Frank Cromwell was not in the best of moods today. Despite the fact he had fucked the hell out of a beautiful woman most of the night.
Frank Cromwell was just not a 'morning' person. "Who do I have to fuck to get a decent cup of coffee around here?"
He glanced to the beautiful woman to his right that he had 'fucked' last night.
"You did say 'decent'?" She wanted it clarified.
Frank sighed heavily. Yeah..she was the best lay he had ever had but..in the kitchen? Well, let's just say...Frank did most ...alright...all of the cooking, especially coffee.
Yes, he had her coffee. His brown eyes swept the petite figure with masculine appreciation. Among...other things.
"Is that all you know how to do, Cromwell...bitch?" Jack O'Neill asked even though..his own mood was pretty good this morning. For the record...the man thought it was a damned fine morning. He glanced across the table at Samantha Carter.
There was something different about the woman today.
She had smiled at him when she had first entered the briefing room. Tentatively, as if feeling out the mood he was in.
He had smiled right back and...softened his expression for her alone and enjoyed the very slight blush he received for his efforts.
She had put a stray strand of hair behind her ear and took the pre-offered tea Daniel Jackson had poured for her.
She cast a quick look to Jack then...downed her head and found the seat she still reposed within.
Jack had taken the seat directly across from her. Purposely. So when she looked up..their eyes would meet and...instant connection was made.
Samantha Carter had rushed home this morning, more than a little embarrassed to find herself alone and cold when she had awakened. But relieved the large Marine was absent when she finally gathered the courage to open the door to Jack O'Neill's quarters to peek out.
She had gone home, and showered hastily, choosing something, normally, she would not wear to 'work'.... She felt ...different today and. When she had lain out her clothing for the day. Nothing had seemed...right, somehow.
She had always wanted to dress like the other women who worked alongside her but Carter had come from a business type atmosphere where her contemporaries wore dresses or at most, stylish pants suits. Even though they had put the white lab coats over their attire.
The dress code had been business casual. Heels, nylons, of course...and she realized..she was not the most fashionable person around. Her sense of style was...non-existent to be precise.
So, today, she had thrown caution to the wind and attempted to emulate a 'happening' look.
She wasn't sure if that was the latest phrase to use but, the thought was there.
Emily Taylor always seemed so comfortable in what she wore. And Carter knew the woman had attracted the attention of Frank Cromwell. He certainly made no attempt to keep it a secret. And all the women wanted very much to attract Frank Cromwell's attention. Oh..not herself, of course.
Samantha Carter had never felt that kind of ...thing for the man and he kind of had a way about him that...put her defenses up. But even she could see how handsome he was. If one liked that kind of man.
Carter found her tastes ran to...a different type of man.
She lifted her eyes to...that man and found his eyes on her...as they had been each and every time she had ...lifted her eyes to check if...he was..looking at her.
The way he looked at her made her tummy go up.
And sometimes...he would put his palm against his cheek and just...stare at her and..then she would get all flustered and nervous inside and...it was a really nice feeling.
Jack O'Neill seemed to like what she had chosen to wear and that was the whole point of her choice. She didn't own any tank tops like Emily Taylor but she had put on a black tee-shirt, because, the man had worn one yesterday and looked absolutely wonderful in it...and jeans. Rather tight ones, she had noticed after she had put them on but..when she looked in the mirror?
Samantha Carter had felt pretty for the first time in a very, very...long time. So she wore them. And now she was damned glad she had.
Cromwell had noticed her change of dress when she had entered and it was touch and go there for a while whether he would make a comment. He had not and Carter thought it was because Jack O'Neill had stepped between them and...cocked his head to one side, staring the man down.
Cromwell had grinned...poured more cream into his coffee and...made his way to the table, taking his usual seat by Emily Taylor.
He had leaned, and whispered something to the woman who had, in turn....threw the man a death glare so Carter had assumed whatever was said was something totally inappropriate, even for Frank Cromwell.
"It's not ALL I do, Jack...no." Cromwell had answered Jack's question and again...looked suggestively at the woman beside him who narrowed her eyes and...sighed lightly before taking Cromwell's coffee and drinking from his cup.
If the action bothered the man...he didn't let on. Just smirked and settled back more comfortably in his chair.
Carter smoothed the legs of the jeans she wore and tried to concentrate on something..anything..besides the man sitting across from her. She focused her attention on George Hammond.
"Gentlemen? And, in your case..Frank..." The steel blue eyes allowed their slight irritation. "I use the term loosely...shall we begin?"
All eyes turned to Jack O'Neill and Daniel Jackson pushed the heavy rimmed glasses back up on his nose as he gave his undivided alertness. Which is more than Jack had ever done for Daniel.
"Evvie explained that..." Jack began without preamble...
"Evvie...Jack?" Cromwell picked up on the...slip. "Evvie, not the...'computer chick'?"
"All done now?" Jack asked sarcastically. Cromwell knew he hated to be interrupted.
Cromwell..smiled and...waved a huge hand. "Continue."
Jack felt like telling the man to fuck off but in light of General Hammond's presence...he didn't. "There is a way that we can go back and change the events that happened in my time line and prevent this time line from ...eh...happening."
"Which means none of us will survive but you will." Emily Taylor put it in laymen's terms for those that were not 'getting it'.
"That is not necessarily true." Carter had hesitated to speak which she hated to do with others about...well, so many, at least but...she felt it behove of her to assist Jack O'Neill. "In theory...since the time lines are in fact...different. Changing one will not necessarily change the other....in...eh...theory, of course."
She threw O'Neill an apologetic look. Well, that had been assertively stated.
"The computer chick tell you how to get from one time line to another, fly boy?" Cromwell was not as stupid as he wanted everyone to think. He had pondered on Jack's problem for some time now. Working the details and possibilities in his mind...over and over again. Cromwell was a planner..an organizer. He did his job very well.
"Actually...yeah." Jack nodded. "Carter can explain it better but in a nut shell..." Jack walked to the white board used for demonstrations and the like, picking up a marker.... Visual aids...he needed to use...visual aids. Evvie had taught him the usefulness of...those. "Hey, Carter if I flub something..feel free to jump in..k?"
Carter felt everyone's eyes but kept her head high and her focus on the man. She nodded her reply.
"Jack? Question?" Daniel held up a pencil to get the man's attention. "Could you use the blue marker...the black is hard to see for me...nearsighted." Daniel tapped his glasses frame.
"No you're not." Jack was confused. Daniel was far-sighted.
"Yes....I am." Daniel was pretty sure of his facts.
"No...you're not." Jack was just as sure of his.
".....Yes." Daniel felt a principle was involved here.
"....No." Jack was in denial.
"Yes..fraid so."
"Not."
"Too."
"GENTLEMEN " Hammond interceded. "Col O'Neill?"
"....Sorry sir." Jack narrowed his eyes at Daniel who...narrowed his right back but..then...glanced about and sheepishly...resumed his doodling on his note pad.
Jack continued to watch the younger man for a beat. He changed to the blue marker but he had liked the black one. "Where was I?"
"Arguing with the geek guy here."
"Shut the hell up, Cromwell..this is important crap here. Listen up?"
"All ears..."
"Not all." Emily muttered lowly for Cromwell's ears alone.
Cromwell chuckled sensually and..let it go.
"Time can be warped in various ways...like clay in the hands of a cosmic sculptor. Time...changes with motion. Right so far, Carter?"
"Yes...yes, you are."
"Time is relative to the speed one is traveling...." Jack drew on the board as he spoke. "These are time lines...straight lines that are initially parallel. These lines can be bent, science knows by the Sun's gravitational pull. It bends space time which tells the planets how to move."
"Science class 101...slept through this the first time Jack."
"Gonna kick your ass Frank..." Jack gave the man his first and only warning.
Cromwell chuckled again.
"Imagine these lines bent.. There would then be multiple connected spaces in which different regions of space and time are spliced together." Jack drew the diagram to illustrate his meaning. Evvie had explained it all to him. "Say at this curvature of space time here..." He put an 'X'... "There was an event...a location in space time at a specific moment in time...this is when whatever happened to Katherine Langford...happened, let's suppose...everyone following?"
"It's not brain surgery." Cromwell made mention.
Jack was soooo going to beat his ass. He returned to the board. His grip on the marker more pronounced. "Say we are traveling along this line. The time line' now'." He indicated a line and followed it as he spoke. " At this point..these two lines inter-connect. The problem? To calculate the exact moment. If that is possible and Evvie says she can do it...we can jump from one line to the other...especially if there is gravitational...eh..." Jack's memory failed him here. He hesitated. "What's that thing when you get by a moon or something and it sucks you ...." Really nice 'visual aids' popped into Jack's head. Sucking...getting near..nice and...close...so that you could smell the really cool scent of ....
"Hello?" Cromwell snapped his fingers. And Jack...snapped ...back...
"What?" He fired the question.
"You said...." Daniel repeated the words dutifully. "Sucking is good."
Jack was a little off-kilter at that remark. He searched the faces at the table who searched him right back...especially that shit-eating Cromwell.
"No, I didn't."
"Yes...you did." Daniel was NOT going to back down this time.
"I think what you mean, Col..is the gravitational time dilation theory?" Carter jumped in quickly. "Where the slowing of the flow of time near a gravitational pull will..."
"Yeah " Jack pointed, excited she had 'got it'. "That's it That one."
"Are you saying that Evvie has calculated that the point at which we must reach the 'event' is near a large planet with enough pull to slow the time machine enough to jump the imaginary line and...allow you to go back into your time line?"
Even Cromwell seemed impressed with that one. "Well, I'll be damned."
"We know." Emily nodded sagely. "It is a good thing."
Cromwell cut her a 'look'. "Then all we have to do is fire up the old star thingy there and...go get that damned time machine ship...right?"
"Can you obtain the generators?"
"You shitting me? The Goa'uld have Naquada powered ones...how many you need?"
Jack looked to Carter. "Two...small ones. To chance the large ones will draw too much attention, I think." She gave her opinion and it felt damned good to do so.
Jack looked to Cromwell. "Piece of cake...Emmy....get the guys up and suited...explain all this shit and we'll move out in..." He consulted his watch. "Thirty...." He glanced up to the woman.
She...clearly had issues with all that had passed. Her face was most expressive though she rarely said much.
"What?" Cromwell spread his hands. "Got something to say?"
"I won't do it."
"....Excuse the hell out of me?" Cromwell held up a hand to silence Jack who had sensed the why of her statement.
"I won't help him. I don't give a shit what Evvie says or him...I am not taking the chance that our time line will not change. I won't help you kill yourself...as much as the thought pleases me."
"You refusing a direct order?" Cromwell...arose...looking down on the still seated woman. His temper flaring.
"...You aren't in the military any longer..major. So I don't see how..."
"ARE...you...." Cromwell's voice boomed and Carter jumped accordingly. Daniel even was startled. "Refusing...my....order?"
Jack wanted to reassure the woman but...he had no real reassurance to give so he...shut the hell up. It was a decision each individual would have to make for himself. Or..herself.
"I don't want you dead " The girl arose, her own temper coming to the fore.
"You move your ass...when I tell you to move it...that's the issue here...nothing else..You got that?"
"I...do not...." The girl was close to tears, holding herself tightly in control. "Want you..to ...die I won't be a part of that I won't "
Cromwell lifted his head. And held her eyes, his own cold...unemotional. "Jack..you want your generators..you'll have them. No problem." He had not taken his eyes from the woman's. "You...are off the team. Get your crap together and...get the hell off my base."
The man started for the stairs, his manner rigid...his stature ram-rod straight.
SHE CARRIES YOUR CHILD
Emily Taylor gasped her shock, her mouth falling open. "Evvie You..bitch "
Cromwell had turned and...stared at the woman.
IT IS IMPORTANT HE IS MADE AWARE. YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD HIM
Emily covered her face with her hands...sinking back down into the chair... "God " She whispered her humiliation and embarrassment. "You...fucking machine. You had no right...." She lifted a tear-streaked face. "YOU HAD NO FUCKING RIGHT "
Cromwell...slowly retraced his steps. He came to stand beside the livid woman.
"...So...." He asked, deceptively mild. "When were you going to tell me?"
"When hell freezes over." Emily told the truth.
Cromwell....felt his heart constrict. "Shit, woman...why would you do that to me?"
"It's not about you..." She pushed around the man and bolted down the stairs without another word.
The silence was more than strained. "Go after her son." Hammond suggested, his tone even...calming Frank's frayed nerves inspite of the 'moment'.
Cromwell...moved without even thinking on the matter. "You'll get the generators, Jack" He had halted at the top of the stairs throwing the other man a look, and then...moved fluidly down them.
The silence returned.
"So...." Daniel drew in a deep, cleansing breath. "Looks like this thing is going to happen, hum?"
Carter lifted her brows and smiled wanly. "Looks like."
"Did anyone else find that a little...unsettling." Jack wanted to know.
"Ohhhhhh yeah." Daniel nodded at nothing in particular.
"Yessssssss." Carter had to agree.
Hammond merely gathered his papers and shook his head. "Let's hope all the variables we need to fall in line will...fall into the correct slots, people. For the time present? We wait, and....prepare for the trip, I guess."
All arose as the man made his exit.
"....She has a good point. Why would any of you risk possibly everything for someone you don't even really know?" Jack had to ask it or die.
"We got nothing else to do." Daniel philosophized. "And...you know us..so...technically...we are helping a friend and...I don't mind doing that at all...you Sam?"
"Evvie says there is a good chance nothing will change here, after all." She pointed out. Except...he would be...gone. And she would still be here...alone again.
"Even if I go alone and manage somehow to...do what has to be done...this time line could simply...disappear." Jack had to remind them.
"The Goa'uld are here, Jack...Earth is not the one you know...believe me. It's not a good place to be....we aren't losing that much and ...if we can help you and...in doing so, know that...a better place exists...and that we, in some small way..." Daniel shrugged. "Here? We aren't really making any difference at all. I can't speak for Sam, but...I want to know that somewhere...out there...things are good and...right. I want to be a part of that."
"What he said." Carter motioned listlessly. She was already missing Jack O'Neill.
Jack was speechless...he wanted to say so much but...nothing came out. "Lunch?"
Daniel shrugged. "Cool." He started the line to the stairs. "Hey...think they have cake today."
"Extra cool." Jack held his grin for Daniel's 'way' of smoothing over the emotional crap that Jack didn't know how to 'smooth' over.
"I'm going to try the blue jell-o." Carter had decided.
Jack chuckled and the sound ran along the woman's nerve endings in a most delicious fashion. She had made him amused. What a lovely feeling.
"Daniel...you ever tried hazel nut coffee?"
"Do I like it?"
"You would kill for it." Jack was pretty sure, if worse came to worse...the man just might.
".....Cool Wonder where we can find some?"
"At Coffees R Us." Jack remembered Silar's most favorite phrase in the entire universe...
"What?" Daniel was lost....calling over his shoulder as he traversed the flights of stairs.
"Nothing...I'll find you some somewhere...promise."
Daniel was in his happy place.