He was drunk. Not the silly, stupid drunk, nor the belligerent loud drunk. No, he was 'happy drunk'. He looked blearily at his three friends and realized they were drunk too. At least Daniel and Sam were. Teal'c – well, he appeared a bit more relaxed than normal but probably wasn't actually drunk. Now that he'd lost his symbiote he could drink alcohol and it did affect him, but not nearly as much as it did his human friends.
Daniel and Sam were discussing something – something geekish by the sounds of things. It didn't really matter what they were talking about though. It just mattered that they were here, safe, with him. He allowed his eyes to drift halfway shut and closed off the sounds of his friends' voices. Instead he simply thought about what they meant to him. They were his salvation, that he knew. They'd brought him back, years ago, from the brink of hell and had made him want to live. Now, he believed he could do more than just live. For the first time since the loss of Charlie he had hope that there was something good waiting for him.
He stared at Sam – looking at her flushed but happy face. Yes, he loved her, more than he should and more than he'd ever thought possible. He was pretty sure it wouldn't go anywhere but still, to have her close was almost enough. It gave him a sense of peace and joy. He thought back to that dream, to waking up with her in his arms and knew that that thought would sustain him for a long time.
"You okay Jack?" a slurred voice from his friend Daniel asked.
"I'm fine Danny", he smiled. "Just sittin' here listening to you two talk."
"Really? Wow Jack, that must be a first!"
"Didn't say I knew what you were talking about or what it meant. I was just happy to hear your voices. I missed you guys you know. It's great to be back."
All three of his friends looked at him in shock – drunk as they were. One thing they could always count on was Jack not talking about his feelings. To hear him say he's missed them was – surprising – at least.
"Uh, we missed you too Jack. More than you know." Daniel answered softly.
Sam nodded, her eyes filled with tears. "It just wasn't the same without you Sir", she said.
"No one to bug you Carter?"
"No Sir – I mean – that's not why I – we missed you – Sir", she answered, flustered. I meant -"
"Just pulling your leg Sam. Don't be so uptight - and call me Jack!"
"Uh – Jack Sir?"
"It's my name Carter."
"I know Sir – it's just that-"
"Jack, Carter – say it!"
"Jack, Sir."
He sighed and leaned his head back. Damn Air Force, damn regs, damn 2IC's that obeyed those regs. Life was a bitch sometimes.
He woke up the next morning with a mild hangover. It really wasn't too bad because he hadn't been that drunk. He'd been more tipsy than anything.
He had to grin when he'd thought of how maudlin they'd all become last night. Even Teal'c had waxed poetic about Sg1 and all their adventures. He was pretty sure Daniel cried and Carter – well – she was just Carter. A brilliant scientist, amazing soldier and lovely soul.
Thinking about his three friends made him realize that they were camped out in various rooms in his house. They'd all had too much to drink and it had been too late to let them drive home so he'd told them all to crash at his place. Teal'c was in one guest room, Sam in another and Daniel was flaked out on his couch. He rather suspected that at least two of them would have hangovers this morning.
Well, he'd better get up and get everyone sobered up! They had plans to work out; Operation Samuels!
"So, do you have any idea at all where you were held Sir?" Sam asked. They'd all had coffee and had showered and were feeling a bit more human this morning. Both Carter and Jackson had taken some Tylenol and it had appeared to help. At least they both looked reasonably alert. Teal'c, as always, looked totally in control.
"Not exactly, no. I've thought about it a lot though, over the last few months, and I'm pretty sure it was in a big city."
"How do you figure that, Jack?" Daniel asked.
"Just the sounds and a feeling I guess. There's a different sound to being out in the country. Anyway, the building I was held in seemed like some kind of old factory or something."
"Do you know how long it was between your kidnapping and arriving at this place?" Sam again asked.
"Uh, again, I'm not exactly sure. They drugged me and stuck me in the trunk of their car." He heard Sam's sharp intake of breath and could see the anger in Teal'c's eyes. He glanced over at Daniel to see that he too was furious. Somehow, his friends reactions went even farther in helping him deal with the memories.
"Based on the fact that when we arrived I had a good 5 o'clock shadow I'm guessing between 8 to 12 hours."
"So, let's see what cities are within that distance from your cabin. Do you have an atlas?"
Jack went and got his old atlas and sat on the couch between Sam and Daniel. Teal'c pulled up a chair facing them. "Okay, let's see."
"Minneapolis/St Paul would be the closest of course" Sam pointed to the map.
"Yeah, but it's only about 3 hours from the cabin. I just feel like we drove farther than that."
"Okay. Well, there's Madison or Grand Rapids, but they're also closer than 8 hours."
"They seem like kind of strange places to take you to though Jack." Daniel continued to look at the map.
"Why? I would think that any anonymous place would be fine."
"Probably." Daniel sat frowning. "Sam, we gathered a lot of information on Samuels over the last few months. Was there anything about him travelling to any of these cities? Or maybe there's some kind of connection?"
"Not that I can remember Daniel. Sir", she looked at the Colonel. "Can I borrow your laptop. I can check some of my files to see if there's anything."
Sam was soon set up and accessed her home computer. Since they hadn't been allowed to search for Jack while at work, everything was at home.
"You sure those files are safe Sam?" Jack asked, worried.
"Oh yeah", she grinned. "No one's gonna hack into these S-Jack. I also have it set up so that if someone tries, everything – and I mean everything – will self-destruct!"
His forehead crinkled – not in disbelief, but in humor. He should have known better than even to have asked.
They sat for the next couple of hours going through everything on Sam's computer that related to Samuels. Jack was amazed at how thorough his team had been in finding out every little detail of the man's life – at least every detail that wasn't securely hidden.
"God it!" Daniel had read ahead and was grinning. "Chicago!"
"Chicago?" Jack asked, puzzled. "Why Chicago?"
"Well, it's about 8 hours from Minneapolis so 11 or so from Jack's cabin. But the main thing is that Samuels went to university there – and 7 months ago he went there to 'visit family'." Daniel said, sitting back triumphantly.
"Well, maybe he was visiting family Daniel", Sam reasoned, not wanting to appear too eager.
Daniel leaned forward, an intent look on his face. "The file says he was visiting his 2nd cousin. Now think about it guys, does Samuels seem like the kind of man to keep in touch with his 2nd cousin – or to travel there to visit him?"
Jack sat back and thought about it for a moment but he was pretty convinced Daniel was right. He couldn't picture Samuels as a family man and Chicago seemed a likely spot. It was easy to get lost in such a huge city and there'd be lots of old, abandoned warehouses and factories.
"Okay", he said. "Suppose it is Chicago. What does that tell us?"
"Well, if we can track down where they held you, we might be able to find some witnesses, or something that connects him to the kidnapping."
Jack looked skeptical, knowing that Samuels hadn't got to his position by being careless. Just then, however, something popped into his mind. He could remember Samuels speaking to one of – those men – wanting to make sure Jack was unconscious. He – Abel - had assured him the prisoner was out of it, little knowing that Jack was, in fact, conscious, although not 100% lucid. He'd not only clearly identified Samuel's voice, he'd heard what the man had said.
"Pictures", he exclaimed, looking startled.
"Pictures O'Neill?" Teal'c asked.
"Yeah, they took– pictures." Jack suddenly felt a little sick, remembering Samuels talking about wanting something to remember what Jack looked like. He looked up at his friends and caught the pity on their faces.
He clenched his teeth and straightened up. He wasn't going to let this get to him. In fact, it could be a good thing. "Samuels is smart", he growled, "but he's also an evil Son of a bitch and he wanted a trophy. That may just be what will bring him down."
"How do you figure Jack?" Daniel looked confused.
"Because if they find him with the pictures Daniel, it will prove he was involved."
"But surely he won't be stupid enough to keep them?"
"Yes he will", Jack said softly. "He'll just make sure they're in a very safe place."
"So, we're pretty sure you were held in Chicago, and that he has some pictures. That's not very much to go on." Daniel shook his head. "I really don't know where to start."
"We will go to Chicago and try and follow in the footsteps of Colonel Samuels." Teal'c looked calmly at the others. "Is this not something we will be able to determine?"
"Maybe Teal'c?" Jack had a pensive look on his face. "I think we'll need some help though. If we go asking around he'll soon get suspicious."
"Maybourne!" Daniel and Sam said at the same moment.
"Maybourne?" Jack exclaimed. "We don't even know where he is."
"Yes we do Sir – at least, I know how to get in touch with him. He was the one that told us it was Samuels. He wants to help you Jack."
The Colonel looked a little skeptical but after a few moments relaxed. He and Maybourne had a strange relationship. It was full of antipathy as well as a certain measure of respect. As much as O'Neill didn't approve of Harry's ways of doing things, he had no doubt that there was a perverted sense of patriotism and loyalty in the man.
"Okay, let's get in touch and see what he can find out."
Over the next couple of days Jack went over all the facts his team had discovered, detail by detail. He kept trying to think if there was anything else he could remember that might help. He was pretty sure that describing how he'd been tortured wouldn't do anyone any good so he avoided talking about it. It was Daniel (as usual) who forced the issue.
"Jack, tell us what happened to you", he said, very gently. "There might be something that you missed, something that was said that would give us a clue. Maybe telling it will bring something to mind."
Jack stood up and walked swiftly to the window and looked out over his back yard. No one said anything and he finally turned around. "Daniel, it's not going to help, believe me."
"How do you know Jack. There may be something there that you can't remember."
"And telling you guys how they tortured me is going to do what exactly. The – men – didn't exactly chat with me when they were sticking their cigarette butts on my skin."
Daniel blanched, only imagining what his friend went through but then he stilled. "Cigarettes? They smoked?"
"Yeah – at least one of them did. Abel. He was a chain smoker."
"Do you know what brand?"
"Yeah – I couldn't help but notice. He constantly was pulling out the carton and taking another smoke. I figured at one point they were trying to slowly poison me to death!"
"So, what was the brand?"
"Uh they were Pall Malls."
"Pall Malls? I don't recognize that brand", Sam interjected.
"They used to be very popular", the Colonel explained. "I smoked them in my early days in the Air Force, but you don't see them very often anymore."
"Are they hard to get?" Daniel sat forward in his seat.
"I don't know. Maybe", Jack shrugged. "Why does it matter?"
"Well, if they're hard to get, we can probably track stores where they sell them in Chicago. Presuming that he didn't travel a long way to buy cigarettes, we may be able to narrow down our search."
"Daniel, Chicago is a huge city. I'm sure there lots of places that sell the cigarettes."
"No Sir, Daniel is right. It'll help us narrow things down somewhat. I'm going to call Walter and have him check. In the meantime, maybe there's something else you can remember."
He slowly went back, in his mind, over his time in captivity. There was a lot that he didn't remember or that was pretty foggy. He'd been drugged for some of the time and too hurt and traumatized the rest. There were things that started to come back to him though as he went through his time there.
"How long between – sessions?" Sam looked distressed even having to ask the question. Although it was painful to revisit, in some ways he worried more about how his recollections would affect his team than himself.
"Uh, it varied and I couldn't always tell. I didn't know what time of day or night it was and they fed me irregularly so that I couldn't track the time. It seemed like it was maybe once or twice a day. There were a few times it was more" he had to stop there and take a breath, remembering a couple of the really bad times. "And a few times there seemed to be longer in between. There was one point when I didn't see anyone for what felt like 3 days or so. I worried that they'd left me there to die."
He heard a small sob from Sam and looked up quickly. She wasn't looking at him and he felt awful for putting his friends through this. "God", he stood up. "This isn't getting us anywhere. You don't need to hear this and it's not helping."
"We do not know that O'Neill. We have found one useful thing. There may be others."
"Like what?" he practically shouted in frustration. "How is knowing what kind of cigarettes the guy smoked or the fact that Gerry liked to drink Big Gulps going to help us get Samuels?"
There was silence in the room which eventually was broken by Daniel. "Big Gulps?" he asked.
"Yeah – those huge drinks you always see teenage boys drinking. He drank them all the –" Jack stopped and looked up in surprise. "He drank them all the time", he repeated slowly.
"Were they generic or from a certain store, do you remember Sir?"
Jack got a glazed look on his face as he tried to picture the man holding one of the huge plastic cups. He remembered wanting to beg for a sip when he'd been left for a long time without anything to drink. He'd been sure, at the time, that the man was drinking the big drink just to torment him. He realized after a time that the man was addicted.
"Yes – it was a Big Gulp."
"From 7-11", Teal'c said.
Jack looked at him, a frown between his eyes. "How do you know that Teal'c?"
"I drink them myself at times O'Neill. I find them quite refreshing – especially a mixture of Mountain Dew and Fanta Grape."
"Yeah – okay" O'Neill answered, slightly baffled by some of the habits his friend had picked up on earth.
"Well this really does help us", Sam exclaimed. "We'll compare locations of stores where they sell Pall Mall cigarettes and 7-11 stores and see what we come up with."
"Abel could have had a stash of cigarettes he brought with him", argued Jack.
"I know Sir, but at least it's something to start on. We might be able to find some evidence if we descover where you were taken."
"I think that's wishful thinking Major. Samuels is much too smart to leave evidence where it can be found."
They waited for Walter to get back to them. He was home that day but he had a pretty wicked computer set up at home and had been invaluable in their search for information. After an hour the phone rang.
Sam talked into it for a few minutes and then with a 'thank you Walter', she hung up. She then turned to her audience and grinned.
"Well, I've narrowed it down to 8 different locations."
"Eight? Is that all?" Jack was surprised. He'd been willing to bet there were way more. Still, this made the search doable. "Okay then, I guess we're off to Chicago!"
Everybody looked pleased at this development except for Teal'c, who was looking rather distressed.
"What is it buddy?" he asked his friend. "Don't you think we should go."
"I do believe we should go O'Neill. It is myself I am wondering about."
"Yourself? Why?"
"I do not know if I should go with you?"
"Why ever not?" Jack wanted to know. What could be wrong with his friend. "Is something the matter?"
"No." Teal'c then lifted his head and looked directly at Jack. "I may not be able to retain my hat", he explained. "It would put our rescue at risk if it was found out who I am."
"Not retain your hat? What?"
"Is it not very windy in Chicago O'Neill?"
"Windy? Yeah, I guess so. You get used to it though."
"I do not believe I will 'get used to it', when the hat is continuously blown from my head."
Jack had to laugh. Here he'd thought it was something frightening. Now, however, he could spend some time trying to fit Teal'c with proper head gear. This was going to be fun!