Chapter Four
Sam walked through Daniel's living room as if the floor was made of eggshells. It felt strange to be there uninvited, particularly under the circumstances. She stepped up to the large saltwater aquarium that dominated the corner of the room. The brightly coloured fish surged to the surface, shoving each other out of the way frantically.
"No one's fed you this weekend, have they?" Sam asked the fish quietly.
The fish started pushing themselves against the glass, looking for all the world like they were trying to attack her. Sam looked under the aquarium cabinet and found some fish food. She sprinkled some in the water and the ravenous fish snapped up the foul smelling flakes greedily.
"Carter?" Jack asked.
"I'm just feeding Daniel's fish, Sir."
"I'm sure he'll appreciate it." Jack chuckled. "From what little I've listened to about them I gather that they are expensive."
Sam forced a smile and put the fish food away. She looked around the orderly chaos that was Daniel's house. It looked much like his office back at the base. Artifacts, paintings, and various knickknacks were everywhere. From where she was standing she could count five different chess boards alone.
"I can not find any evidence of a struggle." Teal'c informed as he came out of the back bedroom.
"This would be a difficult house to conceal a fight in." Jack commented as he looked around. "I think I could break half the stuff in here just by looking at it the wrong way."
"I agree." Teal'c said with a nod.
"It is more likely that he was taken somewhere between here and the Base."
"Guys, do you think that we might be jumping to conclusion here?" Sam pointed out. "I mean, isn't it more likely that he decided to go somewhere for the weekend and ended up with car trouble somewhere along the way? Depending on where he went, without a cell phone it could take hours for him to get to a phone."
"But his car's out front." Jack said.
"That's not Daniel's car." Sam corrected.
"It isn't?"
"No, Daniel drives a blue Saturn."
Jack looked out the window at the gray Toyota parked in the street out front.
"Right...I knew that." Jack lied unconvincingly. "Look, Carter, if it was anyone else, I'd agree with you. But this is Daniel we're talking about. Half the time I have to force him to leave the Base, let alone the city. Something's wrong."
Sam nodded in agreement. She had only half-heartedly believed her own suggestion to begin with.
"What do we do next?" Teal'c asked.
"I don't know." Jack admitted.
Jack wandered over to the hall closet and started rummaging through it. Curious, Sam stepped closer to see what he was doing. Jack found what he was looking for, an ironically sickenly pink bottle. He opened the Pepto and drank a few gulps of it as if it was a beer.
"You want a hit of this?" Jack offered the pink bottle to the others.
Teal'c raised an eyebrow in disapproval. Sam just shook her head and managed a brief smile.
"Suit yourselves." Jack shrugged.
Sam jerked at sudden sharp ringing of Jack's cell phone. He put down the bottle and fished the phone out of his pocket.
"O'Neill."
Sam's heart automatically quicken its pace. She had hoped that it was Daniel calling to let them know he was all right. However the expression on Jack's face told her that the news wasn't good. After listening for a few minutes Jack simply muttered a 'thanks' into the phone and disconnected the call.
"The...um...local police just found Daniel's car. We've got our guys going to collect the vehicle, but..."
"What?" Sam asked when Jack didn't continue.
"Apparently there's not much left of it."
"What do they believe has happened?" Teal'c asked with concern.
"The preliminary police report states that the driver was killed in a one car accident."
"The 'driver'?" Sam repeated.
"A positive ID has not been made, after the accident the car caught on fire. There...there's only bone remaining. Dr. Kaff has been called to the Base, he'll do the dental X-rays there."
Sam was left speechless. She looked to Teal'c who was clearly thinking the worst, his eyes downcast to the floor. She had learned long ago that avoiding eye contact was as close as Teal'c came to expressing grief.
At the moment Sam didn't even know what her own emotions were about the news. After everything they'd been through it didn't seem possible that Daniel could be killed by something so mundane as a car accident. It simply didn't seem real. Until now a part of her had really believed that all of this was an innocent mistake.
Sam was jolted out of her thoughts as Jack put his arm over her shoulders. She gratefully accepted the support. She turned to look at him and instantly saw that he didn't believe Daniel's had been killed, or if he did he wasn't about to show it. His faith was encouraging, even if it was bluff.
"We'll know in an hour." Jack said quietly as he started to guide Sam towards the front door. "Come on...let's go back to the Base."
