The Christmas Miracle

Chapter 1 - Lost

Jack knew something was off the minute he stepped through the gate. First, no one else came through but him. Where was Sam, Jonas and Teal'c? And where was he? This did not look anything like the planet that the UAV had shown them on the screen back at the SGC. What in the world had those scientist done now to screw up the gate system and why did it seem like he was the only one who ever got stuck in the middle of their playing around?

"Well Jack – you're not gonna find anything out just standing here. You have two choices, either redial the home address or search the planet for a while and see if maybe the other three are here and just got dumped somewhere else."

Jack shrugged his shoulders and headed down the steps to where the DHD should be. He figured it would be smarter if he attempted to gate home and see if they realized they had screwed up. Again. Unfortunately, after searching frantically around the base of the stargate and in the general area – he realized to his dismay that there was no DHD present.

"Oh boy those geeks have really gone and done it now! How am I supposed to get home? If I didn't know better, I would swear Maybourne had a hand in this mess." Jack thought to himself. Then he yelled at the top of his lungs "Maybourne, are you out here somewhere cause if this is another one of your stupid ideas I swear I will shoot you this time and mean it!"

Jack stood silent for a while and then shook his head and started walking in the generally easterly direction. The place looked like Egypt. Sand covered the ground and an occasionally palm tree could be seen every once in a while. He noticed the hills in the area and how desert everything looked. Good Lord, where in the world had the gate sent him? If he did not know better he would swear he was back on Abydos but he knew that was impossible. There was no Abydos any longer.

Jack stopped long enough to take a swallow from his canteen and wipe his brow. Looking around him he noticed that where the greener areas were, there were animals that he could swear were sheep or something close to it. They had never found a planet yet that had the exact same animal as they had except for horses and dogs. Sheep seemed a stretch but he knew that was exactly what they were when he heard one of them bleat out a long sound.

Then Jack took a deeper look and realized that the men guarding the sheep looked just like shepherds from his Sunday school days. Long robes with covers on their hands and carrying a shepherds crook and looking just like they had walked right out of Nazareth. Ok something really weird was going on and he did not like it a bit. The sun had started going down but he continued walking, feeling like his feet knew more about where he needed to go then his brain did.

Just as he came to another hill, he saw a group of men and started over towards them. Maybe they could answer some questions for him. God, how he wished Jonas or even Daniel was here. Everybody knew how he was at the meet and greet part of star traveling – not really his cup of coffee.

Jack walked up to one of the men and stood with his hands resting on his gun. He was not sure exactly what to call them so he went with his first though.

"Howdy fella's, my name is Jack and uh, well I'm from a place far, far away. I am not quite sure where I am right now because I believe there may have been a glitch somewhere in the traveling department. Can you guys help me out?"

The men looked at Jack but made no comment. Jack just stood there, with a lopsided smile on his face, thinking to himself that he was going to kill every scientist he got his hands on when he got back to the SGC. "Well, maybe not Carter…things are not that bad where she is concerned." Just when he thought all was hopeless, a man stepped out from the crowd and headed towards Jack, calming the other men with soothing words as he walked past them.

"Hello my friend, I am sorry if it seems no one understands you. We speak Arabic but I have been fortunate in the fact that I learn many languages. Yours though from a distant place – is still very easy to understand. My name is Simon."

The young man held his hand out to Jack and Jack just stood there, in shock, unable to utter a single word. Finally, he begin to grin and then to laugh.

"Daniel! Space Monkey! Oh Danny-boy, you sure know how to pop up in the strangest of places! Can you please tell me where in the sand hill I am? I understand if you need to keep under wraps or something to keep the others from being angry with you – but just kinda point me in the right direction – uh the right direction being home."

Jack reached his hand out and grabbed "Daniel" into a hug, and it did not even cross his mind that he should not have been able to do that. Daniel was not real – he was just an illusion at best. However, the young man hugged Jack back and then pulled back and looked at him as if he were truly lost.

"I am sorry, my good sir, but I have never had the privilege of being acquainted with you. My people have always been from this region. I am born of the tribe of Judah. I was born in Cyrene but came here to this area ten years ago. You must mistake me for someone else – perhaps a friend you have longed in seeing?"

Jack looked again at the young man standing in front of him. There was no doubt about it – this guy had to be Daniel. The only thing that would even make him think it was not Daniel was the accent he spoke with. Jack looked closer at the young man standing before him and he saw it. The look in the man's eyes. Look of years of dealing with climate and harsh weather, noticed his hands were not the scholarly hands that Daniel sported.

Oh, Daniel had callused hands, most he had gotten recently from being with SG1 – but these hands were callused from carrying a shepherd's crook, not archeology tools. There was something else the two of the had in common but it came by different ways – this man had a wisdom about him that made him seem so much older than he was but where Daniel's wisdom came in from other nations, this man's wisdom seems to circle around his people and where they had come from and where they were going. It was as if he knew what tomorrow held but yet had never traveled in time.

"Come, my friend, sit with us. It will be dark soon and it gets cold out here when the sun sets. You are welcome to share a fire with us and maybe we can help you find your way."

Jack figured there was no sense in trying to go anywhere else, especially in the dark. He was trained well enough that he would have been okay, but he was smart enough to know you do not push your luck and when a helping hand is being offered and you do not sense danger, then you take it. Not only that, but he was really confused. Why did it seem like he was still on his world and not in some other unknown place? Everything around him seemed so familiar.

While they sat there, gathered around the fire, the men around him begin to relax and soon they were laughing and talking with each other in the same comradery that soldiers sitting around a fire would share. The more Jack listened to them, the more his brain seemed to hurt. He had served two tours in the Middle East, he was not happy about either of them and would prefer not to dwell on them. Yet, the more he listened to these men talk, the more they sounded just like the people he attempted to talk to while he was in Iraq and Iran.

Simon noticed Jack was looking kind of confused and leaned over towards him.

"Do not worry, my friend. The only thing we have to worry about out here are the lions, the bears and the wolfs. But they only come after the sheep not the shepherds. They only attack us when we protect our sheep, but protect them we must."

Jack became even more confused the more Simon talked. What in the world had happened to the gate system and where in the Sam dickens he was at?

"I sure wish I knew exactly where and when I am. You talk as if you are in the Middle East in my world, but that cannot be. The Middle East in my world there are no more lions or bears, not for a very long time. No one knows why – they just moved on."

"But my friend, I can tell you where you are. You are in Israel, the land of Judah. We are in God's land. You have not traveled so far away that you cannot return home. But you must not try to travel at night. The robbers are very dangerous and they love nothing better than to attack. Especially someone not from here."

Jack looked as if he were going to faint. He had had a strange feeling that Simon was going to say exactly that. His hands scrubbed over his face and then one of them made it through his hair and to his neck where he sat rubbing it, trying to figure out just what had happened to cause him to end up in the past.

"My friend, you look afraid! Are you okay? I will get you some water. Do not move, I will be right back."

Before Jack could say anything, Simon was up and moving. He was soon back with a skin full of cold water from a stream nearby. Jack tried to drink some of it but it seemed to get caught in his throat. He had traveled in the past before – no big deal, right? But before he had his team with him and on that team was one of the smartest scientist in the world along with the best people greeter and language expert. God, how was he going to get home? Nobody even knew where he was. And even if they did – how would they get home if they came through the gate looking for him?

"Listen my friend, we will figure this out. We will see that you get back to your home. There is a reason and a purpose for everything. Jehovah will show us in time why you are here."

Simon said it with such conviction that Jack wanted so bad to believe him. But it had been such a long time since he had believed in anything from God. It was not God's fault; it was just that Jack felt God had better people in the world to see about then him. So he never paid much attention to that aspect of life anymore. He was a soldier – a man ordered to kill whether he agreed with it or not, things he had done that he would not even talk about in the light of day because he was governed by the United States Government. He would fight with conviction that what he had been ordered to do was not right, he still had no other choice but to do it. He had been beat, abused, raped and left for dead while others had been rescued and sent home. God had no time for him. And the worst of all, he had allowed his son to die because he had been careless and left his gun down, where his boy could get it. No, God had other things to do then worry about him and he sure did not forgive himself so why should God.

Simon watched Jack's face and it was as if he could read his thoughts. This man was carrying a burden like he himself had carried at one time. "Oh and how we condemn ourselves so easily when we feel we are not worthy of forgiveness or cannot forgive ourselves." This man was in pain – in a pain that went deep into his soul and it was obvious even more when Simon mentioned God.

Jack sat with the men around the small fire, head bent and listened somewhat to the chatter around him. Then he felt someone poking him, it seemed as if someone or something was wanting his attention and was being very persistent about it. He lifted his head and saw the shaggiest lamb he had ever seen before. The animal looked as if it had just crawled out of a swamp.

Jack reached his hand down and started petting the little thing on the head. He heard Simon laughing and he looked over at him.

"Oh my friend, you have just been held hostage. This is Sabu – he was found a week ago by my son and he is very obnoxious. He will not listen. He is ornery and hard-headed, determined to do things his way and to have his way!" Simon laughed again when Sabu pushed his head under Jack's hand when he stopped petting him. "Oh, but he has fallen for you. And I must warn you, once Sabu falls for you – that's it, there is no getting away from him. I must admit however you are the first he has shown this much affection for."

Jack looked at the animal standing beside him, just barely high enough to be seen over his knees. Why did it seem like he always picked up the strays? Children, animals, lost archeologist, babbling scientist, aliens deciding to defect – always to him. Did they not realize just how dangerous being around him really was?

"Hey fella, you gonna want to go find someone else to get attached to. I am not that great of a person to hang around with."

Simon heard the words come from Jack's mouth and slowly shook his head. He knew now why this man was here with him, celebrating a special occasion. He needed a good talking to and Jehovah was going to see that he got it. He reached down and patted the lamb on the butt and soon the little animal was off trotting after the bigger sheep.

"That should keep him occupied for a while. He won't be content for long, I am afraid. He will be back soon to enjoy more of your petting."

Simon said the words as he glanced over at Jack. The man sitting beside him looked lost. Not something he would normally allow a stranger to see, Simon knew this but he had caught Jack's look before Jack had a chance to change it.

"You know, my friend, today is a special day for my people here. We celebrate a very special birth that happened thirty-six years ago on this very night. A birth that a lot of my people were very surprised when it happened the way it did."

"Oh really, and what birth is that?"

Jack knew what Simon was talking about. He had figured out exactly where he was – the year still surprised him but it really should not – nothing about gate travel should surprise him anymore!

"Come my friend – you, I do not take for a feeble minded man! You know what birth we hold so dear here in our Country – as I am sure you do in yours. Even if the years are not the same, I find it hard to believe that His birth would not be celebrated among your people."

"I know what birth you speak of and if it happened thirty – six years ago, then I would imagine that there was a death three years ago that surely caused you and your people great pain. I am finding this very difficult to believe but I shouldn't, not with my luck."

"In reverence of this special occasion, my family and fellow herdsman usually travel to Bethlehem to worship and bring praise to His name for the wonderful gift of life that He has assured us. You are welcomed to travel with us. I would prefer it over you staying here by yourself."

"I would prefer not to. I do not think you would want me around you for that and besides I need to stay close to where the gate is in case my people come looking for me. You go, do your celebration and if I am still here when you returned, then I am.'

Simon watched Jack as he said these words. It was not the fact that he was worried that someone may come looking for him, Jack felt the same way he once had. Jack felt unworthy to be part of the celebration. He himself had a onetime thought that the only people who could celebrate the birth of the Holy Child of God were righteous men – men who had not had their hands in blood.

"Jack, may I speak to your heart? I feel I need to tell you what you need to hear and some do not like it. You are hurting, my friend and you hold guilt for things you had no control over. You are a man of war but that is because it is part of your world. I too must fight if it is to protect my people. You fight to protect your people. You are a good man, Jack. You judge yourself when you have no right to."

O'Neill was angry. He did not want to be but what Simon had said bothered him. He sounded just like Sam, Daniel, Teal'c and now Jonas. These people did not understand. They did not realize that every night before he went to bed he wished he could wash the blood off of his hands like he did the grease and the dirt. They did not understand that when he closed his eyes to try to sleep all he saw was the whites of the eyes of young men that had lost their lives under his command. How dare this man sit here and think he knew him!

"What do you know about why I judge myself? Please, Simon, you do not know me – you may think you do but you do not. I am not the peaceful man that you think I am. I have not only killed, I have led men to kill others. How can you claim I am a peaceful man? I allowed my child to take my gun and shoot himself and when his mother needed someone to lean on – I run away. What do you know about me? I am nothing but a soldier, destined to kill and destroy others' lives! Yet you ask me to go and celebrate the birth of a man who gave his life for others, me a man who only takes. God what kind of fool do you take me for. Even if I could go with you, I could never celebrate this time. I don't celebrate this time, not anymore – it means nothing to me! A man unable to forgive his self – let alone God!"

By the time O'Neill had finished speaking, his checks were wet with tears. He had not allowed himself to cry over his life in a long time. His life was his life and he had learned to accept it. He was not meant to be happy or to bring others joy. Ah! what difference did it make – no one understood anyway. He would wait here and sooner or later someone from the SGC would figure out where he was and come take him home.