Disclaimers: Things I own-This computer and a dream that one day my fic stories would be read by millions...cough, clears throat I own nothing.
Author's Note: If you like the story drop me a line. Thanks.
Chapter 3: Consequences of TruthCassie was sprawled on the couch reading a book when the door opened.
"Hey mom," she said without looking up
When Janet made no reply Cassie looked up to see her mother sitting on the floor just inside the door. It was like she couldn't make it any more. Getting up she went over to her mother and noticed that she was crying.
Cassie crouched down next to her. "What's wrong?"
"Jack broke up with me?"
"What? Why?"
"You know that girl that came earlier?"
"Yeah."
"She's our daughter. Mine and Jack's."
"She's your daughter? How is that possible?"
"That is a long story. I'd given her up for adoption and kind of never told Jack that I was even pregnant."
"You never told Jack that you were pregnant?"
"No."
"Wow."
"I told him about it tonight and he was understandably furious with me."
"And so he broke up with you?"
Janet nodded.
"I'm sorry mom."
"I deserved it."
Cassie didn't respond to this and just pulled her mother into a tight hug. They sat like this on the floor for a little while.
"Was he very mad," Cassie asked against her mother's shoulder
"I've never seen him so angry," Janet answered softly
"He'll come around."
"I don't think so Cass." Janet pulled away from her daughter and stood up. "I'm going to go lie down."
"Okay mom."
Janet walked up the stairs and out of sight. Cassie got up off the floor and picked up the phone. Dialing she waited for someone to answer the phone. When the answering machine picked up she sighed.
"Jack, it's Cassie. I know you're angry with mom and everything but you cannot end your entire relationship over this. Now I know I don't know all of the details but...you love each other. Love is supposed to be able to conquer anything. You taught me that. I love you and so does mom. Bye." Cassie clicked off the phone and stared at it for a moment.
She then dialed another number and waited for Sam to pick up.
"Hello."
"Hey Sam it's me."
"Hey kid what's going on?"
"I need for you to come over."
"Why what's wrong?"
"Mom and Jack had a huge fight and he broke up with her."
"What?"
"I can't explain over the phone. Mom is understandably not taking it very well. Please come over."
"I'll be over as soon as humanly possible."
"Thanks Sam."
"Not a problem."
Jack remained sitting on the floor long after Janet had left and after her phone call telling him that she loved him and that he had a daughter.
Jack didn't know what to do with all of this new information. He had a daughter a child that he and Janet had made. Jack wanted to jump up and down with joy and tell the entire world, but he stayed there on the floor, in the dark.
After what seemed like hours, which it was, Jack got up. He grabbed his car keys and left the house. Getting into his truck he started driving. He had no conscious thoughts he just drove. When he did surface to see where he was he realized that he was in front of Janet's house.
He had unconsciously driven to Janet's house. That said something, but Jack chose to ignore it. Sam's bike was parked in the driveway and he knew she was there to comfort Janet. What about him? He needed comfort too. The love of his life had been lying to him for as long as they'd been together.
How could he get passed something like that? With great determination and some will power he drove off into the rising son. Next stop was the Holiday Inn. Gathering himself he entered the hotel and went up to room nine. Taking a deep breath he knocked on the door.
After a moment a graying woman opened the door. "May I help you?"
"I'm Jack O'Neill. I'm here to see Keiko."
The woman smiled slightly, "She's been expecting you. I am her grandmother Tess."
Jack smiled slightly at the older woman, "Hi."
She grinned back and then, "Keiko!" she hollered into the room
This startled Jack slightly but he went with it and soon a young girl came to the door. He caught his breath at the sight of her. She was the spitting image of her mother...of Janet.
"Hi," Keiko hesitantly spoke as she looked up at the man she knew to be her biological father
"Hi," Jack said back in a strained voice
"Well know that we have the hello's out of the way why don't you come in," Tess beamed as she grabbed Jack's arm and pulled him into the room, "I have some things to take care of and will be back in a couple of hours. I'm sure you both could find something to talk about while I'm gone," and with that Tess was out of the room like the force of nature that she was.
"My grandmother is never one to be subtle. She gets to the point and says what's on her mind no matter what."
"I like that about people," Jack remarked looking around the hotel room.
"I know she's sorry."
Jack turned his attention to Keiko. You didn't have to be a rocket scientist to know what and whom Keiko was talking about.
"She's sorry that she lied to you."
"Did she tell you that?"
"She didn't have to. I could see it in her eyes and in her voice."
"You look like her."
"I noticed." Keiko responded sitting down on the edge of the bed, "I know you're angry with her but you can't stay mad forever."
"I don't want to talk about her right now," Jack protested
"Okay. What do you want to talk about," Keiko countered
"Tell me about you," Jack sat on the edge of a chair facing his daughter
"Well, I'm a freshman in high school...actually the year just ended so I'll be a sophomore next year."
Jack smiled slightly, "I remember high school."
"That was a long time ago for you wasn't it," joked Keiko "Hey!"
Keiko laughed, "Sorry. I don't have any brother's or sister's and have been living with my grandparents."
"Why?"
Keiko looked down at her hands and her auburn hair obscured her delicate face for a moment. When she looked back up there was a deep sadness written in her eyes.
"My parents died in a car accident a little while ago."
"I'm sorry," was sincerely given
"Thanks. It took me a while to actually get up the nerve to find you and Janet. Since I'm only fifteen I couldn't exactly do it by myself and my grandparents were willing to help me out."
"They didn't mind helping you in this quest to find your biological parents?"
"No, they wanted me to find you. They knew that there was a chance that I could have parents again and be happy."
It was Jack's turn to look at his hands, "Yeah."
"Tell me about you Jack."
He looked up at her, "Well I'm a colonel in the air force."
"That's a high up rank isn't it?"
"Just below General."
"Way cool," grinned the girl
"I like to think so."
"Do you have any other children?"
"I...uh had a son but he died a long time ago."
There was an awkward silence at this statement. Jack shifted further back into the chair.
"You work at Cheyenne Mountain too right?"
"Yes."
"What do a colonel and a doctor do in a mountain?"
Jack shrugged, "That," he held up a finger, "Is classified."
"Classified? Like as in a top secret...secret?"
"Right."
"You can't even tell me your own daughter."
"I'd have to get permission from the general."
"Must be some secret," Keiko remarked with an impressed grin
"Believe me it is."
"Do you love Janet," Keiko asked out of left field
"It has to do with more than loving her Keiko," Jack exclaimed standing up and turning toward the window and looking out on the beautiful sunny day
"Why don't you make it having to do with you loving her? She messed up big time. That's a given but she loves you and everyone makes mistakes."
Jack whirled around, "She lied to me! She never even had the courage to tell me that we had a child together."
"Would you have left you wife and son for her if she'd told you."
"I'd like to have at least been given a chance."
Keiko held up a finger, "See that right there tells me that you wouldn't have left your wife and son."
"That's not what I meant."
"It's not like she even got the chance to see me either."
"It was her choice to give you up."
Keiko sighed deeply, "What choice did she have? Raise a child, alone, by the man she loved whom she had been having a hot illicit affair with? What would you have done?"
Jack shook his head at her words, "I can't deal with this right now."
"What are you going to do?"
"I don't know."
"Jack?"
"Yes."
"Are you glad you have me," she softly asked
"I'm very glad I have you," stated Jack going over to her and giving her a hug, "I have to go."
"Where are you going?"
"I don't know."
"When will I see you again?"
"Soon," Jack stated letting go of his daughter and going to the door, "I love you Keiko."
With that Jack was gone leaving a confused daughter behind. A couple of hours later her grandmother returned to see Keiko pacing back and forth in the room.
"I take it things didn't go well."
"Things went okay, but not as well as I would have liked. He's so angry with her Nana."
"He has every right to be angry with her my dear."
Keiko sighed, "I know but he hurt her so much with his words last night. Can you take me over to her house?"
"Of course my dear, of course."
At the Fraiser household Sam and Cassie were playing a game of chess in the living room, while Janet was upstairs sleeping.
"Cass," Sam commented for the fourth time in ten minutes, "Cassie hello," she waved her hand in Cassie's face
Cassie blinked and looked up at Sam, "What?"
"You've been staring at the board as if it held the mysteries of the universe for the last ten minutes."
Cass grinned sheepishly, "Sorry," she moved a piece
"I'm worried about her too."
Cassie sighed and folded her arms across her chest, "On the one hand her lying to Jack all these years was completely wrong and I totally understand where he was coming from, but on the other hand she is my mother and is hurting. I don't know how to help her or what to do."
"I understand completely. Jack's reaction was understandable under the circumstances. He will calm down and come around. The two of them mean to much to teach other to throw their relationship out the window."
"You always know how to bring things into perspective."
Sam puffed herself up, "I try, I do."
Cass giggled as she heard a knock on the front door. Getting up she ran to the door before whoever it was decided to give up on knocking and ring the bell thus waking up Janet who'd gone to sleep like an hour before.
Upon opening the door she saw a young girl standing timidly on the doorstep. The same girl she'd seen earlier.
"Hi," the girl hesitantly remarked
"Hey," Cassie responded back
Sam came up behind Cassie and peered at the girl. "I'm Keiko."
Sam and Cassie glanced at each other.
"I didn't know whether or not I should come and so I decided that I should come. If you want me to go you'll have to let me use the phone to call my Nana and have her come back here and pick me up."
"Come in Keiko," Cassie ventured waving Keiko into the house
"Where's Janet," she asked
"She asleep," Sam responded, "She's had a very rough night."
"I know. She called earlier this morning and told me what happened," said Keiko as she was led into the living room
Cassie and Sam sat next to each other on the love seat while Keiko took the big stuffy chair in front of them.
"Oh I'm Sam Carter," Sam stated as she realized she hadn't introduced herself yet
Keiko shook her hand, "You're Janet's best friend right?"
"Yeah."
"I had a visit from Jack this morning," Keiko stated getting right down to it
"What did he have to say?"
"Not much. I think I kind of pissed him off with the talk that he should forgive Janet for what she's done."
Cassie and Sam glanced at each other in surprise at this statement and then looked to Keiko.
"What," she asked of the looks she was getting from them
"You think Jack should forgive Janet?"
Keiko shrugged, "Yeah I understand where she was coming from."
This was certainly an interesting development. "And where is that," asked Cassie
Keiko took in a breath, "Well she and Jack weren't exactly in a committed relationship fifteen years ago. It was probably just a comfort thing. I'm sure on some level they must have loved each other, but Jack decided to give it another go with his wife for his son's sake.
I would think that Janet would have been kind of heartbroken from this but decided to be all noble and let him go. Now when she found out that she was carrying his child, me, she had a few choices that she could make.
One, was that she could tell Jack that she was pregnant. Jack would either have told her to get lost or the more likely of choices he would have left his wife for Janet and gotten together with her. This probably wouldn't have worked out because both of them would probably have ended up resenting each other.
Two, was that Janet didn't tell Jack and try to raise me on her own. Now this choice could have really worked. It would have been majorly difficult for her though. I'd always be a constant reminder of what she lost and it's probably hard to raise a kid alone when you a just starting out you know.
Not that Janet was just starting out, but...and three the choice that she chose was to give me up and hope that I had a better life than she thought she'd be able to give me."
After this long statement both Cassie and Sam mulled all of what they'd just been told over for a few minutes.
Keiko continued on, "I have had a good life and have told Janet this. She made the right choice for all concerned at the moment. I forgive her for giving me up. Jack will forgive her too...eventually."
"She's right," Cassie stated after another moment, "She made the right decision for that particular point in time. Now granted she probably should have told Jack when they saw each other again and before they started seeing each other again but..."
"Yeah," Sam agreed, "She made the right choice."
Sam's cell phone started ringing at that moment. Going over to her leather jacket slung over a dining room chair she pulled out the phone and looked at the caller id. It was Daniel.
"Hey Daniel what's up."
"I was going to ask you the same question."
"What do you mean?"
"Jack is gone."
"What do you mean he's gone?"
"I came into the base to get some paperwork done. I ran into general Hammond and he told me that you would be the temporary leader of the team since Jack had cashed in like five years of sick days and had gone of somewhere."
"He just up and left like that?"
"Apparently."
Cassie and Keiko had been looking at Sam during this phone conversation.
"Did he tell the general where he was going?"
"No."
"Are you serious? What if we need to get a hold of him or something."
"I don't know." Sam sighed deeply, "We're coming into the base okay."
"We?"
"Just...we'll be there soon okay," Sam snapped her phone shut without waiting for a response and turned to the curious teenagers.
"It was Jack that left right," Keiko asked
"Yeah. He cashed in all of his sick days and just went off."
"How many sick days can the guy have? I would think it'd be a couple of years."
Sam frowned at his, "Jack doesn't take sick days unless he's forced to. He had accumulated probably a good six months worth."
"Wow."
Sam looked at Keiko and frowned again, "Now I will have to get clearance to bring you to the base."
"Why don't you do that while we go wake up mom," Cassie stated taking Keiko's hand and heading toward the stairs
"Wait," Sam called
"What?"
"Shouldn't Janet be the one to do this? I mean the general is going to have to know the whole story."
"I don't think mom is in any place to do this right now," Cassie answered
"Right."
The girls headed up the stairs while Sam made her phone call. The whole situation was seemingly spinning out of control. What would happen next would be anyone's guess.
Dun...dun. What will happen next? If you want to find out push the magic button and do your thing!