Chapter
2
A huge sigh of relief came from all
in the room. Janet hurried a nurse to
get the general. Sam focused on the
focused on the four figures around her bed.
Her Dad held on tightly to her right hand. Daniel stood next to him a wide grin spread across his face. Janet stood with Teal'c on the other side of
the bed. Strange the colonel wasn't
there she thought. She tried to speak
but something inside her didn't want that to happen, instead only a sharp
cough.
"Try and save your strength" Janet
said softly
She tried again to speak, but she
had lost a lot more strength than what she realised. She forced out a weak cough and spoke, her voice slightly
stronger than before "Where's the Colonel?"
They all became agitated at her
question, except Teal'c who just looked confused. They shifted about casting anxious glances , unsure on how to
tell her he'd gone crazy and attacked someone.
Jacob spoke out to avoid the question "You concentrate on building your
strength back up" he said glancing up to see Hammond parading towards the end
of the bed.
"Can I have a drink? I'm dying of
thirst" she asked
Daniel nodded furiously and headed
over towards the Cooler, only to be stopped by the upturned chair. His clumsy feet tangled themselves in the
legs and he landed face first on the cold concrete. His glasses flew across the room when he landed and landed neatly
under the base of the cooler. She
couldn't help it. She giggled
childishly as the rest of room tried to keep a straight face. 'Same old Daniel' she thought and
then said "You okay?"
"Only my pride hurt" he replied
wincing as he got up "And my nose" he said rubbing it furiously. "Stupid chair" he mumbled cursing the object
silently. He finally got up and poured
the water slowly out of the large container.
He brought over carefully and this time made damn sure that he didn't
repeat his new trick. Handing over the
plastic cup, he watched he down most of the water in one go. "Feeling better?" he asked
"Yeah, just feel like I've been to
hell and back that's all"
"Your back with friends now, just
relax" Janet said, coaxing her to lie back down.
"Dr Jackson will you send a message
to the Tok'ra, they will want to know"
Hammond asked. Daniel walked out
of the room. Teal'c offered his support
and accompanied Daniel to the surface.
That left Hammond, Janet and Jacob.
Hammond said he had some paperwork to do, Janet followed suite.
Jacob simply looked at Sam and
smiled. She returned the smile, before
closing her eyes and allowing Jolinar to take over. "I am glad to see you well Jacob" she said
"I'm glad to see you too
Jolinar. How are you feeling?"
"Merely tired. The Tau'ri weaponry is very powerful for
it's simplicity"
"Yes it is"
Sam took control again, she looked
distant as she continued talking. "I heard the shots go off, but I froze" she
started to explain "I mean I hear gunfire practically every day fighting the
Goa'uld, but that one shot made me freeze" she said, wishing in some way that
she could have done more to help the others.
"No there was nothing you could have
done"
"I know now. A can see it. He came in the door. I
stood up, he was really annoyed. The
colonel had just smashed the glass in the window. He said something about playing the game and then brought out the
gun. He struck Jack first, then Teal'c,
Daniel, me. It happened so fast" she
started feeling guilty, guilt for something she knew she hadn't done.
"Look don't worry just concentrate
on getting better"
"Yeah, hey why did you ignore my
question?" she asked. She was expecting
the worst. The bullet hit jack
hard. His head smacked onto the wall
hard. The crack was grotesquely loud. It rattled around in her head. He hadn't made it. He didn't get to him in time to use the healing device properly.
"Look I won't lie to you, there is a
problem" he said watching carefully as she tensed up. "Colonel O'Neill did make it", she relaxed a little waiting for
the but "But…" 'Stupid piece of anticipation' she thought "Jack got a
little mad and he vented this into someone on the base" he said waiting for a
reaction. Confusion spread across Sam's
face. She couldn't fathom why he would
do this, unless he felt that he should have done more.
"So where is he now?" she asked
"Hammond suspended him indefinitely"
"I need to see him" she said, thinking
out her plan on impulse
"Can't do that" Jacob said firmly
"One your not in any condition to travel and two you don't know how he will
react to you being there. It could make
him worse"
"No, knowing the Colonel he probably
got wound up because he couldn't do anything" she pleaded "If I go and see him
it may just help him"
Jacob didn't like the idea, Selmak
didn't like the idea. Jolinar was
supposed to be on Vorash being briefed before she took her place in the ranks
of the SGC. The kidnapping and the
shooting put back those plans several weeks.
SG-1 was also going to be briefed by a member of the Tok'ra High
Council. Selmak tired to reason with
them "How can you be sure he will react how you believe" he questioned
Jolinar took over "We cannot but for
the good of the team it is worth a try"
"You have been heavily influenced by
the Tau'ri youth Jolinar"
"And by the determination of the
host" she added
"We will have to have the approval
of General Hammond and Doctor Fraiser"
Jolinar nodded and Sam was back in
the driving seat "Wow, how do you get used to that?" she asked. Her father smiled. "With practice" he replied. "I'll go find Dr Fraiser"
**********
Jacks house was a mess. He had spent the last hour searching for
it. He couldn't remember where he had
put it. Clothes were tossed idly on the
floor and tables no longer stood on four legs.
Where is it? A small brown box
lay underneath his bed. It was old and
worn. Not opened for years. The tattered edges ruffled as the string was
forced to release its tight grip around the edges. A seal of tape ran along the lid. This was ripped off violently.
The box ripped under the pressure, spilling its contents onto the soft
carpet. Jack smiled menacingly at what
he had found. He picked it up and
watched eagerly as the fleeting sun bounced itself off the surface. 'She'll be awake soon, she'll come to
me'.
He flopped downstairs and into the sofa covered
in all kinds of garbage. He sat there
playing with the newly found object. He
sat there as night fell and the moon crossed over the night sky illuminating
the man, possessed by a desire. A
desire to seek out punishment, revenge.
He knew what he was doing, he knew what had to be done.
**********
Janet sat in her small office up to the gills
in paper work. As a student she only
ever thought about helping others, never knowing there would be piles of papers
falling off your desk at every opportunity available. She sighed as the time toiled on. A rap on the wooden door.
She beckoned for the visitor to come in. The door rattled open and Jacob stood looking worried. "Are you alright sir?"
"Not really, Sam wants to see Colonel O'Neill"
"And you want to know if she is in good enough
health" she finished "Well as far as I can see, there are no residual
problems. Jolinar seems to have
completely healed whatever damage was done"
"So medically, she can go"
"After a lot of rest, yes"
"Okay,
thanks" he said wandering out of the room. Janet watched the general leave the infirmary and he looked like
he was headed towards Hammond's office.
She knew Jacob was only trying to his best for Sam, but she was doing
the same thing for Jack. The brief
conversation over, Janet delved back into the mound of papers sat on her desk,
as the rest of the day passed without a trace.
**********
Hammond sat in his office comfortably. On the whole this day wasn't so bad. The only major downfall was O'Neill's off
the wall antics. He actions were
irresponsible, but they were influenced by high emotions. There was no need for a full hearing, only a
note in his already bulging service record to state erratic behavior. He close the thick file and leaned back into
the squeaky leather chair. The door to
his office was open, so Jacob didn't have to knock. Hammond called him in and gestured for him to sit down on the
other side of the huge brown desk.
"Jake, how is she?"
"She, they, are fine. But they have a request" he said
"Oh, what is it?"
"I explained what happened with Colonel O'Neill
and now she wants to see him"
"Well I've made a decision on him as well"
Hammond explained "He will have a small disciplinary hearing but nothing
dramatic. He can come back to the base
just with a few restrictions" his words had captivated Jacob, he knew where he
was going.
"And Sam will the perfect person to tell him
this" Jacob finished
"Precisely, as soon as the Doctor says she can
leave"
"Alright, I'll go tell her" he said smiling as
he got up to leave "George, what about those guys you've got downstairs"
"Many of them will go to the state prison" he
said "The rest will be stripped of any US Military insignia and monitored very
closely for the rest of their lives" the anger was clear in his voice. Something had happened, Jacob knew it.
"What's wrong?" he asked sympathetically
"The President has decided that the removal of
such a powerful Senator would cause a national out cry" he said "Kinsey can't
be linked in any way to what happened"
"So that bastards got away with screwing you
again"
"You're damn right"
"Look in my eyes he'll get his comeuppance
sooner or later"
"Preferably sooner"
They both smiled half heartedly as Jacob left
to tell Sam and Hammond flipped open another service record. This time it belonged to Harris. Glancing down the list of decorations and
promotions he couldn't understand how Kinsey could warp someone's mind like
that. Maybe power was a luscious greed
that some men couldn't resist.
**********
Jack knew she was coming, all he had to do was
wait. One survivor was not an
option. He face twisted up into an evil
smile, she would be there soon, he could feel it.
**********
The week finished quickly. By Friday, Jacob had been called back and
Sam had been moved into her quarters with stern orders for plenty of bed rest,
but Sam being Sam insisted on trying to catch up with the backlog of work
Astrophysics seemed to have accumulated over the short time she had been
away. She strolled across her room and
sat gently in the chair by her desk. She didn't care what she looked like, she
was supposed to be resting so her uniform didn't matter to much. Her soft black shirt hung over the rim of
the green fatigues loosely, the mid length sleeves pushed up over her
elbows. She scribbled furiously on the
pad in front of her. The light flowed a
soft yellow glow, tinting the white paper.
She threw down the pen and watched on as it
rolled off the desk and clatter into the empty gray bin sitting to one
side. She got up off the chair and
fished out the offending biro, bored of what she was doing now. With an extra two-thousand years worth of
memories, quantum physics and worm hole equations weren't as fulfilling. She grabbed a crisp green shirt from the
drawer and bundled it on as she headed out the door.
The personnel corridors seemed to buzz with
activity that morning. Smiling faces
greeted Sam as she walked along, who happily returned the compliments. She ran to the elevator as the doors were
shutting, just managing to sneak in as the slid shut behind her. She leaned against wall, watching Graham as
he gave a shy smile to the ranking officer.
"Don't worry Graham, I don't bite"
He looked nervous, Daniel was right. This man did have a huge crush on her, he
went a bright beetroot as she cracked that obviously bad joke. The elevator whirred on, pinging as it came
to a stop. Sam jumped off as the doors
opened, cheerily saying "See ya" as she went.
She bound down the corridor, sneaking up on
Daniel as he furiously read that mornings paper. That ended up on the floor as she went "Hi Daniel" cheerily, an
loudly, down his ear. He looked at her,
questioning her unusually good mood on a Monday morning. He knelt down and snatched the paper off the
floor. "Anything interesting happening
in the world?" she asked.
"Judge for yourself" he said handing over the
ruffled sheets. She glanced over the
open page and laughed. No matter how
old you are, or what kind of job you had, no one could resist the funnies. She playfully threw it back at him and
proceeded on into his lab, untidy as usual.
"Is there any particular reason you're here" he
inquired "Other than disobeying a direct order". She looked at him with classic puppy dog eyes. "Don't give me that look" he said as sternly
as he could whilst trying to suppress a laugh "No really, why are you here"
"To be perfectly honest I got bored"
"Then why didn't you got to the infirmary"
Janet added suddenly. Daniel and Sam
spun around to see the Doctor stood meaningfully in the doorway. They looked at each other before giving up
and breaking down in laughter. Janet
walked over and leaned against the table in the middle of the small room. "You should have come to the infirmary, I
could have given you the all clear to go"
This stopped their laughter. She was right, they needed to get Jack back
at the base quickly. He would probably
just be stripped of his command for a few weeks, this was nothing Sam couldn't
handle. They had worked as a trio
before, granted they were drugged and held hostage for all an hour. "Alright, I'll go."
"Wow that took less persuasion then I thought"
Janet remarked
"I've got a second opinion remember" Sam
pointed out. Janet tilted her head in
recognition, leading the way down. "So Janet, if you were to give me all clear
now" she said "Jack could be back on the base by nightfall"
"Yeah I don't see why not"
They just walked now, silent. The elevator again whirred along, it jolted
to a stop this time on the level they wanted.
They both looked a little disconcerted at that and both made a note to
ask someone to take a look at it. The
strolled into the infirmary and Sam leaped up onto a bed as Janet went over to
get what she needed. Sam didn't like
being in the here now. It made her
uneasy just because it reminded her how close she came to dying, how close so
many people came to loosing her. She
didn't know what she would do if she lost one of the team. She lay back on the bed amazed at how tired
she was. She could feel herself
drifting off, but she didn't care. 'Samantha
if you want to help Colonel O'Neill than falling asleep is not the answer'
Jolinar piped up, the voice of reason speaks.
Not wanting to argue she sat up and looked over to Janet. She seemed to have disappeared. "Janet" she called out.
"Yeah I'm here" she called back
"Where'd you disappeared to?" she asked. She didn't get a reply. She got up off the bed and walked over
cautiously. Her military instincts took
over and she sneaked around to her office.
She glanced carefully into the door and saw Janet rummaging around in a
cabinet drawer. "What are you doing?"
she asked, intrigued by her actions.
"I'm trying to find, this" she said as she
pulled out a small folder. It was quite
neat, but not used very often that was obvious. She opened it out onto the desk and Sam realised what it
was. Over her time at the SGC Janet has
had to deal with Goa'uld hosts on a regular basis. This was a little file she has produced, an almost what's what of
the symbiotes physiology. A few scans
and hand written notes were all that made up the file. She sat down and the desk and explained
"After out first run in with a Goa'uld host, Doctor Warner and myself decided
that we need some form of reference, something to give us pointers and what
we're doing right or wrong"
Jolinar took over "So you have produced this
file based on your own experiences"
"Yes, and some of it has been quite
useful. Treating your father for
example after he came back from Netu, we had some form of reference for a
painkiller which would work effectively" she said
"The Tau'ri are an interesting race, always
willing to learn more" she said, Sam took over "And it's really annoying when
she does that"
Janet winced but then smiled. She was still Sam in her eyes, even Jolinar
couldn't take away what was already there.
"Come on we might as well get this examination over with" she said
getting up
"Yeah the sooner the better"
**********
Jack wasn't in his house anymore. He wanted to be away from the city. His house still lay like a tip, his front
door lay open. He hadn't even bothered
to lock up. He didn't care if anything
was stolen. A simple note lay on the
coffee table, the only remnants of what he had. His car was gone. His
garage door flew open in his hurry.
Rubber marred the road, he wanted to get out of there in a hurry. The rediscovered box lay discarded on the
floor, a piece of paper flapping around as the cool winter breeze ran around
his house. The paper had a special seal
on, a state crest. The words
"Certificate of Death" were emblazoned across the top in large red
letters. Most of the rest was printed,
but in a neat swirl of handwriting the name "Charles Jonathan O'Neill" filled
in the first of the boxes. Scanning
down the cause of death read "accidental use of a fire arm"
A gust of wind picked up the piece of paper and
it flew across the room landing softly on the sofa next to a discarded bottle
of vodka.
**********
Janet and Sam walked purposefully into the
briefing room. They both sat, and out
of instinct left one seat empty to the left of Sam. She sighed and looked at Hammond. He knew what they were about to say. "Doctor have your finished your examination?"
"Yes and apart from a small amount of fatigue
Major Carter and Jolinar are in perfect health" she informed him. He leant back and addressed the team sat
around the long table. They all looked
at him anticipating his next words.
They knew what they would be, they were already packed and ready to go
retrieve there final team member, their team leader.
"SG-1 you are to escort Colonel O'Neill back to
Cheyenne mountain. But remember you
will be working within the city so you are not to mention anything to do with
the SGC or it's work, is that understood" he commanded
"Yes Sir" the chorused.
"Dismissed" he said with a scrape as he
shuffled his chair back and he paraded back into his office. SG-1 followed filed out and quickly changed
into civilian clothing, a hat for Teal'c to cover the mark Apophis made his
subjects wear to show their allegiance.
They were all quickly at the main gates. Making sure nothing about them suggested they were military, they
moved into the car and pulled away from the imposing barbed wire fences
surrounding the entrance to Cheyenne.
Daniel was driving, slowly he made his way onto the streets of Colorado
Springs. The trip was made longer by
the heavy traffic, Jack had intentionally chose a place close to the mountain
in case of an emergency, but it was still a good way from the base. Police cars lined the gravel drive of Jack's
home, the long yellow tape wound unmercifully around the bark of the fable
elm. They pulled up and jumped out of
the car, into the crowd of neighbors and passers by.
Sam had managed to push he way to the front
first. This pissed off one of the
officers. He grabbed her roughly by the
coat and pulled he away towards the shiny white police cars. Her feet crunched under the remaining snow
fall as her head was banged down onto the boot of the car. A quick inspection and the discovery of her
9mm and cell phone got the guy suspicious.
He called over the Sergeant, a tall colored guy with a fluffy moustache
attached to his upper lip. "Now can you
explain to me why you are carrying a concealed weapon?"
"Easily.
Major Samantha Carter, US Air Force.
The guy who lives in there is my Commanding Officer. I was sent to escort him back to base" she
explained, only calm by the power of her Tok'ra. He didn't look convinced.
"Look, I can't stand around here all day, I need to know what happened
to him"
"How do I know your telling the truth?" he
said, his accent strong southern.
"Okay, Major General George Hammond Commander
in Chief of Cheyenne Mountain Complex" she said, getting frustrated at
him. He looked like he believed her
now.
"Alright what do you want?" he said reluctantly
"What happened here? It looks like his place
was turned over"
"It was like this when a neighbor called us" he
explained "Mainly personal items scattered around, but they found a note"
"Can I read it?"
"No, that's being analyzed"
"Well what did it say?"
"Something about Minnesota and fish"
**********
