Devil's Hotline
Chapter 12
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Teal'c easily ducked under the punch that was aimed for his face, retaliating with a blow of his own. The fist connected with its target, and Mara keeled over, a violent curse escaping her lips as she wrapped her arms around her stomach. The large Jaffa backed up several steps, giving the woman time to recover as he regarded her silently.
He didn't have to wait long. With a grunt, Mara rose once more to her feet, a look that couldn't seem to decide on whether it was a snarl or a grimace on her face. "Son of a bitch you hit hard." She hissed, before coming at the dark man once more, a cry escaping her throat as she charged him.
Teal'c chose not to comment on the demon's choice of words, merely raising an eyebrow before dropping once more into a defensive stance. The blonde came at him again, and, just as he'd done in the last five minutes, Teal'c grabbed her just as Mara was about to land a hit on him, using the woman's momentum to throw the fanged woman over his shoulder. The demon in disguise hit the blue mat with a strangled snarl, enticing more then one sympathetic hiss from the audience that had steadily been growing since the match between alien and demon had begun.
Their audience, a mixture of marines and soldiers who'd all seen or been a part of at least one of Teal'c's 'training sessions', seemed to watch in a strange sort of fascination as, rather then call it quits like many of them had done in that past, the wild-eyed woman instead rolled onto her stomach, pushing herself up to her hands and knees with a groan.
Sitting in front of the crowd, dressed in a small mockery of an SG uniform, a little girl with white haired watched in a joy that bordered terrifying. "Again! Again! Come on, show 'em what you're good for!" The violet-eyed child shouted, pumping a small, dark fist into the air. For the life of the various personnel in the crowd, it was uncertain just who it was Hild was rooting for. All they knew was that the bloodthirsty smile that seemed to be plastered on the little girl's face was more then a little horrifying.
Already it had been a week since SG-1 had stumbled back through the gate, bruised and bewildered and with one additional member to their crew, but otherwise none the worse for wear-a matter that, sadly, more then anything else, surprised more people then it didn't.
It truly is a sad, sad world when your peers are placing bets on whether everyone in your group returns alive or not.
Even sadder when the running bet is between a certain civilian and the newest member to the team.
With a battle cry that would have made any Jaffa proud, Mara launched herself at Teal'c once more, the strange necklace made of what looked like fangs and claws rattling eagerly against her black shirt. The woman feigned at the last possible moment however, surprising Teal'c as she spun off to the taller man's right, throwing a blow that would have made it through, had Teal'c been a lesser trained man.
As it was, the dark man brought up his left arm to fend off the blow, and Mara's fist glanced off it, flying off to the side. It was only the bracelet she wore, a twin to it's necklace sister, that managed to somehow break skin. The Jaffa blinked in surprise at the tear in flesh, watching as a slim line of red began to slowly flow down his to his wrist, before recalling the disguised demon's words.
"If you're going to train me, then we might as well do it right the first time." Mara said, taking off her BDU's top and throwing it off to one side. Somewhere between her unbuttoning the blouse top and her actual removal of the cloth, a necklace had appeared above her black shirt, matching bracelets on each wrist as she moved to remove her boots. Anklets of a similar variety had appeared with the removal of the heavy footwear as well. "These are seals-power breakers, if you will." She said, pointing to her neck where the bones rattled uneasily. "They'll lower me down to your strength and keep my magic in check. This way I won't accidentally kill you." The woman's grin was not kind. "Just don't let the seals touch you-they're storing as much as anything else-touching them would be like touching a nuclear fire with all the pain, but none of the radiation."
As the symbiote inside him healed the wound, Teal'c turned his attention back to Mara. She was grinning, though it appeared her claim to a nuclear burn had been slightly exaggerated. (At least, for a Jaffa anyhow. A normal human would not have been so lucky.) And as the bones and claws rattled and clanked an eerie tune to him, Teal'c was unsure whether to be relieved or not with the 'blinders' that had been put over the eyes of the Tau'ri.
It had been O'Neil's idea, something that had surprised everyone, especially, he suspected, the red-eyed demon herself.
"You want to train me?" Mara asked, staring in disbelief at the Colonel in front of her. "But I can defend myself just fine. I don't need to know how to fight like some damned Valkyrie or Goetia. I have my magic-why would I need some useless skill like that?"
Jack grinned, giving her a full view of his teeth. "No, not me." He pointed to the Jaffa behind her. "Him."
It had been one day after the large group had returned through the Stargate, with a surprisingly fast check-up from a glassy-eyed Dr. Fraisier (Jack and Sam both would later confront Mara on the incident, none the wiser that it had been Hild, not her subordinate, who'd stolen the poor doctor's memories.) No one was sure why the silver-haired had wanted it, and when questioned, Jack simply shrugged his shoulders, strangely tight-lipped.
Whatever the reason however, it wasn't until the very next day that Mara found herself sparring on a day to day basis with the large tank that was Teal'c, more often then not finding herself on the receiving end of a painful beating without the reliance of her magic or natural-born strength. In fact, the only thing that seemed to have remained with the seals she wore was her already-strong fortitude, at times taking a full-blown punch from Teal'c that would have severely broken another man's face, and then standing from where she'd fallen as though the blow had been little more then a swat.
It seemed being one of the most used subordinate's of the Daimakaicho, while often times painful, did have it's advantages every now and then.
Speaking of which...
Hild let out a whoop at the sight Teal'c's blood, even as the wound sealed at her call. Neither Mara nor Teal'c could be certain of just when the violet-eyed child had appeared during their sessions together, but somewhere around the third day of training was when they'd actually noticed her, rooting and hollering and creating a ruckus like only a child could create.
That was around the time the duo had started to gain an audience as well, no doubt drawn to the noise the girl was creating.
It had been endearing at first. After the good doctor had given Hild the 'okay' and SG-1 had finished their debrief, the little girl had become inseparable from the female portion of the team, until it became a common sight to see Hild with, if not Lt. Jotun, then a strangely uncomfortable Major Carter. But that had been before things had started to get a little strange. The Lieutenant would always seem to grow pale and tense when around the child, much as a new recruit felt around their supervisor. The major would often become incredibly tight-lipped and stressed whenever the girl was around, and when Janet had offered to see if she couldn't bring Cassie inside the SGC so Hild wouldn't be so lonely, the doctor had jumped at the almost-demanding 'no' that had been the response.
For the life of the SGC as a whole, no one could understand why the two blondes where so uncomfortable in the child's presence.
Yet somewhere down the line, the conclusion had come down to the fact that the two women knew something everyone else didn't involving the little girl, somewhere further down came the assessment that it had to do with some sort of deep-sated abuse that Hild had gone under with the Goa'uld sisters Carter and Jotun had spoken of.
It was amazing. Hild would later comment in a private time with Mara, away from the rest of SGC personnel. How easy it was to manipulate such simple thoughts into something so extreme.
A kick to Mara's right knee brought the demon-woman out of her thoughts, feeling s twinge of pain before dropping to the ground. She'd let herself get distracted again, watching now as the blur that was Teal'c flew above her, seconds later pinning the woman to the ground.
"Game, set, and match." A new voice entered the crowd, and Mara tilted her head just enough to see the crossed arms of O'Neil, casually standing next to the child that was Hild. "Looks like you still have a ways to go before you can beat Ol' T, Lieutenant." The colonel grinned. "And I'd say you two have had enough fun for one session. How about we go and get some chow?" He asked, pointing a thumb to the exit, even as the crowd that had swarmed around the two dualists departed. "I don't know about you two, but I'm hungry, and I think it's lunchtime for the kid too." He nodded down at Hild, who grinned up at him broadly.
Suck up.
Hild's head whipped around to stare at Mara, her expression shadowed. A flash of red flew behind a predator's violet eyes, and the demon flinched as Teal'c moved to stand.
Don't tempt me, Maa-chan.
It sucked having a boss that could read thoughts.
And then the Daimakaicho was gone, leaving Mara to stare into the innocent eyes of a child once more. Her mouth having gone dry with the threat of impending doom on Hild's behalf, the blonde swallowed, hoping to somehow get some sort of moisture back in her throat.
If either Jack or Teal'c noticed, they chose not to comment.
Instead, Jack's smile if anything grew larger, reminding Mara strangely of the Cheshire Cat. The blonde grunted. "You seem to be in an awful cheerful mood today Sir." She stated, climbing to her feet. "Did you finally kill the singing cat?"
"Better." Jack replied, his eyes almost sparkling with joy. "I finally got that son-of-a-bitch Thomson out of my house." He pointed to the demon in disguise. "And nothing you're going to say is going to put me in a bad mood." He said before turning and heading towards the gym exit. "Now come on, lets go celebrate with cake."
Hild, perhaps enjoying her role as a child a little too much, bounded after the older man. "But I thought the cake was a lie, Sir!"
The silver-haired demon shouted, her grin growing larger as Jack wheeled around in an overly-dramatic fashion, a look of dead seriousness on his face as he stated, "The cake is never a lie!"
The silver-haired duo then burst into laughter at what had to have been some sort of inside joke, before continuing forward, neither bothering to look behind them to see if the other half of their little group was following or not.
Teal'c, who had fallen silent with the arrival of the man he called leader, looked over to Mara, a soft frown on his face. "Lt. Jotun." He stated, his voice as grave and serious as though his next words held the weight of the world on them. "Please inform me-how can a cake be a lie?"
Mara stared at the retreating forms of her boss and contract. "You're asking the wrong demon, Big Guy." She said.
It had felt as though a great deal had changed in the week since Mara's arrival to the SGC. In fact, very little had changed, only the simple fact that SG-1 was slowly starting to get a better understanding of just what it was that made Mara the person they'd come to know.
Grabbing her boots and blouse, Teal'c doing likewise with his own footwear, the duo quickly made their way after the white-haired counterparts each respectfully called 'leader'.
It was amazing how much could be learned about a person in a week spent together.
Teal'c and Mara rounded the corner just as the elevator doors began to close, Hild with a big grin on her face, Jack an amused smirk he couldn't completely hide. "Hey, wait up!" Mara shouted, making a mad bolt for the closing doors, one arm spread wide in front of her as she sought to catch the elevator. Behind her, Teal'c paused, raising an eyebrow as the alien decided to simply watch the crazy antics of the demon.
Just as the doors were about to close, Jack grabbed the side of one, forcing the doors back open and allowing Mara entrance. Hild snickered. Jack grinned. "You need to be faster then that if you want to keep up." The older man advised, Teal'c silently striding into the elevator behind the demon. "After all, if an old man like me can beat you to an elevator, how do you expect to survive off-world?" Brown eyes glittered mischievously as the doors shut behind them, a small 'bing' heard as the elevator began to descend.
Yes, a great deal seemed to have changed in the small time the demon had spent with SG-1. Was it perhaps because of the fact that they had shared, what did mortal's call it, a 'near-death experience', and come away unscathed? Or had their the time spent together revealed things to Jack and the rest of his team that the group could better compare to, traits Mara exhibited that made her seem more 'human'?
A week had shown Jack a strange demon with an aptitude for children, watching in no small bit of astonishment over the fact that, of all of them, it was Mara that little Hild seemed to bond with the most, even over carter, who'd become renown for her experience with children, be they human or alien in origin. Yet even now, as Jack watched the dark skinned child latch on to Lt. Jotun's arm, the uncomfortable look that washed over her face stated that whatever caused the strange bonding moment, magic was not a factor of the equation.
Another 'ping', and the doors opened once more, Jack stepping out and waving for the others to follow. At the two females questioning gazes, the Colonel grinned. "Come on, we can't leave Carter and Daniel out. If we don't go get them, they'll starve themselves." It earned him a disbelieving snort from Mara, but none the less, the rest of his pack followed, the group of four moving to walk down the halls with the elevator doors closing behind them once more. As they rounded a corner, causing various personnel and soldiers to step out of their way, Jack looked over his shoulder at Mara. "Besides," he said. "Maybe if you're nice, Carter or the space monkey will give you some coffee."
This time it was Jack's turn to snicker as he watched the woman's eyes light up at the prospect of caffeine. It was another discovery they'd made about the demon-a weakness that made her more human, in a sense. Some time after their first mission, Mara had made the discovery that no, alcohol was not permitted on-base during duty hours, a fact that had, surprisingly enough, greatly agitated the demon. When Daniel had made the mistake of offering the blonde coffee in the hopes of somehow sedating the demon, everyone as a whole, human, alien, and demon, had come to the surprising discovery that Mara enjoyed the taste.
And she liked it straight-up black, too. Not even the coffee fiends that were Major Carter and Daniel Jackson could compare to that taste. (Carter would later over-hear in conversation between Mara and Hild, both of who for whatever reason had chosen her room for lesser-disguised conversations, mention something along the lines of why it was demons had created coffee and not the gods. Something along the lines that only a demon would be devious enough to make something so foul tasting so addictive. When Carter would ask for more information in regards to the topic, Hild would simply smile and state one simple fact: Demons made coffee. Gods made tea.)
The remaining members of SG-1 were easy enough to find. As to be expected, the two scientists were in their respective rooms. Daniel, as to be expected, was bent over a book, a notepad beside him and some stone tablet of an unknown origin resting on top of his desk. The only sound heard was the soft scrape of pen on paper as the archeologist scribbled note after note, unaware of the company slowly sneaking up behind him.
The he caught the reflection of eerie violet eyes in his glasses, and the young man yelped, jumping and whirling around to find not only the child claiming ownership to the odd eyes, but Jack, Teal'c, and the demon who'd come Hild's 'pseudo-guardian', Mara, as well. Startled blue eyes stared. "...When did you all get in here?" He asked, looking in particular at Jack more then anyone else.
Teal'c he'd grown unconcerned with, knowing that the man would never come to Daniel without a reason-the Jaffa was never one for social visits. Hild, he'd come to find, enjoyed popping out of nowhere (literally) whenever she grew bored, and was one of the few people who would actually silently sit and simply listen to him ramble over what most would consider some inane subject, sometimes even offering her own opinion and giving him a perspective that only a child could seem to see, even coming up with her own stories and beliefs on what various religions and societies believed (he'd found it espcially entertaining to here that demons and goddesses lived on different dimensional planes, but that was another story altogether.)
Mara-Marla was easy. All she wanted was coffee usually, claiming the drinks in the chow hall too sweet for her liking. He'd even found that he might learn a thing or two about demon culture, if he offered to trade a cup of coffee for a story. (He'd later come up with the conclusion that Hild spent a little too much time with Mara-the two's stories often had some similar aspect to them. Goddesses with angels, demons with devils? Reincarnations and races on broomsticks through heaven and hell?)
But Jack he'd always associated with trouble, especially with the grin his older friend wore on his face at the present. It simply screamed I'm gonna get in trou-ble. In a sing-song voice, high pitched and squeaky like a hyperactive robot dressed like a green dog. Daniel blinked at the strange comparison, feeling as though it was more foreign then anything else. He needed to stop watching that strange cartoon with Cassie every time he went over to watch her. (Though he did not know it, Carter was guilty of the same crime.) The fact that Jack was currently being accompanied by the child that was Hild and the demon that was Mara didn't bode well for the scientist either.
Jack clapped his hands together, a look that was almost devious entering his face. "Danny-boy, we're here to kidnap you." He stated, his smile growing larger by the second as he stated his words.
Daniel narrowed his eyes suspiciously, baby-blue eyes darting from one person to the next. "Kidnap?" He echoed, watching with growing dread as an equally devious smile spread across not just Mara's, but Hild's as well.
Oh boy...
In front of him, Jack nodded his head. "Yep." He agreed. "You can either come with us willingly so that we can prevent you from collapsing on us in hunger, or I can let my two cohorts here," he pointed his thumb behind him to where Mara and Hild stood, Teal'c having at some point decided to wisely duck out of the room and wait for the chaos that no doubt was about to arise outside. "...have at your room." In a softer voice he said, "think about it Daniel." Jack whispered, moving a tad bit closer and slapping his hand down on Daniel's shoulder. "We've all come to discover that Mara doesn't understand the meaning of the word 'sensitive'. And Hild is only a child. We all know how dangerous a child can be around delicate objects." As though hearing the quiet conversation, Hild met his eyes with glittering violet eyes.
She waved.
Daniel swallowed.
Five minutes later found SG-1 slightly larger walking down the hallways once more, a defeated Jackson trailing behind the group as ahead of them, Hild all but skipped as she led the way to Major Carter's room. "I hate you all right now." Daniel muttered lowly, head hanging dejectedly as he followed the black boots that belonged to Jack.
The older man snorted, lightly slapping his younger companion on the back. "Lighten up, you needed to get out and about. Socialize, realize there is an actual world out there, with real, living people." He said with a grin. "Otherwise you'll end up like Mara, alone and hating the world around you." He pointed to the blonde, ignoring the glare she sent his way. The week had led to a strange sort of treaty between the two, an agreement, more then anything else, to work together without killing one another, or worse. It had lead to a constant bickering between the duo, demon and contracted trying to save their more violent fights from those who didn't know the situation. Some how, it had worked so far.
Not even bothering to knock, Hild opened the door that lead into Carter's lab, the door flying open as the miniature Daimakaicho bounded into the room. Jack trailed in after the child, hand's shoved idly in his pockets as he strolled into the room with Mara, Daniel, and Teal'c behind. If Carter noticed, she gave no sign, continuing her work without so much as a twitch to give away the fact that she'd even heard the gang enter.
A soft smirk on his face, Jack approached behind the woman, a mischievous thought entering his mind as he moved up behind the woman. The colonel looked over his subordinate's shoulder, watching as some strange formula typed its way into existence on screen, the equation looking little more then some alien chicken-scratch to his brown eyes. "Carter." He said softly, wondering if his voice would entice some sort of response from the woman.
Nothing.
"Carter..." The man raised his voice a little, glancing from the blonde to the screen and back again, another row of equations endlessly forming.
Still no response.
"Carter!" The word came out a harsh bark this time, and the man watched with satisfied amusement as the younger woman jumped, hand racing to shut the laptop before whirling around to face Jack.
"Sir!" She barked back, her tone coming more from habit then anything else, her eyes wide and speaking her surprise as much as her actions. The woman blinked, staring at Jack before allowing her gaze to drift from him to the small unit that had followed him inside. "A...Sir, can I help you with something?" Her tone clearly stated she wasn't too happy about the interruption, trying to find the source of what it was Jack wanted so she could get him and several other people out of her lab before they could cause any damage.
If she'd been paying better attention to Daniel, the major might have realized the futility of her efforts.
Jack's grin grew larger.
Daniel shook his head.
Ten minutes later found a group of two officers, two demons, one civilian, and one alien in the SGC's compact cafeteria. Defeated and dejected, Daniel and Sam stood in front of Jack, where the older man could keep a close eye on his two scientists and make sure they didn't make a mad dash for the exit should they leave his line of vision. Teal'c moving to lay claims to a table large enough to fit six people, Hild and Mara fell in line behind Jack.
The chow hall was fairly crowded, with tables filled with other SG teams and staff, creating a dull roar that echoed as vibrations bounced off steel walls. Regardless, the line was short, SG-1 having just missed that mad rush that came with lunch. As Teal'c claimed a table that had just been wiped down by a staff member on call, the remainder of the odd team grabbed food trays for themselves, Mara grabbing a second one for Hild with some mental urging from the child at her side.
The group steadily worked their way through the line. Jack, true to his word, grabbed an overly-large piece of chocolate cake, a look of a cat about to eat a canary on his face as the man laid claim to something that vaguely resembled macaroni and cheese and fried chicken. Carter, deciding to go with a safer decision, moved to grab a salad, with Daniel following and grabbing a sandwich he could watch the lunch lady make behind the counter.
Mara, a tenth-dimensional being who didn't rely on the consumption of edible items for energy but rather the demon's master computer Nidhogg, stared at the various items wearily before finally pointing at something that claimed to be meatloaf, but resembled something far more foul. With a cheerful hum, Hild directed a small ounce of magic at the back of Mara's knee reminiscent of kicking someone with a switchblade boot, and with a self-discipline born of a constant abuse, Mara stiffened.
"Could...you make that two servings?" The demon's voice was slightly strained, and she pointed self-consciously at the silver-haired monstrosity at her side.
The woman behind the counter stared, before leaning forward and looking down at the dark girl, taking Mara's strained voice for embarrassment rather then a restrained curse of pain. Hild stared back with a child's innocent eyes, before blinding the woman with an adorable smile.
"Well aren't you just a doll." The woman cooed with a southern drawl. "But so skinny! Have your friends been feeding you enough, Hun? You're all skin and bones!" Eyes sparkling with merriment, the woman happily grabbed another plate and loaded the plate with a rather large serving of vom-meatloaf, before handing it to Mara. "And you, Ma'am, are simply full of surprises, aren't you?" She asked, catching the woman off-guard as the demon disguised as a Lieutenant moved to take the plate.
"Huh?"
Having found an unfortunate victim to speak to, the woman continued. "Did you know that when you first got here, there was a running bet on how long you'd last with your team before you were either taken off or killed?" The southern bell asked cheerfully, ignorant, or perhaps simply ignoring, the sudden violent eye-twitch that briefly assaulted Mara's right eye.
"Ah..."
"And not only did you make it back from your first mission alive and relatively uninjured, you even saved a precious little girl from what would have been no doubt a terrible fate!" The smile seemed to grow on the woman's face. It was only the fact that not only could she feel Jack watching her every move, but the fact that one of Hild's more...painful...spells was threatening to spike off, no doubt ready to cause what would no doubt become a catastrophic disaster should Mara say or do anything stupid that prevented the fanged woman from lighting the woman with Hell-fire right then and there.
"Who would have thought that you were so good with children?" The woman continued to rattle on, ignorant or uncaring of the eavesdropping soldiers around the small group. "The child has taken to you with such a shine! I'd have never expected it from such a young woman like you!"
"Hey, what's that su-"
Hild cleared her throat.
Mara lost her voice.
"C'mon Maa-chan." The Daimakaicho grabbed Mara by the sleeve. "Let's go. I'm hungry." With a strength that belied her childish body, Hild dragged the taller demon away, no doubt, in her own twisted sort of way, preventing the poor mortal from an early meeting with her Ex-Husband.
Behind the counter, the lunch lady didn't even have time to protest the sudden departure, suddenly finding herself swept away in the tide of hungry consumers that had been patiently waiting for her to finish her conversation with the unlucky demon.
Finding herself precariously balancing two heavy loaded trays with food, Mara allowed herself to be dragged to the table, where the rest of SG-1 had already situated themselves, Jack watching the two newcomers with a fork in his mouth, a half-consumed slice of cake out in front of him. "Well, can't say that wasn't entertaining." Jack stated after swallowing the piece of sugary goodness in his mouth. "For a second, I was sure you were going to blow her up or something." He teased, eyes meeting Mara's for a brief second before skimming over Hild's silver head and to the suddenly swamped service woman. "...Not that I'd blame you. At least, not with a chatterbox like that."
Placing the trays in front of the last two available seats, Mara moved to sit, Hild hopping onto the chair next to her. The child looked over at Jack, something of an unknown origin flashing behind wicked eyes. "...Maa-chan can blow people up?" The little girl asked in a voice that was none-to-quite, causing several people sitting near her to look up in alarm. She tilted her head to one side in curiosity, fully expecting an answer from the man sitting across from her whose eyes had suddenly widened a fraction of an inch.
To either side of Hild, the remaining females of the group sent each other a silent look.
It went unnoticed by their male counterparts.
Jack unleashed an uncomfortable laugh, suddenly remembering just how observant children could be when adults forgot they were in the room. Or how unnecessarily loud they could be.
Daniel was the one who came to the rescue. "It's an inside joke." He explained, the doctor's own voice one or two octaves louder then it usually was. "We discovered on our first mission together Mara's love for explosives." the archeologist said, recalling a time during their imprisonment when Bra'tak had spoken of a demon that danced away from staff blasts with bombs in her hands.
Hild stared.
Daniel stared back.
Jack began to sweat.
The meatloaf twitched, and Mara jumped, slamming the fork she'd been holding spokes down into it, a miniature trident stabbing into some sort of man-made monster.
The rest of the table jumped at the action, and the conversation was lost in favor of Mara. "What?" She demanded, releasing her fork, where it stood straight up from where it lay buried in the mystery meat. "It moved. Whatever this thing is, I don't think they killed it entirely before serving it to us."
Way to ruin my fun, Maa-chan.
Hild turned her attention back to her own plate of food, prodding it gently with her own fork and watching in open curiosity as it twitched in response.
"Now you understand why I got the salad." Sam said dryly, watching with a weary eye as the meat...burped. "I don't know what my civilian half does when I'm not here, but I do know that several experiments of mine have gone missing in the past three months." The others watched in a sort of horrified bewilderment at the meat, and the next comment was from Mara.
"You know, when I was a kid, I can remember watching Urd trying to make a love potion once. The thing that came out of it kind of reminded me of that." She pointed to the meat, once again causing the rest of her team to stare at her and earning an amused snort from Hild.
"Only Urd..."
Teal'c was the only one who seemed to notice the child's comment, and as she felt his eyes wander towards her, the Mother quickly departed, leaving nothing but an innocent child staring back in question.
The Jaffa wasn't sure what it was, but something told him to 'drop it' before he got himself into trouble. He wisely took the thing's advice.
"Okay, explosions, mystery meat and missing experiments aside, I have an announcement to make." Jack pinged his spoon against his glass, a small part of him relieved to move the conversation onto something a little more sane. It simply wasn't right, watching the cafeteria food grow sentient. As the group turned their attention towards the colonel, Jack's face once again broke into an excited smile.
"Well, with my house now 'debugged' of vengeful peers, General Hammond has finally decided I've calmed down enough to allow us back out on another mission." Somewhere in between the time it had taken for SG-1 and Mara to go off world and their return, the General had somehow gotten the conclusion that perhaps it was not the best idea to let Jack out of his sight, especially after having to 'bug' his house in the hopes of catching sight of this so-called 'demon' Daniel had been raving about. He'd quickly decided to 'ground', for less of a better word, SG-1 until he deemed them fit (mentally) for 'gate travel once more.
Besides, he'd said during their debrief. It'd give them time to adjust to their newest teammate as well as give them time to figure out what to do with the ward they'd brought back with them.
He was still waiting on that whole luck with the ward thing.
Something told him he'd be waiting for a good while yet.
Sam and Daniel's eyes both lit up with twin glimmers of joy. The two held a remarkable resemblence to one another that bordered on creepy at the news, but none the less, Jack felt a hint of happyiness himself as he stared at their excited faces. "Yep." He said, nodding at their wordless questions for an explanation. "I guess he finally gave up on catching sight of phantoms. And with these three new Goa'ulds out in the field, he decided he'd rather have us out beating the tar out of 'em rather then run the risk of SG-3 getting blown up again."
"Jack, this is wonderful!" Daniel cried. "So when are we do for our next mission? I've enjoyed our free time-I've caught up on so many projects-but I've been getting restless as of late." He tried not to glance at Hild whose presence was starting to grow so hazardous as of late that up until last night, he'd actually dreamed of the child, or, at least, what she'd become several years down the road, coming to him like the Devil himself and offering temptations beyond anything a Goa'uld could come up with.
He'd politely declined the invitation, much to the Dream-Hild's disappointment.
Too bad there were several others who couldn't say anything near as much.
They were no longer a part of the SGC.
Sitting across from Daniel, Carter nodded her head. "I have to agree with Daniel on this one, Sir." She said. "It'll be nice to get off-world once more. But aren't we forgetting something?" The woman's sapphire gaze traveled to meet an amethyst pair. "What about Hild, Sir? We can't simply take her with us..." And I'll be damned before I let her anywhere near Cassie. "..And I don't want to burden Janet with another dependent. She 's got her hands full with Cassie as it is."
Hild narrowed her eyes. So that's how you want to play it, eh Little Samantha? "What about Grandpa, if not Auntie?" She asked aloud, using the various titles Hild thought a child her age might actually use on the surrounding adults. The pet names were cute and endlessly amusing, especially when the Daimakaicho watched the newer recruits to the SGC listen to her go about calling their General 'Grandpa'.
Jack leaned back in his chair, eyes moving to the ceiling as he went over Hild's idea in his head, a soft 'hmm' rumbling in the back of his throat in thought. "Sure, why not?" He finally decided. "I don't feel comfortable dropping Hild on some random officer or civilian, especially when I don't know them." He reached over, ruffling Hild's already out of control hair as he stood. "I don't think he'll mind too much. I know the General's got a soft spot for kids, him being an actual Grandfather and everything."
The man missed the near-demonic glare Hild sent towards Jack at the hair ruffle. Mara and Sam, however, did not.
"Ah, Sir..." Sam started weakly.
She went unheard, and an already defeated shake of the head from Mara told her it was already considered a lost cause.
As Hild hopped off her chair to chase after Jack, Sam looked to her blonde counterpart with a frown. Why did this suddenly feel like a bad idea?
~*~
A/N: And I'm done.
Thank the high heavens. This chapter is more of a filler then anything else, something to help me get back into the groove of writing my stories again now that I'm officially out of training status. The next chapter is when things, in my book, start going straight to the cuccoos though. It makes me all kinds of giddy inside just thinking about it.
Don't ask me where the meatloaf incident came from. I'll I can say is that with how crazy things have gotten for me, I feel as though I'm totally straying from my original plotline. At least in certain aspects. In others, it feels like I've somehow improved, but I'll let the reader decided if so and on what.
