STARGATE SG-1: The Grandfather Paradox

Summary: The Tok'ra enlist Jack's help to track down a Goa'uld who has mastered time travel.

Season: Any.

Spoilers: None.

Pairing: Implied Jack/Sam at the end, but nothing major to plot.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Stargate SG-1! (Shame really!).

Warning: Character death!

Author's Note: Right, I've kept you all hanging long enough, so here it is, the big(ish) finale! I advise you to have a box of tissues handy! That's all I'm saying, so R&R as always. Thanx. Enjoy!

The Grandfather Paradox – Part 4

19:30, August 10th

The green light surrounding Jack faded away for the last time. He was home, and thankfully so. He glanced around his office in Cheyenne Mountain, relieved to see the familiar sight of paper work and paper aeroplanes all over the floor. He carefully set the Canopic Jar down on his desk.

Gradually, his heart rate began to slow to its natural pace, but he couldn't will the warmth back into his skin, nor stop every muscle in his body from shaking. His lungs had constricted to about a tenth of their normal capacity. Gasping for breath, Jack sank into the closest chair and ran the back of his hand across his forehead, removing a layer of cold sweat from his brow.

Had he just done what his senses were telling him he had done? Was that really how it happened?

Jack couldn't bring himself to even think about answering the myriad of questions that was swimming in his mind.

That's when he noticed his hands; still shaking from shock and the ride back. His palms were mottled with a crimson liquid, some dried and turning darker, but still warm none the less.

Blood.

He quickly glanced over his tired attire, horrified to see the same sight seeping into his over shirt and fatigues. He couldn't hold back anymore. His well trained military façade broke down and was replaced by the shock- ridden wreck that he truly was at this point.

He knew this was real ...

He sank his head into his hands, trying desperately to bloke out the images flooding his mind and the everyday sounds of the base pounding his senses – the sound of the life support generator, people outside his office, the door opening.

He glanced up to see who had caused the disturbance.

"Sir?" a slightly startled Carter said, entering the room with his watch. "What are you doing here?"

Jack didn't answer her. He just indicated the jar on his desk.

"You did it?!" she exclaimed, half in glee, half amazed that he had arrived back before he had even left. "What happened?"

Jack was still for a moment.

"I killed him," he said plainly and quietly. His gaze was fixed non- committaly on a point on the floor.

"Her, sir," Carter corrected. "Don't you mean you killed her? You killed Wadjet?"

Jack shook his head. "That's not what I mean. I mean I killed HIM."

"Who?"

Jack couldn't bring himself to say it. Didn't want to even admit it to himself. But he had to. He had to talk about it, somehow. Otherwise it would eat him up inside. He took a deep breath...

"Charlie."

#

16:00 July 24th, 1996

This second trip hadn't been as draining as the first, perhaps because he knew what to expect this time. However, the sight that greeted him when the light had gone was one that sent a chill down Jack's spine.

'She wouldn't dare!' he thought.

In this brief moment of his realisation, Jack had let his guard down and Wadjet had struggled free from his grasp. She headed straight for the house. Jack watched in horror as he saw her slip in through the front door. He quickly followed her, knowing fine well that the house would be empty, apart from his son. He and his wife were out the back, sharing sweet nothings.

His heart was in his throat by the time he reached the door. He took the gun from his belt and carefully proceeded into the house.

He made a quick sweep of the ground floor and found nothing, which is what he expected but he had to be sure. With the same degree of caution, he began to climb the stairs.

There were sounds coming from his study.

"Charlie?" he said loud enough to be heard but not so loud that it roused any suspicion from the couple outside.

There was no reply. Only the same shuffling sounds coming from his office.

He was at the top of the stairs now. His heart rate was so fast and loud he could almost hear it echoing around the walls. He approached his study at the end of the hallway.

He kicked the door open, his gun directed into the room, ready to be fired.

"Dad?" Charlie sounded scared to death. And for good reason too. He was being held firmly in place by Wadjet, who was pointing his father's personal firearm at his head.

Jack froze to the spot. He knew what day it was. He knew what had to happen. But he tried to stop it anyway.

"Let him go!" he said weakly. "He's just a kid. He's done nothing to you. Just let him go!"

Wadjet smiled slyly and placed her hand over the boy's mouth, preventing him from screaming.

"NO!" Jack shouted (still not loud enough for the child's parents to hear). He tried to run forward to his son, but was stopped by an energy shield she was controlling.

He could do nothing but watch in horror as the snake emerged from the woman's mouth and burrowed its way into the back of Charlie's neck.

Jack watched his eyes. At first, they showed terror and pain and confusion, all at once. Then suddenly, they burned white hot and became emotionless and cold.

Jack sank to his knees as Wadjet's former host collapsed, dead, on the floor. As she fell, the force-field disengaged. But Jack was too distraught to do anything.

Charlie smiled at him. "Hi dad," he said, his voice metallic and artificial. Wadjet had easily taken the young boy's mind.

Jack was furious. His own son was being use against him. He stood to his feet, tears streaming down his face at the realisation that he had lost his son again.

But Wadjet wasn't finished. She picked up he gun from her former host and pointed it at Jack.

"Don't," Jack pleaded as he watched his 'son' stand and turn the gun towards him.

But Charlie couldn't hear him. Or, more specifically, he couldn't respond. Wadjet was in sole control over him and there as nothing he or his father could do.

Jack knew this too. And he knew how this day ended. It was only now that he was beginning to realise how that end was achieved.

Tears continued to fall down his cheeks, and he just let them. There was no will power in the universe strong enough to hold back the torrent of grief, guilt and anger that was coursing through Jack at the moment. He knew what he had to do.

Closing his eyes, tightly shut, Jack fired his weapon. He heard the ear- shattering shot ring out, followed by the sound of his son hitting the floor.

Breathing heavily, Jack opened his eyes to view Charlie's almost lifeless body in front of him. Wadjet crawled pitifully out of the boy and soon perished before Jack's eyes.

"Dad?" Charlie whispered with what little strength he had left.

Jack scrunched his eyes up as tightly as he could, trying not to be a witness to his own son's demise for a second time.

"CHARLIE!"

It was Sara. Soon she and her husband would be in the office and grieving over their son. Jack had to act quickly.

He scooped the Goa'uld's remains into the canopic jar, before picking up the lifeless corpse of her ex-host. He heard the back door being wrenched open. Knowing 'he' would be soon bounding up the stairs with Sara only feet behind, Jack hauled his load into another room just in time to not be seen. There, he listened and waited...

#

"Sara! Call an ambulance, now!" he heard his own voice command.

Jack felt himself recall the words he had spoken to his son as he waited for the ambulance to arrive. It was strange, to say the least to be hearing it from the next room.

"It's OK, son. Help's coming. Just hang on."

"I'm sorry dad. Please don't be angry," Charlie replied, barely audible.

"I'm not angry, Charlie. I love you, OK. I'm not angry."

Jack's heart fell as he remembered and heard Charlie's final word to him. Suddenly, he understood what he meant.

"Why?..."

Sirens screamed in the street and soon the boy and his parents were swept up and away to the hospital to await the inevitable.

Jack was left in his old house with a new sense of guilt and loss.

#

19:43, August 10th

Carter sat staring at Jack through tear misted eyes. What could she possibly say to that? She already knew how hard it was for him to move on from Charlie's death the first time around. How was he supposed to deal with this?

Through the silence, he sensed her incomprehension of what to do.

"You don't have to say anything, it's OK," he said reassuring her.

"No! It's not OK, sir," she said, beginning to feel a strange mixture of anger and helplessness. "They shouldn't have made you go. You should never have gone through that!"

Jack shook his head. "It had to happen like that and you know it."

Sam wasn't convinced. For once in her life, she was completely disregarding everything she knew about science. This was personal and no scientific theory could settle the deadly sick feeling seeping into her veins.

"If Charlie hadn't died, then I wouldn't have joined the Stargate programme, Teal'c would still be first prime to Apophis, Wadjet would have gotten away with her plan and then where would we be?"

What he was saying was all true but there was still a mechanical, monotone to his voice that betrayed his words for what they really were – meaningless explanations for something he could barely admit to himself had happened.

"We would have got through it," Sam said pitifully.

"Jacob would have died of cancer. We wouldn't have met. Abydos would still be enslaved," Jack carried on, trying to convince himself as well as her that it had to have happened as it did.

"But at what price?" Sam answered him.

Jack looked up at her. "What choice did I have? It was one life or millions the whole galaxy over."

"So, you'd do it again?" Sam questioned coldly.

Jack fixed his gaze on her. "What do you think?" he said maliciously.

Silence crept back between the two of them for a moment. Sam quickly searching to change the subject.

"So what happened in Egypt?"

For a second, a slight smile reached Jack's eyes.

"I started the rebellion," he said boldly.

"THE rebellion?"

"Yep."

At her stunned expression, Jack launched into his story. Of how he had met Ayesha and her father. How she had promised to help him if he helped 'rally the troops' against to Goa'uld. How he had gone head to head against Wadjet while the rest of the rebels had launched their attack.

Sam was spellbound the whole time. "Daniel's gonna be so jealous when he finds out!"

Jack allowed himself a small smile at that little detail.

"What happened to he host?" Sam ventured carefully.

The smile on Jack's face faded as the memory of his son's death filtered back into the foreground of his mind. He hung his head for a moment.

"I took her body out to the woods and buried her by the stream. No-one saw me."

Sam nodded, acknowledging that there would be no more talk of what he had gone through. She stood up and placed his watch beside the canopic jar on the desk.

"Do you want me to take that?" she said, pointing to the jar.

Jack looked at it for a moment, before turning his gaze once more to her understanding face.

"Yeah," he said eventually pulling himself back to reality from the cool blue sanctuary of her eyes.

She smiled sympathetically as she picked up the jar and headed towards the door.

"For what it's worth, Jack," she said as she reached the door. "This place wouldn't be the same without you."

With that she left his office.

Jack sat for a moment after she left. The day's events hadn't quite sunk in yet. He was still reeling from the revelation of everything that had happened in Egypt. The matter with Charlie was different, though. He'd already had nearly ten years to get used to losing him, only now he knew the truth, which in some ways made it harder to bare but was also a release. He knew everything now. Knew it had to have happened like that. That despite the fact he had pulled the trigger, he wasn't solely to blame.

He thought of a moment, surprised to finally find closure for his son's death – albeit slightly stilted at the moment. He smiled realising just how much his team had changed him over the years. Taught him to see things that little bit clearer than he would have before.

Jack picked up his watch and looked at the digital numbers happily displaying the time.

19:56

He'd been gone for ten minutes by now.

But, hey. That was all relative.

#####

Author's Note: As they say on Loony Toons, "That's all folks!" Hope you liked the series (the first one of mine that I've actually completed!). I'll be cracking on with 'Closure' and 'Bed of Roses' as soon as I can, with lots more on the way that is still locked in my head – possibly the scariest place on earth! Anyway, enough of me for now! It's your turn to write something and send me a review!!!!