A/N – The poem used in this chapter, "Tale of a Woman Lost" is copyright 2007 by me. So don't steal it, or I will send my first prime after you! Muahahaaaa! It was written specially for this story, but I like it as it's own thing too...
Chapter 3: It's Getting Louder
It was amazing that a pouch of clear liquid could stop a person from crying, from sobbing out in despair, from hurting themselves. But Sam now lay blissfully asleep, while her friends hovered around her bed, concerned.
A thousand questions chased themselves around in Jack's head. The one that popped out was, "What the hell was that?"
"I don't know…" Janet said quietly, looking sadly down at her friend. Daniel put an arm around her.
Jack wished he could have someone to put his arm around. It would make him feel better. His eyes fell back to Sam's face. The bruise was still there, but not as dark. It was beginning to heal.
"I don't know!" Janet said again, sounding bitter. "She should be better by now, but its like her body doesn't want to get better…" she sniffed, "I don't know what I can do."
"You all go back to sleep." Jack muttered, pulling up a chair and sitting down. "I'll stay with her."
The night moved on, an unseen flow somewhere beyond the tiny observation room deep within Cheyenne Mountain.
I told you I'd take care of her, Jacob. I promised.
Sam sat on the chair at her lab table. All her equipment was laid out before her, but she just stared at it. She didn't really want to do this. She'd merely gone to her lab out of habit after she was finally allowed to resume work again as normal, though she noted suspiciously that SG-1 wasn't scheduled for any off-world missions for a while. Pity…she could have used the distraction.
Murmur…Sam…murmur…
Time to go back to the commissary, back to the noise and friendly camaraderie. Sam found a cup of blue jell-o and sat at her usual table.
SG-3 was laughing together in a corner. The newest member looked over at Sam and grinned. She lowered her eyes.
The light shone through the jell-o, refracting off the part where her spoon had cut into it and casting a geometric pattern on the tablecloth.
The book had looked so flimsy and small in Pete's hands, despite the fact that it was so big and hard. It felt like a brick when it hit her in the face. Sam jumped at the exact moment that Jack walked into the commissary. The cup of jell-o fell to the floor and shattered.
Jack swooped down with another cup of jell-o and called for the janitor. Sitting down across from Sam he grinned.
"Jeeze, Carter, between the two of us they won't have any of those cups left."
His smile wasn't reflected at all on Sam's face. She nodded her head and continued eating.
Jack tried again. "Have you eaten anything besides blue jell-o?"
"Yes, sir. I had a cereal for breakfast. And a sandwich yesterday."
"Okay…" Jack watched her over his plate of spaghetti.
Sam couldn't bring herself to look at Jack. Her gaze wandered instead to the doorway, where a little girl stood, completely ignored by the officers passing in and out of the commissary. The girl seemed to notice Sam watching her and smiled, before turning and moving her hands in a clapping game with some invisible friend. Above all the noise, Sam heard the girl chanting:
"Three bold men
stand atop of a hill,
One talks fast and
the others are still,
Far down below in
the valley so green,
A river is soiled by
a force unseen."
She wandered over to the table, hanging on the edge and staring up at Sam.
"Who are these men
and where do they go?
What about the river
do they wish to know?
Do they want to know
her future?
Do they want to know
her past?
Do they want to know
how to make her beauty last?"
The girl looked at Sam with a calculating and judgmental expression. She reached out for the cup of jell-o, but Sam pulled it away.
"Carter?"
Sam looked up.
"You ok?" Jack's confused gaze swept the area Sam had been staring at. Sam quickly filled her mouth with jell-o and nodded, purposefully ignoring the tugging at her sleeve.
Hammond really hated dealing with the police. Dealing with anyone outside the SGC on matters concerning one of the SGC's officers was always a pain in the ass; secrecy, national security and all of that. But seeing as Shanahan was a detective, Hammond found himself with no other choice. Fifteen minutes time found him talking on the phone with Shanahan's boss, an extremely unhelpful person.
"Sorry, Pete's taken some time off, General. I haven't heard from him in a couple of days. Is there a problem?"
"I'd say there is!" A bit of Jack's anger seemed to have worn off on Hammond over the past couple days. "He's facing charges of domestic abuse and assaulting an air force officer."
"Pete? Pete Shanahan?" Not that Hammond hadn't already made clear exactly who he was talking about. The silence was filled with a thousand other questions that Hammond knew he couldn't answer.
"Hrumph." Hammond broke the silence finally. "Just get a hold of him. This isn't over."
Someone, Daniel probably, or maybe Janet, had cleaned the stain off the rug and straightened things up a bit. Except for the pencil cup on the end table next to the couch. That was still tipped over. Standing on the spot where the stain had once been, Sam stared at the cup. She remembered bumping it over with her elbow.
The TV had been on. She and Pete were sitting on the couch together, Sam's mind not on anything in particular. Pete had gently rested his hand on hers, but when he leaned over to kiss her neck she pulled away slightly, he tried again and Sam had turned, knocking the pencil cup over with her elbow.
One of her slender hands came up to rest on Pete's chest; a silent rebuke.
Now Sam carefully rearranged it, making everything the way it was before anything had happened, methodically driving the last vestiges of her painful memories from the house. Well after night fell Sam changed into her pajamas and finally climbed into the cold, empty bed.
Jack loved the night sky. It was like looking through a huge window at the world beyond, and knowing that there were things going on out there that he didn't have to worry about, and probably didn't even know where happening.
He felt like a child again, lying on his back and staring up at the velvety blackness.
Sometimes he felt like he was about to fall off the earth.
Jack stood up and went back into the house. For a brief moment he was tempted to call Sam and make sure she was OK, but after seeing her being pestered with questions all day he guessed that she probably wanted some time alone.
The refrigerator hummed pleasantly when Jack opened it. The yellow light spilled across the floor of the darkened kitchen.
The darkness.
Its only purpose seemed to be to remind Jack of how lonely he was. When Sara and Charlie were still around, it was never dark. The lights in a room might be turned off, but it was never dark. The door closed with a soft thwack, and Jack went back to the living room to watch television.
The girl was sitting on the end of Sam's bed. She crawled over to Sam like a daughter trying to wake up her mother. Sam sat up and stared at the girl.
The girl held out her hands.
"Three bold men
run down th' side of a hill,
All are fast and
none are still.
Down to the banks
where the river gleams,
Reflections in the
waters are not what they seem."
Sam wondered how the girl could speak with so many voices at once, and why the veins in her wrists seemed to be so visible beneath her pale skin as she moved her hands in time to the chant.
"Who are these men
and where do they go?
What about this life
do they want to know?
Do they want to know
the future?
Do they want to know
the past?
Do they want to know
how to make this…" the girl reached over and poked Sam in the
shoulder, "woman's life last?"
Morning came without birdsong, the dim light of the sun only just penetrating the layers of dark clouds that hung over the sky. Sam drove to work, pretending everything was normal. She smiled, chatted with the other members of the SGC as she headed to her lab.
Daniel and Teal'c wandered in later that day, both claiming they hadn't talked to Sam in a while. She was only half absorbed in her work anyway, and for once found the distraction pleasant. She even managed to get a wry smile out of Teal'c.
A giggle. Daniel was talking about hieroglyphics. He wasn't giggling. Sam looked over at the door. The girl was standing there, watching Sam and laughing.
"Three men stand
in the blazing hot sun,
Where will they be
when the day is done?
The bed that held
water now is dried,
The woman once so
beautiful now has died.
Who was that woman
and where did she go?
She won't be
remembered and no one will know.
Do you want to know
the future?
Do you want to know
the past?
Look up and see how
a life will vanish oh…so…fast."
"SHUT UP!" Sam screamed, leaping to her feet.
Daniel and Teal'c stared. The moment Sam had shouted came at a break in the conversation, and she was now glaring angrily at the empty doorway.
"Major Carter." Teal'c strode to her side, raising an eyebrow.
Sam pointed at the girl who was now smiling evilly at her.
"There is no one there."
Daniel walked over cautiously. He knew what it was like to see things that weren't there, to have your senses fooled and your mind warped. "Sam, I think we should go-"
The book in Sam's hand flew at the wall, striking where she'd seen the girl. But the girl was gone.
Teal'c's arms came around Sam, holding her tightly while she sobbed and beat at his chest with her fists.
"She got away! She always gets away!"
