CHAPTER TWELVE: The Clock Ticks Life Away

A/N: Well, school starts again and in rolls the homework, talking bout clocks ticking life away!! *grumbles* But I guess it's important lol!!

Back to fan fic!!!

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Lizzy sat sulking in the chair of the SGC office. No one seemed to notice or care about her. She would've thought that walking into a secret military base and sitting around for hours would have been more difficult.

Now she was hungry, cold and feeling completely and utterly useless.

"Hello?" a female voice said from behind her.

She turned around to find a smiling lady with short brown hair standing behind her.

"Hey…" she replied cautiously.

"What're you doing in here?" she asked.

"Well I got in…and no one's told me to go away…can I help?" Lizzy replied.

The lady looked mildly surprised, but the expression disappeared quickly. "Ah, there isn't exactly much you can do…I'm Dr Frasier, you can call me Janet."

"Hi, I'm Lizzy," she replied.

"Hi Lizzy…you know it's been kinda hectic around here…" Janet said.

"Yeah well, the whole world being blown up by alien thing tends to do that…" Lizzy said.

"But really you shouldn't be down here…" Janet finished.

"I know, but I want to help!" Lizzy said.

"Well I'm not going to tell you to go back out because it's not a safe place up there at the moment…but just…stay here and don't interfere OK?" she said.

Lizzy nodded. Something bout eyes told Janet that Lizzy had absolutely no intention of sitting there any longer than she had to.

She ignored the teenager and walked up to Hammond's door, knocking quietly. There was no reply so she pushed the door open a crack and walked in.

Inside the office Hammond sat, injecting some kind of substance into his arm. Janet searched her brain swiftly for something that it could be.

"General…you're a Goa'uld!" she said quietly, backing away slowly.

Hammond looked up at her, his eyes glowing.

"You!" he said.

With that he pulled a zat out from under the counter and zatted her…Janet's body fell to the ground with the shock of the zat. An evil grin spread across Hammond's face.

He walked out of the room and into the briefing room where Lizzy still sat at the table.

"That's the last one that will fight back," Hammond said. "Begin your work."

Lizzy stood up and nodded. "Thank you for finding me a host…even if it is a whiny teenage child…it is greatly appreciated."

"You are welcome, my Lord Khonsu," Hammond said. "The host was just conveniently sitting here."

A smile spread across both their faces.

"Now to do the real damage," Khonsu/Lizzy said.

~*~*~*~

"Carter…?" Jack asked, walking into the room where she was seated on the floor, leaning against the wall.

She didn't reply, but she raised her eyes to look at him.

"I just tried to contact….well we just tried to contact Earth – we can't get through…" Jack said. "I'm worried."

"We have to go back there, sir," Sam replied.

"I know, but not before we've gotten you to safety," Jack said.

Her eyes suddenly widened. "What about Cassie?"

"She'll be fine…" Jack replied, unconvincingly.

He wandered over and sat down next to Sam on the floor.

"But she has naquadah in her system too…" Sam said.

"I know," Jack said. "Look Carter…we're not even sure if this thing will work…and if it does exactly how it works. All we know is that it has something to do with naquadah. No one knows for sure that Cassie will even be affected by it."

"I do," Sam said quietly. "So will Dad."

They sat in silence for a long moment. Jack wanted to reach out, he wanted to put his arm around her…but he couldn't bring himself to do so. He had let himself get to open with her recently. He wasn't allowed.

Not that it matters, another part of his brain screamed. The world was about to end, they were on a spaceship in the middle of space heading for an unknown planet, if Earth wasn't destroyed it would be in complete chaos…he didn't even know if the SGC still existed.

And he was worried about being court marshalled for being too close to his 2IC?

He reached his arm out and put it around her shoulder, pulling her closer to him. She didn't resist.

"Colonel…we have to go back to Earth…" Sam said finally.

"Why?" Jack said.

"Because…if we can stop this – if we can just prevent 1000 more people being killed…then me dying because of the weapon is a small sacrifice…" she said.

"No! I promised Jacob I'd get you to safety…." Jack said.

"You promised yourself you wouldn't let anything hurt me…" Sam twisted his words.

"Yes…" he said. "But Sam…the world needs you."

"Well that won't matter if there's no world TO need me…we have to turn this ship around…we have to go back to Earth!" Sam said, moving away from him slightly so she could look into his eyes. "Please."

Jack searched her eyes for a moment. But he knew what she was saying was the truth. Every moment counted – they had wasted enough time.

"OK," he stated simply.

With that he stood up, reaching his hand out and helping her up. She took his offer and stood up. Their hands stayed entangled.

"Jack…I love you," Sam blurted out.

Taken aback for a moment Jack froze in his position. His eyes staring into her sparkling blue ones.

"I know," he replied. "I love you too."

He reached forward and hugged her briefly, showing her, as well as telling her, how much he cared about her. Then he turned and walked out of the cargo room, Sam close behind him.

They were going to save Earth.

~*~*~*~

Janet opened her eyes to find herself lying imprisoned inside the SGC. In a contamination room to be exact.

"Damnit," she said, standing up and walking over to the door.

There were Jaffa wandering around in the corridor outside. She swore again and then turned around, looking for a means of escape.

She didn't see any.

Then a pair of scissors, carelessly left in the corner of the room caught her eyes. She walked over and picked them up. Turning around she looked at the lock on the door.

"This might take a while…"

~*~*~*~

Jack watched as the ship landed smack bang in the middle of the road in front of Cheyenne Mountain. They hadn't even bothered with trying to land on the proper airstrip, they'd gone straight for the main entrance – a dozen or so Death Gliders on their tail…which had seemed to loose interest by the time they'd landed. No shots had been exchanged – they were obviously assumed to be one of the Goa'uld's own.

"Out we go!" Jack shouted.

The group of them piled out of the cargo ship and straight for the hidden ladder that would take them down into the SGC. It would take them a long time to get down into the lower levels – but at least they wouldn't be seen.

Jack took the lid off the stairs and the others climbed in one by one. He was keeping a very close eye on Sam…he knew there was a good chance she wouldn't make it after Jacob fired up the weapon.

He didn't know what he would do if that happened.

But for now his main priority was saving the planet.

About forty minutes later they emerged at the bottom of the stairs. Teal'c opened the door and had a look around. The hallway was empty. He signalled to the others and they all piled out one by one.

"Ok, Daniel I want to head that way and set up camp in the security room. I know it doesn't seem important, but it would be helpful. Teal'c, Jonas – I want you to go around to all holding cells and see if you can find anyone still alive. Carter you're with me, we're gonna find Hammond," Jack said.

Everyone nodded and headed in their own directions.

~*~*~*~

"Almost…" Janet whispered to herself.

Just as she said it the locked clicked and the door hand came loose.

"Yes…" she said, opening the door and coming face to face with a large Jaffa.

"Dr Frasier…" he said.

"Teal'c! Oh you have got no idea how happy I am to see you!" she said, hugging him.

Teal'c looked rather surprised, he turned to face Jonas and raised an eyebrow.

"General Hammond's a Goa'uld," Janet said.

"We know," Jonas said. "Jack figured it out just after they were sent off to rescue us."

"He's using that drug that…" Janet looked at Jonas, not wanting to break open old wounds. "…that we've seen used before."

"Come on we have to find others," Jonas said.

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed.

~*~*~*~

Jack and Sam made their way down the familiar SGC corridors. There was silence between them. It wasn't an awkward silence…just a comfortable with what had happened before kind of silence. There was a noise from in front of them and Jack opened the nearest door – which happened to be a storage closet – and pulled Sam inside after him.

He left the door open a crack and watched a squadron of Jaffa marched past.

"For crying out loud…" he muttered. "Things just keep getting worse and worse."

Sam didn't reply.

After a couple of minutes he eased open the door and they both returned into the corridor, guns raised.

They made their way, without anymore interruptions, to Hammond's office. They opened the door to find no one inside.

"Well that sucks," Jack said.

They turned around to be faced with a squadron of at least 20 Jaffa.

"Bad day…" Sam said.

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A/N: OMG THAT TOOK SO LONG! I swear my muse died!! I wanna thank Jess for helping me get it back – it was her fics that helped :D lol

PLEASE REVIEW!

I'm sooo sorry that took so long!!