Author's note: Again, thank you all for reading, following and reviewing!
Beyond Reason
Chapter Thirty-Seven – Missing
Daniel had barely reached his office when he heard the phone ring. Swiping his keycard through the door's operating panel, he hurried in from the hallway. He dropped the files he balanced in his arms on his overflowing desk and then grabbed the phone's handle.
"Doctor Jackson," he announced himself while carefully putting down his coffee mug, all the while trying to not spill something on the important documents littering his desk.
"Doctor Jackson! Finally! I–" a voice began ranting from the other end of the line.
Daniel didn't even wait for the man to get started. The moment he recognized the voice of the lovely Senator Kinsey, he hung up. By now the man was calling him about once a day trying to get information from him but Daniel was in no mood anymore to try and be diplomatic with the politician. Slightly irritated Daniel wished for the first time in his life that he was military as well because then he could hide behind standing orders as all others were doing. Kinsey had only bothered the Colonels Reynolds and Dixon a few times, but upon understanding that neither Colonel would act against General Hammond's orders to not give anything away about the search for Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter to anyone not in need-to-know, the Senator had given up on them, resulting to pestering Daniel instead. Daniel knew that the NID was still investigating the incident because Jack and Sam deserting was putting the SGC and consequently Earth into a certain danger. The Pentagon had even ordered Dr. McKay back from Russia to rework all security systems Sam had installed to ensure neither she nor Jack could access the SGC from the outside ever again. And while the good Doctor McKay had boasted about how he would exactly be the right man for that job, Daniel could already see him struggle. He knew McKay was smart enough to get the job done eventually but it certainly wouldn't be as easy as he had thought it to be. Sam had done a thorough job and since she had practically built half of the SGC's systems on her own, it was a whole lot of work to redo it. Jack could be blocked from the systems rather easily in comparison, but getting Sam out of the loop when she was the one who had constructed and optimized all systems? Not that easy of a task.
Daniel shot a quick gaze at the calendar hanging on one of his office's walls. A pencil-drawn circle marked the day Sam and Jack had vanished from his life. With an empty gaze Daniel counted the days, as if this wouldn't be the first thing he did every morning.
21 days.
They had hit three weeks. Three weeks since his friends had deserted, fled to not be seen again. The days after their disappearance had been frantic to say the least. The Pentagon and the NID had almost fallen into a panic. The two officers who knew the most about the Stargate Program and all operations connected to it and were in possession of unknown, uninvestigated but all the more strong powers had deserted. Of course they had felt endangered and tried to take all measures possible and necessary to prevent these officers from posing a threat to Earth, which essentially meant completely locking them out of all systems. And it wasn't only limited to Jack and Sam. To be on the safe side, all of SG-1's identification codes had gotten blocked from the systems, leaving Daniel and Teal'c chained to the base for days.
The NID with Agent Barrett in lead of all investigations had set up camp permanently within Cheyenne Mountain, doing their best to annoy the hell out of General Hammond with their rather fruitless investigations. No one, literally no one of the SGC, had an idea where Jack and Sam could have gone. Even Teal'c and Daniel were completely clueless. Nobody had even suspected the Colonel to do this rather rash move. Jack and Sam were known for being almost overly dutiful and trustworthy officers, so to almost all personnel it came as a shock to learn that they had disappeared. Only those who really knew what they had gone through could sympathize.
Still nobody knew anything, even if the NID didn't seem inclined to believe that. Instead they had pestered Daniel for days and days on end. They had pretty much given up on Teal'c when it became apparent that the Jaffa wouldn't talk so they had tried their luck with Daniel instead. In fact it had gotten so annoying Teal'c had taken to accompany Daniel almost everywhere as a living shield to the NID agents.
The NID had also tried to get Daniel and Teal'c off the roster of personnel going off-world, arguing that they could try and help their former teammates but General Hammond had overruled every single one of these attempts. Daniel and Teal'c were all he had left of his flagship team and their unrivaled experience was irreplaceable. Daniel knew that it had been a few days of heated arguments with quite a few meetings and discussions ending in screaming matches between NID agents and a few SGC Colonels and Majors. Daniel and Teal'c were denied the possibility to attend these meetings because they weren't military, but whenever one of the meetings ended Daniel found Sergeant Harriman needing him for some urgent task and always, unfailingly, the Sergeant who served as a recorder to these meetings would coincidentally let a few details slip, updating Daniel on all events.
Initially the NID had tried to get Daniel and Teal'c transferred off the frontlines but so far General Hammond had downright refused and the Pentagon was with him. The fact that Daniel and Teal'c were non-military ensured that both could threaten with leaving the Stargate Program altogether should the NID get through with their demands. Neither Daniel nor Teal'c were inclined to work for the Air Force or even the US government should they get transferred away from the SGC. In fact Daniel was ready to chain himself to the base if necessary because there was simply no way for him to go. Not when there was still the possibility that one of the Search Teams the NID and the Pentagon still insisted on could accidentally stumble upon Jack and Sam somewhere.
Finally Colonel Reynolds had taken matters concerning Daniel and Teal'c into his hands and had assigned the remaining half of SG-1 to his own team, SG-3. With the emergency situation the SGC found itself in right now, the Colonel, who was 2IC to the base now with Jack gone, couldn't really leave the base and thus had given command over SG-3 temporarily over to Major Castleman. Still, seeing Daniel's and Teal'c's state of uncertainty and knowing of their invaluable knowledge firsthand made Reynolds reassign both men to his team; a brilliant strategic decision that also had the advantage that Reynolds could get them off-world whenever the situation turned dire to give General Hammond the needed time to work through the situation. And Daniel was thankful for that. He had not given up on his mission to free Sam and Jack of all the accusations tarnishing their reputation. The archaeologist was still determined to clear the way for them so that they could someday return to Earth and the SGC.
But to be able to do that, Daniel needed to wait for the right time. He had to wait until all tempers had cooled down noticeably and anyone would be willing to listen to him in the first place. But if anything, then Daniel was patient. He would wait for the right opportunity however long that would take. He just had to assure he wasn't losing his connection to the Stargate Program and all those responsible for it.
Astonishingly, quite a few people within the SGC seemed willing to help Daniel and Teal'c. They found themselves confronted with quite a bit of openly or secretly shown sympathy after Jack's and Sam's disappearance. Whether it was the kitchen personnel giving the pieces of cake or Jell-O usually reserved for Jack and Sam to Daniel's or Teal'c's share or Harriman updating them on all progress; whether it was Major Ferretti, Colonel Barnes of SG-6 or Major Harper of SG-5 who were in charge of the ongoing search for the deserted officers reporting to Daniel and Teal'c what they had found – or rather not found – or whether it were the SGC's scientists who were working almost suspiciously slow on anything the NID found pressing out of loyalty to their former team leader, Major Carter. Also nobody seemed to have much to say to all the questions the NID was posing and apparently nobody had noticed anything amiss about the officers at all. At first Daniel had been surprised but he quickly realized that he and Teal'c weren't the only ones to miss their friends. Sam had many friends and admirers throughout the whole base, having stable connections to most military personnel as well as the scientists, and Jack had been the much-respected 2IC of the base. Quite a few people here were hoping, just as much as Daniel himself, that sometime they would return and take over their rightful places again. Which was also why once again the SGC simply refused to rebuild SG-1. No officer however much decorated or experienced was willing to take on the SG-1 badge and so General Hammond had no other choice but to disband SG-1 for the time being. Maybe he would get back to create a whole new team but right now the Major General had really more pressing problems. The SGC was honestly struggling to get back to everyday life. With Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill gone, they had lost two of their most experienced frontline fighters and this was seriously endangering the SGC's operations. Apart from the fact that Jacob Carter had almost gone berserk upon learning that the SGC had 'lost' his daughter, the Tok'ra were seriously considering breaking off their alliance with Earth, fearing the repercussions the disappearance of Jack and Sam could have on them. After the pretty much devastating reaction from the usually peaceful and rational race, the Pentagon had installed standing orders to not inform the Asgard of anything concerning Jack's and Sam's disappearance. It was well known that only Jack's good connections to Thor and the fact that Sam had helped the Asgard out of tight spots a few times was what ensured Earth's ongoing alliance with the highly developed race. Apparently the Pentagon feared the Asgard would break off all connections with them should they learn of the two officers' vanishing – and inwardly, Daniel believed them to be right on this one.
Again, Daniel's phone rang and again, the archaeologist ignored it, knowing fully well that it was just Kinsey again, trying to needle any information out of him. SG-5 had just returned from another search mission, once more unsuccessfully, and Kinsey probably wanted to get updated as fast as possible, unable to wait for the official reports. Daniel really had no idea what Jack had actually done to get under the other man's skin that much but the good Senator, normally known to be the first one to hold high the unreasonably high costs such search missions would cause, was now the one pressing the recapture of the two officers gone AWOL the most.
Still, Daniel thought it to be a mission determined to fail. If Jack didn't want to be found then no one within the SGC would find him. Off-world the ex-black ops Colonel had almost unlimited possibilities and Daniel was pretty sure that even if one of the search teams would accidentally stumble upon the right planet, Jack could still escape right under their noses without them ever knowing. The only one who would have any chance at finding Jack would probably be Teal'c but even the NID was smart enough to not even ask the Jaffa, knowing beforehand where the warrior's loyalty lay.
So in Daniel's opinion Jack was lost to the SGC for the time being. And he would stay so as long as the Colonel deemed it necessary, which could as well be forever. And surely Sam would be with him. Daniel couldn't imagine them having split up, even if that was a possibility the NID was considering. Anyone who knew the Colonel and the Major would bet anything that they would stay together. Which also did a great deal in reassuring Daniel that they were fine. There was no better team than Jack and Sam. Together they got out of every tight spot so Daniel was sure they were doing fine.
But as much as he was aware they were fine and this had been the only possibility his friends had seen to ensure their freedom, Daniel missed them like crazy. The SGC was just not the same without the other half of his team. Going off-world with SG-3 was the best compromise he could have hoped for but it was still far from going on missions with Sam and Jack. Teal'c guarded Daniel like a shadow, overly protective of him now that Jack and Sam were gone, but still Daniel missed the way it had been before this whole mess. There was simply nothing like annoying Jack O'Neill with his technobabble or having lunch with the Colonel, teasing him over his well-known preference of cake as Jack would comment on Daniel's fondness of waffles. And there was simply nothing like talking shop with Sam. Nobody understood him as well as the Major did and Daniel missed the closeness between them. Sam was like a sister to him. And Jack had actually been something of a brother. In fact SG-1 was a so close-knit unit they were more like a family; a family that had now been ripped apart.
Daniel shot another glance at the calendar on his wall. How much longer, he mused silently. How much longer would he have to go on like this? A week? A month? A year? Ten years? Would Jack and Sam even return at all? How would they even know they could return if they had no possibility of contacting them at all? Even if Daniel succeeded in getting the brass to allow them access to Earth ever again they wouldn't even know, would they?
Again, the unwelcome thought crossed Daniel's mind that maybe Jack and Sam had fled with the certain conviction that they would never return.
Something within the archaeologist constricted painfully and the irrational urge to throw something across the room tugged at him. Was this how it was supposed to end? Jack and Sam gone and he and Teal'c left back? That just felt so wrong! Daniel didn't want to never see his friends again! He'd rather quit the SGC and go to wherever they were! Daniel had no fondness whatsoever of the Air Force to begin with, so his willingness to leave Abydos and work at the SGC had foremost been because of Sha're's loss and Jack's presence. When Sha're had died by Teal'c's hands Daniel had been about to quit and then it had been Jack bringing him back. The connection to the older man he considered his best friend, as well as his grown love for Sam, his sister in heart, and lastly, the good friend he had in Teal'c had been the things that had made Daniel continue at the SGC, even though he often had to struggle with the military ways. With Jack and Sam gone? There wasn't much that was keeping Daniel. So why not go off-world with Teal'c, search Jack and Sam and stay with them? They could continue their journeys off-world without the SGC as well…
The thought was actually intriguing but Daniel wasn't ready to give up yet. Maybe he could still change the situation on Earth and allow Jack and Sam to come back. After all they also had family and friends here to whom they certainly would want to return if they had the possibility. So Daniel was prepared to fight it out and if he failed then he could still consider how he wanted to continue. Until then it wouldn't hurt to see how the search teams would fare. Maybe they could rule out a few planets for Daniel because the archaeologist had as much knowledge about Jack's and Sam's whereabouts as all others present at the SGC: none.
Determined, Daniel turned, intending to return to the control room to have a little chat with Major Harper about their latest search. He wouldn't just give up. He was just getting started, after all.
A/N: I know it's a rather short chapter but I'm working out a few rough edges of the next chapters, which will all be Sam-Jack-centered and important so I want them to be good. Also I wanted to show what's happening to the SGC and SG-1 after Jack's and Sam's disappearance.