Grace
by Aria
Chapter Thirty - Eight
Rating: Same as the show.
Disclaimer: I don't own them; if I did then I would be a hell of a lot richer. No one's paying me to write this, so I'm not making any profit from writing it. I'm just killing time.
Spoilers: In the line of duty, Divide and Conquer, Beneath the Surface, Point of No Return, Tangent, Serpent's Venom, Grace, The Other Guys, Heroes.
Synopsis: Grace arrives through the Stargate, and it's not just Sam that can see her. Set a couple of months after Heroes, and Lost City.
Just in case you still haven't noticed - even chapters tell one reality, odds another.
Also, geez - sorry guys, this story has been plodding on for nearly a year. Promise my next one won't be quite so prolific! It's already in my head, but I'm sitting some major postgrad exams soon, so will take a back burner til March!
-*-*-
Jack glanced down at his weapon. A modulating ray gun that Sam and Jacob had been working on for the last few months. It was nearly finished - the nearly part being the power cell. She'd jury rigged some small Naquadah reactors into the weapon when the first ground troops had been spotted on Earth - a few days ago now - but the whole thing weighed three or four times it's intended weight. They weren't long lasting either. Jack had managed twenty or so shots from this one before they'd gotten through the Earth gate, he guessed Daniel's was significantly more depleted, given he wasn't such a good shot.
He looked across at T and then over at Daniel. Grim determination played on both their faces in the dim moonlight.
Behind Daniel, standing on the floor in front of Janet, was his daughter. They'd managed to coo her to sleep for a few hours in the daylight, but the four year old swayed gently in the cool night air. Her white sundress was muddy and her hair a mess. Darkness meant bedtime to Grace, she'd never been one for monsters.
Jack sent a silent prayer that his daughter made it through this with only nightmares.
"O'Neill," Teal'C hailed for his attention.
Jack glanced into the valley below, in the direction of Teal'C's gaze.
"I believe there is a five minute interval when only two Cold warriors are taking watch in this direction. If we are able to incapacitate them, this will be enough time for Dr Fraiser and the little one to make it to the entrance at a run."
"You think Grace can make that running?" Jack O'Neill did not doubt Teal'C.
"She is fast O'Neill. I believe she may be faster than Dr Fraiser may be if she is carried."
Jack glanced over at Dr Fraiser. "What about you?" He questioned Teal'C.
Jack's own knees would hold out if needed. For his daughter his body could do anything.
"We may return for the little one and still make ample time, O'Neill." Jack nodded and they crawled back from the ledge to rejoin Grace, Janet and Daniel.
Teal'C returned as well and all listened earnestly.
"Okay, listen up. Hopefully Ba'al's got a cargo ship in there, heck, I'll take a glider, but I'd rather have something a little bigger. By T's reckoning we've got five minutes when there are only two goons on this side. So we'll take up positions as close as we can without getting detected, zap them, then you guys come running." They all nodded and Janet dropped to her knees in front of Grace.
"When I pull your arm you've gotta run as fast as you can, Gracie, do you understand?" The child nodded then looked up at her father.
"Gracie, if you can't run fast enough you wave your arms. You can't yell out, we've got to be really quiet again, okay? I'll be watching you the whole time. If you wave your arms I'll come and pick you up, but you've gotta keep running even when you think you can't run anymore."
Grace nodded, faint tears blossoming in her eyes. She was too young to understand everything going on, but she knew everyone around her wasn't happy. Jack moved towards her and dropped to the ground, he planted a kiss on her forehead and wrapped his arms tightly around her.
"You can do this baby, you're a strong, fast, brave, brave girl." He whispered to her.
Grace let a few of her tears fall and then blinked them back. She knew she wasn't supposed to cry right now. At length she composed herself. She needed to be brave for daddy. She nodded against daddy's shoulder.
Jack rose to his feet and turned to the adults. "Let's move out."
-*-*-
"I will attempt to mislead them, O'Neill."
"T, you can't! There are too many, we'll need you."
"There will be less if I deflect them. I will attempt to sabotage the power core of the base."
Jack paused a moment. The split second whilst he considered the Jaffa's offer was all that he needed, the Jaffa sprinted around the corner and down the hallway.
Jack didn't call out for his friend. He dare not alert any passing warriors to their position, hidden in an alcove off the main corridor. The sound of two running Cold warriors grimly rewarded him.
Jack took a deep swallow, preparing himself to bolt into the corridor and attempt to neutralise the two quickly enough to minimise the attention Teal'C intended to obtain.
During that pause, he heard a further pair of foot falls. He glanced at Daniel.
When the coast was finally clear they moved into the corridor and Daniel activated the door opposite themselves. They found themselves in a room with table consoles and walls of screens. In the far corner was an alcove, far darker than its distance from the light would indicate.
Daniel slid the door shut behind them, and Janet hit the panel with her zat gun, her first use of a weapon since they'd arrived on the planet. The arc narrowly missed Daniel's fingers.
"Sorry." She grimaced.
Daniel offered her a weak smile.
Janet allowed Grace to drop down to the floor, and the four year old moved over to her father to clutch his hand.
Jack relished in the contact. He had been pushing his daughter's presence to the back of his mind consciously since they first arrived on the base following the code red page, now five days ago. He longed to comfort her and tell her everything would be okay, but he had no idea if it were true.
He brushed his thumb over her knuckles. "Well, what d'ya think, Danny boy? Any chance you can use one of these computers to find us a glider bay?"
Daniel shrugged. Waving a hand over the console. It sprung to life.