Thanks as always to those who managed to send in a review amidst all the problems this site was having. You know how much I truly appreciate your comments.

I would like to point out that I do love to put a few red herrings into my stories so please 'go with the flow' as they say and things will be explained further along in the story.

Please don't take everything you read here as gospel, because sometimes things are not what they seem!

That said, I hope you all enjoy this chapter too.

THIS OLD MAN.

By LetitiaRichards.

Previously:-

He let himself out, making sure to lock the door after him and then climbed the ladder up to the roof deck. Settling himself down, he gazed out at the stars sparkling brightly in the cold, clear night sky, closing his mind to everything that was endeavouring to sour his perfect life.

Chapter 21

This old man, he played five,

He played nick-nack with my wife,

With a nick-nack paddy whack...

A deep shiver wracked Jack's body and nudged him from his dreams. He roused slightly feeling the tremors hit him once more. The darkness of sleep receded and he opened his eyes, blinking away the cobwebs clouding his mind. He shuddered again and scrubbed his hands over his face groaning softly when he realised that he was still sitting on his roof top deck. A bottle that once held a damn fine whiskey was lying empty at his feet; and he had one hell of a hangover.

"Crap!" he moaned feeling sluggish, and then shivered once more. Staggering to his feet, he cautiously made his way to the ladder and taking even more care than usual he descended to the ground. Unlocking the door, he stepped through, making sure he locked it again behind him.

Once he was in the kitchen he made himself a cup of strong black coffee, trying to dilute the alcohol flowing through his veins. 'What the hell had possessed him to drink that much anyway?' he wondered. Sam would be furious with him.

On his way to through the sitting room he grabbed the throw rug from the back of the sofa and slung it round his shoulders, then turned the heating up. He was frozen to the core.

Pulling the chair out from under the table, he cringed as it scraped along the floor, but flopped down on it thankfully, and then holding the mug with both hands, sipped at the hot brew. Gradually he began to thaw, and sighed when his alcohol numbed brain came back on line so that he could think clearly once more.

Pouring himself another coffee, he began to feel better and casually glanced up at the clock. He blinked several times, sure his eyes were playing tricks.

"03:57?" he gaped. "Can't be!" he muttered to the empty room, unable to comprehend he'd been outside for that long and bemoaning the fact that he'd not worn his jacket, hat or gloves. "Idiot!" he added wryly. "No wonder I'm damn well frozen! Oh Crap, Sam!" He just hoped she was asleep in bed by now.

His mind conjured up all sorts of excuses for his behaviour, knowing she was going to be hopping mad with him. But, why hadn't she come looking for him? He really, really hoped she hadn't pulled an all-nighter at the mountain because then he would be the one who should be justifiably angry.

Approaching the bedroom door he could see it was still open. Not a good sign, and nope, Sam was definitely not asleep in their bed. He thumped the wall in exasperation. She'd better have a damn good excuse for working all night.

He was about to snatch up the phone and call her, demanding to know why she wasn't at home when he noticed something out of the ordinary. Now, Sam was neatness personified, and always made sure things were put away tidily before they went to bed or when they left for the SGC in the morning; unless of course there was an emergency, but that was her only excuse.

His eyes were drawn towards the closet where he could see something had been caught in the door, leaving it gaping open slightly, and one of her drawers wasn't shut properly. Puzzled by this, he stepped across the room to take a closer look, pulling open the drawer. It was empty. His frown deepened and his heart rate quickened. Yanking open the closet door, he flicked on the light and his heart missed a beat. Apart from his pants, jacket's and shirts hanging there, it was glaringly empty of his wife's outfits.

Sam's things had gone; all of them.

Stunned beyond belief, he stumbled backwards until the back of his knees hit the bed and he sat down abruptly unwilling to see the truth of what lay before his eyes.

Sam had left him? Just like that? No arguments? No explanations?

Shaking his head, he jumped up and dashed over to the chest of drawers and yanked every one of them open only to realise the painful reality of Sam's sudden departure.

He was totally clueless as to the reason why she had gone. Because, apparently, that was what she had done. He sank onto the bed again feeling utterly wretched. Hot tears leaked unbidden from the corners of his eyes and one or two rolled down his face, unable as he was to comprehend just how quickly his life had gone down the drain.

He'd been so happy with Sam; it was a long time in the making, but it had finally happened; they were married. So what went wrong? He thought Sam was happy too. Had all this living with an unknown assailant after his butt been too much for her? Had it been that proverbial last straw that had driven her away?

Sam. His Sam. Gone. Why?

Hadn't he had enough problems to deal with just lately? Was there a God up there who seemed to take great pleasure in seeing how much pain he could inflict on him in this life? Wasn't it enough? He'd risked life and limb several times over in order to save this world; hadn't he earned any happiness at all? It was like losing Charlie all over again.

After Charlie had died, things had started to pick up; he'd found a reason to live again and he'd actually enjoyed his new posting to the SGC. Especially working alongside one golden haired, blue-eyed genius that had captured his heart and redeemed his lost soul. And all for nothing apparently. She'd gone. His reason for living; gone! God help him!

He lay back on the bed, his head on Sam's pillow where he could still smell her essence lingering there; the fresh smell of herbs from the shampoo she'd used. Jack curled into himself, and closed his eyes in pain. Then finally without realising it, he fell into a troubled sleep.

OoOoOoOoO

"Jack!"

Jack roused slightly, feeling thick headed and muzzy.

"Hmmm?"

"Jack! Come on! Wake up!" Daniel shook the haggard looking man on the bed, wondering why Jack looked so terrible. If he was ill, maybe he should just call Janet. "Jack!" he yelled again, giving him a much harder shake.

"Go 'way!" Jack mumbled incoherently into the pillow.

"Jack! General Hammond wants to see you. Now!" Daniel persisted loudly, until Jack opened one eye to look at him blearily.

"Go t' hell!" came the grumbled reply, and Jack closed his eye again.

Daniel shoved Jack's legs over and plonked himself down on the edge of the bed. There was no way he was leaving Jack there when there were a million questions needing answers that couldn't wait.

General Hammond had called him into his office and asked him if he knew where Jack and Sam were this morning, but he'd not seen them either. Now here he was, sent round by the General to find out why neither of them had turned up for work, and there was Jack lying on the bed, fully clothed, flushed and grumpy to say the least. There was no sign of Sam, and, if he didn't know any better, he'd say Jack had been drinking last night too.

"Colonel, get your butt off that bed and into the shower. I'm gonna put some coffee on and you'd better be in that bathroom by the time I come back in here!" Daniel yelled, thinking it might work if he were to bully Jack a little; after all, he was used to taking orders.

Jack grumbled and slid his feet over the side of the bed to sit up. He scrubbed his hands over his face a few times, pushing them up through his hair and over the top to massage his neck, completely ignoring Daniel.

"Jack!" Daniel returned to his normal voice and reached out a hand to lay it on Jack's arm nearest to him.

Jack jerked a little and peered at the fuzzy shape beside him.

"Daniel? That you?"

"Yes Jack," Daniel sighed with exaggerated patience.

"What are you doin' here? Shouldn't you be working?"

"I should, yes, but General Hammond sen..." Daniel's words failed as Jack stood, gained his balance and headed for the bathroom.

"Em...good. You go have that shower Jack and I'll put the coffee..."

"Gotta pee, Daniel. Then I'm going back to bed!" Jack snapped as he shut the bathroom door before Daniel could argue.

A few minutes later Jack re-emerged and climbed back onto the bed, burying his face into Sam's pillow once more.

"Jack?"

"You still here? Take my advice, Daniel go, get outta my house before I toss you out on your ass!"

"What?" Daniel was dumbfounded. What the hell was wrong with the man?

"I can't do that Jack. General Hammond specifically asked me to find out why you didn't come into work this morning. And where's Sam?"

"Good question! Now go 'way! I'm tired!" Jack closed his eyes wishing Daniel would just drop it and leave him alone.

"You really want me to tell General Hammond you kicked me out? He'll just send a posse of SFs around with Teal'c, you know he would," Daniel countered.

Jack groaned and grunted in frustration, but sat up again, glaring at his friend.

"Okay! I'll get ready and go in and see him, but I'm so not stayin'! Comprende?"

"Uh...yeah Jack, I understand okay, but what did you mean when you said you didn't know where Sam was? Isn't she here?"

Jack glared at Daniel for what seemed like an eternity until he had to look away. His shoulders drooped in defeat and he rubbed a hand over his eyes in a gesture that made Daniel realise that Jack suddenly looked old and more than a little weary.

"She's gone."

"Gone? Gone where?" Daniel's eyebrows shot upwards but he was pretty certain that he'd misheard that last statement.

"Just gone. Sometime in the night, I suppose, she let herself in and packed up all her things and... Oh god!" He slumped back onto the bed, shaking his head in disbelief.

Daniel stood open mouthed in shock until his own legs gave way and he sat down abruptly onto the bed next to Jack. Now he understood Jack's odd behaviour. He could now see that his friend was devastated by this.

"Why? I just don't get it Jack? Why would she just up and leave you?" Daniel just couldn't seem to grasp the facts at all. She'd seemed so happy; so why would she do such a thing? "What did you do to her?" he accused, suddenly thinking of Jack's notorious temper.

"What? What did I do to her?" Jack gasped in utter astonishment, which then turned into anger and he shot upwards to come face to face with Daniel.. "I didn't do anything Daniel," he grated out between gritted teeth, then his voice dropped in defeat. "I... Everything was fine when I left the mountain yesterday afternoon. You tell me what happened in between then and the early hours of this morning? Because I sure as hell don't have a damn clue what's gotten into her!"

"You didn't argue?" Daniel persisted with a cringe, waiting for Jack to knock him into the middle of next week.

"No!" Jack cried defensively. "We didn't argue; we didn't even fight, for cryin' out loud! I just don't know!" He dropped his head into his hands in despair; he just couldn't figure out what had gone so wrong.

"I'll give Hammond a call; tell him we're not going in today..." Daniel began, but as usual Jack cut him off.

"No Daniel. You're going in to help Teal'c with those kids. I'm okay. I...I need to make some arrangements; make a few phone calls. I'll be fine." Jack knew he couldn't carry on like this, even if it felt like the end of the world. He had things to do that couldn't be put off. "Thanks Daniel; but I need to be on my own for a while."

"Are you sure? I could stay if you want; I won't get in your way."

"No Daniel," Jack sighed, reaching out and patting Daniel's shoulder. "I'll be okay. Give my apologies to General Hammond and tell him I'll be in touch later. C'mon I'll see you out."

Daniel knew full well that Jack was hurting and it pained him to see his friend so upset. He also knew that Jack wouldn't want anyone around to see him lose it, because that was not Jack's way. He would grieve in his own way and after giving him a little space, Daniel knew he would be there to help Jack bounce back. Hoping of course that Jack would be able to put this behind him; if not... then it didn't bear thinking about. He'd met a suicidal Jack before and had no wish for his friend to return to that dark place again.

Jack didn't smile when he said goodbye to Daniel; instead his head hung down with the weight of loss. He closed the door even before Daniel's car had backed onto the road and leaned back against it, resting his head against the coolness of the dark wood.

Gathering his thoughts together, he ignored the noises his stomach was making and stepped down into the sitting room. Flopping down onto the sofa he picked up the phone and started dialling. Sam was everything to him and he was more than a little concerned about her state of mind, but right now he had something more pressing to attend to and it couldn't wait.

This old man, he played five,

He played nick-nack with my wife,

With a nick-nack paddy whack,

Give the dog a bone...

TBC