Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate SG-1 or any of its characters (unfortunately *sigh*). I'm just a person who likes to write so the owners have no reason to sue me.
A/N: Wow! I didn't think that I would get this kind of result! Thanks a bunch for those who've read! And for Little Red's comment, yes, a week seems a bit long doesn't it *sheepish grin* That's because I forgot to save the changed part to the Danny episode. Sorry 'bout that. But I have the new version up now so it's all good. Now, on to the fic!!!
Jack walked into the base, his face showing the strain of his battle. It took him an hour to convice Katy to let him leave Kawalsky's. She finally let him go with the promise of his lucky fishing hat and a big kiss.
Anger began to rise inside of him the deeper he went into the mountain. None of the other personel would look him in the eye and nobody from SG-1 was there to greet him. He tried to ask questions but nobody would answer. The answer was always the same--"That is a question for Dr. Jackson." What's with all of the damn secrecy?
Jack stepped out of the elevator to come face to face with Teal'c. The ex-colonel smiled at the Jaffa. "Finally! Somebody I can get answers from!"
Teal'c raised his eyebrow in confusion. "It is nice to see you too, Jack O'Neill. Might I inquire what answers?"
"For one, why is it so important that I be here?"
"There is someone that you have to see."
Jack let out an exasperated sigh. "Is it Jacob?"
"Yes, he has requested your presence."
Teal'c wasn't giving him much information. "So...there's more to the story?" he asked hopefully.
"There is."
He'll never change, Jack thought to himself with a laugh. He shook his head and put an arm around the Jaffa's shoulder. "Let us go find our dear Dr. Jackson and find out why the hell I'm here instead of on my way to Minnesota."
There was a knock on Daniel's door. He let out a sigh. He still was not sure on how to break the news to Jack. His friend had a new life now, a lonely but happy one with Katy. He could remember what it had been like when Sam had "died." The colonel was very unresponsive and cold towards everyone. The only person who he opened up to had been Katy and she couldn't even understand him, let alone talk to him at the time. Daniel closed his eyes, composed himself, and prepared to get the ass chewing of his life. "Come in."
Teal'c opened the door and allowed for a very weary and very angry Jack to enter. "So, I see that you decided to trust me," Daniel pondered carefully.
His friend grabbed a chair and sat down. "I don't know if I would call it trust, Danny. It was more of a curiosity that needed to be put to rest."
The smile that came from his friend made Danny falter a little. "So, did you have a nice trip?" Wrong question, he slapped himself mentally.
"Did I have a nice trip?" Jack paused. "Did I have a nice trip? Hmmm...let me see. It took me an hour to get Katy unlatched from my arm and another forty minutes to drive here wondering what the hell is going on. When I do arrive, nobody from SG-1 is there to deprief me. All I'm told is that I'm supposed to find my dear friend Dr. Jackson and he'll fill me in. So, my dear Dr. Jackson, what the hell is going on?!"
Daniel blinked a few times as the information given to him from his friend's venting sunk into his brain. "Um...Jacob is here."
Jack closed his eyes, but the smile remained on his face. "I know that Daniel. What about it?"
The archeologist let out a sigh. Why do I have to be the one to tell him?
"Daniel?"
He looked up to see Jack looking back at him, a straight look on his face. "Be honest with me. What happened? Enough of the whole run around; just tell me what happened."
Danny nodded his head and stood up slowly. "A week ago, an off world worm hole formed. We closed the iris, as always, and everything was fine. A message came through--it was Jacob. The Tok'ra were extracting a captured comrade from the Goa'uld and needed help. Hammond sent over SG units 3 and 9 along with Teal'c to help them out. There were losses..."
Jack watched as his friend scratched his head in frustration. He could tell that he didn't want to be the one to tell him. He turned to Teal'c, who was standing by the door. "Do you have anything to add to this so far?"
"No, I do not. What Daniel Jackson has told you is the truth."
"That's what I thought," Jack said to himself.
"I do, however, can tell you what happened on the ship."
The ex-colonel's head snapped up. "On the ship?"
Teal'c nodded. "Yes. We were aboard a Goa'uld transport ship. We breeched their security and made our way quickly to the holding block. There was a small battle and both sides had a large number of casualties. Jacob Carter and I fought our way through the halls, searching for his comrade until we came upon the room in which she was held."
Jack arched an eyebrow. "She?"
The jaffa cocked his head to the side at his friend's question. "That is what I have said."
"Oh," he paused. "Continue."
"We entered the room to find his comrade hooked up to a gigantic machine. I do not know the purpose of this machine but it was connected to various wires that extended into her body. We removed her from its grasp and then fought our way back out. Many Tok'ra, Goa'uld, and Tauri died in our mission to bring back his kin."
"Kin?" Confussion crossed Jack's face. "Jacob doesn't have any more kin that would know of his 'new' life."
Daniel intervened. "What Teal'c is trying to say is that, well..."
"Well what?! I thought you were going to tell me what was going on?!"
Anger crossed the younger man's face. "I'm trying but you're not letting me get a word in!"
Jack jumped out of his chair. "What the hell is going on here?! Has everybody gone mad?!" He looked around the room in anger. "Where's Jacob?!"
The question confused Daniel. "What?"
"Where's Jacob?!"
Daniel blinked a few times. "Why do you want to see Jacob?"
"I know that I will get a straight answer from him," stated Jack harshly.
"Now look here, Jack, what I'm trying to say is that we found her!"
The words exploded from Daniel's mouth before he even realized that he had said them. He watched as his friend's face went complete blank. Jack's legs started to give out from beneath him as he found his chair. "You found...Sam?"
"Actually, Jacob didn't tell us that it was Sam. It was a complete and total shock to us as well," Daniel stated as he tried to comfort his friend.
"This can't be happening." Jack's statement was so quiet that Teal'c and Daniel barely heard it.
"It is very real, O'Neill. Major Carter is home."
Tears started to form in the older man's eyes at the jaffa's statement. "She's dead. She died right in front of my eyes!"
Daniel looked to the floor. "The Goa'uld probably took her body and put it in a sarcophagus. Her memories of Jolinar are very important and she also has a lot of information on the SGC. Who knows what they did to her to try and get that information from her! The way that Teal'c described the machine made it sound like some type of life support system. They've had her hooked up to that machine for a very long time and some of her injuries looked pretty recent to me!"
Jack continued to shake his head in disbelief. "This can't be happening. This has got to be a very bad dream."
"It is not, O'Neill. She is down in the infimary at this very moment."
The ex-colonel's head snapped up. "She's in the infimary, Teal'c?"
"Yes, as well as Major Carter's father."
Jack rose from his chair quickly and darted for the door.
"Jack! Wait!" Before Daniel could grab hold of his friend, he was out the door and running down the hallway. "So much for putting things lightly," he mumbled to himself.
Samantha Carter lay on the infimary bed, her father sitting beside her. Jacob watched his daughter's chest rise and fall slowly, moving to the unsteady rhythm of the machine that pumped oxygen into her lungs. Dr. Frasier had done everything that she could to make her wake up, but she said that Sam's body had suffered much trauma. All they could do was wait and leave the healing up to Sam.
"Come on, honey. Wake up."
The only response that Jacob received was the beeping of the machines. The Tok'ra let out a weary sigh. It pained him to see his little girl in her current state. She was as pale as a ghost and as thin as a toothpick. Old burns and scars covered her fair skin, the torture that they performed on her apparent. She had barely been alive when they found her, the machine she was hooked up to hardly giving her the life support that she needed. Curse the damn Goa'uld, thought Jacob bitterly.
He laughed at the irony of his thoughts. It had been the Goa'uld Selmak that had saved him from certain death so many years ago. No, Tok'ra, he smiled. At first the thought of having to share his body with an alien entity scared him, but the fear in his daughter's eyes was enough to convince him. He knew that she didn't want to lose him and he didn't want to lose her.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden sound of footsteps and rough voices. "What the hell," Jacob whispered. He rose from his chair and slowly made his way to the doorway. A very familar voice errupted from the hallway.
"God damn it, Teal'c! Let me go!"
A sheepish grin spread across Jacob's face. "I guess we forgot to inform somebody," he said quietly to Sam. The Tok'ra stepped out into the hallway, the grin disappearing from his face. "Let him go, Teal'c."
The Jaffa release Jack from his grasp, the ex-colonel dropping to the floor with a thud. "You could have been a bit more gentle," came the sarcastic reply as he slowly rose from the ground. The pain didn't phase him though. He was instantly back on to his feet, heading towards Jacob. "Where is she?" he demanded.
"Settle down, Jack."
"WHERE IS SHE?!"
The Tok'ra lowered his head and pointed towards the infimary door. Jack took a wary look towards the door before moving foward. "Thank you, Jacob," he breathed.
The smile returned to Jacob's face as his son-in-law made his way past him. "I missed her too, you know," he whispered to himself.
Jack's pace slowed as he entered the room. His chest heaved up and down as he tried to catch his breath. He couldn't believe his eyes. There she was, right in front on him. He blinked a few times but she didn't disappear. It wasn't a dream--Sam was alive.
"Sam?"
The blonde on the bed remained silent. Jack took a few steps forward, his legs growing shakey beneath him. The idea of his wife being home was still a shock to him. It was almost too good to be true. She looked as if she had been to Hell and back but she was still his beautiful Sam.
Tears started to form in the ex-colonel's eyes. The bruises, burns, and scars against her pale skin lashed out at his brown eyes, the sight of them sickening. He knew that the Goa'uld would do anything to extract information from their prisoners but whatever they had done to her was ridiculous. It looked as if they had tortured her within an inch of her life. The sight of the various machines hooked up to her was scary. How she had ever survived all of these years was a miracle to him.
Jack reached the side of her bed, reaching out a shakey hand. A few stray pieces of blonde blocked his view of her beautiful face. He pushed the hair back gently, his fingers lightly brushing against her skin. A sad smile crossed his face. "Sam," he whispered.
There was no response, just the endless beeping of the machines. Tears started to flow freely but he couldn't stop looking at her. He wouldn't stop looking at her. He memorized every detail of her skin, her hair, even the bandages on her frail form.
Jacob cleared his throat. "I think we should leave the two of them alone." Teal'c nodded knowingly, Daniel watching his friend as he struggled through his pain. He wanted to stay but knew it was better to leave the brooding man alone. He turned slowly, and followed the Tok'ra and Jaffa's example.
Jack lifted up his hand again and brushed it lightly against her pale skin of her face. He smiled sadly as his fingers traced her jaw line. The left side of her jaw was discolored, as if she were hit across the face. He wanted badly to touch her lips, but the breathing tube down her throat prevented him.
His fingers continued down her neck and over her bare shoulder, being careful around the bandanges. A jagged looking cut snaked it way out from beneath the bandage. It was in the process of healing, no doubt a scar would result. Jack let a small sob escape his throat as he rubbed it gently, as if he was trying to make it disappear. Only if it were that simple, he thought bitterly to himself.
His hand came to a stop at hers. He took it gently within his and started to rub it affectionately. "Come on, Sam. Wake up," he asked pleadingly. He looked up to her face only to find her beautiful, blue eyes still closed. He let out an agitated sigh. "You can't give up now. I just got you back and like Hell I'm going to lose you now," he whispered.
A/N: Sorry to leave you hanging but I haven't even started writing chapter three yet so it might be a few days (at least a week) before the next chapter is up. I have it planned out so it shouldn't take me to write. Who knows, maybe the more comments I get, the faster I'll write ^_~
