O'Neill looked at his watch again. Thirty seconds late. He made himself as comfortable as he could, lying prone in the long grass, selecting his first target.
Then it happened. Two : four : five : he squeezed his trigger once : seven : eight : ten. He looked around. The first two still hadn't hit the deck... but their heads... fountains of blood spewed in their place. Before he could move, Hailey was already running to the tent, pistol in hand. Quite calmly she ran round the outside towards the back. She let off three rounds. Three heads went pop.
Hailey dropped to her knees then and her body heaved. O'Neill looked across at Carter as she emerged from her position looking curiously back at him. O'Neill shrugged as Hailey left the contents of her stomach on the grass. Carter reached her first.
"Don't let this fool you," Hailey glared up at her. "You don't know what I see; you don't see it, you won't want to see it. You'll never see it!" she spat. "Harry? Where's Harry? We've got to get him out of there, Jack, now!" Her eyes went wide. "Now! Do it! There's more Jaffa coming." She closed her eyes. "Two minutes. Eight of them. He knows. Run, Carter! Take cover! North-east! Just do it!" she yelled, chasing after O'Neill.
They found Maybourne trussed up with the headless guard fallen on top of him. "No time. Just grab a leg and drag," she laughed. "He'll live." Her eyes flashed as they pulled him out, blood splattering everywhere. They dragged him, bouncing and cursing to the safety of the low bushes seconds before the Jaffa entered the clearing. Hailey shook her head. "Sorry, Harry." She hit him once, knocking him out. "They're attuned to his symbiote," she said by way of explanation.
"Lucky Harry."
"Give me the first four shots, Jack. I'll pick them off from the back." Hailey calmed herself as she picked up the SSG 550. "Then they're all yours, fire at will."
O'Neill nodded. "Sure thing. Why not." He and Carter raised their P-90s. In two seconds four heads exploded then they let loose. The lead Jaffa turned just in time to hear the explosion of gun-fire before they, too, fell.
Carter frowned as Hailey shot their heads away. "Jack?" she asked.
"Long story, Carter. How's Maybourne doing?"
"He'll be fine," Hailey wheezed as she fought to control her stomach. "Watch him until he comes round. We should be in the clear now. If you collect our gear and head for the gate." She stood and began walking away slowly. "There's some things I need to tell Carter," she said, not even looking to see if Carter followed.
O'Neill watched her. "Sure. Whatever you say. Major."
Two miles down the track Carter finally drew level with her.
"Harry and I are not your usual team, Major. He's Tok'ra now, and we have a different kind of understanding to you and Jack."
"Yeah. For a start I don't call the Colonel by his first name."
"No, you wouldn't." She paused. "Don't get me wrong; you two are the finest there is. I'll never be half the officer you are. I'm just a runt that got mixed up in something bigger than I was made for. The burden I have to carry goes beyond... I need to rest." Hailey sat heavily, coughing up blood from an empty stomach.
"What's wrong, Hailey?"
"Nothing you'll understand." Hailey returned Carter's stare, dismissing the sympathy she didn't want. "I envy what you and your Colonel have," she began, "But being with Harry... his habits have a way of corrupting even the best ideals. The Colonel knows the truth but..."
"It's classified."
"Yeah. If Colonel O'Neill could tell you... I'm no Major. All the things I've done, everything I've seen... there is no preparation for it. Taking this assignment when it was offered to me was my decision. You believed in me and General Hammond trusted your judgment, but I still have to prove that I can do it. Being with Colonel Maybourne -- what we do -- it's exhilarating. Believe me, you can't possibly imagine it. But coming down... it hurts," she spat more blood. "It hurts a lot. But it was my choice and I don't regret it." Hailey paused. "We should head for the gate."
"Not yet. If you need medication I can..."
Hailey almost choked as she laughed. "Thanks, but given time I'll recover."
"At least try not to be so stubborn," Carter chided her gently. "We'll wait here. Rest."
At that, Hailey looked up at her, making eye contact and for once maintaining it with a respect that was surprising. "Yes, Ma'am." Hailey leaned back, closing her eyes, and Carter saw again just how young she really was and how tired. And how much she had been forced to live up to. But when Maybourne and Colonel O'Neill came into sight she jumped up, smiled weakly, but still managed to act as if nothing was wrong.
"Whatever you think of me, Major, I always aim to do my best, and I do it for a reason. I always give Harry -- Colonel Maybourne -- one hundred percent, and he gives the same for me." Hailey wobbled uncertainly as Maybourne drew near, and he ran to support her, ignoring the bemused glances thrown his way.
...
The long trek back to the stargate was slow. Carter and Colonel O'Neill tried their hardest to avoid exchanging glances as they walked in silence behind Maybourne and Hailey, as they leaned on each other, making small talk that neither of them wanted to hear. Whatever their differences, there was still a right -- and a very wrong -- way of doing things.
Eventually they reached the gate. Carter looked away as O'Neill dialed home and activated his GDO, relieved that it was over. But Maybourne held O'Neill back. He hadn't said two words her, and looking at what he'd done to Hailey, she was glad. At O'Neill's signal, she didn't want to look back as they waited for her to go through the gate.
"We're not going back with you, Jack. We can't," Maybourne said.
"Oh?"
"The original targets we took out were NID," Hailey continued. "But they were merely the bait. The Tok'ra aren't as united as they'd have you think. It wasn't Harry they wanted, but we had to let them take him in the hope that they'd want to get to me. The guard in the tent was a Tok'ra agent who wanted to stop us. He was the one we were after. This is a war, Jack, and the stakes are high. For what it's worth, the others really were Jaffa. Our people will clean up after we've gone."
"And again, I say, oh?"
"This definitely isn't the right time or place, Jack," Maybourne said softly, taking Hailey's hand. "But when is it ever?" he grinned. "How would you like to be his god-father, Jack?"
"Say what!?"
"I'm pregnant, Sir," Hailey smiled. "They wanted a bright young thing to... You wouldn't believe who gave us the go-ahead. Of course, you can't tell anyone. And Carter thinks I'm just a brat in too deep again, gone bad under Harry's influence, so you can blame him."
"But you know what this means," Maybourne continued. "And someone outside the Tok'ra has to know, just in case."
"Yeah, well, congratulations and all that, but are you sure, Harry?"
"Trust me, Jack. Hammond won't be happy, and the Pentagon will be furious, but it has to be this way for everyone's safety. We'll be in touch when we're ready."
"And you'd better go now, Sir. They won't hold the gate open much longer."
"Yeah, right." O'Neill turned and ran to the gate. But just before he went through, some instinct made him stop and look back. He'd been on some crazy missions before, but this one... He wondered just how much of it he was really meant to understand as Maybourne and Hailey -- hugging each other for heaven's sake -- disappeared within a set of transport rings.
