Healing Hands
Gracie's POV, Gracie is now 12 which means this is about six years after the end of the series.
If you haven't read "Child of the Godslayers" and at least the last chapter of "Scar Stories" you should do so before attempting this story. Or you will probably be majorly confused.
My fingers are fumbling over the buttons. It's ridiculous, I must have dialed Cassie's number a billion times. She's like a sister to me, a much older sister. Auntie Janet, Cassie's mom, died when I was four and Cassie was eighteen. Cassie lived with us for a few months before she went to college. Then of course she came back on all the school breaks. Cassie has done a serious amount of school. She's graduated from college twice, and then she moved into town to keep going to school, for a third graduation. She doesn't live with us anymore, but we still see her a lot.
In fact Cassie is our main babysitter. But finally after years of begging I got to babysit my little brother, Carter, by myself.
"She's in the ninth grade, all her friends have been babysitting for a while," Dad protest.
"Yes, and she's two years younger than all of those friends," Mom puts in.
"And way more responsible than them too," Dad adds in.
So finally, they let me babysit Carter. But as is always the case, things go wrong.
"Cassie," I'm all out of breath, but I finally got through to her, "you've got to come and take Carter to the base."
"What happened," she says in that voice she has, that voice which calms you down against you will. Cassie is great in emergencies. She's training to be a political scientist, a diplomat. Daddy says she's good at "putting out emotional fires."
"I think Carter's leg is broken," I say, trying to keep the panic down.
"Gracie, you have to call 911, and…"
"Cass, you know we can't go to any doctors but the ones on base," I say.
"Oh right," she says, sounding a touch panicked herself, "Listen, you stay with Carter, don't move him, and try and call your parents. I'll be right over."
I do what she says. I take the phone outside, and call my parents. I knew I wouldn't get ahold of them. You never do when they go away for half day work trips together. Of course I don't get to know where they are for real. All I hear is that they are on some diplomatic mission with faries or something. I'm getting too old to hear Daddy's fairy tales. But I know, it's all he can tell me about the "classified" nature of his job.
"Carter, don't move," I say sitting down next to him. I should have said no to skateboarding. Carter is six. Mom doesn't let him skateboard. But the thing is, Dad does. And come on I want to be the cool babysitter, so Carter wants me to do it again. I made Carter wear a bunch of gear. But they don't make femur guards, which is apparently what my little brother needs.
He looks up at me, "Gracie, didn't Daddy break a leg once?" he asks. He's asking for Daddy's fairy tales. I don't mind telling the things, just hearing them.
"I think maybe more than once, Carter, but I only know about once for sure," I respond.
"Yeah? What happened?" he asks.
"Well, Mom and Dad fell of the magic carpet while it was going over Antarctica. They were cold and in pain, and they couldn't figure out a way to get out."
"Super Sammy away finds a way out," Carter says.
I nod, and we keep telling the story for a little bit until we get to the part where Mom sets his leg.
"Will they have to do that to me?" he asks in a worried voice.
"I don't know Carter maybe," I say, even though I'm pretty sure the answer is yes.
"You do it now," he says looking at me with a lot of trust. Way too much trust.
"Carter, I am not at all qualified to set your leg. I'd have no idea what I was doing," I say.
"Just pretend, Gracie, so I'll know what to expect," he says. Carter really likes to run through new things before they happen. If he doesn't it makes him really nervous.
"Ok, Carter, it will be like this," I put my hands over his leg, but I don't touch it. Suddenly my hands start to glow. I pull back.
"What did you do Gracie?" Carter says with a stunned voice.
"I don't know, Carter," I say staring at my no longer glowing hands.
"Do it again Gracie," Carter says.
"I didn't do it on purpose, and…I'm not sure if it's something you want to have happen," I say.
"My leg feels way better," Carter says.
Ok, so maybe it's nuts, but I let my hands hover over Carter again. Again it starts to glow, and the weird shape of Carter's leg-goes back to normal.
"It's all better," Carter declares standing up, and trying his leg. Just then Cassie's car pulls up.
"Jeez Grace, you had me panicked. It's not broken if he can walk on it!"
"It was broken," I stay stunned.
"Legs don't unbrake," Cassie says.
"And hands don't glow," Carter says seriously, "But Gracie's do."
Cassie looks at my hands, which are at the moment doing nothing extraordinary. "Glowed?" she asks uncertainly. Carter and I both nod. "Glowed, and healed?" she asked uncertainly. We nod again. She reaches over and feels my forehead. Her face shows immense relief. "Ok, I'm driving you guys to base, get in."
"I don't want to go to the doctor, I'm all healed," Carter whines.
"Doctor is still going to want to check you out, Carter, but this trip is probably going to be more about your sister," Cassie says. We climb into her car, and she glances back to make sure we are both buckled in.
"Cassie," Carter asks, "What super power will I get when I grow up?" Cassie just laughs. But I don't. Because the things is…I may actually have a super power, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.
When Dad takes us to the doctor, and it's always Dad never Mom who does it, he always blindfolds us and carries us there. Doesn't want us to see anything classified. But either Cassie doesn't know this rule, or more likely, she knows she can't carry both of us, and what we're dealing with is too important to care about that particular rule.
I think about Cassie. She's never really had any secrets. In fact she makes jokes about classified stuff I'm not allowed to know. I know there is a secret about Cassie, some big secret, I don't get to know. Not yet, maybe never. I know Mom and Dad found her, alone, in another country. But as much as Cassie does know, Cassie doesn't get to know the details. She no doubt actually knows where Mom and Dad go, and how they get there. But she probably don't know about the time Mom blew up a star, or when Mom disappeared playing with a map. Carter and I, we get to know these things. Even if we only know about them as fairy tales.
So Cassie leads us to the infirmary. I see her hesitate to go in. It's been eight years since she lost her mother, but I know she still hates going into this place, where her mother spent so much time. Cassie was planning on being a doctor, but that idea disappeared the day her mother died. She can't face that stuff now.
"I can take him in," I offer as she still stands frozen at the door.
"Hardly, Grace," she says taking a deep breath and marching through the door.
Dr. Lam is rushing around like always, but when she sees the three of us she stops, "What's wrong?"
"Ah, it's complicated, not an emergency, and I think we'd better talk to you. Also, you have a way to recall their parents I assume?" Cassie says.
Dr. Lam nods. She isn't easy to surprise. Actually it's pretty hard to surprise any of the people that work at the base. They take everything in stride. She goes into her office for a bit, talks to a few nurses, and then calls us in.
"So what is going on?" Dr. Lam asks Cassie.
"Ok, so I wasn't actually there. I think Grace better tell this story," Cassie says.
Great. I take a deep breath, "Ok, so I was babysitting Carter, and shouldn't have let him go skateboarding."
"Dad lets me!" Carter protests, his face turning red with anger.
"Ok, well anyway. Carter was skateboarding…" I continue.
"She made me wear all my gear, though," Carter interrupts.
"Yeah, and I was outside watching him, and he falls," I shut my eyes against the memory, "I'm pretty sure his leg was broken, the bones were laying like this," I show her with my hands, and Dr. Lam nods looking at Carters leg.
"And then her hands started glowing…" Carter continued.
"No, first I called Cassie, and tried to call mom and dad," I said. I needed all the responsibility points I could get, after all my brother broke his arm on my watch.
"Right, and then she came and sat by me, and was telling me stories to distract me," Carter put in.
"He wanted me to show him what it would be like to have his leg set. But I didn't want to hurt him, so I just put my hand above his leg to show him," I said slowly.
"And it started to glow!" Carter explained.
"And I pulled my hand away. But he said it made his leg feel better, so…so I did it again," I said.
"And my leg unbroked itself," Carter proclaimed.
"Ok," Dr. Lam said, "Here iswhat we are going to do. I'm going to take an x-ray of Carter's leg. I'm also going to want a blood sample from you Grace. Your parents will be here in an hour or so, and we'll discuss this more than. Ok?" She looks at us. No doubt looking for signs of panic. Carter isn't going to show any. He thinks he's living inside of a comic book or something. I'm freaking out, but I'm not going to let her see that. Nope, I'm playing it as calm as a cucumber, even though I'm freaking out.
Cassie stands next to me as they take the blood. There are very few people who know about my secret fear of needles, not even Dad. But Cassie and mom know. So Cassie tells me a story about her mother as they draw my blood. She knows it will distract me, because I don't remember her mother, and no one ever talks about her.
Then Carter is going in for his x-ray. He asks the technician for a description of how it works. The technicians says, "It takes a picture of your insides."
Carter stares at him for a second. Probably deciding if the man was smart enough to answer his question. Then he says, "Yes, but why does the x-ray go through my skin and muscle but not the bone, is it because it's more dense?"
The technician blinks at him, stunned. People working at the SGC, don't often work with kids. Let along gifted kids. Let alone Carter.
"Yeah, Carter," I say, "And if you have other dense things in you, like the medal Daddy has in him from the time a bomb exploded around him, you can see that in an x-ray too," the technician's really shocked now, "Actually Carter, it's not that the more dense stuff stop it. The x-rays just go through them more slowly. You can sorta see through the bones on a x-ray."
He nods. The technician takes his x-ray, and I wished I was fearless like my baby brother. After Carter's x-ray I sit with him in the waiting room. He crawls up on my lap, and asks for a Super Sammy story. But I know I shouldn't tell one of those here. I know Dad shouldn't have really told those stories at all, and he could get in trouble if someone found out that I know. So I distract him with some real fairy tales. Poor kid never even heard of Rumplesteskin, I've been neglecting some of my big sisterly duties.
Dad and Mom come spinning around the corner, dressed in ridiculous matching potato colored gowns. They look panicked. Mom sits down in the chair next to us, while Dad focuses on Cassie, and remains standing.
"What happened?" he asks her.
"You ok?" Mom asks us looking us over for obvious signs of trauma.
"We're fine, seriously, fine," I say, and Cassie nods.
"Well, next time reword the message, 'Your kids are in the infirmary' is the kind of thing that makes a parents heart stop," Dad says.
"Didn't word the message, Jack," Cassie says.
"I broked my leg," Carter proclaims. I'm pretty convinced Carter uses bad grammar on purpose. Because bad grammar is like nails on a chalk board to Dad. It gets his attention in a way nothing else really does.
"What?" Dad says looking as Cassie.
But Carter's gotten used to telling this story already, "But Grace glowed and fixed me," he proclaims.
Mom's examining Carter's leg, but Dad's eyes are locked on mine.
"Glowed?" he repeats.
I nod. And for the first time all day I don't try to hide the fact that I am terrified. Dad sits down, and signals for me to join him. I shift Carter onto Mom's lap and go over and sit by Dad.
"Your healed your brother?" he asks.
I nod.
"Freaking out?" he asks.
I nod again, and breathe hard to keep the tears from coming.
"It's ok, Gracie, we'll get this figured out," he says putting his arm around me.
I put my head into his shoulder, and whisper the question I've been dying to since it happened, "Daddy, am I really your daughter?"
He pulls me away, to look me in the eye, "Of course you are, what made you ask such a question?"
"I don't know, after today….I just thought maybe you found me in another country and adopted me…like Cassie," I stammered.
"No, Grace, you are mine and your mothers," he says soothing my head down against his shoulder.
"But if I was like, I don't know, and alien or something, you'd tell me right?" I ask.
"Alien? Where are you getting this from? Did Cassie…" but he stops himself, "You are not an alien. Listen Gracie, this whole glowing hand thing, if anything it proves all the more you are my daughter. But there was never any doubt." He kisses my forehead.
"Your hands glow, Dad?" I ask.
"No Gracie, well actually yes, just once, but that was different. This it's a genetic thing, we'll talk about it later," he says.
"So you knew this would happen? Would have been nice to have a heads-up. 'Hey Gracie, someday you're going to develop super powers.'"
"Not exactly knew, but not exactly surprised either. I do have some questions about how exactly this happened."
"So how did you break your leg?" I hear Mom asking Carter.
Shut my eyes, "My fault. I let him skateboard."
Mom looks angry. But Dad breaks in, "Not your fault Gracie. Sam, I let Carter skateboard before." He looks at me, "You did nothing wrong, Gracie, accidents happen."
"Yeah, and she made me where even more gear than you Dad," Carter says with a grin.
Mom's calmed down a little, "Well you did the responsible thing in telling us, Gracie. And I hear you took good care of him after it happened."
"So I can babysit again?" I asked.
Mom laughs a little, "Not right away sweetie."
Then Dr. Lam came by, "Ok, Sam, Jack, I think I have a handle on what is going on. Come to my office. Cassie you'll watch them?" she asks.
I can't believe it. Their hands didn't glow.
"I'm coming too." I say. They are all staring at me.
"Gracie, it's classified," Mom tries.
"Ok, and I get that. But six years is a long time to wait to figure out why your hands glow and heal people. I can keep a secret you know, and I seriously think I deserve to know what is going on," I say.
"She's right, Sam," Dad says. Dr. Lam shrugs.
"Hey, can I come too. I might glow someday," Carter says running after me.
"Ok, Carter, if you start to glow, I promise I will tell you what is going on. Right now, go see if Cassie knows the story of Jack and the Beanstalk." There is actually a pretty good chance she doesn't. For some reason Cassie just missed all the stuff little kids are supposed to know. She blames it on growing up in Canada before mother adopted her. I don't think Cassie is from Canada.
We all sit down. There is a moment of silence.
"Ok, so this is obviously related to the ancient gene," Dad says.
"What?" I ask.
"Umm…Danny's glowy guardian angel," Dad starts.
"Don't tell her that, Jack, that's ascended, not ancient. So there were some things kind of like humans, but not. They were around a long, long time ago, and built…" mom starts.
"Some pretty cool stuff, Gracie. Anyway they are all dead now, but they were called ancients. And I have the ancient gene which I gave to you," he smiles.
"Ok, but if we both have the gene why does it make my hands glow and yours not? Unless it's recessive in which case I would have got a similar gene from…"
"Don't have the ancient gene, Grace," Mom cuts in.
"No, but you do have naquada in your blood. It appears that when someone has naquada in their blood and the ATA gene they end up with enhanced abilities," Dr. Lam says.
"Makes sense," Dad says, "Naquada is the gate element, and the ancients are the gate builders."
"Carter?" Mom asks.
"Yes, he also inherited the ATA gene from Jack, and the naquada from Sam," she said.
"Carter will be thrilled," Dad says
"Why does ATA gene plus naquada equal freak of nature?" I ask.
The look at me for a long time, "The ancients could do some pretty cool stuff, Gracie," Dad starts carefully.
"Like heal people with glowing hands," Mom offers.
I wait. I've found you can get all kinds of information by waiting until people get nervous. "And reading each other's minds," Mom says looking down. "Move things with their minds," Dad put in, "and they're pretty good at meditation," Dad says.
"They know their way around technology," Mom says with a smile.
"So all this is coming?" I asked wondering if telepathy comes with an off switch.
"I don't think so," Dr. Lam said. We all breathed a sigh of relieve. "We think this results in gaining one power, at random."
I'm panicking, just a little.
"It's a lot to take in," Mom says locking eyes with me. I know that look in her eye. She's desperate to protect me, and can't. I've been seeing that look more and more as I get older. I give her a smile.
Dr. Lam smiles at me, and waits a bit before she continued, "Now Gracie, it's not that we don't believe your brother and you. But no one but you has seen it…" she starts.
"I can't just make them glow," I say holding them out, "I've tried."
"I know, I think you need a real injury to work on. I have a good candidate. Injury we can't fix, non lethal, non contagious."
"No," Mom's voice is clear and strong.
"Sam, I'm not talking about doing it all the time," Dr. Lam said.
"No," Mom says again.
"Mom, if I can do this…I want to help people," I say.
"No," Mom says.
Dad shuts his eyes, and then turns to me, "We met an Ancient once. We all got a disease. She healed us, but…she died from the effort."
"Oh," I said stunned by the fact that this might not be a weird thing, but fatal.
"There were complications that time. She was thousands of years old, and possibly sick with the disease she was trying to heal. I would never put Gracie at risk. I just want to know what we're dealing with. We'll make sure we'll space the healings," Dr. Lam said seriously.
Mom is glaring. Dad looks unconvinced.
"Ok, guys, if I'm going to have this super power for the rest of my life I will be using it, wouldn't you rather I did it with medical advice?"
They nod, reluctantly. Mom touches my shoulder, "Please stop calling it a super power Gracie," she mutters.
I nod. But I still will in my head, or else I'm just a freak with glowing hands.
We meet Murray and we are leaving the infirmary and he's looking worried. "I heard my namesake was injured," he says.
"I don't see why you keep calling him that," I say, "Carter is named after mom."
He raises an eyebrow, "You are incorrect Gracie O'Neill, 'Carter' refers to Jacob Carter."
I was somewhat taken back by this, but I say, "Ok, so he was named for our Grandpa."
"I refer to his middle name," Murray says.
"That's Teal, a color, probably Dad's favorite. Nothing to do with you," I retort.
"Your father's favorite color is peridot," he says without making any sort of facial expression.
"Ok, Mom's favorite then," he shakes his head "Still Teal is nothing like Murray," I say.
"Indeed," Murray replies, with that face he makes, which is as close as he ever gets to a smile.