Title: Realizations
Rating: K+, some violence and language
Disclaimer: I don't own or have any rights to Stargate: SG-1 or it's characters.
Summary: The team finds out what's been happening to Jonas, realizations ensue.
He'd fought back initially, course that had only served to piss them off more, but now he was just attempting to make himself as small as possible. The episodes hadn't lasted this long in the past, he couldn't help but wonder what had changed.
He got his answer when one of the men hauled him to his feet and leaned in toward his ear. "Just because you got assigned to SG-1 does not mean that anyone likes you." The statement was accentuated with a fist to his kidney. "Hell, all anyone around here talks about is how much they hate you. The only thing you're good for is that stuff you brought through the gate with you."
Jonas grunted around the rag in his mouth as several more blows landed on his face and torso. The gag was making it extremely difficult to catch his breath. He longed to defend himself, but he couldn't summon the energy to fight against the two pairs of hands that trapped his arms anymore.
A second voice replaced the first in his ear. "The only reason you even got that assignment was because O'Neill would rather have some scum-sucking traitor on his team than a fing Russian. I heard him say he was hoping you would get shot on your first mission so that he could leave you to a slow, painful death." He smiled at the gasp he received when his foot crashed into the front of their captive's knee, forcing it to hyperextend.
Jonas's heart hit the pit of his stomach at those words. How could he have believed that his help saving Earth or his confrontation with the Col by the elevator had been responsible for his new assignment? People here would never see him as anything but the man responsible for Dr Jackson's death, and nothing he could do would ever be good enough to change that opinion.
"Hey guys, what do you say we do Col O'Neill a favor?" The heavily muscled man flashed his knife in Jonas's face.
One of his three friends, Jonas wasn't coherent enough to tell which one, piped up, "Hell yeah, but we can't kill him."
"Oh, we won't, we'll just make sure he's moving a little slower on that first mission, make target practice a little easier on those Jaffa." He was thoroughly enjoying the look of unadulterated fear in the alien's eyes. "Anyone finds out about this, and you will die a very slow and messy death, understand? We may just have to hurt whoever you tell too."
Jonas had done his best to keep quiet throughout the beating, not wanting to anger his attackers further, but he couldn't help the scream that was ripped from him as the knife was dragged in a slow, deliberate arc across his ribcage and chest. Blood immediately began seeping from the long wound. He wasn't prepared when his attackers let go of him and he collapsed to the concrete floor with a very undignified grunt. The hardness of the floor only increased the number of pain signals his brain was desperately trying to sort through.
He waited until he heard the door to the locker room slam shut before he even attempted to move. The first order of business was to yank the filthy rag from his mouth. That done, he was able to make it to his hands and one knee with much difficulty, his other knee refused to bare any weight. He crawled to the small alcove at the far end of the lockers that he had found the first time this had happened. He knew he couldn't make it back to his room right now, and he didn't want to risk involving anyone else.
It was always the same men, and they always seemed to know when he was alone late at night. Not that he wasn't alone all day, everyday anyway. He usually tried to be in his quarters with the door locked before the halls emptied for the night, but a lot of nights he'd get caught up in some work without realizing how late it'd gotten. They usually only detained him long enough to do some damage and re-iterate how much everyone hated him. This was the seventh attack in the three months he'd been on Earth; he'd actually become rather adapt at making up stories to cover his visible injuries. Anyone that bothered to ask now thought he was the biggest klutz in the universe. He also found that people were much more likely to believe his stories if he smiled during the explanation.
So that had become his new thing, he smiled to cover up the physical and emotional anguish.
Upon reaching the alcove, he slumped against the wall and gently lifted the material of his t-shirt to examine the knife wound. The crawl to the alcove had increased the blood flow from the laceration, Jonas shrugged out of the shirt and used it to try to stem the flow. It looked like he was going to have to learn to do stitches on himself; he'd never be able to pass the knife would off as anything else.
Jonas caught his breath as a familiar deep voice rang through the locker room, he quickly backed into the darkest corner of the alcove. Teal'c had actually been kinda nice to him, there was no way Jonas was going to endanger his life by involving him in this.
It turned out that Teal'c wasn't alone, Ferretti's team had entered the locker room with him. A deep longing for acceptance settled in as he watched Teal'c laughing and joking (as much as he ever did) with the marines, what he wouldn't give to be a part of that.
The feeling of disorientation and detachment brought his attention back to the blood that was washing down his chest. He knew that he was loosing too much of it, but he couldn't bring himself to call out to Teal'c. His last thought before the darkness overtook his was that it might just be best for everyone if he just let himself die right here.
STARGATE: SG-1
Jack O'Neill groaned when he caught sight of his dashboard clock, he was late. He preferred to get out of the locker room before all the other teams reported for duty at 0600, there just wasn't enough room in there for a lot of people. If he hurried he might have five minutes of relative peace and quiet.
Jack wrapped a towel around himself as he headed out of the shower area, at least he'd had hot water. An inconsistency in the concrete floor near the sinks caught his eye as he moved toward his locker, that was new. A closer inspection revealed that the inconsistency was a small, tacky pool of blood.
O'Neill tried to force the hairs on the nape of his neck back down. Someone had probably just cut themself shaving, but a look to his right revealed several smaller splotches leading away from the original. Following the trail to the alcove, he was barely able to make out a form in the far corner. He knew he wouldn't be able to do anything for the man if he couldn't see, so he ran back to his locker for a flash light.
SG-4 entered the locker room and were slightly confused to see Jack disappearing into the alcove with a flashlight. They were even more surprised when he reappeared two seconds later calling for a med team.
Jack sank to his knees next to the pale shivering form, his injured ligaments complained but he ignored them. "Jonas, come on, rise and shine buddy." His eyes took in the bruises covering the young man's upper body and the hand that was feebly clutching a t-shirt to the bloody cut on his chest. Jonas's skin was ice cold under Jack's hands, but he sighed with relief when his eyes fluttered open.
Jonas looked up at his new CO with glazed eyes, unable to hide the fear that he was feeling. "Did you come to finish the job?"
O'Neill didn't get a chance to respond as he was shoved out of the way by Dr. Fraiser and her team. What the hell had he meant by 'was he there to finish the job'? Of course, that question took second place to 'what SOB had done this to the kid'? Jonas wasn't exactly his favorite person, but no one deserved this. He was surprised that Janet hadn't started questioning him yet, not that he had any answers for her.
He watched in silence as they loaded the young alien onto a stretcher and rushed off toward the infirmary. Janet stayed behind to speak to Jack, "you'd better find Sam and Teal'c, they'll want to know about this." She left him and hurried after the stretcher.
"Yeah." This type of thing just wasn't supposed to happen while they were on Earth.