Title: In the Middle
Spoilers: Nothing really
Summary: The first day at work isn't fun at all….
Rating: R Archive: SJD sure Disclaimer: Don't own them, don't sue me AN: I know this is a really touchy subject for some people. And by the reviews I received, I don't know if I'll continue it. Just let me know if you want me to. Feedback craved!
Their day was Hell. If they thought Netu was bad, they didn't know what as coming. They had been 'woken up' about two hours after the arrived at their barrack, but then they realized they never fell asleep in the first place. Then, it was off to work.
Teal'c, Jack and Daniel were all taken to the loading docks, and worked their butts off. They loaded and unloaded supplies for the military off of the trains and moved them into the right place. No one seemed willing to befriend them yet, but some people weren't as terrified of them as the night before.
Sam was forced into her worst nightmare ever. Give her a good fight any day, someone to take on. Even give her some physical labor; that she could deal with. But sewing? That was horrible!
She had to sew materials for the army. Their blankets, their uniforms, anything they needed. It was horrible. She would rather work in a munitions factory. With any hope, she thought, I'll get transferred. Since she was a sewing novice, the other women helped her as much as possible. They were almost frightened that she didn't know how to use a sewing machine that well.
As soon as their work day was over, everyone was allowed back to their barracks to eat and rest for the next day.
"So how was the train station?" Sam asked as she broke off a piece of stale bread.
"Exhausting…." Daniel replied as he flopped back onto a bed. The barracks were made up of two sets of fifteen rows of bunk beds, three beds high. Teal'c had the highest one, Daniel had the middle, and Jack and Sam both had two bottom bunks. She had the bottom of a different bunk than the three guys. Daniel and Jack were sitting on Jack's bed, while Sam and Teal'c were sitting on her bed.
"It was indeed tiring, but I have endured worse." Teal'c was eating his small portion of bread as well.
"Yeah, it was bad, but probably not as bad as sewing all day," Jack replied sarcastically. He was a tad touchy that she only had to sew all day, while they had hours of harboring labor.
"Hey! Switch jobs with me any day! Lord knows I can't sew! I always manage to screw the machine up, or lose the thread through the needle. I would rather be with you guys," she stammered back defensively. Jack felt a little guilty about his earlier remark.
"Yeah, I know Carter. And don't worry, I wish you were too. Sewing is easy! If you're using a needle to sew, just double-loop the thread through the eye of the needle. That way, it's twice as hard to lose it." All three of his teammates just looked at him with disbelief.
"You know how to sew Jack?" Daniel asked, obviously flabbergasted, as he lowered the piece of bread he just grabbed.
"Hey, I had a kid once before. You don't think those holes in clothes sew themselves, do you?" he said, eating the last of his bread serving for the day.
"It was a little odd though, the other women were almost nervous when they realized I couldn't sew," Sam said.
"Well that makes sense. If their guards were anything like the Nazi guards of our World War II, if you have no use to them, then there's no reason for you to, ah, how to put it nicely." Daniel started matter-of-a-fact-ly, but couldn't finish his sentence.
"Be alive in there presence," she finished for him. The team just sat for a silent second, taking in how hard it must be to survive here.
"I guess I'll try harder tomorrow. I just feel bad because you guys have all of the hard work and I sew." She shook her head.
"Think nothing of it. Easy. Piece of cake. No problema," Jack started as he took his turn to slump back onto the bed with his arms around his head.
"Was there anything learned about the feud itself?" Teal'c asked.
"I managed to talk to someone, I think his name is Held. He works in the same area of unloading as me. He didn't seem too afraid to talk to me. Right now, we're in a work prison of Mentu, who was married to Menhit, which I did have right. Now, Menhit was also married to Khnum, and they had a child called Heka."
"Yeah, we know this already Daniel," Jack groaned from under his arms.
"Like I was saying, Mentu now considers Khnum his enemy because he thinks Heka is his."
"So it's all about the paternity?" Sam asked.
"Well, almost. Mentu also think that Menhit's marriage to Khnum was meaningless and unaccountable. So, if that's true, then Heka means nothing and deserves death."
"And I thought I had a hard time with my father as a kid," Sam muttered.
"So basically they're dealing with a lose-lose situation."
"And we're stuck here. How do we get out of her Daniel?" Jack asked impatiently.
"I don't know Jack; I've been here as long as you. Do you know how to get out of here?"
"Hey! As long as we are here, we need to keep our cool. And keep a cover going. Some people might be a little stand-offish if they knew that we aren't one of them," Sam interrupted.
"I concur. These people may not like the idea of outsiders intruding on what little bit of home they have," Teal'c said.
"So, cover story?"
"We were traveling outside of our town to find a safer place to stay and were captured?" Sam offered.
"Works for me." Jack grunted as he turned over.
"We've been gone for thirty six hours now, another day, day and a half at the least; they should be sending someone through." Daniel got up and hopped onto his bed. Teal'c bowed his head at Sam, and climbed up the bed from the foot side, and climbed in as well.
"Don't let the bed bugs bite," Jack sluggishly said as everyone tucked themselves in for a horrible night's sleep.
Jack noticed Daniel talking to someone, and decided to join him. They had about two minutes before the next train arrived, so they had a moment to breathe. After smacking Teal'c on the arm, they were both off to see his new friend.
"Daniel," Jack said, getting his attention. Daniel's head snapped towards him in mid-sentence.
"Jack, Teal'c, this is Held. He's been here a while." The new men nodded to each other.
"Held was just giving me some survival tips. For instance, see him?" Daniel pointed to the guard near them. He was adorned with many metals and had a hat on that covered his face. "That's Juest, Mentu's second in command."
"Or first prime," Teal'c said quietly. Daniel just nodded.
"Be careful of him. He will look for things to punish you." Held just shook his head in disgust as he spit on the ground, trying to re-fresh his mouth from the nasty taste in it. Juest looked over at the group and smiled. It was one of the most evil smiles Jack had seen in a long time. He was just waiting to see eyes glow.
The break ended about a half hour when they saw the UAV fly over them. Many of the workers were too busy to notice it, but SG-1 had been waiting for it to come through. When it turned in a circle to get a better picture of what was happening below it and send its findings back to the SGC, most of the workers noticed it.
"Plane! It's Lord Khnum coming for us! He has not forgot about us!" they heard many people cry. Everyone stopped and dropped what they were doing, raising their hands above their heads and waved them, trying to capture the UAV's attention. SG-1 was sure that Hammond would send teams through soon enough. They just had to hold on.
Then, it started.
The guards were scurrying out of whatever hole the had been living in with their guns ready for action. They started screaming for everyone to return to work, to forget the mysterious flying contraption above them, that it wasn't from their false lord. And when the people refused to listen, the shooting started.
Forty yards from where the stood they heard screaming… women screaming. All of the train men looked over and saw all of the sewing women looking out of the window of the building where they worked right as the shooting started.
The guards were shooting at the women first, not even bothering with the men.
Some of the women even whipped their heads, the disbelief and distraught shown in their eyes. They were frozen for a moment, not knowing what to do. Jack scanned the crowd to see Sam, but she was lost in the crowd of rushing women. A few more shots rang out, and a few more bodies fell to the ground.
The guards started hording everyone back to their barracks like cattle. People were being shoved, hit, kicked, shoved. Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c all managed to stay together, but they couldn't find Sam. All of the women were being held behind, which made SG-1 uneasy. They didn't like the sound of that at all. Sam was a good solider, a kick ass soldier. They knew she could handle herself for the most part. But after what they saw today, they were still nervous.
"Where is your friend?" Held asked as soon as they were back in the barracks. He was in the same barracks as them. Daniel felt better, knowing someone who they worked with and stayed with. It was better to have allies; that he learned a LONG time ago.
"Who, Sam?" Daniel asked back.
"Yes, the one with the blond hair."
"She isn't here yet I'm guessing."
"What's wrong with that? What are they going to do her?" Jack asked, stepping forward to see Held. He was about the same size as Daniel, but with shaggy black hair. Everyone, except for Teal'c, stood with their arms crossed. Teal'c was his usual stoic self.
"I'm not sure if this is true, but I heard they kept the women behind for a reason." He leaned closer and looked around as if he were trying to keep a special secret.
"And what would that reason be?" Jack asked nervously.
"I'm not sure. It could be for anything. I hope that it's not what you're thinking."
"Thanks Held," Daniel said as Held walked away. Jack sighed and ran his hands through his hair as he walked to his bed to sit down. Teal'c watched him with a raised eyebrow, and then followed. Daniel followed suit.
"Sam! Where have you been! It's been four hours!" Daniel was the first to spot her coming near them. She looked uneasy; her eyes were looking all around her as if she were watching for someone to come after her. It almost looked like she was in shock.
"Carter! What the hell happened!?" Jack yelled as he jumped up and grabbed her arms. She winced and removed herself from his grasp by twisting her arms away.
"Jesus Sam, what did they do to you?" Daniel's voice was quite with concern as he saw her eyes well up with tears. She put her left arm close to her chest and covered it by putting her right hand on her left shoulder. Confusion overran her face for a moment before realization hit her eyes.
"Oh god, no, nothing like that. No no, no. I didn't get, no. That didn't happen." She shook her head as if trying to shake the thought out of her head.
"What happened? Why are you cradling your arm? Did someone hurt you?" Jack ran his hands down her arms, looking for any injuries.
'Standard military procedure, keep telling yourself that Jack," he thought to himself. So help him god, if they did anything to hurt anyone on his team…
"No, I'm fine, really." She shook her head at him, trying to reassure him.
"Sam what is it? What did they do to your arm?" Jack asked, calling her bluff. How many times did they do that, say they were fine but nearly end up dying because of their stupid pride?
She was shocked by her first name for a moment and just looked at him. They only used their first names when something bad was going down, and they needed to all know what was going on to make a correct assessment of the situation. Or when someone was dead. And all of SG-1 was there, so that couldn't be it. Or, he just could be plain worried about her. Looking at her feet, Sam slowly raised the sleeve of her shirt. On the inside of her arm above her elbow, they saw what she was upset about.
"He marked you," Daniel stated, the surprise evident in his voice. It was the same symbol that Mentu's soldiers wore on their armbands. Now, it was on Sam, forever.
"After what happened today, he didn't want any of the women to get a false hope that something could happen, so he… burnt this into us so we wouldn't forget who we belonged to." She shivered as she finished the sentence. Quickly, she rolled down the sleeve of her shirt over the tarnish on her skin. She squeezed between Jack and Daniel and passed Teal'c, wanting just to get away from everyone. Teal'c just watched her with a sympathetic face, knowing exactly what she was going through.
"I will have a discussion with MajorCarter tomorrow," he simply stated as soon as she was out of range getting food for herself. The other two men just nodded, too shocked to even say anything at the moment.
TBC perhaps
Rating: R Archive: SJD sure Disclaimer: Don't own them, don't sue me AN: I know this is a really touchy subject for some people. And by the reviews I received, I don't know if I'll continue it. Just let me know if you want me to. Feedback craved!
Their day was Hell. If they thought Netu was bad, they didn't know what as coming. They had been 'woken up' about two hours after the arrived at their barrack, but then they realized they never fell asleep in the first place. Then, it was off to work.
Teal'c, Jack and Daniel were all taken to the loading docks, and worked their butts off. They loaded and unloaded supplies for the military off of the trains and moved them into the right place. No one seemed willing to befriend them yet, but some people weren't as terrified of them as the night before.
Sam was forced into her worst nightmare ever. Give her a good fight any day, someone to take on. Even give her some physical labor; that she could deal with. But sewing? That was horrible!
She had to sew materials for the army. Their blankets, their uniforms, anything they needed. It was horrible. She would rather work in a munitions factory. With any hope, she thought, I'll get transferred. Since she was a sewing novice, the other women helped her as much as possible. They were almost frightened that she didn't know how to use a sewing machine that well.
As soon as their work day was over, everyone was allowed back to their barracks to eat and rest for the next day.
"So how was the train station?" Sam asked as she broke off a piece of stale bread.
"Exhausting…." Daniel replied as he flopped back onto a bed. The barracks were made up of two sets of fifteen rows of bunk beds, three beds high. Teal'c had the highest one, Daniel had the middle, and Jack and Sam both had two bottom bunks. She had the bottom of a different bunk than the three guys. Daniel and Jack were sitting on Jack's bed, while Sam and Teal'c were sitting on her bed.
"It was indeed tiring, but I have endured worse." Teal'c was eating his small portion of bread as well.
"Yeah, it was bad, but probably not as bad as sewing all day," Jack replied sarcastically. He was a tad touchy that she only had to sew all day, while they had hours of harboring labor.
"Hey! Switch jobs with me any day! Lord knows I can't sew! I always manage to screw the machine up, or lose the thread through the needle. I would rather be with you guys," she stammered back defensively. Jack felt a little guilty about his earlier remark.
"Yeah, I know Carter. And don't worry, I wish you were too. Sewing is easy! If you're using a needle to sew, just double-loop the thread through the eye of the needle. That way, it's twice as hard to lose it." All three of his teammates just looked at him with disbelief.
"You know how to sew Jack?" Daniel asked, obviously flabbergasted, as he lowered the piece of bread he just grabbed.
"Hey, I had a kid once before. You don't think those holes in clothes sew themselves, do you?" he said, eating the last of his bread serving for the day.
"It was a little odd though, the other women were almost nervous when they realized I couldn't sew," Sam said.
"Well that makes sense. If their guards were anything like the Nazi guards of our World War II, if you have no use to them, then there's no reason for you to, ah, how to put it nicely." Daniel started matter-of-a-fact-ly, but couldn't finish his sentence.
"Be alive in there presence," she finished for him. The team just sat for a silent second, taking in how hard it must be to survive here.
"I guess I'll try harder tomorrow. I just feel bad because you guys have all of the hard work and I sew." She shook her head.
"Think nothing of it. Easy. Piece of cake. No problema," Jack started as he took his turn to slump back onto the bed with his arms around his head.
"Was there anything learned about the feud itself?" Teal'c asked.
"I managed to talk to someone, I think his name is Held. He works in the same area of unloading as me. He didn't seem too afraid to talk to me. Right now, we're in a work prison of Mentu, who was married to Menhit, which I did have right. Now, Menhit was also married to Khnum, and they had a child called Heka."
"Yeah, we know this already Daniel," Jack groaned from under his arms.
"Like I was saying, Mentu now considers Khnum his enemy because he thinks Heka is his."
"So it's all about the paternity?" Sam asked.
"Well, almost. Mentu also think that Menhit's marriage to Khnum was meaningless and unaccountable. So, if that's true, then Heka means nothing and deserves death."
"And I thought I had a hard time with my father as a kid," Sam muttered.
"So basically they're dealing with a lose-lose situation."
"And we're stuck here. How do we get out of her Daniel?" Jack asked impatiently.
"I don't know Jack; I've been here as long as you. Do you know how to get out of here?"
"Hey! As long as we are here, we need to keep our cool. And keep a cover going. Some people might be a little stand-offish if they knew that we aren't one of them," Sam interrupted.
"I concur. These people may not like the idea of outsiders intruding on what little bit of home they have," Teal'c said.
"So, cover story?"
"We were traveling outside of our town to find a safer place to stay and were captured?" Sam offered.
"Works for me." Jack grunted as he turned over.
"We've been gone for thirty six hours now, another day, day and a half at the least; they should be sending someone through." Daniel got up and hopped onto his bed. Teal'c bowed his head at Sam, and climbed up the bed from the foot side, and climbed in as well.
"Don't let the bed bugs bite," Jack sluggishly said as everyone tucked themselves in for a horrible night's sleep.
Jack noticed Daniel talking to someone, and decided to join him. They had about two minutes before the next train arrived, so they had a moment to breathe. After smacking Teal'c on the arm, they were both off to see his new friend.
"Daniel," Jack said, getting his attention. Daniel's head snapped towards him in mid-sentence.
"Jack, Teal'c, this is Held. He's been here a while." The new men nodded to each other.
"Held was just giving me some survival tips. For instance, see him?" Daniel pointed to the guard near them. He was adorned with many metals and had a hat on that covered his face. "That's Juest, Mentu's second in command."
"Or first prime," Teal'c said quietly. Daniel just nodded.
"Be careful of him. He will look for things to punish you." Held just shook his head in disgust as he spit on the ground, trying to re-fresh his mouth from the nasty taste in it. Juest looked over at the group and smiled. It was one of the most evil smiles Jack had seen in a long time. He was just waiting to see eyes glow.
The break ended about a half hour when they saw the UAV fly over them. Many of the workers were too busy to notice it, but SG-1 had been waiting for it to come through. When it turned in a circle to get a better picture of what was happening below it and send its findings back to the SGC, most of the workers noticed it.
"Plane! It's Lord Khnum coming for us! He has not forgot about us!" they heard many people cry. Everyone stopped and dropped what they were doing, raising their hands above their heads and waved them, trying to capture the UAV's attention. SG-1 was sure that Hammond would send teams through soon enough. They just had to hold on.
Then, it started.
The guards were scurrying out of whatever hole the had been living in with their guns ready for action. They started screaming for everyone to return to work, to forget the mysterious flying contraption above them, that it wasn't from their false lord. And when the people refused to listen, the shooting started.
Forty yards from where the stood they heard screaming… women screaming. All of the train men looked over and saw all of the sewing women looking out of the window of the building where they worked right as the shooting started.
The guards were shooting at the women first, not even bothering with the men.
Some of the women even whipped their heads, the disbelief and distraught shown in their eyes. They were frozen for a moment, not knowing what to do. Jack scanned the crowd to see Sam, but she was lost in the crowd of rushing women. A few more shots rang out, and a few more bodies fell to the ground.
The guards started hording everyone back to their barracks like cattle. People were being shoved, hit, kicked, shoved. Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c all managed to stay together, but they couldn't find Sam. All of the women were being held behind, which made SG-1 uneasy. They didn't like the sound of that at all. Sam was a good solider, a kick ass soldier. They knew she could handle herself for the most part. But after what they saw today, they were still nervous.
"Where is your friend?" Held asked as soon as they were back in the barracks. He was in the same barracks as them. Daniel felt better, knowing someone who they worked with and stayed with. It was better to have allies; that he learned a LONG time ago.
"Who, Sam?" Daniel asked back.
"Yes, the one with the blond hair."
"She isn't here yet I'm guessing."
"What's wrong with that? What are they going to do her?" Jack asked, stepping forward to see Held. He was about the same size as Daniel, but with shaggy black hair. Everyone, except for Teal'c, stood with their arms crossed. Teal'c was his usual stoic self.
"I'm not sure if this is true, but I heard they kept the women behind for a reason." He leaned closer and looked around as if he were trying to keep a special secret.
"And what would that reason be?" Jack asked nervously.
"I'm not sure. It could be for anything. I hope that it's not what you're thinking."
"Thanks Held," Daniel said as Held walked away. Jack sighed and ran his hands through his hair as he walked to his bed to sit down. Teal'c watched him with a raised eyebrow, and then followed. Daniel followed suit.
"Sam! Where have you been! It's been four hours!" Daniel was the first to spot her coming near them. She looked uneasy; her eyes were looking all around her as if she were watching for someone to come after her. It almost looked like she was in shock.
"Carter! What the hell happened!?" Jack yelled as he jumped up and grabbed her arms. She winced and removed herself from his grasp by twisting her arms away.
"Jesus Sam, what did they do to you?" Daniel's voice was quite with concern as he saw her eyes well up with tears. She put her left arm close to her chest and covered it by putting her right hand on her left shoulder. Confusion overran her face for a moment before realization hit her eyes.
"Oh god, no, nothing like that. No no, no. I didn't get, no. That didn't happen." She shook her head as if trying to shake the thought out of her head.
"What happened? Why are you cradling your arm? Did someone hurt you?" Jack ran his hands down her arms, looking for any injuries.
'Standard military procedure, keep telling yourself that Jack," he thought to himself. So help him god, if they did anything to hurt anyone on his team…
"No, I'm fine, really." She shook her head at him, trying to reassure him.
"Sam what is it? What did they do to your arm?" Jack asked, calling her bluff. How many times did they do that, say they were fine but nearly end up dying because of their stupid pride?
She was shocked by her first name for a moment and just looked at him. They only used their first names when something bad was going down, and they needed to all know what was going on to make a correct assessment of the situation. Or when someone was dead. And all of SG-1 was there, so that couldn't be it. Or, he just could be plain worried about her. Looking at her feet, Sam slowly raised the sleeve of her shirt. On the inside of her arm above her elbow, they saw what she was upset about.
"He marked you," Daniel stated, the surprise evident in his voice. It was the same symbol that Mentu's soldiers wore on their armbands. Now, it was on Sam, forever.
"After what happened today, he didn't want any of the women to get a false hope that something could happen, so he… burnt this into us so we wouldn't forget who we belonged to." She shivered as she finished the sentence. Quickly, she rolled down the sleeve of her shirt over the tarnish on her skin. She squeezed between Jack and Daniel and passed Teal'c, wanting just to get away from everyone. Teal'c just watched her with a sympathetic face, knowing exactly what she was going through.
"I will have a discussion with MajorCarter tomorrow," he simply stated as soon as she was out of range getting food for herself. The other two men just nodded, too shocked to even say anything at the moment.
TBC perhaps