TITLE: The Day The Universe Stands Still
AUTHOR: VIDZ
PAIRING: Jack/Hailey
TIMELINE: Season 5
WARNINGS: death, many character deaths BUT NOT OUR COUPLE, apocalypse,... Reader's discretion is advised.
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc of the TV show Stargate: SG-1 are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this fic. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: has anyone else realized that in all these apocalyptic fics we writers actually kill ourselves and our families, since we let only our heroes survive and the rest of humanity die? Kinda disturbing when you think about it...
SUMMARY: They're off-world the day the Earth dies and tragedy continues to stalk their dwindling numbers. Apoca-fic! character death, read warnings
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They're off-world the day Earth dies.
They lose their first member at the start, Daniel stayed behind at the SGC because he had some translations he wanted to finish. As a last minute replacement they took Hailey with them and this decision of Daniel's doomed him, just as it saved the green officer's life. SG-1 and SG-18 were sent to P8R-445 for 2 weeks on a diplomatic mission, a mission that saved their lives and insured Earth would live on. At least for a while.
Now, 14 days later, the last chevron doesn't want to engage when they dial up Earth's address. After 5 tries it's still the same. No difference with Alpha Site.
They have no choice but to look up the Tok'ra, no matter how much O'Neill distrusts them.
After 4 days of searching they finally find those tunnel rats and after some serious persuading (Jacob is away on a mission so they don't really have a powerful friend on their side) during which Jack almost ruins the already-fragile relations with a badly timed sarcastic comment, they get their hands on a cargo ship and a pilot.
It takes another day to get to Earth.
Or what's left of it.
All the clues point to space-born bombardment.
The snakeheads no longer wanted to subdue and enslave them, Earth had become too great a threat to their plans. Instead they, whoever the snakehead was, decided to destroy it.
The strength and size of their hate is evidenced by the fact that they not only killed most of the population, human and animal, with the initial assault, but then proceeded to nuke it so that nothing would grow and live on it for the next thousand years.
Their planet, the beloved home they fought for and died to protect, is nothing but a nuclear wasteland, fires still burning all-over the globe and a cloud of radiation filling the atmosphere.
The snakeheads use the image of Earth in it's present state as a warning to anyone who would dare to oppose.
This is when they lose their second team-mate.
Captain Charles can't bear the sight of his dead home planet. His family was there, his wife and their four children, his and hers families and relatives, coworkers, friends and neighbors, they're all dead now. Too wrapped in their own misery nobody notices anything before it's too late. His CO, Lt Col Alex Fredericks, can only cry out "No!", but he's too late, a gunshot rings out and a lifeless body slumps to the floor.
The next place they visit is the Alpha Site and it's also the place they bury Charles. There they find only bodies and a few recordings that tell them of how the System Lords decided to wipe out their greatest threat for good. Among the useful items they scavenge are ammo, food, clothes, an experimental forcefield the SGC was working on and laser perimeter security system.
Tragedy hasn't stopped with Earth's demise, it dogs them on.
Their bond receives a new dimension and depth a week after the end of their world. Everyone is at the fire and he goes inside the cave they now temporarily live in to put on some more clothes. She's supposed to be sleeping, she said she would when she left them earlier, but he clearly hears her crying softly in her corner of the "women's area", called that generously since she and Carter are the only women on the team and only two Earth women left in the Galaxy. He follows the sound to see her sobbing into her pillow, her small frame shaking violently. For 10 seconds he stands there, trying to decide what to do, should he leave her alone and give her privacy?
In the end, it's the image of Charles' lifeless body that persuades him to stay, he's not willing to take the chance of that happening again if one of them is left to deal with their pain on their own.
She needs comfort and support right now, after everything she's lost she needs and deserves someone to be there for her, to remind her she's not alone.
So he lowers himself to the ground, onto her sleeping bag. Startled, she turns to him, wide-eyed and vulnerable, before hastily wiping away the tears.
Ignoring her stuttering apologies he reaches around and gently grabs her behind her back, before guiding her into his chest. She stiffens and tries to back away, but Jack doesn't relent as he rubs a hand awkwardly-yet-soothingly up and down her BDU-clad back. Soon she relaxes and before long she's crying softly again, but this time she's not alone.
She tells him of her parents and how much she loved them and how much it hurts and it's tearing her apart and she just wants to be with them, but she doesn't want to disappoint them, but it's so hard to keep on going.
Before she knows it she falls asleep and Jack tucks her into her bag before returning to the fire.
Their dynamic changes slightly, she trusts him now and hangs around in his presence more, something that's not long before Teal'c and Carter notice.
If Carter is jealous over another woman getting close to the man she's always considered her own territory, she doesn't let on, she and Teal'c say nothing on the change.
They decide against staying with the Tok'ra because it's always been pretty obvious the stuck-up rebels don't think much of the humans and the alliance was always tenuous at best. Carter is caught in an indecision, but the attitude and the vibe they get from their former allies, not to mention Jacob always being on some kind of missions, in the end make the decision for her.
So they set off into the wilderness of the hostile galaxy on their own.
They deliberate over going to Cimmeria and asking Thor for help, but eventually discard that idea. The Asgard already have enough problems of their own with the Replicators, it's ungrateful to demand of them to start an all-out war against the snakeheads too. Hitler had the best military and the best technology and the best weapons and the best tacticians and the best field commanders in the world and look where his insistence on fighting on two fronts got him...
Instead they decide on going at it by themselves, stay alive, stay safe and not alert the snakeheads to their survival until the time is right.
But pain still isn't done with them.
In the first year they lose Whitehall to infection on some tropical planet. It takes only 3 days for him to go, after he's hurt his hand on some strange "tree" native to that area. There's nothing they can do. Doctor Fraiser could've probably saved him, but she's dead just like everyone else they cared about. As they bury him on that nameless planet they can't help but feel rage at the Fates. They've suffered so much heartache and lost so much, yet for some reason they're being punished even more. Why?
The next planet they gate to is in the middle of festivities and they are welcomed as friends, but no matter everyone around them being jolly, the friends just can't enjoy it.
Bigsby is killed by some angry natives on yet another planet just as they find a way to deal with the pain of losing Whitehall. They come to the planet searching for a place where they can lay low for a while, out of sight of the snakes, but find tragedy once again. This time they can't even get his body because they are vastly outnumbered and they barely make it off the planet alive themselves.
Depression is thick on the group and they settle into moving from one planet to the next to shake any would-be pursuers off their trail. Nobody laughs anymore, there are no jokes told, everyone is just going through the motions of surviving.
Half a year later they suffer their next loss when they are attacked by wild beasts, looking unlike anything they'd seen before. They're fast, agile and vicious and even though they put up a fight one of them grabs Carter by the middle and runs away with her, followed by it's pack-mates. They can hear her screaming in terror and agony, along with the beasts growling in a feeding frenzy, before the screaming suddenly cuts off. Before they can go after them, they are attacked again, by another group, and have no other choice but to escape through the Gate.
That's the day Jack dies inside.
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