Title: Chance Encounter
Author: Meushell
Disclaimer: If you recognize it, then it's not mine.
Summary: A short scene after Jacob learns he has cancer.
Rating: PG

Cancer?

Jacob had been told of his condition a couple months ago, and he still didn't believe it. Worse, he hadn't told his children yet.

Cancer? He, Jacob Carter, retired general from the air force was going to die from cancer? Something he couldn't even see? After everything he had been through, all the battles and near misses, it just seemed so...wrong.

But here he was, at a hospital far from home. He was in the process of moving to be closer to Sam, even though he hadn't tried contacting her yet. He was proud to say that he was several miles closer to his only daughter...

...She just didn't know it.

He had another surprise though. He'd been pulling the highest strings he could get his hands on to make her dreams come true. He was determined to see her become an astronaut before he died. He'd force himself to live longer just to see it...just to make sure it happened.

He had noticed there seemed to be another part of the hospital. A part he wasn't allowed to go. He had no idea what it was. Classified. That surprised him. He wasn't use to things being classified from him. Of course, they didn't outright tell him it was classified. They gave him some story that he saw right through.

Now he was heading home. His mind was on many things, seeming not to pay attention to others, but he stopped short when he saw a particular someone walking in. "Sam?"

His daughter seemed to freeze for a second. "Dad?" She glanced around, seeming to be a bit nervous. "You're here?"

Jacob found himself needing a story very quickly. "Yeah. Visiting a friend. Someone you don't know."

"Oh...hi Dad."

He hugged his daughter. "It's been a while."

"Yeah."

He smiled. His world was a little more whole again. Words fumbled in his mind, and he saw that his daughter seemed to be in a hurry. She had that look. The "I'm staying to be polite, but I really need to go" look. "Well, I'll be taking a plane back home this evening," he lied.

"Oh." She actually looked a little relieved, but then she made a sad smile. "That's too bad. Otherwise we might have been able to do something."

"Sorry." He didn't have the courage to tell her yet. "Well, bye."

"Bye Dad."

Jacob left. His world broken again. His daughter had acted a little strange, but he didn't put too much thought into it. It never occurred to him that it hadn't been his daughter.

--

Sam was pissed. The first time she had seen her father in a long time, and instead of her, he was unsuspectingly talking to a damn symbiote. You had no right to talk to my father!

Jolinar apologized, though she doubted Sam would ever believe it. She couldn't believe her ill luck. It wasn't her fault her new host's father happened to be at the hospital. What was he doing there anyway? Visiting a friend, according to him, but humans weren't very good liars.

What? Sam stopped yelling after picking up part of the thought. What aren't humans good at?

Nothing, Jolinar thought before burying the memory. She certainly had no intention on getting involved in something that wasn't her business. Look, when we leave Earth, I'll find a new host and leave you. You can return to Earth and spend all the time you want with your father.

Of course Sam still had no intentions on believing this symbiote.

I promise you, Jolinar thought. Your father will never know the truth.

The End