"Well Sir," Janet began, "first of all she is not a Gould." Jack let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding and readily listened to what the doctor had to say next. He had a feeling there was a 'but' coming.
"But she does have naquada in her blood, which is what Major Carter and Teal'c must have sensed." Janet finished.
"So she had a Gould or Tok'ra in her at some point then?" Daniel asked, leaning forward.
"That's the thing, she had no entry wounds or any other indication she ever had a symbiote, in my opinion she never was a host" Janet frowned.
"Then how do you propose she got naquada in her blood stream?" Hammond asked getting the feeling he wouldn't understand a word his Chief Medical Officer was going to say on the matter.
"I'm not quite sure sir, but it is slightly different than Major Carter's. This naquada seems to have fast-healing properties and is more prevalent throughout her body than the Major's." Janet spoke, noticing that SG1's facial expressions mirrored her own of confusion.
"So the kid was born like that, and never had a snake in her head?" Jack asked, absently twirling a pen in his fingers.
"Claire, seems to have always been like this, which puzzles me. Normally we could contact her parents and see if they are the same way, but she said her parents were dead and that she lives with a foster family" Janet answered.
"You said she could heal faster? I tend to heal a bit faster than I used to before Jolinar, but the naquada in my blood doesn't make that much of a difference" Sam said to Janet who also was trying to figure out the mystery that was the sixteen year old girl in VIP Room 2.
"Yes but after I finished her x-rays and other tests, she accidentally knocked over a cart with scalpels on it and cut her hand, fairly deeply, and in the time it took me to get her to a sink to rinse it off, she wasn't bleeding anymore and the cut was barely a scratch on her hand. She said she's always healed fast." Janet reported getting surprised looks from everyone at the table.
"This is very interesting Doctor… SG1 I want you to interview the girl and see what she knows, she may be withholding more than she lets on. Dismissed" Hammond said and stood to leave the room.
"Claire is in VIP Room 2 Colonel," Janet informed as she left the room to go back to the infirmary.
"Okay campers let's got talk to the kid-"
"Claire, Sir," Sam corrected.
"Whatever, let's go talk to her, and then we can get something to eat". And with that SG1 left to go talk with Claire.
~~~~
SG1 decided to attempt to get Claire to talk by going in individually to speak with her. Sam went in first. She knocked on the door before entering, finding Claire quietly sitting on the bed, doing absolutely nothing.
"Hi Claire, I'm Major Carter, but you can call me Sam, " Sam said in a friendly voice. Claire just looked at her impassively, despite the weird feeling she was getting from this woman, just as she had when she was in the truck with them when they took her.
"I'm just going to ask you a few questions, is that alright with you?" Sam began, deciding that cutting to the chase was the best way to go about things with this girl.
"Do I have a choice?" Claire muttered getting off the bed and moving to sit at the table where Sam had situated herself. Sam chose not to respond to the comment, slightly feeling sorry the girl, who had no idea why she was being held captive in a military base.
"So, where do you live?"
"Where do you?" Claire asked back, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly. Sam forced a small smile and sighed inwardly, she had very little confidence she would accomplish much with Claire.
"Oookay… what are your foster parents names?" Sam tried.
"Doesn't matter," was the response.
"Why not?" Sam pursued, trying to get something, anything, she could use to figure out this child.
"Cause it's none of your business, besides you're the big, tough military, you've probably got people to find things like that out anyways," Claire stated pointedly, then continued, "so if we're done here I'm betting that the rest of your team is waiting to interrogate me, so you better give them a turn, they most likely want to go home and eat since you guys never got to go out for dinner, cause of me and all" Claire finished, just daring the Major to continue questioning her. Sam stared back at her with her mouth open in wonder.
"How-"
"How did I know they're outside that door, and that all you want to do right now is go home and relax? Just call it a gut feeling," she said dismissively. Sam nodded and got up leaving the room.
Jack, Daniel and Teal'c were waiting out side in the corridor leaning against the wall. Sam frowned and shook her head to herself thinking about what she had just witnessed.
"What is it Carter?" Jack asked pushing off the wall with his foot.
"She knew you guys were out here and that I want to go home and relax and stuff, because she interrupted our night out."
"So?"
"So, it was almost like she was psychic or something"
"But anyone could guess that, it is like almost one in the morning and most people are at home at this hour, and she's only seen us all together so she probably thinks where there's one of us, the rest are nearby or something" Jack reasoned stuffing his hands in pockets.
"I guess so Sir, but it's just the way she said it, she seemed like she knew for sure like she could sense it or something… maybe I'm just more tired than I thought."
"Did you find out anything useful?" he asked. Sam shook her head tiredly.
"Go get some rest in your quarters Carter, we'll get ya if we need you" Jack ordered and he nodded to Daniel who went into the room next.
"Good luck" Sam muttered to Daniel, who heard her barely audible comment, and wondered what he was walking into.
Claire looked up from the table when she heard the door opening again. She saw the man with glasses who had helped capture her come in and sit across from her where Major Carter had been.
"Hi there" he said with a genuine smile. Claire regarded him suspiciously.
"I'm Daniel" he introduced himself, trying to appear as safe as he could, he didn't want her to be afraid of him.
"Daniel what?"
"Daniel Jackson" she nodded, casually looking around the room for a moment she continued, "and what exactly do you do at this lovely establishment Mr. Jackson?" she asked acidly. Visibly caught off guard by her attitude he took a few seconds to answer.
"I'm an archaeologist," he said eyeing her carefully; he would have to revise his whole approach to her, but for now he'd play along with her questions.
"What does the military want with an archaeologist? I can't imagine you would come across too many ancient artifacts in the Air Force." She said. She knew she wasn't being very nice to these people, but then again they had kidnapped her and locked her up. Boy were her foster parents going to be mad if she ever got off the base.
"I just do a little of this and a little of that around here, nothing too interesting," he brushed off the question.
"So what's your name?" he asked like he didn't know.
"Claire" she answered.
"That was my mothers name too," he said trying to relate to her.
"Was?" Claire noticed.
"She and my father died when I was kid," he confessed, figuring if he shared something personal with her, she might as well.
"What about your parents, what are their names?" he tried, although he knew her parents were dead.
"I don't know," she said sadly, looking at her hands.
"You don't know?"
"Yeah, all I remember is one day being put in foster home and being made to go to school and stuff, I can't even remember their faces." Her eyes had tears building in them, but she quickly brushed them away and Daniel saw all her walls go back up.
"So what are your foster parents like?" he slightly changed the subject. Claire shrugged and looked at him absently. Daniel had a feeling he wasn't going to get anymore out of her. "Well I'm going to go okay?" and with that he got up and left, leaving a very tired and confused teenager.
Why do they want to know about my parents? She thought to herself, and she slumped even lower in her chair.
Daniel emerged from the room pinching the bridge of his nose; he hadn't gotten anything useful, in his opinion, out of her. He looked up to see only Jack standing in the hall.
"Where's Teal'c I thought he was going to go in next?" Daniel asked frowning a bit.
"T thought he wouldn't be all that useful in getting information out of a kid, since his expertise is more in interrogating actual criminals or other baddies" Jack said. Daniel eyed him carefully.
"Was that your idea or his Jack?" Daniel asked knowingly. Jack feigned surprise,
"Me? … Yeah your right, I thought he would totally freak the kid out" Daniel smirked at the thought of Teal'c in there with Claire.
"So what'd you find out Daniel?" Jack asked motioning his head towards the room.
"She doesn't remember her parents, but that could just be because she was too young or something when they died."
"That's it?" Jack raised his eyebrows disappointedly.
"Yeah, other than that she asked what the Air Force wanted with an archaeologist" Daniel shrugged his shoulders and began walking away,
"Have fun Jack" he called over his shoulder as he disappeared around a corner.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jack called after him. He looked at the door to the VIP quarters wondering what he would be up against when he ventured in there. He had no idea how Claire would react to him, since he was the one that pulled a gun on her and technically he was the one that kidnapped her, and there was also that part about him carrying her over his shoulder in the infirmary. Running a hand through his greying hair and muttering to himself about being too old for this, Jack opened the door and entered the room.
"Colonel" Claire acknowledged.
"Kid" he said with a small nod of his head. This should be interesting he thought to himself as he shut the door.
TBC….
~~Thanks a bunch to everyone who reviewed the first two chapters!!~~
Sorry if it was a bit boring, but it will pick up and get better (I just had to establish some things first), so don't give up on me yet!!
Please Review :)