A/N: Okay, I actually started writing this chapter mere days after posting the last one. But, as per usual, life has this stupid way of throwing obstacles in the path of creative genius, so here it is, a month later than expected. Alas, I'm afraid it's the best I can do.
On a happy note, I've FINALLY met one of the major requirements for my master's degree/graduate licensure, so my workload is starting to lighten a bit. If this keeps up, I might actually have three consecutive hours of free time available by… oh, maybe February. Of 2008.
To answer a few questions about the whole "memory regaining" issue: Yes, they are scheduled to get their memories back on their first anniversary. However, according to the plan, when they do remember, they will believe it was Thor who manipulated their consciousnesses, not Bett. They agreed that they would not have any memory of their time with Bett's people or Sam's demise at the fangs of the Big Bad Wolf.
And, sorry to disappoint you all too badly, but the pair have only been married a month or so. (Remember, they were on their honeymoon when Daniel had is little Ring accident.) That means we have a LONG way to go before the year is up. But never fear, I've got lots of other distractions planned to keep you all interested.
Anyhow, I'm really starting to hit the meat-and-potatoes section of this story, which is pretty fun from my perspective. Hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 10
Sam rubbed the back of her neck reflexively, vainly trying to ease the tension which had settled there. "I have a bad feeling about this," she muttered darkly.
In complete contrast to his wife's overcast expression, Jack smiled almost gleefully. "Well, I don't. And I'm psychic."
The team had arrived at the Ancient ruins by mid-afternoon. After checking in with the skeleton crew of SGC personnel stationed at the outpost, they finally gathered in front of the object which brought them halfway across the galaxy. The stone Ring was set into a crumbling central plaza and was a perfect twin to the one Daniel had investigated in the Iraqi salt marshes. A fifty-foot-wide circle of scorched grass was still clearly visible around the Ring, though new shoots were starting to emerge from the charred ground.
Daniel suppressed a smile at his friend's glib remark and walked over to Sam. Placing a reassuring arm around her shoulders, he squeezed gently. "Sam, the technicians have been studying this site for months. That Ring hasn't coughed up so much as a spark since Jack's accident. We have no reason to think that anything dangerous is going to happen."
Sam shuddered in spite of herself. "That's a very rational thing to say," she mumbled. Looking Daniel in the eyes, she conveyed without words how decidedly irrational she was feeling.
Understanding her violent emotions, Daniel once again felt a pang of guilt for making Sam revisit this painful chapter in her life. He, after all, had been the closest witness to her agony after Jack's "death." He'd even been the one to break the news to her. If he lived another twenty lifetimes, he'd never be able to forget the sickening horror of those moments. She'd been so beautiful, rounded with pregnancy and glowing with love as she'd prepared for the wedding she'd waited a lifetime for. Ruining that perfect moment in the most cruel and hellish way possible had been the most difficult thing Daniel had ever had to do. He understood the depths of Sam's terror standing before the Ring today because he'd witnessed the depths of her blinding despair following Jack's accident here five months earlier.
Part of him longed to end this ordeal and command his friends to walk away from this place. But every time the words rose to his tongue, he was confronted with a picture of his lovely Sha're, pale from her injuries but still sparkling with life. She'd bravely faced her fears in her hospital room, accepting an impossible explanation from a total stranger. It was this same quiet, determined strength which had captured Daniel's heart the first time he'd met her. The effect was no less soul-shattering the second time around. Much as he admitted that his need to help her was selfish, he simply couldn't walk away from the one thing which could possibly help save her.
Sam saw the struggle taking place in her friend's eyes and shook herself mentally. She knew how guilty Daniel was feeling at this moment, and it shamed her to think she was the cause of it. Squaring her shoulders resolutely, she forced her terror back into a dark corner of her mind and started thinking like a scientist. Glancing briefly at her husband, she couldn't help rolling her eyes at his cocky expression. "Not to rain on your parade, but how exactly do you plan on getting that cylinder out of the ground?"
For a moment, Jack looked stumped. Then, eyes glinting with humor, he shrugged. "It'll come to me." Pointing to his head, he smiled. "Psychic powers, remember?"
Sam shook her head and looked at Daniel. "You just had to tell him he was psychic, didn't you?"
Daniel shrugged. "Sorry Sam. It just slipped out."
She grimaced. "Yeah, I know. But now he thinks he knows everything."
Jack speared her with a knowing look. "Kinda like someone else I know."
Teal'c, who had until this moment been standing silently beside the group, tilted his head slightly. "The difference, O'Neill, is that your wife does, indeed, know everything."
All three of the warrior's companions turned to stare at him in amused disbelief.
"I think he just made a joke," Jack said dryly. "T, that makes three this year. What's the world coming to?"
Staring grimly at his friend, Teal'c merely raised an eyebrow. "In light of your new and growing powers, I'm sure you'll be able to warn the rest of the group well in advance of my next attempt at humor."
Daniel snorted an irrepressible chuckle at Jaffa's unexpected retort. "That was really funny!" he remarked, ignoring Jack's dark glare.
Sam rolled her eyes. "Ah, guys? Think we might get back to the task at hand?"
Jack turned to his wife and grew serious. "Don't worry, Sam. I'll be careful,"
Swallowing nervously, she nodded. Then, with one last look at the scorched earth around the Ring, she returned her gaze to Jack's and silently gave him permission to proceed.
Immediately, all humor in the group evaporated like rain in a desert. With swift, resolute steps, Jack marched to the edge of the Ring and examined the device carefully.
The paving stones were embedded in the ground at careful, even intervals, though the stones themselves were not perfectly shaped. They had an almost-primitive quality to them which set them at odds with the austere elegance of the other Ancient ruins. All the stones were shaped as arced wedges, neatly forming a series of concentric circles. At the very center of this pattern was one perfectly round cover-stone, under which lay the objective of their quest.
Jack took a deep breath and gently set one foot down onto the outermost ring of paving stones. Feeling no odd flashes of intuition nor any hint of electrical energy, Jack carefully continued stepping into the Ring. He could feel Sam's eyes boring holes into his back, but forced himself to continue forward.
A few steps later, he stood above the round center stone. It was unremarkable in every way except for its shape and location. Gritting his teeth against the wave of anxiety he felt rolling off his wife, Jack silently knelt down and examined the stone carefully.
The scientists who'd studied the device in the months since Jack's unfortunate accident had never gotten past this obstacle. The stone was apparently locked into place with some sort of invisible mechanism. Every attempt at moving it had thus far been unsuccessful. Fearful of damaging – or activating – the device, the SGC had found itself at an impasse with the Ring.
Jack now knelt in front of the very same stone, but felt none of the helpless frustration that had plagued his organization's scientists for months. Instead, a tiny tickle in the back of his head prompted him to gently place the index finger of one hand in an almost invisible depression on the stone's outer edge. Smoothly, the heavy rock rose up from the ground, protruding about an inch above the rest of the Ring's surface. When Jack next put his hands on the stone, he could tell that it was free from whatever had locked it in place. Gently, he lifted the cover-stone and set it off to one side.
Revealed by the stone's absence was something that set all four teammates' hearts racing. The top of the metallic cylinder that they desperately sought was now glinting brightly in the mid-afternoon sun. Unable to stop himself, Jack looked up and caught Sam's terrified expression. Trying to reassure her, he held her gaze for a long moment. After some of the blind panic had left her blue eyes, he returned his attention to the coveted cylinder.
Jack knew instinctively that he would not be able to pry the cylinder from its present location, any more than the scientists had been able to pry away the cover stone. There had to be a release mechanism.
Without warning, Jack suddenly felt what could only be described as a memory slam into his mind's eye.
Blue hands… Blue? Jack blinked, but his mind was insistent. Yes, blue hands. Delicate and precise, they danced over rough stones shaped exactly like those set before him. Without hesitating, the hands confidently depressed a small, nearly invisible latch hidden in an adjacent, wedge-shaped paving stone. Then, as the hands deftly moved back to the center of the Ring, a large, silver cylinder gradually rose up from its center with a soft, electrical buzz.
Eyes widening, Jack's breath caught in his throat at the detailed nature of his vision. The memory encompassed less than a few seconds of time, but its vivid clarity was both startling and intense.
Still, he couldn't question the relevance of the memory. Following the example set by the mysterious blue hands, Jack looked to the stones set directly next to the center circle. Within moments, he discovered the almost impossibly well-camouflaged mechanism. Looking like a natural crack in the stone, the latch was little more than a shard of rock hinged at one end. An untrained eye could have passed over the device a thousand times and never unlocked its secret.
Carefully, Jack slid his finger beneath the shard and lifted it a fraction of an inch. A distinct click resounded through the tense, silent atmosphere, followed by a soft, clearly electrical buzzing.
Sam watched with a combination of horror and fascination as her husband unerringly removed the cover stone and then located the release mechanism for the cylinder. The resulting click made her jump slightly, but she was able to maintain her composure… until she heard the buzzing.
Unable to cry out past the raw panic clawing its way up her throat, Sam lurched reflexively toward the Ring. Teal'c, half-expecting this sort of a reaction from his teammate, firmly latched his hands onto her upper arms and held tightly with a steel-strong grip.
In that moment, Sam lost herself. Kicking out with an animal-like frenzy, she desperately tried to escape the unyielding human restraints. All her accumulated tension and fear exploded in a primitive rage unlike anything she'd ever experienced. Tears streamed down her face as she shook, clawed, and kicked anything in her immediate area.
Slowly, through the red haze of rage, an insistent message started seeping into her consciousness.
"Sam! Sam!" It was the voice, not the words, which finally registered in her mind. Stilling instantly, she seemed to emerge from a dream, blinking away the remnants of furious tears.
"Jack?" Though she didn't remember making a sound, her voice was hoarse from the wrenching screams of anguish that had been ripped from her throat.
Looking relieved, Jack carefully pulled his wife from Teal'c's iron grip and into his comforting embrace. "Shhhhh," he whispered softly into her ear. "It's okay, Sam. I'm okay."
Sam was suddenly overwhelmed with gut-wrenching sobs. Shaking violently, she buried her face into Jack's shoulder and sagged in spent relief.
Teal'c and Daniel looked at the pair with obvious concern. Daniel, for his part, appeared somewhat queasy after witnessing Sam's terrifying display of raw emotion.
After a few moments of mindless weeping, Sam finally managed to pull herself together. Lifting her face from Jack's chest, she issued a shuddering sigh. "Is it over?" she rasped wearily.
Jack ran a hand down her face, smoothing away the anxiety still obviously present there. "It's over," he murmured.
Sam sniffled. "We have the cylinder?"
Jack nodded to the ground beside her feet. There, amidst the blackened earth and fresh, green shoots of grass, lay the familiar crystal-topped cylinder that they'd been searching for. As Sam's blue eyes caught sight of the object, her knees buckled with relief.
Catching her up against him, Jack continued to whisper meaningless phrases of comfort in her ear. Still, there was no denying that they all shared Sam's sentiments.
This was one afternoon that they'd be glad to have behind them.
Three days later, Daniel wearily stumbled out of the Stargate, barely keeping himself from falling to the steel grid of the embarkation platform. He was exhausted, both mentally and physically. His body was beginning to recover from his own tangle with the Ring, but his mind was awhirl with the implications of their mission.
They had the cylinder. What came next, however, was a mystery. Jack seemed to have no trouble pulling the object from the Ring, but was totally at a loss when it came to their next step. He'd been strangely close-mouthed about how, precisely, he'd managed to extricate the cylinder. Nor had he said much about his newly-found "psychic" abilities since recovering the device. The whole party had been somber and subdued on the trip back to the gate.
As he walked out of the gate room, Daniel could only think of one thing. In spite of his sheer exhaustion, he was desperate for news of Sha're. It had been nearly a week since he'd last seen her. Apparently, Dr. Brightman had anticipated his craving for information, since she met him as he turned the corner to the infirmary.
"Dr. Jackson," she said, smiling cheerfully. "I have a surprise for you."
Seeing the happy, relaxed look on Dr. Brightman's face, Daniel felt his heart soar. Surely, there had to be good news about his wife for the doctor to look so lively. "Yes?"
She just gestured toward the infirmary. "Follow me," she directed.
As Dr. Brightman opened the door to Sha're's room, Daniel held his breath in anticipation. When he stepped into the room, he found he was not disappointed. There, not in a bed, but a wheelchair, sat Sha're, looking pale but rested.
Upon seeing her new guest, Sha're's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Daniel!" she said gleefully. "I am so happy to see you back safely!"
Daniel was about to reply to her thoughtful words when two things struck him simultaneously. One was that Dr. Brightman, who'd been standing in the doorway smiling, suddenly appeared wide-eyed and taken aback. The shock on her face was clear and unmistakable. The second thing to occur to Daniel probably put an identical expression onto his own face.
Sha're, whose past life in an alternate reality did not include contact with Earth or the SGC, had greeted him from his trip in perfect, if heavily-accented English.