Ch 25
Sam looked up and saw her daughter leaning over her, messy blonde tangly waves hanging on either side of her face, down into Sam's. Confused, her head killing her, Sam barely had time to smile and just begin to appreciate the feeling of intense relief that flooded through her at the sight of her daughter, right in front of her, before Jordan had scooted out of view. Sam tried to sit up so she could still see her, but Jordan was holding her down with a hand on her chest.
Another little hand pressed to her abdomen and Jack, sounding very far away even though Sam knew that he was right there, demanded, "What's she doing now?"
The glow started again. Sam wanted to demand answers from all the people around her but couldn't quite muster the energy to speak yet. In fact, she was beginning to fear that maybe she wasn't even awake. Maybe this was all a dream…
xxxxx
Jack watched in stunned silence as his daughter continued to… to heal her mother. There couldn't be any other word for it. Sam had either been critically injured or worse – and it was almost certainly worse, and Jordan had healed her. Sam was clearly breathing now, and struggling to keep her eyes open, blinking heavily.
"Jordan possesses the healing power of the Ancients," Teal'c said quietly, from somewhere above Jack, who was still crouched on the ground next to his wife and daughter.
Jordan had been still, a hand on Sam's heart and stomach, for over a minute, so when she moved, none of them were expecting it. The glow between her hands and Sam's body cut out abruptly and Jordan, pale, slumped over across Sam's legs, unconscious.
"No!" Jack pulled her to him quickly, cradling her in his lap with one arm and brushing her hair back from her face while trying to get his fingers to her neck. She had a pulse, but barely.
Sam, next to him, had somehow managed to sit up. She grabbed his arm fiercely for support, trying to see Jordan. "What happened? What did she do… oh no. She… She didn't." She slumped into him, unconscious.
Teal'c and Daniel were there immediately, extra hands and arms to help support them all.
"Why would she… if she couldn't, why would she?" Jack asked Daniel, confused.
"I don't know," Daniel said quietly. "Maybe she didn't know how much it would take out of her to do."
"They are both alive, O'Neill," Teal'c said gently, a large hand settling warmly on Jack's shoulder. "Take solace in that. Thor will arrive soon. He will remove the database from Jordan's mind, and he and Dr. Fraiser will restore their health."
Jack nodded. Teal'c was right. Teal'c had to be right. Teal'c was always right. He was Teal'c, for cryin' out loud!
Right on cue, it seemed, the Asgard communication device glowed and Thor's voice said, "Dr. Jackson, are you all outside the complex?"
"Yes, that's us, Thor. Get us up there, and tell Jacob to get Janet on your ship as fast as possible too. Sam and Jordan need medical attention."
"I will do as you say," Thor said.
Teal'c stood up, picking up Sam gently as he did, taking the decision of whom to carry away from Jack, who seemed to be so torn that he was stuck in one place, immobile. Once Teal'c had taken Sam, Jack followed suit and got to his feet with Jordan cradled in his arms. Nobody said anything while they waited for Thor; there was nothing to say.
A minute that seemed like thirty passed before they were beamed up by Thor.
As they rematerialized on the bridge of Thor's ship, he was already leaving his console to meet them. "I have the device ready which will cleanse Jordan's mind of the ancient knowledge," he said, leading them over to a tubular device that looked like some sort of Asgard tanning bed. He stopped halfway towards them, looking as upset as any Asgard could ever manage to look. "What has happened to Colonel Carter?"
"That's the thing," Daniel said. "She got shot twice. I'm not sure if she was technically dead, but if she wasn't she was close. Jordan… used the Ancient knowledge to heal her. Sam woke up briefly but then passed out once she realized what Jordan had done."
"She used the healing power? Her body is then likely too weak to remove the knowledge now. That process requires significant energy to undergo under the best of circumstances. Place her here. I will do what I can with the materials available until Dr. Fraiser arrives. Her knowledge of your physiology is superior to my own."
Jack put Jordan down reluctantly, feeling her forehead. She was clammy. Thor started running some hand held scanner thing over her. Daniel was hurriedly bringing out one of the cots they'd used on the journey there, from the nearest quarters, knowing they would all want Sam and Jordan in the same area so they could see them both at the same time. He put the bed next to the open pod Jordan was lying in. When it was in place, Teal'c carefully placed her down.
"She is very weak," Thor reported. "And yet her brain continues to operate at levels far beyond your normal human capacity."
"What about Sam?" Jack asked.
Thor moved between the makeshift beds and scanned her as well. "Her pulse is strong. Her systems seem to be fighting to rapidly return to a state of equilibrium. I believe she will recover quickly."
Half-relieved, Jack surveyed everyone in the room, his eyes settling on Jormungand. "He did all of this," he said quietly.
"Yeah, Thor, do you have a place we can secure him where we don't have to… see him?" Daniel asked pointedly.
"I will secure him far from your quarters and deal with him later," Thor promised quickly, leading Jormungand away.
"I bet that's why he left the kitten," Daniel murmured thoughtfully to himself. Seeing Jack and Teal'c looking at him, Daniel said, "Um, I just meant… it could have been his contingency plan. Depending on the Asgard's laws with regard to prisoner treatment… maybe he figured if his plan with Jordan didn't work and he didn't learn how to ascend, he should cut his losses and turn himself in and hope the Asgard will be compelled to try to preserve his life for him."
"Can we talk about this later, Daniel?" Jack asked quietly.
Daniel nodded and then asked, "Is there… anything you want us to do?"
Jack shook his head no, but then said, "See where the doc is."
Teal'c immediately went over to the console and hailed Jacob's cargo ship. "Jacob Carter, what is your status?"
"Teal'c! I was just about to call – we're ready for Thor to let us in."
"Thor is busy. I will let you in." Teal'c deftly moved the sliding controls to allow the cargo ship into the hangar and watched on the display screen as Jacob maneuvered the cargo ship inside. "Dr. Fraiser, we need you in the bridge as fast as possible," Teal'c said. The quiet calmness of his voice was totally unnerving to everyone who heard him, because it was so clearly forced.
"I'll be there," Janet promised over the intercom. Sure enough, on the display Teal'c could clearly see her run out of the cargo ship the second the doors opened, emergency pack of supplied slung over one shoulder. Jacob followed a few paces behind, carrying more equipment.
"They are coming," Teal'c promised, returning to Jordan's side.
Janet and Jacob hurried into the room two minutes later, out of breath. In between gasps, Janet asked, "What happened?"
While Daniel filled her in, she started checking Jordan's vitals, forcing herself to stay in doctor-only mode.
"… and Thor says he can't take the Ancient knowledge out of her head until she's doing better," Daniel finished, wincing as Fraiser inserted an IV line into the back of Jordan's tiny hand. She handed the bag to Teal'c to hold while Jacob set up the collapsible pole to support it, and started unpacking the heart monitor.
Within five minutes they had Jordan hooked up to an IV of essential fluids and electrolytes, and were monitoring her heart and brain activity.
"These readings are more extreme than we've ever seen," Janet said, frowning as she looked at the image of Jordan's brain on the little screen display. "Way worse than yours, General. Cassie's too. Thor needs to be prepared to get that stuff out of her head the second she's strong enough."
"Maybe I can speed things along," Jacob said, pulling out a Goa'uld healing device from his bag.
Janet, notoriously skeptical about the devices, nodded and moved to check on Sam, leaving Jacob to the task of healing Jordan. She quickly hooked Sam up to another heart monitor and checked all of her vitals. "She's unbelievably well, considering the circumstances," she concluded in amazement. "In fact, she should be…"
"Jordan!" Sam said suddenly, startling them all as she jerked awake. She looked around, quickly taking everything in. "Everything was black, and then… is she going to be okay, Dad?" she asked helplessly.
"I think so," Jacob said tersely, too focused on his task to answer more thoroughly.
Sam insisted on sitting up, turning to face Jordan. She buried her face in her hands, waving away Janet's attempt to take a blood sample, and said, "She shouldn't have done it."
"She seemed fine at first," Jack said, confused. "Then she did the second thing and it looked like it just sapped her of all her energy. I get the head and the heart but what was she doing to her stomach?" he demanded.
Daniel and Janet gaped at him, while Sam and Jack stared back at them in equal confusion.
Teal'c was the one who finally broke the stale mate. "I believe Jordan O'Neill was bravely attempting to save her young sibling."
Sam and Jack looked, if possible, even more surprised. "Her what?" Jack finally croaked, then looked at Sam with a combination of amazement and "you'd better have a good reason for not cluing me in."
"Don't look at me!" Sam exclaimed, seeing everyone looking at her. "I'm not… wait a second. I'm pregnant?"
"You didn't know?" Daniel and Janet demanded at once.
"No! Of course I didn't know!"
As the past events all fell into place under this new light of information, Daniel's dawning look of recognition drew Sam's attention. "Wait. You all knew? How did you know and I didn't?"
As Janet and Daniel explained the conversation they'd overheard, the test results, Jordan asking Janet all about babies, and their ensuing attempts to surreptitiously help Sam, they all realized where the misunderstandings had happened.
"Wait. I get how you knew, Doc, you had the test from when she passed out. But how did Jo know?" Jack finally asked.
At this, nobody had an answer.
They turned their attention back to Jordan, Sam trying hard not to think too much about the revelation, since even though she had apparently been pregnant, there was no guarantee that after all she'd just been through, she still was. She barely noticed when Janet hooked her up to another machine until Janet was guiding her back into a lying position and put cold goop on her stomach for a sonogram.
Jacob had stopped and put down the healing device, feeling his granddaughter's forehead gently. "That's as much as I can do for her without getting dangerous, but it did help. I think."
At the pronouncement, Jordan's eyes fluttered open. She looked around and focused immediately on Sam and asked, "Es concerus sollicitudus?"
Daniel's eyes widened. "Concerus?" he repeated. "As in… concero?" Jordan just looked at him steadily, not blinking. "She ah… she wants to know if the twins are okay," he explained.
"Twins?" Sam and Jack asked at the same time.
Now moving at double speed, Janet switched on the machine and started running the wand over Sam's stomach. After a few moments of moving it around and looking at the screen, she said, "I don't believe it. She's right. There they are." She switched up the volume on the machine and two very rapid, echoey heartbeats beating just slightly out of sync filled the room. "And as far as I can tell from this, they look just fine." She smiled encouragingly at Sam, who looked suddenly terrified.
"I shouldn't have been… I didn't know. I wouldn't have put them in so much danger if I had known," she said sadly, eyes filling with tears.
Jack sat down on the edge of her bed and pulled her into a comforting hug. "We know. We know you wouldn't have. And it's okay, because they're all right. Everyone's going to be all right."
Jordan was misinterpreting her mother's sadness. Getting worried, she started struggling to sit up. Daniel, guessing what was wrong, put a hand on her shoulder gently and made her lay back down. He murmured quietly, "Liberi es sanus… Vos erant mirus… Sileo iam. Permissum… nos tego… texi tectum tutela vestrum."
Jordan let out a deep breath in relief and relaxed, laying back down and letting her eyes drift closed again.
"What did you tell her?" Janet asked.
"That the babies were okay. That she did a wonderful job. That she could rest, and let us take care of her now," he answered quietly, tucking Jordan's hair back behind her ears for her. He'd seen her do it at least a thousand times.
"Daniel, in my pack," Sam said suddenly, insistently, lifting her head from Jack's shoulders and wiping her eyes.
Daniel obediently fetched the pack and looked inside. It was immediately obvious what she wanted. He pulled out Jordan's Homer Simpson doll and tucked it next to the little girl's side.
"Thanks," Sam said. She sighed in relief and then shook her head. "It's not fair. I feel just fine now. A little tired, maybe, but… I feel really, really good. And look at her. This isn't right."
"She knew she could help," Jack said, although he too was struggling to balance out his feelings. He was beyond relieved that Sam was okay, thrilled about the surprising news of not one but two babies, and happy beyond belief that they had found Jordan. But seeing his daughter struggling so hard in those brief moments when she'd woken, seeing how much it had cost her to focus enough to ask after the babies she'd risked so much to save… remembering no details of his own experience beyond the unbelievable frustration and effort involved in it… it just about broke his heart.
After a few moments when everyone just watched Jordan sleeping, with the exception of Janet who was putting away some of the equipment she'd used on Sam, Thor came back. "Jormungand has told me everything and expressed his accepted the terms of his future punishment, whatever they may be. Colonel Carter!"
"Hi Thor," she said.
"You are much improved. I am pleased. I was concerned."
"Thank you. Janet says I'm fine and so are the babies," she said, saying it out loud for herself the first time.
That caused Thor to pause. "Babies?"
"Yeah, join the club. We didn't know about them either," Jack said. "Well, some of us didn't," he clarified, casting meaningful scowls at Daniel, Teal'c, and Janet.
"We thought you knew," Daniel said feebly.
"Jordan used the healing power of the Ancients to save yourself and… more than one offspring?" Thor asked.
"Two… and don't call them offspring," Jack said, rolling his eyes as he remembered some of the more impersonal terms Thor had used for Jordan.
"That explains her exhaustion," Thor said to himself, approaching Jordan and scanning her again with his device.
"I did what I could with the healing device," Jacob said.
"And those fluids will help her too, it just takes time," Janet added.
Thor nodded. "She is much improved as well." He looked at Janet's display of Jordan's brain and his eyes widened. "Are those her current levels?"
"Yes."
"Then we must not wait. Delaying further will most certainly either result in her death… or possibly in ascension, if Daniel Jackson and Jormungand are correct."
"Is she strong enough?" Sam asked.
"I believe so. Dr. Fraiser, I will need you to remove your device for the time being."
Janet nodded and removed the IV and all the monitoring devices from Jordan. Thor then picked up the Homer doll, holding it up at eye level by one plush arm, regarding it curiously for a few moments, before Daniel muttered that he would hang onto it and took it from him. Thor turned his attention back to the controls on the pod and, after programming it properly, activated it. the clear top slid shut, sealing her inside.
They all watched, even though they couldn't see anything happening. After a few moments, Janet asked, "How long…"
"It is almost finished," Thor said.
xxxxx