Title: Old Times and New Beginnings
Author: pick1frcryingoutloud
Rating: T
Characters: Jack/Sam; Oma Desala
Summary: Jack has a little conversation with Mother Nature.
Spoilers: Small ones for Broca divide, Meridian & Fallen
Disclaimer: You probably know the drill, I don't own stargate, yadda yadda yadda…
Author note: REVIEW please! I love to hear what you guys think and/or what I can improve. English is not my native language so I apologize for any mistakes (please point them out to me if you find any).
Author note 2: I think I imagined this story somewhere in the first half of season 7.
Old Times and New Beginnings
Chapter 1 : Old Times
Jack was floating. Somewhere in the back of his mind he registered the pain in his head and chest but that was of no importance right now. The pain had dulled and he recognized the familiar feeling of painkillers in his system. When he would wake up, he would probably be in a lot of pain he knew but right now he could just continue to float.
Something was nagging at him. What was it? Oh yes, why was he on painkillers? What had happened again on P6X-979? He tried to remember but the more he thought about it, the farther the memory seemed to slip away.
Suddenly the scene changed. He was standing now. He looked around and then down. The wounds were gone. He'd had wounds right? Of course he did, otherwise they wouldn't have drugged him with painkillers. He was in the gate room but something was off. He was alone. Not a single soul was there. Not Walter, not Carter, not Hammond, not Daniel or Teal'c. What was going on?
A bright light enveloped the gate and a woman appeared out of nowhere. He'd met her before, he knew that. She had brown wavy hair and was dressed in white robes.
"Jonathan O'Neill." Her voice was calm and soothing.
"Present." He replied jovially.
"I am Oma Desala." The woman declared.
"I remember." Jack answered. This could not be good. "Look, I'm sure this is all very interesting but, What am I doing here exactly?" When Oma paid you a visit, it usually meant you were dying.
"Your fate is in your hands." What the hell was that supposed to mean?
"Hey, I've got a headache already. I don't need you to turn it into a migraine. Just spit it out." He waved his arms in the air, trying to relieve his nervousness. He wasn't dying right?
"You are in such a state it makes it possible for me to communicate with you." Crap! That wasn't good.
"No kiddin'." He hadn't thought things were that bad. Oma kept staring at him with a serene expression on her face. "So... again… why am I here? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd love to go on a trip to the realm of the glowy but I kinda like my live as it was, like… living." He explained. He wasn't ready to die. There were so many things he wanted to do. He needed to get the marines back for playing a prank on him the other day and he refused to kick the bucket before he ever saw Carter naked.
"If you do not accept your fate, you will die." Huh? He thought it was his fate to die since he was well on his way according to the Ancient woman standing in front of him. Was she joking? Nah, who was he kidding, Ancients didn't have a sense of humour… none whatsoever.
"Okay, that's a setback. Can't you just, you know, ascend me and sent me back?" She'd done it to Daniel so why not him?
"I cannot ascend you, I can merely assist you, if that is what you wish." Oma stated. And no, it wasn't what he wanted but it was better than dying.
"Is ascension my only choice? Like that or dead?" He asked.
"It is not." Oma's answer startled him.
"I thought you said ascend or die?" He asked again.
"I declared only that if you do not accept your fate you will die." The woman clearly needed some lessons in how to speak properly and clearly.
"Is this what you told Daniel? 'Cause I can't imagine him figuring all this out." He said exasperated. The woman was tiring him out and if he could believe what she'd said, he would need his strength to help him… well, not die.
"Daniel Jackson was different. It was his time." Oma spoke again.
"And it isn't my time?"
"No." Okay so why did she come then? To keep him company as he waited?
"I'm in a coma, dying, how can it not be my time?" Jack asked unbelievingly.
"You have not yet fulfilled your destiny." Okay, now he was definitely confused. What destiny?
"My… destiny?" He began incredulously. "Okay. If I fulfil my destiny, I die?"
"Eventually." She replied.
"Alright. What do I have to do?" He asked purely to entertain the woman. Whatever she told him, it could hardly be worse than his situation right now.
"You do not have to do anything." Okay, that just sounded too good to be true and as nice as it sounded, Jack had a feeling his definition of doing nothing was infinitely different than hers was.
"Okay… You wanna help me out here 'cause I ain't following." He sighed in frustration. He was beginning to see why Daniel came back. If they were all like Oma up there, he didn't think he could cope for even five hours, let alone a year.
"I cannot tell you what to do." Oma replied serenely.
"Sure you can." Jack countered. "Just give me a hint, a clue, anything." His hands were waving again and when he realized that, he put them safely in the pockets of his BDU's.
"I cannot." The woman persevered.
"Okay I'll bite. Why not?" he was getting tired of this game.
"It is against the rules, you have to find your own path." She explained to him.
"Oh come on! So bent the rules a bit, no one has to know." He practically yelled. "I won't tell." He added with a lower voice to emphasize his point.
"You forget that the others know everything." Always the party-pooper, wasn't she?
"Right. So, if you don't want to help me, how am I suppose to solve this?" He asked.
"You must find the course of your destiny." 'Destiny, destiny, destiny. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Booooring!' Was coursing through Jack's mind.
"Okay… I can do that…" He said and pretended to think for a few minutes. "I got nothing." He concluded. "Can't we make a deal? Tell ya what, I'll ask a question and you tell me if I'm warm or cold, whadda you say?" He threw in one of his charming smiles to help win her over.
"I cannot do that." Unaffected by the O'Neill charm eh?
"Oh come on! All I'm asking for is a little cooperation here!" He was getting at the end of his rope. The woman stayed silent for a few seconds, apparently thinking things over until she opened her mouth once again.
"One has to know the past to understand the future." And with that she disappeared, leaving Jack alone with his thoughts.
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Jack wandered aimlessly around the room, turning Oma Desala's words over and over in his head but still they made no sense. He'd tried the doors but they wouldn't budge, effectively trapping him with no way out. Talk about torture.
"Helloooooo!" He called out hoping she would hear him. "I know you're there!" He yelled to no-one in particular.
"Have you figured out your destiny?" The voice sounded from behind him and he spun around to face Oma. 'Know the past to understand the future'. What does that mean? He already knew his past but that didn't mean he could see into the future. What was she expecting from him?
"Uh, no, not yet." He confessed.
"Then for what purpose have you called me?" She questioned.
"Maybe I just like your company." He offered. "Look, you said I have to 'know the past to understand the future'. What did you mean by that?"
"It means what you think it means." Okay, that wasn't helping him one iota.
"What?"
"Search your past and you will know what your future holds." She tried to explain.
"Know my past?" Jack repeated, emphasizing the words.
"Exactly. Think of those close to you." She hinted. Immediately the image of a young boy popped into his head.
"Charlie…" He muttered, more to himself than to her. The death of his son had occurred over ten years ago but still there were moments when the pain felt as if it had happened yesterday.
If he'd looked at Oma then, he would have seen the look of compassion on her face.
"Although he is a person you care about deeply, he is not part of your future or destiny." She said gently. Jack forced the thoughts of his son back to the back of his mind. Now wasn't the time to think about those things. If…no when he got through this he probably would, alone at his home and a bottle of scotch nearby.
"Well, you gotta help me out here a bit 'cause I'm confused." She seemed to take pity on him.
"It is right in front of you." She said. "Because it is so clear, it takes a longer time to realize it. If you immediately know the candlelight is fire, the meal was cooked a long time ago." Again with the riddles!
Seeing that he was about to explode, Oma stretched out her hand to him. Jack eyed it suspiciously but took it when she nodded in encouragement.
The room dissolved into white smoke and the scenery changed. The cold grey floor turned into green grass-blades moving in the soft breeze that caressed his cheeks. A body of water was a few feet away and in the distance an small cottage could be seen bathing in the summer sun. Jack recognized the place. It was his cabin in Minnesota.
Chairs were placed in rows across the backyard, people dressed in tuxedo's, elaborate dresses and dress blues were seated on them, listening to the man in front. Jack took in the beautifully decorated wedding altar and the people standing in front of it. That was him in his dress blues! He couldn't see the bride's face but it definitely wasn't Sara. The woman's hair was too blond for that. Jack let his gaze stray over the best man and he gasped.
"Is that?"
"Charlie." Oma confirmed from next to him. His son looked good. He was older than when he died, maybe sixteen or seventeen.
They stayed watching from a distance throughout the whole ceremony but Jack didn't notice. He kept staring at his son. His son! Alive and well here, wherever this place was. The boy had grown much, only a few inches shorter than he was. His hair was just as unruly as his was and had a brown colour with natural blond strands mixed in it, just like his had been at that age before turning completely brown.
He carried himself well and Jack began to wonder if he played hockey like he had in high school. Or maybe he'd stuck with baseball. Jack smiled ruefully as he remembered trying to win the boy over to share this favourite sport of his and though his son had enjoyed playing hockey, he still had preferred baseball and it wasn't long before Jack had caved and begun watching baseball on TV. He could never deny his son anything.
The bride and groom kissed and the crowd applauded. Charlie smiled and whistled as his father continued kissing his new stepmother, dipping the woman and making a big show of it. They were happy.
Oma turned to look at him again but Jack kept gazing at the scene in front of him.
"The death of your son was not the cause of your separation with your wife Sarah. You would have eventually decided that it was the best course of action for the two of you. The early demise of your son indirectly led to your encounter with your destiny, the person that made you whole again." She spoke. Jack turned his head to look at her and as he did, he noticed his surroundings changing again to the grey walls of the gate room.
"Daniel?" Jack asked confused, his voice hoarse with emotion. He could've kept watching that wedding forever. Oma shook her head slightly.
"Daniel Jackson made you realise that your son's death was not your fault and he convinced you to let your guilt go and live on but he was not the person that made you feel again." She expounded.
"Then who?" Jack asked again, tired of guessing.
"You know of whom I speak. You just do not want to admit it." Jack turned to stare at the walls for a moment, needing some time to digest what had happened and what she was saying now.
She was right though, that he knew. Daniel did make him realize Charlie's death was an accident (though it didn't stop him from blaming himself). While Daniel stayed on Abydos starting his new life, Jack had come back to Earth and had begun to pick up the pieces of what was left of his. It took him nearly three years to get back on his feet, just in time to go back to the SGC and take command of the first team to go through the Gate.
His carefully reconstructed walls and feelings had all come crashing down that first briefing when his spunky young captain had walked in and offered to arm wrestle. He'd tried to resist it at first, determined to stay miserable and alone for the rest of his life, convinced that was what he deserved but after the locker room incident he couldn't deny it much longer. He was starting to fall for Samantha Carter.
He didn't know how she'd done it but over time, she'd helped him believe in himself again, she'd ignited that sparkle of hope that said he might still have a chance at love. Yes, the answer was clear but the little voice in his head added in a vexing tone that regulations prevented him to ever act upon it. He cleared his throat before speaking.
"Say I do know? Why am I still here?" He still wasn't looking her in the face, preferring to keep staring at the wall.
"Because knowing is not the same as acknowledging." Oma advised and he felt a hand coming to rest on his shoulder.
The scenery changed again but this time he didn't recognize it. They were in a room, the living room of a house, not exactly small but not extremely large either. The TV was on, displaying some kids cartoon but no one was watching.
A loud scream diverted his attention to the hall. It was followed by the sound of people running down the stairs. A boy, maybe eight years old, bolted into the room followed closely by a beautiful girl with curly blond hair. They were giggling and screaming in pleasure as the girl chased the boy through the kitchen out into the backyard.
With a confused look at Oma – and seeing her nod – Jack followed the two kids outside. There was a picnic table in the middle and Jack recognized Daniel, Cassie and Teal'c and even Hammond sitting at it, enjoying their meals. Janet was there also, sitting next to Daniel with a little girl on her lap.
Jack was beginning to wonder where he was – the he in this scene that is – when he noticed the barbecue. And yes, wearing an apron which said 'kiss the chef' and a pair of tongs in his hands, there was Jack O'Neill burning the meat as usual. Sam was standing next to him and they appeared to be talking … well, flirting from the looks of it.
They were touching each other and giddy as teenagers and every few minutes, one of the two would kiss the other. Not a passionate kiss, just a peck on the cheek or mouth, evidence that this was a habit and something they'd been doing for some time now.
Sam looked up to watch the children. "Jake! Don't tease your sister!" She yelled and Jack followed her gaze to see the two kids he'd encountered before. He could see it now. It was vague but he could see his features reflected in the children, his and Carter's… Sam's. Those were their children.
"I think we have seen enough." Oma declared and she took Jack's arm once more. He wanted to protest, he wanted to keep watching but it was already too late as the scene dissolved and the gate room once more rematerialized.
Jack turned to look Oma in the eyes again. She stared calmly back, waiting for him to speak.
"Sam." He said. "Sam is my destiny." It seemed so clear now, he'd never been more sure of anything in his life. The phrase said it all. He needed her to complete him. Oma smiled at him and nodded in affirmation.
"Try not to forget it this time." She said and before Jack could question her about that statement that gate room disappeared and all went black for a moment.
TBC…