A/N: Went to the most frustrating AFL game today…just didn't know who was gonna win! Not that it mattered…I don't go for either of the teams that were playing!! But I thought I should probably give you guys another chapter before I go on music camp tomorrow!!
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Jack played with the piece of paper lying on the briefing room table in front of him. Daniel was explaining the past week to General Hammond, while Teal'c stared…well Jack wasn't quite sure where he was staring. He was just being Teal'c like. Jack looked at the seat next to Daniel. It should've been Sam sitting there, but it wasn't, it was Jonas. Next to Jonas was Jacob Carter and across from Jacob, next to Teal'c sat Janet Frasier.
"That's everything," Daniel said, looking around at the table.
"Everything?" Hammond said.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's everything," Daniel said.
"Well I want you all to get some rest and I'll see you all back here tomorrow morning," Hammond said. "Dismissed."
They all stood up and waited as Hammond left the room. Without catching anyone's eye Jack turned around and walked out of the briefing room. He was pretty sure none of them would have the guts to follow him, although he knew quite well that 'look' they'd all be sharing. That 'should someone go after him?' look.
But he knew no one would come – at least not straight away. Then they would come in one by one and ask if he was OK…they always did that. Instead of heading to his office where he knew they would find him he made his way to the commissary. Everything reminded him of Sam, of how much danger she was in and how he was powerless to do anything.
He walked over to the food, even though he wasn't particularly hungry he figured he should probably eat something – he hadn't eaten more than a couple of pieces of food since they'd left Australia three days earlier. He picked up a cup of blue jello. He wasn't the biggest fan of blue jello, but Sam liked it so there had to be something good about it.
He took his jello over to the nearest table and sat down – alone. Normally he'd expect Sam to come up and talk about some scientific techno babble which he barely understood. Then he'd smile and say something nice and she'd laugh in her way and say something else complicated before disappearing to complete her experiment in her lab. But that wasn't going to happen – not today. Her smiling face, her small laugh, had disappeared from the SGC and it was an obvious difference.
Being a big secret, naturally everyone knew, and his feelings for Sam, also being a big secret, were also naturally known by everyone on base. Therefore everyone was avoiding him. He saw a few officers sitting in the corner of the room, eyeing him – but the minute he looked at them they looked away, pretending they hadn't been looking in the first place.
He decided it was smarter to watch his blue jello rather than any other people.
"Colonel…mind if I join you?" came the familiar voice of Janet Frasier.
He mumbled something that passed for a "yes" and Janet sat down, also with a blue jello.
"Sam liked blue jello," Janet said.
"She still does," Jack almost glared at her.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean it like that," Janet replied. "I just…Colonel she's my best friend you know – I understand what you're going through."
"You didn't see her become a Goa'uld and then get shot all in five minutes!" Jack shot back.
The officers in the corner were all staring openly in their direction now.
"And what do you think you're staring at!?" Jack shouted at them.
They immediately stood up and left the commissary, not wanting to be shouted at by the second-in-command of the base. Jack turned back to his blue jello and tried to scrap the leftovers out of the bottom of the plastic cup.
"Sir…I'm sure we'll find her," Janet said.
"Yeah…yeah we will," Jack said.
"You should get some rest," Janet said.
"I'm fine, Doc," Jack replied. "The more I sleep the less time I have to figure out how to get Carter back."
"Colonel, I can order you to get sleep," Janet said.
"And I'll just disregard that order," Jack replied.
"Look, sir, there's nothing we can do till the morning when the Tok'ra operatives contact us with their information," Janet said. "What are you planning to do if you're not going to sleep?"
Jack looked at Janet. "I don't know…something."
He could see Janet was studying his face, trying to figure out what he was thinking. The truth was that he was trying to keep as straight a face as possible. If he let that straight face show what he was really feeling he knew he'd break down and he couldn't let that happen. He hadn't broken down when Daniel had disappeared, he hadn't broken down when he was trapped on Edora. The only time he had broken down was when Charlie…
"She didn't want to leave it in the room," Janet said.
"What?" Jack looked up.
"You know perfectly well what I just said," Janet replied.
"She told you that?" Jack asked.
"No…but I can see it, if it weren't for military regulations she wouldn't have left it in the room," Janet said.
"Oh," Jack replied.
Janet stood up. "Well I better go and get some sleep and I suggest you do the same Colonel."
"Doc…" he said.
"Yes, sir?" she turned around to face him.
"Thanks," he replied.
Janet smiled and walked out of the commissary…her clicking heels the only noise echoing throughout the room.
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Ankhesenamun sat staring out the window of the spaceship. Osiris and Tutankhamen had gone to complete some of their own work and left her alone to think.
They're going to save me you know, you're going to die, Sam thought.
That's what you think young one, Ankhesenamun replied for the first time.
Sam was surprised. She'd been thinking mean things about the Goa'uld for hours now, but the Goa'uld had never replied. She could partially access Ankhesenamun's memories, but nothing was clear, it was all bits and pieces. She was pretty sure this would be the same for Ankhesenamun – only being able to access parts of Sam's memory.
We've killed System Lords, what makes you so special? Sam said.
They will not kill my host, that is what makes me so special, Ankhesenamun replied. You did not rescue any of the System Lords, you just destroyed them. They will not destroy this body, they care about you too much – especially this…O'Neill. Now be quiet, you are interrupting my thought patterns.
Fine, Sam thought, this time not projecting it so Ankhesenamun could hear her exact thoughts.
They had entered hyperspace. Sam had no idea where they were going, she just hoped that SG-1 either got her out of there or killed her. She didn't want to live life like this. She couldn't even look at what she wanted to look at, she couldn't control what she wanted to say. It was all happening automatically – as if it was something like her heart beating. She couldn't even chose when she wanted to breathe. She stared out at the pretty colours of hyperspace and wished that SG-1 would find her soon.
*******
Jonas blinked and watched the Tok'ra explaining what basically seemed like a whole lot of nothing. He hadn't slept all night, he'd been worrying. Even though he'd only known Sam for a year or so she had been the only person to accept him properly into SG-1 straight away, now he felt like he owed that to her, he had to do something. He looked at Daniel who was sitting next to him. It felt extremely weird to be sitting next to someone he thought he'd killed only a year earlier, but was now sitting next to him in a briefing.
"So basically you don't know anything…" Jack said.
"Well we know…" the Tok'ra yet again launched himself into a whole lot of nothing.
Jack was about to open his mouth to say something again when an Airman ran into the room.
"Excuse me, General, sir, there are two men outside with Australian accents saying they know about the Stargate and want to see Colonel O'Neill," the airman announced.
Jack sat up in his chair slightly, and shot a worried look at Daniel.
"Tell them he's busy right now and lock them up in the visitors quarters," Hammond said, not looking happy.
"They say it's about Major Carter, sir," the airman continued.
"Actually sir, I think we should talk to them…" Daniel spoke up.
"Dr Jackson?" Hammond asked. "I thought you told us everything?"
"Oh yeah, well I might've left out a few minor details…" Daniel winced.
Now Jonas was curious.
"You told Australians about the SGC?" Hammond stood up, not looking happy.
"No, I told them about the SGC," Jack said, also standing up.
"Whatever for!?" Hammond asked.
"They're not gonna tell anyone – people would think they're crazy!" Jack shot back.
"This is a top-secret facility! You can't go around telling civilians in other countries about it!" Hammond said.
"Actually they're police officers…" Daniel interrupted.
"I don't care who they are, you can't do that!" Hammond was almost shouting.
"It was to help save Sam!" Jack shouted. "We didn't have a CHOICE!"
Everyone fell silent. The use of his second-in-command's first name sent shockwaves through the people in the room. No one dared to speak, not even Hammond, although he remained glaring at Jack. Jack glared back. He would do anything to save Sam, and the rest of the room knew it.
The airman coughed. "Should I send them in?"
Hammond paused for a moment. "Yes Airman, send them in!"
The Airman nodded and walked out. Hammond sat back down and Jack followed his lead. Still no one spoke. The Tok'ra cleared his throat and opened his mouth to start talking, but by then the two familiar looking Australians had entered the room.
"Harry…Steven…" Jack greeted. "Welcome to the SGC."
"Some welcome we've had too, mate," Harry said, staring at the guards that had come in behind them.
"We found something," Steven said, not wasting anytime.
"What is it?" Daniel asked.
"You tell me," Steven said, handing it to Daniel across the table. "We found it at the cabin up on Mt Dandenong."
"General, this is a gate address," Daniel said.
"What's the rest of it?" Jonas asked, looking over his shoulder.
"I'm not sure…" Daniel said.
"Let me see…" Jacob said.
Daniel handed him the piece of paper.
"This is a Tok'ra code…" Jacob said. "This is the gate address to where Osiris and Tutankhamen are heading! There's a Tok'ra among Osiris' ranks…why didn't I think of that?"
"You mean if we go to the planet we might be able to rescue Carter?" Jack asked.
"Maybe…but that's a big maybe," Jacob said.
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A/N: Maybe huh? Well we'll just have to see!! Anywayz going to watch Revisions now!! But you can leave me a nice review ;)