Friendly Fire by Emma Nisbet (grnfield)
"Sam, you killed him." Daniel exclaimed.
"Hail, Dorothy," commented Jack O'Neill from somewhere behind him.
"Yeah, I guess I did. I didn't mean to. I just meant to stop him, or at least slow him down a little." Sam sighed guiltily. "I guess I can't control these ribbon devices, any better than I can the Goa'uld healing devices. I'd say I need more practice but, quite frankly, I'd rather not use them at all. That said, at least I could see the benefit of practicing the healing device…"
"I understand, Sam." Daniel told her thoughtfully. Sadly, he took another look at the system lord's broken body, lying on the floor of the tunnel and turned away to find Jack and Teal'c waiting further down the passage.
Sam slipped the ribbon device from her hand and placed it carefully in one of her pockets. She then turned to follow the others back outside.
Once Jacob spotted them coming out of the hatch he hurried over. Straight away he noticed the shocked expression on Daniel's face. Daniel was closely followed by Sam who was also showing signs of shock.
"You did good, Sam" Jacob told his daughter as he enveloped her in a great bear hug. She returned the hug vigorously but couldn't find the words to answer him.
The other members of SG-1 stepped away to allow the two Carters to have a family moment. Jack noticed how pale and shaken Daniel was and placed a hand on the younger mans shoulder. Daniel started slightly at the sudden touch, but once he realised that it was Jack he relaxed slightly into the gentle pressure.
"You OK?" Jack asked him quietly.
"I'm fine," came the standard reply.
"It's just, you look, well…more than a little shook up there, Danny." Jack continued.
"Jack, I'm fine really." Daniel explained. "I'm just tired. Maybe it's an after-effect of the Nish'ta."
"Well, we'll be flying back to Peterson, pretty soon. There's no point hanging around here. Let the Marines take over the clear-up operation from here on in. Get all these people back where they belong and get them rehabilitated to normal life again. That won't happen overnight, I'm sure of that." Jack gave Daniel's shoulder a quick squeeze. "You really sure you're OK?"
Daniel gave a loud sigh and looked down at his feet. Without realising it he was kicking around the woodchip that made up the forest floor. "Um…sigh…er, well…sigh…Oh hell, Jack."
"Hey, hey now, come on, you can tell me." Jack assured him. "Get it off your chest. If you don't then you know Fraiser'll make you to talk to Mac the Quack or one of his friends when we get home."
"Well…erm…What will happen to him now?" Daniel asked his commanding officer.
"Who?" asked Jack, puzzled by the question. "Tommy? He'll go home with his Dad, once the medics have checked him over. He's not been there that long, after all. I'm sure that with a bit of counselling, he'll be as right as rain in no time."
"No, Jack. I didn't mean Tommy. I meant Setekh. It's not like we've caught and killed a system lord here on Earth before. I just wondered - will the Tok'ra take him?" Daniel looked sadly back towards the hatchway.
"I guess so, Daniel." Jack said softly. "That's kind of the point of the whole things, isn't it? It was the Tok'ra who asked for our help in the first place. You know that they remove the symbiotes from all the Goa'uld that we kill. They then study them to make sure that they were who they were claiming to be. Hence the wonderful 3D 'family tree' that they showed us the other day. I guess that Seth's symbol won't be blinking any more, after today." Jack grinned as he said the last part.
Daniel didn't smile back. Jack noticed that the linguist had started to dig a veritable trench in the floor with the toe of his boot.
"What about the host, Jack? What happens to him?" Daniel asked.
"I've no idea, Danny. We can ask Jacob later on. Come on, we've got to get packed up and ready to ship out." Jack said, giving Daniel's shoulder a pat before turning back to the pair of Carters who were waiting to return to the tented base of operations.
As they started walking back towards the waiting vehicles, Jack looked back and saw that Daniel hadn't moved from his previous position. The sensitive, young man was standing, studying his feel, with his shoulders slumped in a position of abject misery.
"Come on, Danny. You'll get left behind if you're not careful." Jack shouted back to him. He saw Daniel sigh and rub his hands over his face, before he moved to follow Jack and the others.
'You are SO not fine, Dannyboy.' the older man thought. 'We've killed plenty of snakes before and you've never reacted like this. Mind you, it must have been a shock to have it happen right in front of you like that. Carter seems Ok now, and it was her who actually killed him for Christ's sakes. Whatever it is, Danny, I'll find out and get you to spill. Maybe not today, but sometime very soon.'
~#~
Soon SG-1 were back in the vehicles and on their way back to meet their plane. Daniel was still subdued, a fact that Sam had picked up on now, as well. She looked worriedly at Daniel and glanced over at Teal'c. He met her eyes with his own concerned ones. 'Teal'c's noticed as well then,' thought Sam. 'Something's definitely bothering Daniel, but what?'
She looked over at the Colonel, who met her gaze and shook his head slightly. That was enough to tell Sam that Jack was aware of the problem as well and it put her mind to rest somewhat.
~#~
The journey back to the mountain was uneventful. Their transport plane delivered them safely back to the Peterson Air Force base where they were met by jeep and returned 'home' to the mountain.
Upon arrival, General Hammond greeted them and congratulated them on a successful mission. He advised that they were all to report to the infirmary for routine check-ups. Once Doctor Fraiser had finished with them, SG-1 were free to go home.
The debriefing was scheduled for the next morning. The reason for the delay, General Hammond explained, was to allow Jacob time to return to the mountain with the body of the former system lord. The retired General could then take part in the debriefing session as well, before returning to the Tok'ra base with the body.