone directly in his eyes.

He'd stayed up pretty late the previous night convincing the kid to eat, and the decision to drive through the night wasn't helping his fatigue. He grumbled to himself as he went about his morning routine, restroom, getting dressed, and starting the coffee pot.

The boy looked up as he entered the living room, he was still wrapped up in the blanket but a skinny arm was out holding a thick book open to about the middle. On the coffee table lying open was a dictionary and next to that a small stack of books.

"That's some heavy reading," Jon said, as he sat down next to the kid, and placed his cup of coffee on the table.

The boy just shrugged.

"My name's Jon, what's your name?" Jon asked.

"I am called Tobias," the boy said with a shrug.

Jack made his way into the kitchen smelling the coffee brewing on the counter. He was relieved that Jon and Cassie made it through the storm and planned on giving Jon hell about driving through instead of stopping in town. He was just glad Janet called him to let him know that Cassie and Jon would be headed up or he might've been a little more concerned last night when they came in. The boy sitting in the living room was new though.

"Jon," Jack said his actions pointing out that he wanted to know who Jon brought in.

"Stay here Tobias," Jon said, pulling Jack into the kitchen where he explained how they'd almost run the boy over. After the story was finished, Jack returned to the living room. The silvery material peaking through the blankets did not look adequate for clothing to him.

"Well Tobias, let's get you something other than those pajamas to wear," Jack said.

"I'll loan him something from what I packed until we can get him his own clothes," offered Jon.

A few minutes later Jon returned to the living room with a pile of clothes that Tobias stared at like it was the first time he'd seen such things.

"Oh, for crying out loud," said Jack, pointing at Jon. "This is all yours i'm not teaching him how to put clothes on."

"I am aware of the concept of clothing," Tobias deadpanned into the silence. "I just didn't know so many layers would be involved," muttered Tobias.