A/N: Sorry this has taken so long. I was surprised to find no computer access where I was on vacation this past week. So I was relegated to writing the old fashioned way – pencil and paper! What a shock!

Chapter 7: Mary

She was barely fifteen years old when Johnny died. He was her hero. He protected her from the craziness of her home as she was growing up. Emotionally and physically he protected her, whenever he could. Then he was gone.

They were only half-siblings. Mary suspected the death of her father's first wife, Johnny's mother, was the result of domestic violence, a pattern of behavior her father used to terrorize her own family until the day he died. Then again, they had Johnny to protect them.

Johnny was fearless. A strong, well-built man, Mary's half-brother was more than able to manage their father by the time he was twenty. Unfortunately for Mary's family, he was living on his own before she was even born. Still he made it his business to frequent the household, often instilling the fear of God in their drunken, violent father.

From what he told her, things were much worse when he was growing up, before he was old enough to fight back. Johnny, as Mary loved to call him, had been the brunt of many a beating, especially when he tried to defend and protect his mother. Fortunately, by the time Mary was born, Johnny was big enough to make a difference. In fact after one particularly horrendous night where Johnny nearly put their father in the hospital, the beatings stopped. It was then that their father turned to emotional abuse.

Mary loved Johnny, idolized him. By the time she was seven, he'd enlisted in the Air Force and become involved in some fairly top secret missions. He was always doing his best to avoid telling her what he was up to, something that only made her all the more curious. She never found out about his work, but she did discover he was engaged. She really liked that woman at first, but, like so many others, it turned out she couldn't be trusted.

Then one day Mary and her mother received a visit from the Air Force informing them Johnny had died in the line of duty. Mary was crushed. She was fifteen; for her Johnny was as much father as brother. They were told no details could be released as to Johnny's service because it was need to know, and apparently family didn't need to know.

Although her mother seemed to accept that, Mary never did. In her mind, the woman who'd turned her back on Johnny had something to do with his death. And however long it took, she intended to make her pay.

OoOoOo

"Uh, excuse me, Miss," Jack stumbled as he saw Mary at the door. "We're here to see a Vanessa Miller."

Mary smiled pleasantly enough. She knew the casually dressed older gentleman had no idea who she was. But she knew him well enough.

"Mary, who …" Vanessa asked as she came up behind the younger woman. "Oh my, if it isn't General O'Neill," she said, scrambling to regain her composure. What is he doing here and why in the world has he gone to the trouble of finding me?

"Hello, Vanessa," Jack said, his voice smooth and non-committal. "I apologize for dropping in on you, but I, we," he corrected himself, gesturing towards Vala, "we need your help with a little situation that's come up."

"My help?" Vanessa questioned coyly, quietly eyeing Vala who eyed her back.

"Vanessa, I'll let you talk with your friends. I have some work to do upstairs," Mary said, excusing herself.

Vanessa nodded toward Mary then turned back to her visitors.

"To what do I owe the honor, General?" Vanessa asked pleasantly enough. Ushering the unexpected guests into her tastefully decorated living room, she continued, "You have to admit, you weren't exactly happy to see me in Washington."

"Guilty as charged," Jack nodded as he took his seat. Vala cooperated by sitting down beside him on the large davenport.

"Yeah," Jack continued, clearly uncomfortable. "That's part of what I need to talk with you about."

"Fair enough," Vanessa replied. "You've got my attention." Then staring at Vala, Vanessa demanded, "Who's your friend?"

"Ah," Jack said, turning toward Vala. "Lieutenant Vala Doran, my colleague."

In spite of herself, Vala winced at his use of her name. Jack had insisted they play it this way, as a quasi-official military investigation, but she didn't have to like it.

"Air Force?" Vanessa questioned, disbelief clearly coloring her tone.

"At your service," Vala snapped.

"Really?" Vanessa questioned. Could have fooled me, she thought, what with civilian dress and Vala's less than professional demeanor.

"See, we've got a problem here, Vanessa," Jack began, trying to things back on track.

Vanessa smiled, slowly shaking her head.

"I think you have a problem," she continued. "You're wearing a wedding band and hanging out with this one," she said nodding at Vala. "She's not your type, you know."

"That's not the issue, Vanessa," Jack said impatiently. "Here's what it is. Someone sent a videotape to my wife two days ago. It's a tape of you and me in Washington last month and at the hotel six years ago." Jack swallowed hard and continued. "I need to know two things. First of all how that recording got made and then, who sent it and why."

Despite his obvious emotional involvement in this particular situation, Jack O'Neal was a skilled interrogator. He knew when a subject was rattled. And Vanessa was rattled; he'd hit a nerve.

"What do you know?" Jack persisted.

"There is a tape," Vanessa admitted, "at least of our time together six years ago, when we made love." To Jack's dismay, Vanessa smiled and winked at Vala as she added the last phrase of her admission. "But there's only one disc and it hasn't left my possession."

"You recorded us?" Jack asked indignantly, attempting in vain to control the escalating timber of his voice. Of course, Vanessa doing the recording was the obvious answer, particularly in light of what his sources had dug up about her recent background, but still he was surprised.

"It's what I do," Vanessa said, shrugging her shoulders.

"Don't," Vala whispered, just loud enough for Jack to hear. After all, the reason she'd come with him was to keep him out of trouble and she could see the explosion coming. Time to take over, she thought.

"Excuse me," Vala began. "Ms. Miller, despite what you apparently think, I am General O'Neill's aide-de-camp. I'm sure you understand our concern about negative exposure, given the General's position. Now, I'm certain you have no intention of using this tape for nefarious purposes but someone else obviously does not share your scruples. Anything you could do to help clear this up would be greatly appreciated."

"Why couldn't you say that, Jack?" Vanessa queried. "Lt. Doran is absolutely right; I've never used that tape in any of my usual activities. It's reserved for my private viewing. If you must know, I had something of a crush on you."

On the second floor, overlooking the large open area that was the living room, Mary sat quietly, effectively concealed behind an ornate, decorative screen. I thought as much, she said to herself as Vanessa admitted 'the crush'. Don't you know what kind of a man he is?"

While Mary continued to watch and listen, Vanessa got up from her seat and made her way to the adjoining room. Mary rightly assumed she was going to get the tape.

No sooner had Vanessa left the room than Jack's cell rang. Silencing the ring tone he'd picked personally (the theme from the Wizard of Oz), he heard Sam's voice on the other end of the line. She was calling to share the results of her morning's investigation. Though Sam was puzzled by the identity of the mysterious blond letter-carrier, for Jack, the pieces were beginning to come together.

As Jack ended the brief call, Vanessa came back, without the DVD. She looked distressed.

"I have no idea where it could be," she said. "Your wife watched it?"

"Yeah, she did," Jack said.

"And …" Vanessa prompted, waiting for the juicy details.

"And … we're working through it," Jack supplied. As if it's any of your business, he thought. "She knows it was a long time ago, before we were together."

"She believed you?" Vanessa persisted.

"Yes, she did," Jack answered with more than a little pride.

"No wonder you weren't interested last month," Vanessa observed. "Well good for you, Jack." Vanessa stopped to think for a minute then continued. "Somehow Mary knew you'd be there – in Washington – last month. She also seemed to know I had a thing for you, probably because she watched the tape with me a few months back. She told me you were married now, but you know me."

"Mary sent you?" Jack said. "The Mary we just met? She told you where I'd be?"

"She knew he was married?" Vala continued.

"Yeah," Vanessa said. "I wondered about that too. She said she'd never met you, just heard a lot about you."

"Alright," Jack said, "I've never met that woman in my life. How does she have access to any of this information?"

"I'm not sure," Vanessa admitted. "You can ask her. All I know is she started a job as a civilian contractor for the Air Force earlier this year. That's why we moved here. She works in something to do with computers and film editing. I remember she wanted to be involved with the Air Force because her brother was an officer."

"Do you happen to know his name or what he does?" Jack asked.

"Can't say as I remember," Vanessa answered, "but there's a picture of Mary and her brother on the mantle. It was taken a year before he died. Mary tells me the woman with him was his fiancée.

Jack and Vala got up together. They went over to look at the framed photo.

"Oh my!" Vala said.

"For crying out loud!" Jack exclaimed.

Sam was in the picture, standing hand-in-hand with Mary's brother.

OoOoOo

From her hiding place, Mary watched it all unfold.

He'd figured it out.

He knew.

It wasn't supposed to happen this way.

Mary left the house silently through the back door.

There were no goodbyes to be said … not yet.

TBC


A/N: Hope people are still around and reading despite the long delay. Please review.

Next chapter up ASAP.