Chapter 2: Cassie
Over the course of a few months, Jack enjoyed getting the most out of high school socially even though he rarely hung out with his new friends outside of school. He also got to learn plenty about new findings in the sciences and about topics he didn't pay much attention to the first time around. Additionally, he joined the hockey team and became a valuable asset.
However, he eventually started to feel the repetitiveness of his days. His friends would often ramble on about fashion, school gossip, or other subjects that he found similarly uninteresting. They would also try to set him up with dates with girls, all of which he declined. They started setting up dates with boys, but they ultimately gave up when he declined those, too. Every now and then, he would get involved in an engaging conversation about sports. Yet, his in-depth analyses and knowledge of history were startling sometimes to his peers. On more than one occasion he had accidentally talked about attending games before he was allegedly born. The same thing happened when talking about movies or the Simpsons. These circumstances reminded his friends of his unusual origins, leading Jack to having to defend against barrages of questions he couldn't answer. Finally, at one point, he had to admit that an Air Force general he knew well gave him permission to stay in a cockpit during a flight.
After a few months, what Jack cherished most in high school were his chats with Cassie. The two developed a strong friendship, and Jack found himself seeking Cassie out more and more and seeking others out less and less. He even cut down on his participation in classes. Jack felt a little guilty at first for keeping Cassie from really knowing he was, but he found that Cassie didn't really care about his past. He figured that Cassie was used to getting the bare essentials from Janet so she didn't feel compelled to ask Jack a lot of classified information.
"My mom hardly ever went into detail," Cassie told Jack once, "but she always let me know how SG-1 and a few other people were generally doing."
On a particular school day, Jack hadn't seen Cassie at all but heard from others that she was crying at one point during the day and was spaced out the rest of the day. He found her after school slowly strolling around the school grounds and ran up to her.
Cassie saw him and gave him a huge hug when Jack reached her.
"What's wrong, Cassie?"
"Sam's missing. It has something to do with a ship she was on or something, but she's missing. I'm so afraid that my mom is going to come up to me one day and say that Sam's dead."
Jack initiated another hug. This news upset him, but he calmed down quickly. "It'll be all right, Cassie. I'm sure she'll turn out fine."
"Everyone says that, Jack, and I'm tired of hearing it. They don't know everything will be fine. You don't know, so why do you say that?"
"Because history says she'll be fine. How many times have SG-1 found themselves in trouble, Cassie? They've been lost, captured, held up, whatever so many times, and they always came back. Haven't they, Cassie?"
Cassie calmed down a little bit. "Yeah," she said quietly.
"They've even died. All four of them in SG-1 have died before; actually, physically died and they all came back."
Cassie smiled. "All right. You're right, Jack." Cassie sighed.
"I'm a little bit anxious, too, but I'm going to hope for the best. Will you do that with me?"
"Yes, Jack."
After a couple more minutes, Jack succeeded in convincing Cassie to see a movie despite a couple important homework assignments. The movie and dinner after were able to clear both Jack's and Cassie's minds when they finally did their homework at Cassie's home. As Jack prepared to leave, he hugged Cassie and Janet returned home.
"Hi, Doc."
"Jack! I thought I recognized that truck. It's nice to finally see you again. Cassie's told me a great deal about you . . ."
"I know where you're going with that, Doc, but Thor said everything would be fine and everything has been fine. I've had no need for checkups with you."
"And I gather you would also feel uncomfortable being back there?"
Jack shifted his gaze away from Janet. "Yeah, that too."
"Well, I don't mind doing a checkup outside of the base."
"Thanks, but no thanks. Has there been any word on Sam yet?"
"No, but our best people are doing all they can. That's all we can ask for now, right?"
"Yes, exactly." Jack replied. "Well, I'm going to head home. Have a good night, Doc. See you tomorrow, Cassie."
"Have a good night too, Jack."
"Bye, Jack."
It didn't feel long before Cassie found Jack in the halls one day and got his attention by punching his left arm. "I talked to my mom," Cassie said. "Sam and everyone else have been found. There are injuries and Sam's unconscious, but everyone will be all right."
Jack beamed. "That's great!"
"Uncle Jack is going to throw a little party when Sam wakes up and is able to walk around. Will you come?"
"Nah, I think it would just be a little bit weird."
"Mom mentioned your discomfort before, too. Why is going back such a bad thing?"
Jack struggled with his answer, but he didn't show it. "Well, I only spent about a week and a half there, and I guess I just wanted to move on from the whole Asgard experience."
"Okay. I think I understand."
Jack smiled and started to turn away, but Cassie stopped him.
"Were you scared for Sam, Jack?"
"Yeah, of course. She really had an impact on me."
"So all that talk about everything being fine . . . Did you really believe it or was that mainly for my benefit?"
"I've found it's easier to comfort others than it is to comfort myself. And sometimes, it's more of a priority, too." Jack paused. "Although, it doesn't hurt to be optimistic, and it doesn't help to be pessimistic in these situations. I guess it's a little from column A and a little from column B."
"All right, Jack. I'm going to my next class. Before I forget, though, what do you think about having a picnic this Saturday?"
"It won't be too cold for you?"
"No, there'll be less people, which I'll like."
"All right. Sounds good, then."
Saturday came and Jack drove Cassie to a park forty minutes away. "How do you know about this park?" Jack asked.
"Sam and my mom brought me here a couple years ago. I love the bridges and that fountain even though it's probably shut off now. Have you been here before?"
"Only once or twice. There's a river nearby that's great for fishing. I usually come around here for that, not the park."
Cassie laughed. "You and Uncle Jack are so similar. You made a really good choice with his name."
After finishing their lunch, Cassie brought up the topic on her mind the most. "So have you been in a relationship before? I've heard a little bit about your friends failing to set you up."
"I haven't, actually. It's the age thing. I might look fifteen . . . "
"But you're less than one year old. It makes you think people who are attracted to you are pedophiles?"
Jack laughed uncomfortably. "Actually, it's the opposite. I mentioned to you that an Asgard put information into my head, right?"
"Yeah. How much?"
"Over fifty-years worth of information."
"How did you quantify that?"
"Uhhh . . . it's a bit strange. I think I'd rather not try to explain. I'll fail miserably."
"All right, all right. So you feel older, then?"
"Yeah," Jack said as he reclined a bit, resting on his elbows behind him.
"Maybe you should let my mom check you out. I'm wondering if your hormone levels are normal for a fifteen-year-old body."
"What?" Jack said exasperatedly.
"I mean, do you still feel physical attraction to others?"
"Well, yeah, initially, briefly, but my mind just reminds me how weird everything is with me. I used to remind myself that I'm a fifteen-year-old with the mind of a fifty-some-year-old in the body that's less than one-year-old, but I stopped that when my friends' attempts at hooking me up with someone became too strange for me."
"Do you think you could ever give in to those hormones?"
"I think I would regret it if I did."
"Maybe you shouldn't be so pessimistic Jack." Cassie smiled and reclined back, putting her left cheek on Jack's chest.
"What?" Jack's heart began to beat rapidly and heavily as Cassie reached under Jack's jacket and put her right hand on Jack's belly. Cassie could feel the beating on her cheek despite the jacket. She smiled at first until she realized it was beating not out of excitement, but anxiety. She sat up and looked at Jack, who looked like he couldn't move. His face expressed utter shock. Cassie didn't know what to say. Jack didn't know, either. He started to realize that he had become too dependent on Cassie after he distanced himself from the rest of school. He wondered if he had led her on.
After a few more seconds, though it felt longer to the both of them, Jack sat up. "I'm sorry, Cassie. Please don't be offended."
"I'm not," Cassie said quietly, trying to convince herself as much as she was trying to convince Jack. She smiled to try to prove her point, but Jack saw the discomfort in her face.
"Cassie, I'm very sorry if I gave you the impression . . ."
"No, no, it was all me."
"Do you want to just forget this all happened?"
"Yes, definitely."
"To what?" Jack smiled.
Cassie returned the smile awkwardly. The picnic continued, although with a different mood as both tried to push the incident past them.
A few weeks passed when Jack was in Chemistry. An administrative assistant interrupted the class with the speaker system.
"Mrs. Rojas?"
"Yes, I'm here."
"A gentleman from the Air Force is here to pull Jack O'Neill out of class."
"All right, thank you. He'll get ready now."
Jack began packing up when the original Jack O'Neill showed up. His face was grim and his clone knew what it meant.
Mrs. Rojas, however, could not sense anything wrong. She marched over to the colonel. "Hi, I'm Sonia Rojas."
"Colonel Jack O'Neill. Nice to meet you." Jack tried to be as cordial as he could in spite of the reason behind his visit. He didn't want to cause any discomfort at this school.
"Oh, I heard Jack didn't have any family left."
"We're not family. I'm just his namesake."
"Both names?"
"Yes."
"You look like him, though."
"Yeah, that scares me, too."
Jack finally finished packing and went off with his counterpart.
"Who?" the younger one asked after they reached the halls.
"Janet."
The younger Jack felt a knot forming internally. "Cassie . . ."
"I already told her. She's in a conference room next to the principal's office waiting for us."
By the time both Jacks reached the room, the younger Jack had tears rolling down his face. He opened the door and he and Cassie immediately hugged each other. "I am so, so sorry, Cassie . . ." The older Jack nearly envied his clone for being free to express his emotions.
Cassie and Jack visited SGC for a memorial soon after. It was Jack's first time back, so he stayed in the back of the gateroom crowd with Cassie when Sam made her speech. The grief of losing Janet, the discomfort of being back, and the redundancy he felt as others comforted Cassie made Jack leave the gateroom. He sought out Daniel's office and sat in Daniel's chair before falling asleep.
Daniel put a hand on Jack's shoulder to wake him up. "Hey. People are starting to head out. If you're tired, though . . ."
"I'm fine, Daniel."
"Jack and Sam wanted to spend some more time with Cassie. She's going to stay with one of them tonight."
"Okay. I think I'll head home myself."
"You can stay . . ."
Jack shook his head and gave Daniel a hug before leaving. He wanted to help Daniel more, knowing that his friend was having trouble coping, but he felt it was the original's right to help, not his.
On his way to lunch the next day, Jack ran into Cassie. It was her first day back at school.
"Hi, Cassie. How are you doing?"
"I'm holding up."
"Where did you end up staying last night?"
"At Uncle Jack's. Sam's new boyfriend was going to spend some time with her, and I wanted to avoid him." Jack smiled, but he felt a twinge of jealousy. His friendship with Cassie had felt differently since the picnic and now, the real Jack had been spending more time with Cassie.
Jack eventually made his way into the cafeteria and Cassie made it to her class. While in line to pay for his lunch, he noticed two students about to enter the cafeteria. Their strides and the bulges at their right sides alarmed Jack. They can't possibly . . . , he thought to himself. He stared in shock as the two students reached into their jackets' right sides. Jack moved quickly by jumping into the lunch preparatory area. He grabbed two long knives and ran towards the two gunmen. As the first shot rang out, an announcement of their intentions aimed at the ceiling, Jack threw the two knives. Before a second shot could escape, the knives penetrated the gunmens' right hands, forcing them to drop their weapons as they screamed in pain. Jack caught up to the two and without hesitation pummeled them. He finally stopped when he noticed that the two students were barely conscious. However, the sight did not abate Jack's fury. He grabbed the shooter's shoulders.
"Are you out of your mind? You idiot!" Jack screamed loudly. He stepped back and looked around to see if everyone was all right. He then noticed Cassie staring in shock in the school office. Even from that distance, she had heard Jack's exclamation and recognized its tone. Rather than shock or fear due to the gunshot, confusion was written on her face because of Jack.
It wasn't long before police and reporters gathered at the school and the students were dismissed. Jack talked briefly to the principal, requesting that his name be kept out of the details and hoping that the reporters would leave the students alone. On the way to his truck, he saw Cassie waiting for him.
"Who are you?" she asked.
Jack sighed and decided that this was the time for full disclosure. "I told you that I had information in my head," he began as Cassie nodded. "They're actually memories. The real Jack O'Neill's memories. I'm his clone, Cassie. Loki kidnapped Jack to study him and he replaced him with a clone, me, to avoid suspicion. However, the process didn't work out as intended because of our DNA and I wasn't fully grown. I ended up as a teenager instead of a fifty-two-year-old. I actually thought that I was the real Jack O'Neill, that I had simply become young again."
"So you are essentially Uncle Jack."
"Yes, up until I woke up that morning, all of our memories are the same, including memories of you. I remember everything about your time with him up to that point. That's why I couldn't be with you. That's why I reacted the way I did when we had that picnic."
"Oh. I figured there was some biological connection between you two. I thought maybe you were his son from a parallel universe. I never thought you were his clone, or that you had all his memories."
"Is this weird for you, Cassie?"
"Think about my own background and keep it in perspective, Uncle Jack."
"You don't have to call me that. I'm still the same friend you've had all this time, unless you don't want me to be."
"Why wouldn't I want that?"
"Why settle for a cheap copy when you can have the original, especially when the original is actively reaching out to you again."
"You're not a cheap copy." Cassie gave him a hug.
Jack felt slightly relieved to have spilled everything, but he sensed that his friendship with Cassie would deteriorate further.
