Daniel sank deeper into the chair opposite General Hammond's desk wishing he were anywhere else. This meeting was undeniably a waste of time, but he knew the general needed someone on his side in this meeting with Woolsey. Hammond wanted Daniel here for his diplomatic skills. Unfortunately those skills seemed to have deserted Daniel at the moment.
"The loss of Dr. Frasier has cost the Air Force and by extension the SGC hundreds of thousands of dollars," Woolsey admonished Hammond.
"Not to mention the loss of a good honorable woman," Daniel interjected with an angry glare. "A daughter who has lost her only parent."
"Yes, well..." Woolsey temporized blinking with the realization of just how callous his harangue must have sounded to these two men who had known the dead woman.
He was saved from having to continue by the knock at the door.
"Enter," Hammond barked.
Sgt. Harriman cautiously entered the room recognizing the anger laced in Hammond's voice. "Sir," he greeted the general. "We've gotten a call from the security office topside. An SUV just crashed through the main gate. The driver is a teenage girl. She's waving a gun and demanding to speak to you or a member of SG-1."
"Cassandra!" Daniel cried and forgetting protocol left the room at a run.
"Sir, I had them pipe the feed from the cameras down to the control room. It's not Ms. Frasier," Harriman informed the general as he rose to follow Jackson out of the room, then paused uncertain how to continue, "Whoever she is, she looks like she's been beaten, sir."
"Thank you, sergeant. We'll take it from here," Hammond told his aide as he passed him on the way out of the office. Woolsey trailed behind causing Hammond to wonder if this incident would find it's way into his report as well. The two men caught up with Jackson at the elevators.
"Come on!" Daniel urged the digital display of numbers that slowly increased until finally it read "27" and the doors to the elevator opened in front of them.
"It's not Cassandra," Hammond informed Daniel as the three men stepped into the elevator.
"But," Daniel protested.
"Sgt. Harriman looked at the surveillance video," Hammond told him.
"Then who is it?" Daniel wondered.
"Do security breaches like this happen often, General?" Woolsey demanded. "A teenager with a car breaching the security..."
"The outer level of security of NORAD," Hammond corrected. "There are at least a dozen security points between the front gate and the SGC."
"Still..." Woolsey objected.
"Now isn't the time, Mr. Woolsey," the general reprimanded the younger man. "You can criticize after this matter is settled."
"Now see here!"
"Shut up," Daniel snarled at the other man as the elevator doors opened and he took off at a run towards the main gate. They needed to get there quickly before some trigger happy SF panicked and shot the girl. Whether the girl was Cassandra or not didn't matter. They needed to diffuse the situation before it got out of control. Daniel slowed his pace as he came up behind the ring of guards surrounding the crashed vehicle and it's driver. "Stand down," Daniel ordered in his best imitation of General Hammond's commanding bark.
From behind him, Daniel heard Hammond confirm, "Do as he says."
Daniel gently pushed through the ring of guards to get his first good look at the cause of the commotion. He was glad to see that so far there hadn't been any shooting on either side. A moment later he realized the driver's identity. "Jenny?" he called cautiously. "It's Dr. Jackson. Jake's friend, Daniel."
The girl whirled towards the voice as she shuddered to contain another sob. "Please help me," she whimpered.
"Of course we'll help you, Jenny" he assured the girl as she turned back to the vehicle. "Jenny, what's going on?" Daniel asked as he slowly moved towards her doing his best not to startle the obviously traumatized girl. He watched as she placed the pistol on the roof the SUV and opened rear driver's side door. Daniel heard boots moving towards him from behind and motioned them back. A part of his mind registered that General Hammond had reinforced Daniel's order, but his focus remained on Jenny. 'What's going on?' Daniel asked himself as he watched Jenny reach into the back seat of the SUV. He continued to move forward until he could see through the window into the back seat. What he saw twisted his stomach in knots even as he shouted over his shoulder, "Get the medics out here now! Move!" Daniel moved forward to grab Jenny by the shoulders.
She jumped away batting at his hands. "Don't touch me!" she shrieked.
"Okay," Daniel agreed. "It's okay. Calm down. It's going to be okay."
"You have to help him," Jenny demanded. "Jake said to bring him here...to only trust SG-1 or General Hammond. We have to help him," she pleaded as she reached once more for the still form in the back seat.
"No, Jenny" Daniel commanded as he gently pushed her hands away. "We need to let the medics take care of him. We could hurt him worse moving him."
"He said to only trust SG-1 or General Hammond," Jenny repeated. "He said..."
"General Hammond is right here," Daniel soothed the distraught teenager. "We're not going to let anything happen to Jake."
"You already did!" she screamed suddenly turning on him, slapping at his chest in anger. "Why didn't you come?!" she demanded. "He was sure you'd come..." All the fight seemed to leave her and she sagged into Daniel's chest sobbing uncontrollably. "Why didn't you come?" Jenny asked again as Daniel gently pulled her away from the SUV to make room for the medics to get to Jake.
"How did this happen, Jenny?" Daniel asked gently ignoring for now her question. It was a question he didn't want to think about though he knew the answer well enough. "What happened to you?"
In fits and starts between great shuddering sobs, Jenny told him of being forced off the road and dragged into the van. As she described waking up in the makeshift cell with Jake still out cold beside her, they raced to follow the gurney hurtling towards the infirmary. General Hammond and Woolsey followed behind listening as Jenny described days of captivity during which Jake was repeatedly tortured for information that he stubbornly refused to give.
When they reached the infirmary, Daniel gently steered Jenny to a bed in the main ward while Jake's gurney went directly to one of the urgent care rooms near the operating theatre. A nurse appeared next to the gurney, but when he attempted to strap a blood pressure cuff to Jenny's arm she protested pushing him away. "Leave me alone," she demanded. "Get away from me."
"Jenny, this is Henry Grant. He's a nurse," Daniel told her. "Please let him examine you. You've obviously been hurt."
"I'm fine," Jenny said. "Leave me alone!" she growled once again batting Lt. Grant's hands away from her.
Looking more closely at the teenager, Daniel noticed that the button on her pants had been ripped away and remembered the long serious conversation he and Janet had with Jake concerning Jenny and her brothers. Daniel briefly closed his eyes hoping he was wrong about what had happened to Jenny. Even if she hadn't been raped, Daniel was sure she must be reacting at least in part to the trauma of her past. "Henry, will you get Captain Gerhart up here to look at Jenny," he requested the young lieutanant.
"Yes, sir" Grant quietly confirmed understanding exactly why Dr. Jackson would request that the SGC's rape trauma nurse be called to examine this teenage girl.
"Cassie's mom," Jenny suddenly demanded. "Cassie's mom is a doctor here. I want her."
Daniel swallowed the tight lump of grief. "Cassie's mom is dead," he gently informed Jenny. "She died on Friday."
"That's when they took us," Jenny told Daniel, surprise evident in her voice.
"Yeah," Daniel agreed. "They must have been watching Jake for quite some time. They probably took advantage of the chaos caused by Janet's death to grab you and Jake without anyone noticing." Daniel hypothesized. "Janet, Cassie, and I have been watching out for Jake. Cassie sees him every day at school, and we've made sure one of us has seen or talked to him on the weekends too."
They were both quiet for several seconds. Daniel was lost in memories of this friend while Jenny didn't know what to say in the face of his obvious grief. She hadn't known Cassie or her mother long, but they'd both been good to her.
"You wanted me, Dr. Jackson" Captain Gerhart asked from behind him breaking the silence.
"Yeah, Susan, can you take a look at Jenny?" he asked.
"I'm fine," Jenny repeated once again. "I don't need to be looked at."
"Miss, you've got a nasty bruise on your forehead. There's dried blood around your nose, and you've got a fat lip," Susan Gerhart listed. "You're not fine."
"It's nothing," Jenny told her. "Jake's the one who's hurt."
"Your friend Jake is being looked after," Gerhart assured Jenny. "He's already being prepped for surgery. He's got some internal bleeding, broken ribs, several facial fractures, and a concussion. Now let me see to your injuries."