"How was the appointment?" Cassandra asked, looking over at Grace as she walked in the door, followed by her mother.
"Fine." Grace said, cryptically. "I'm tired."
Sam just nodded, wearily as Grace headed down the hallway to her bedroom.
"Sam?" Cassandra asked, studying the retired General.
"I'm fine," she said, shrugging off the physician's fears. "Really. Just...ready for this to be over."
"Aren't we all?" Cassandra murmured as she pressed a hand to the side of her belly with a grimace.
"Something wrong?" Sam asked with a keen eye.
"No," she said, shaking her head. "One of the twins has decided that they want to kick their way out of here."
Sam grinned, tiredly.
"You wanna feel?" She asked, reaching for the other woman's hand.
"Sure."
"All right, you two," Cassandra said, looking at her belly. "This is Grandma, so...behave, will you?"
Sam smiled as she felt the distinct outline of a foot. "Well, hello, there," Sam said with a gentle smile. "You give your mama a break, will ya? She's a great woman, and she's doing everything she can to get you here, but you have to be patient, okay?"
There was a violent kick, which caused Cassandra to gasp softly and Sam to chuckle to herself. "Now, now...be nice."
Cassandra took a moment to recover as Sam pulled away and walked over to get herself a cup of coffee. "Sam, you should let me take a look at you."
"Why?" She asked, nonchalantly.
"Because of Grace's vision."
"You mean that one day, I'll die...just like every other human being on the planet?" Sam asked, looking back at the younger woman with a caustic expression.
"You know what I mean," Cassandra said with a sigh as she sat at the table.
Sam turned to face her. "I'm fine. Tired because I haven't slept often enough, and tired of waiting for something bad to happen." She swallowed. "Until I find that it's more than that, I'll keep living my life, okay?"
Cassandra bit the inside of her cheek.
Sam walked over, a mug of steaming hot coffee in one hand. She sat easily at the table beside Cassandra and put her hand on the younger woman's hand. "If there's one thing that I've learned over the years, it's that there's a balance in the world. Something bad happens in one part of the world while something good happens in another. A life is taken at the same moment that a life is created. Someone is saved while someone else is lost." She swallowed. "Emptiness is filled, the hopeless receive hope, darkness turns to light."
She looked up at Cassandra to see the moisture pooling in the corners of her eyes. Instantly, she thought of the trade that had occurred on that fateful day on '666. The injured airman they'd tried to rescue had been saved. Jack's life had nearly been forfeited after noticing a stealthy Jaffa. That Jaffa had shot Janet, and taken her life. One way or another, it seemed, someone had to die that day.
And to this day, Samantha Carter could not have chosen which of those three people she would have sacrificed. The injured airman? No – that had been the point of the rescue. Jack? Of course not – if he'd died then, she wouldn't have her two beautiful kids or Charlie and Cassandra and their coming children. Janet? Never – her death still haunted all of the members of SG-1, not to mention Cassandra.
Sam blinked away her own tears. "I've lived a good life," she whispered. "And as long as I live to see my children grow into happy, well-adjusted adults, I'll count myself blessed."
Cassandra wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand before she stood with a soft "Excuse me..."
"There's a phone call for you, General."
Jack accepted the phone from his assistant and put it to his ear. "O'Neill."
"General."
"Reynolds. I'm retired. Call me Jack."
"Sorry, sir. Old habits die hard."
"So they tell me," Jack said, easily. "Talk to me."
"There are a few ways to achieve your goal," he said, no doubt certain that this was an unsecured phone line. "But I think the easiest would be to use the George Hammond."
"Nice!"
"We can lock onto your tracking beacon and do it remotely."
"I still have one of those?"
"Yes, sir."
"Creepy..."
"Don't worry, sir, we haven't..."
"No, I know." He said, shaking his head. "Do what you've got to do. I'm headed in now."
"Good luck."
"Thanks." Jack put the phone in his pocket before he stepped into the interrogation room.
"General O'Neill," the woman said, looking up in surprise.
"Agent Bauer."
"I didn't expect to see you here," she said, recovering from her surprise. "I thought you'd be at home with your wife and kids."
"I would be...if someone hadn't killed a friend of mine."
"I was sorry to hear about Kerry." She said, casually, as if she was speaking about him being unable to sell a worthless car.
"I can see you're really broken up about it."
"I didn't know her very well," she defended. "And I'm a little frustrated that I was pulled in for questioning by an Air Force general who doesn't think that my team could do a good enough job of protecting his family."
Jack ignored her verbal attack. "Where were you last night around eleven pm?"
"At home."
"Can anyone verify where you were?"
"Doorman saw me come in at seven, and I didn't leave until five-thirty this morning."
"Anyone inside your apartment?"
"If I'd known that I would need an alibi, I would have made sure there was someone there," she said, dryly.
"How long have you been working with Malcolm Barrett?"
"A couple years now." She said, shrugging. "I think we started working together in, uh, '05 on the in-house cleanup of the Trust and rogue agents in the NID."
"Funny," Jack said, eying her closely. "Because there's no record of you working on that in-house cleanup."
"Are you accusing me of something, General?" She asked, looking over at him.
"Let me tell you what I think happened." Jack said, leaning forward. "You asked Kerry for files pertaining to her part of the investigation into the Trust at large. She gave you copies in the interest of interdepartmental cooperation. You arranged for the originals to be...misplaced..."
"Why would I do that?"
"I don't know." He said, leaning in. "That's what you're here to tell me."
"This is ridiculous." She said, rolling her eyes. "You don't have enough to hold me."
"I'm pretty sure you want to answer my questions." Jack said, his eyes hard.
"Oh?" She asked, skeptically.
He circled around so that he was beside her, and he leaned close to her so that his whisper could be heard by only her. "I trust you've read my file," he murmured, easily. "And if I find out that you're involved in some plot against my family, even the worst things I did in Black Ops will sound like a picnic."
"Making threats to someone you're interrogating isn't a smart move," she said, not even reacting to the General's words.
"Was I making threats?" He asked, facetiously. "I meant to make promises."
She looked unimpressed, and Jack looked over at the two-way mirror. "Okay, T, she's all yours." He said with a shrug.
"You look like hell." Daniel said as Sam walked into the dining room to hear about his progress.
"It's a wonder I don't have you on speed dial so you can cheer me up on my bad days," Sam murmured, wryly. "What've you got?"
"I'm not sure," Daniel sighed as he reached for one of the files. He rifled through the pages before he handed it to her. "Look at that."
Sam pulled on her reading glasses and read the paragraph he'd pointed out before her brow furrowed. "They found evidence of the Trust at Area 51?"
"It's not terribly surprising," Daniel admitted. "I mean, we've had some technological leaks before, but what's interesting is the department that they found the corruption in."
"Genetics and biochemistry." She said, reading the file again. She looked up. "Genetics and biochemistry?"
He nodded.
"For what purpose?"
"Well, that's what I was wondering when I came across this." He said, handing her another file with a picture of the Ancient woman they'd unearthed during the year that Daniel had been ascended, and Jonas had been on the team and a picture of Khalek, Anubis's highly advanced genetic experiment.
"You think they're studying Ancient physiology." Sam said, studying her friend.
"I think they're doing more than that," Daniel said, soberly.
"I'm sorry, I'm not sure I'm following," Sam said, closing the files.
"What the file said is that there are samples of Ariana and Khalek's DNA missing from the lab. Along with all of the research you confiscated from Nirrti when she was killed."
"Anubis and Nirrti were both researching basically the same thing – a genetically advanced human. A hok'tar."
"And Ariana was an Ancient." Daniel finished. "Complete with healing and rejuvenation powers."
"But she was also a victim of a plague," Sam interrupted. "I mean, we all got it. Jack got a Tok'ra because there was no cure except Ariana."
"I know. And Ariana died, and her body was burned."
"But..." Sam prodded.
"The missing samples were from the research done in Antarctica. Before she was thawed. Somehow, they were forgotten in the race to find a cure."
"And consequently misplaced." Sam said with a sigh.
"Sam, I don't have to tell you that this research into genetic manipulation alone is enough to put you and Jack in harm's way."
She nodded. "I agree, but not for the same reasons you think."
"What do you think I think?" He asked, his brow furrowed.
"That they'd want to test the viability of the genetic changes with the protein markers left in a host's body after absorbing a dead symbiote." She said, clinically. "Or that they'd want to see how naquadah in the blood might affect the ease of manipulation."
"Well, I wasn't..." Daniel murmured. "Uh...yeah, that would be a good reason, I guess."
"What were you thinking?"
"Probably what you were thinking I wasn't thinking," Daniel said, soberly.
"Grace and Jacob are the keys to creating the perfect hok'tar." Sam said, grimly.
"Yeah." He said, solemnly.
"Do you have any idea who's funding the research?"
Daniel shook his head. "Barrett had a few thoughts, but each of the leads seemed to die before he even got more than a few steps down the path."
"Die as in..."
"They weren't viable." Daniel quickly rephrased.
Sam nodded, slowly. "Did he investigate an Agent Cynthia Bauer?"
Daniel's brow furrowed as he quickly read through one of the open files on the table. "Uh...no..." His eyes widened. "In fact, she's the one who usually presented the fatal flaw in his arguments about the other leads." Daniel's eyes widened. "And here's something interesting. Bauer's brother was on SG-16. He died about three weeks into his assignment."
"Do I want to guess how?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Captured and tortured by Anubis."
"I'm calling Jack." Sam said, instantly.
"I know what you're trying to do." Bauer said, studying the intimidatingly large and sober dark-colored man across from her.
Silence was her only response.
"I have a lot more years in interrogation rooms than you do. You can't break me."
Teal'c raised an eyebrow in her direction.
Jack reappeared in the room. "T, can I have a word with you?"
Teal'c nodded, standing instantly.
As the men left, a green light penetrated the room as if it was scanning the room for signs of life. Bauer looked around, instantly on alert.
"That was Sam," Jack said from where he and his Jaffa friend watched Bauer's increasing paranoia through the two-way mirror. "Apparently, Bauer's in on it. Whether or not she's the puppet or the master is another question." He looked over at the woman in the room. "But that reaction leads me to believe that she's the puppet. Now, I've had Reynolds use that...scanner thing...that the Lucian alliance used on SG-1 before all of those assassination attempts a few years ago. As far as I understand, she'll emit some discernible energy signature or something...but it's traceable. I want you to follow her. She's going to lead us to the people behind this."
Teal'c nodded.
"I think we should let her go, don't you?" Jack asked, turning to his friend as they both watched the woman squirm in her seat.