Disclaimer: I make no money out of this... *sobs* Because I don't own anything... *sobs even harder* except my cat.... *starts laughing insanely*
A/N: Thanks to all my reviewers, and one special thanks to Sharim who beta-ed this chapter.
Till the end of the time
Chapter 13
Her eyes were closed, and her lips curled into a thin line. It was clear from her expression that she was pulling all the strength she had left in order not to cry or lose her control, because that was one thing she found so hard to keep in times like this. When your world crumbles and tries to pull you with it deep down, into the abyss.
She tried to slow down her breathing, hoping it would help clear her mind. It didn't. Instead of relaxing her, it felt like a hard work. Samantha gave up after a few trials, and continued on listening her racked breaths that sometimes sounded almost like muffled sobs. God, she hated it. This. All of this. Her weakness and the fact that she felt cool pity towards herself.
The infirmary was empty. Only occupants were she and the body of the man she killed, covered by a single white sheet.
She felt weak, too weak even to exist, but, as she discovered soon enough, when all odds are against you, and only your emotions stand in your way, your view on things may change.
Although she wasn't sure whether it changing because of that, or because she changed.
Carter didn't want to know.
She found herself silently praying for time to stop, to slow down to the point where seconds seem like eternity. Not because she enjoyed suffering of the moment, but because she knew Hell worse then this one existed.
Janet went to find Jack.
If she managed to find him, then this man deserved to die.
If she failed to do so, then Sam has just killed the man for which she would have gladly sacrificed her own life, only to save his.
Waiting was a torture beyond any device of Goa'uld. Beyond any memories of Jolinar. Beyond her worse nightmares.
A minute passed. Another one. And then one more.
And then Carter lost count.
The man that was supposed to be dead got up. Slowly he rose, before Carter even had the time to process what was happening, and removed the cover from his face.
He looked at her with a curious, but not evil look. Like the one that a scientist gives to a new specimen when he conducts his research. He said nothing, but his hand went up to her neck, and his fingers tightened their grip around the soft skin. Pale blue light started to shine out of the tips of his fingers and bore into her flesh. As in a some kind of a twisted response, her own fingers started to tinge with soft gold. Her eyes went to the back of her head, and she let out a single, quiet gasp. He loosened his grip.
Carter slumped to the floor.
The man jumped off the gurney, and ever so gently picked her up and lowered into the bed. With one smooth move, he threw the sheets over her body, hiding it from the view. Then, turning around and straightening his uniform, he strode out of the infirmary.
Dr. Daniel Jackson was sitting in his office, going over an unfinished translation. He was so close to breaking the code and finding the key of an ancient language, so close, and yet it was eluding him for days, not allowing him to get a grip on the meaning or on the 'melody' of it, as he called the subtle repetitions every language had. If he could only get some help from the locals. Unfortunately, the planet that hosted the temple from whose walls he recorded the scripts was thousands of light years away, and they weren't allowed to return through the Stargate, not since they last came back from the planet, since this whole mess started. He sighed in frustration.
'Why can't things for once, only once, work out smoothly?'
His musings were interrupted by a polite knock.
"Come on in."
Door squeaked, and opened a bit revealing serious face of a young airman.
"Sir, your presence is required in the infirmary," man stated, and continued on standing in a military manner, obviously waiting for a dismissal of some kind.
"Yes... right. Thank you," Daniel answered, feeling a lump forming in his throat. Getting called in the infirmary was never a good thing. After the airman's retreat, he began wondering why they had sent someone to get him, instead of simply phoning him. Then he remembered that he was the one who unplugged the phone, due to all irrelevant disturbances, which involved what he suspected to be nurses calling and then hanging up the moment he answered. They always did looked at him a bit awkwardly. He decided he should talk to Janet about those 'calls'.
Quickly storing his research in the folder, he rushed to the infirmary. Daniel only hoped that no one was dead or seriously injured this time. All this 'Soldiers' thing was getting weirder by a second, and it was simply a matter of time before it got out of their hands. 'Like we ever had it in our hands in the first place,' he thought wearily, as he approached the infirmary.
Samantha was sitting on the edge of the bed, getting examined by Dr. Fraiser, but the first thing that struck Daniel as odd was that she was throwing rather untrusting glances towards the doctor and all other personnel that happened to be in the infirmary at the time. The archeologist had, of course, no idea about the incidents that had happened during the last hour, and he was assuming Carter had another one of her 'attacks'.
"Daniel, you are here," Janet seemed very relieved.
"Yes," he answered briefly and turning to Sam asked, "Are you OK?"
She looked at him, and he could have sworn that she was examining, probing him in some way, as though she had never seen him before.
The look in her eyes was the one he saw, long ago, in the eyes of Kirra, after she took the drug that prevented her memory from ever returning. It was the look of a person that sees the world for the first time and is scared of what she sees. A look of fear, because not knowing, not remembering is the worse curse of all.
After visiting so many different planets, he was quite sure when someone didn't recognize him.
"Who are you?" Sam's words only confirmed his suspicions, but before he had time to respond in any way, Janet took over.
"Daniel, could you join me for a moment?"
"Sure," he replied and went with Janet into the same corner where she had coffee with Samantha mere minutes ago. Coffee mugs, well, one of them, still stood on the table.
He didn't miss out on the compassionate squeeze of a hand doctor gave to her patient as a sign of encouragement.
"I believe you don't know the story, but stop me if you've heard it before," she started, being rather sure that what she was about to tell was a complete surprise to him, or otherwise he would have shown up before, and wouldn't need being updated about everything.
He simply nodded in agreement.
"Well, after the debriefing..." Janet started, and as the story progressed, his expressions changed from worry to anger and then back to worry. She concluded by assuming, "I don't know what happened, or what happened to the body, but my assumption is that Sam didn't kill him, simply knocked him out. But I checked it, Daniel, and he was dead. I don't know how... I don't understand. I found Sam lying in his place, and when I woke her up I discovered she doesn't remember a thing. Nothing at all. There was no physical injury, except faint bruises on her neck, but she could have gotten those during the fight. I hope this amnesia is temporary, but I will know more when the tests come back… The general knows everything."
Daniel was quiet.
"Jack?" he asked. "Teal'c?"
"Well, Teal'c was here, he disappeared just before you got here, and Jack... well... I couldn't find him. I don't know whether it was him that Sam fought or not. Now, nobody seems to know where he is. He didn't check out of the base. He simply vanished."
Daniel looked back over her shoulder. The young woman still sat on the bed, scanning the surroundings with an interested look. He had known Samantha for years, but now, looking at that fragile creature she seemed to have suddenly become, he felt like he was seeing her for the first time.
A/N: One word and one word only. Review.