Chapter Six
/Jack was sitting on an infirmary bed, swinging his long legs. He was tossing a roll of bandage back and forth between his hands.
Janet Fraiser approached him.
"Hey, Doc. You wanted to see me?"
"Yes, Colonel," Janet said, taking the bandage from him and setting it down on the bedside cabinet. "I wanted to talk to you about your physical."
"Uh oh." Jack said.
"You know what I'm going to say, don't you?" Janet said, narrowing her eyes.
"Not a clue." Jack said, in an altogether too-innocent tone.
"How's the knee, Colonel?" Janet asked.
Jack seemed thrown by such a direct line of questioning. "It's…"
"Fine." Janet said. "In fact it's better than fine. I don't know why it didn't occur to me before."
"What?" Jack said, looking uncomfortable.
"The sarcophagus."
Jack winced slightly.
"And Kanan." Janet said, apparently enjoying upsetting Colonel O'Neill.
"They fixed you, didn't they?" Janet demanded.
Jack nodded. "But you can't tell anyone, Doc." He pleaded.
"Why not?"
"Cos." Jack was getting more and more childish as the conversation went on.
"Because what?"
"It's a good excuse." Jack murmured, not looking at her.
"Excuse?"
Jack looked up. "Please, Doc." He begged.
"Sir…"
"Please."
"I have to tell General Hammond…" Janet said, but she was coming around, it was in her eyes.
"Especially not Hammond." Jack said, pushing her.
"Sir! It's my duty as your doctor to report –"
"If there's anything wrong with me." Jack finished. "There's not." He pointed out.
Janet narrowed her eyes. "Why?" She asked again.
"Just in case I need an out. It's an easy way to go. Very little paperwork." Jack said.
"You could just retire." Janet said, adding "Sir." As an afterthought.
"Hammond won't let me."
"You've tried?"
"Once. He said not to bother him with it again." Jack sulked.
Janet smiled at that. "You walk a fine line, Colonel." She said, finally caving under the intensity of the brown-eyed stare.
"And it's much easier to do that now." He quipped, jumping off the bed. "We done?" /
"The lying son-of-a-""George you knew what he was like when you took him on." Jacob admonished gently.
Hammond chuckled.
There were lots of images flashing by now. They saw images of Fifth; Jack stranded with Maybourne; Nirrti; they saw SG-1 talking to Skaara after Anubis destroyed the huge pyramid on Abydos, killing everyone.
They saw Daniel returned to them; Jack dropping his clone off at high school; the Super Soldiers; Jack in the South American jungle, hunting for Daniel; they saw Jack walk into the SGC locker room, followed by Teal'c.
/Jack didn't turn. "I don't wanna hear it!"
Teal'c said nothing.
"Good, 'cos I'm not in the mood."
Teal'c still said nothing.
"All right, what?"
Finally Teal'c spoke. "When ColonelMaybourne and yourself were stranded offworld, MajorCarter felt a similar sense of frustration. She despaired at the thought of never seeing you again"
Jack, being Jack, tried to add some levity to the situation, to detract from the seriousness. "Not you?"
"Indeed. You are like a brother to me O'Neill."
"You're like, what? 140?" Jack said.
"A younger brother perhaps." Teal'c conceded. "But that is not my point."
"Look T, I know what you're trying to do and I appreciate it." Jack said./
The images began to flicker once more.
/Jack knocked on the door to General Hammond's office.
"Come."
Jack walked in. "You wanted to see me, sir?"
"Close the door, Colonel." Hammond said.
Jack did so. From the look on his face he was desperately trying to work out what he'd done this time.
"Have a seat, Jack."
Jack sat. "What's goin' on, General?" He asked.
"I have received notification that a background check has been run on one of my officers."
"Who?"
"Major Carter." General Hammond said./
"A background check?" Sam asked.
General Hammond nodded.
"Who requested it?" Sam asked, knowing the answer.
"Detective Shanahan." General Hammond replied.
"Why didn't anyone tell me about this, sir?" Sam asked.
Hammond nodded to the screen.
/"Jack, as her CO you should be the one to inform Major Carter about this…"
Jack snorted, "Yeah that'd look real good."
"Colonel?" General Hammond asked, but there was the light of understanding in his eyes.
"Sir… to be honest, this is the first time Carter's been this… happy in years. I don't think we have the right to take that away from her."
"I understand, Jack, but she has a right to know."/
"Damn right she does." Sam remarked indignantly.
/"Why? He didn't get anything, did he?" Jack asked.
Hammond shook his head.
"Well, then. The program's fine. Carter's fine. You just gave Shanahan security clearance-"
"At your recommendation, Colonel," Hammond interrupted.
Jack ignored this. "Shanahan's a cop, he's suspicious by nature. They'll work it out, sir."
"I still think someone should tell her, Jack, even if its not you."
"No, sir. How is Carter ever gonna get a life, if we don't let her?"
"It's your call, son." Hammond said.
"Yessir." Jack replied.
"Think about it."
"I will sir." Jack said, rising, and turning towards the door.
"Y'know," Hammond said, slightly reproachful, "You're supposed to wait 'til I dismiss you, Colonel."/
The scenes began to whirr by again.
Hammond spoke, "When I first thought about taking him on as my 2IC a lot of other officers warned me. They said he was insubordinate, sarcastic, a maverick."
"Clichés." Daniel said, smiling.
"They forgot to mention how good he is at what he does." General Hammond saw the looks they threw him, "Not what's in his file." He added, "The more… human… more intuitive things he does. Like when he wouldn't drop it about you joining SG-1," he said to Teal'c. "He was right too," he mused.
"He didn't say anything to me." Sam said. "Even when I was talking to him about getting engaged to Pete, he didn't say anything." Sam looked around at her friends "Why didn't he trust me to know what I was doing?"
"O'Neill wished for you to be happy, ColonelCarter." Teal'c said, softly.
"I know that. I wish he'd told me. We wouldn't have had to waste so much time." Sam said, not bothering to spell out what she meant.
The next clear image was of Jack being chased by a camera crew.
The room's occupants tensed, they knew they were going to have to watch the loss of Janet Fraiser again, from Jack's point of view.
Surprisingly they didn't have to see much of it. The services, both the one at the SGC and the civil one they held so that Cassie would have somewhere to go, flashed past. In both cases Jack had said nothing, at the civil ceremony he stood with his sunglasses on the whole time before taking Cassie home.
Then the images slowed.
/It was dark. Jack made his way through the cemetery a little unsteadily, as if he were slightly drunk. He wound his way through the head stones until he found the one he was looking for.
It read:
JANET FRAISERJack sat down heavily next to it.
"Hey Doc." He said quietly. "Thought I'd come say hi. Sorry I wasn't particularly talkative at the service, but you know me. Huh. I'm sorry a lot, aren't I?
"God, Doc, I'm so sorry." Jack said, his voice breaking slightly. "Sorry I screwed up – again. I shoulda gotten you more cover. Shoulda been quicker to shoot that damn Jaffa I saw sneaking to your position. Shoulda shot your damn husband too, evil son-of-a-bitch. Guess I let you down again. I'm sorry Doc." He sounded miserable.
Jack paused, unsure what to say next.
"Everyone's hurting. Cassie, Daniel, Carter, Teal'c, Hammond. Me. We were good friends once, 'til I screwed that up too. Now everyone's dead, 'cept me. Fucking sucks."
Jack's mind seemed to replay what he'd just said. "God I'm drunk. Superior officer equals superior fuck up. I just wanted to come say goodbye." He paused. "And sorry. Can't forget sorry." He shook his head. "Probably boring you with incoherent babbling now. So I'm gonna go."
He stood, brushing himself off and swaying slightly. "See ya around, Doc." He paused. "Janet." He left./
"You know, he never said anything, even to me." Daniel said.
"Why would he?" Teal'c asked. "You had your own grief. It would be unlike O'Neill to burden you with his."
"I guess." Daniel said, half-sulkily.
/SG-1 were crouched in a monument of the Ancients. Death gliders swooped overhead, firing at the ground.
Daniel was speaking, shouting to be heard over the noise. "Jack, somebody has to do it. The answer is in there!" He pointed at the Ancients' Repository. "If we don't find the Lost City we're as good as dead. Let me do it."
"And who does the translating, when you go Ancient?" Jack asked. The death gliders swooped past again. Daniel looked away. Jack ripped off his hat and shoved it into Daniel's hands. "In fact you're the one person who can do it."
Jack sped towards the device, allowing it to take hold of his head.
"Jack!" Daniel yelled, just as Sam yelled "Sir!"/
"Lucky it was him." Jacob remarked.
"What? Why?" Daniel asked.
"I was thinking the same thing." Sam said. "You probably need the Ancients' Gene to be able to use those things. That's why it activated when he walked through that circle six years ago."
"Makes sense." Jacob said.
/Jack and Sam were in the cargo ship's engine room. Jack was modifying the engines./
"Now that is a truly strange sight." Jacob remarked dryly. When the others looked at him he clarified, "Jack doing something on that cargo ship other than asking if we're there yet." They smiled.
/Jack finished what he was doing and looked up at Sam. "Gimme your zat."
Sam handed it to him. Jack shot the crystals and the engine whine went up a notch.
"There you go." Jack said, handing Sam back the zat.
"Sir. I think you should know that General Hammond authorised me to take command of the team if I determined that you…" Sam began.
Jack cut her off. "Do it now."
"Sir, I don't think that's necessary..."
"I trust you. I'll make it easy for you. I resign. You're in charge."
Sam seemed uncomfortable for a moment. Then: "Okay... Sir, at your house before Daniel and Teal'c showed up, what I was gonna say was..."
"I know."
They looked at one another over the crystals for a long moment. Then Jack pushed them back in./
"He never let me finish." Sam said.
"Perhaps he didn't want you to say something you would later regret, ColonelCarter." Teal'c said.
Sam looked at him, then back at the screen, unseeing. "Yeah." She said, softly.
Then Jacob spoke into the silence. "Stubborn." He didn't clarify who he was talking about. Sam got the feeling he meant both her and O'Neill.
They saw Jack healing Bra'tac, using the power of the Ancients. They saw their arrival in Antarctica, Hammond's arrival with the Prometheus. They saw Jack walk through Anubis' hologram, pushing his hand through its face. They saw the gold drone bugs fly out of the Ancients' outpost.
/Jack was slumped in the Ancients' chair.
"Sir?" Sam said. She walked over to him and lifted his head, feeling his pulse. "Sir?" She turned to Daniel and Teal'c. "His pulse is erratic." She turned back to address Jack. "Don't you dare leave us now. We won."
Jack's eyes opened slightly. He moved his head, obviously very weak.
"Colonel." Sam said.
He gazed weakly back at her.
"Please, Jack." Sam pleaded in whisper.
"Dormata." Jack whispered back.
Sam looked to Daniel, waiting for a translation.
"That thing." Daniel said, indicating a pod.
Teal'c lifted Jack out of the chair and carried him to the pod, standing him inside. Lights came on in the pod.
Teal'c stood back as his team-mates joined him.
"Now what?" Sam asked.
When Jack spoke his voice was barely there. "Aveo ... amacus."
Both Sam and Teal'c looked to Daniel.
"Goodbye." He translated./
"I didn't think he would remember much of that." Sam said.
"He said he didn't remember anything, when we were on Thor's ship." Daniel replied.
"He probably didn't." Jacob said. "At that point, at least."
The next images were of Jack waking up. Then fighting the replicators, and finding Sam.
/Jack was on board the Daniel Jackson, with Thor. The rest of SG-1 were not around.
"O'Neill, there is something we must discuss." Thor said.
"Yeah?"
"I do not wish you to be alarmed, but I was unable to fully remove the knowledge of the Ancients from your mind."
"What!" Jack yelled. Then, apparently remembering who he was talking to, he checked himself. "What?"
"Had I done so, you would have ceased to be. The process was allowed to progress too far. I am sorry, O'Neill."
"So I'm gonna die anyway?" Jack asked.
"You are not." Thor replied.
"But I thought…" Jack began.
"I have succeeded in confining the information. It will not affect you in any way."
Jack narrowed his eyes at the Asgard. "But it's still there, just in case you guys want it, huh?" He said shrewdly.
Thor nodded his large head. "I am sorry, O'Neill." He said.
"Ack. I'm alive, aren't I?" Thor nodded. "So what've I got to complain about?" When Thor looked as though he was about to answer Jack held up a hand. "It was rhetorical, buddy."/
"He lied!" Daniel exclaimed.
"Again." Teal'c said.
"Technically, he didn't." Sam said.
They looked at her, but it was General Hammond who spoke next. "Did anyone ask him specifically if the knowledge of the Ancients had been removed?"
They all knew that no one had.
"There you go." Sam said.
"Damn evasive Special Ops." Daniel muttered, not quite under his breath.
/Jack walked into Sam's lab. "Carter."
Sam looked up. "Sir."
"I never thought I'd hear myself utter these words: I need that report."
Sam looked mildly panicked. "Right! Um, I just need to, uh, finish typing up my notes." She shuffled through the paperwork on her desk. "Uh, yeah, I'll have it for you first thing tomorrow."
Jack examined his watch. "It is tomorrow."
Sam looked at her own watch "Oh."
"I'm joking! I don't need the report!"
Sam looked confused. "Well, then, why...?"
Jack interrupted her. "Because something's going on with you. You haven't tried to confuse me with any scientific babble for the last couple of days and that's a red flag to me."
Sam sighed. She picked up a small jewellery box and handed it to Jack.
"Pete gave me this."
Jack opened the box, looked at the ring, then back up at Sam.
"People normally wear these on their fingers." He said.
"I haven't said yes."
"And yet - you haven't said no." Jack closed the box.
"I told him I needed to think about it."
"And?"
"That was two weeks ago." Sam said.
"Ah!"
"Y'know," Sam began, "all these years I've been concentrating on work - I just assumed that one day I would…"
"Have a life?" Jack interrupted.
"Yeah!"
"Yeah." Jack repeated.
"And now it comes down to it, I don't know. I mean, every time we go through the Gate, we risk not coming back. Is it fair to put somebody else through that?" Sam asked.
"Pete is a cop," Jack reasoned, "I think he could handle it."
"What about kids?"
"What about 'em?
"Do I take maternity leave and then come back? What, do I drop the baby off at day-care on my way to some unexplored planet on the edge of the Crab Nebula?"
"Carter, there are people on this base who have families." Jack said.
Sam thought for a moment. Then looked up at Jack. "What about you? If things had been different..." she trailed off, unable to complete her sentence.
Jack was quiet for a moment. Then he spoke. "I wouldn't be here." He said./
"Wow, you really did give him that chance, didn't you?" Daniel asked, remembering Jack and Sam's earlier argument on the mothership.
"Yeah." She said softly.
"Funny." Jacob said.
"What is?" Daniel asked.
"The things Jack remembers in detail."
"I know what you mean." Hammond said. "He doesn't seem to really remember the things you'd think he would. Missions, that sort of thing."
/Jack was sitting in his office, reading mission reports. There was a knock at the door.
"Come." He called.
Daniel and Teal'c walked in.
"Hey guys!" Jack said happily, pushing the mission reports to one side. "What's up?"
"We want to talk to you about Sam." Daniel said.
"Uh huh. Why?" Jack asked.
"ColonelCarter is engaged." Teal'c said.
"I know."
"You know?" Daniel repeated.
"Yep. We talked about it coupla days ago." Jack replied, suddenly finding interest in the discarded mission reports.
"You talked?" Daniel said.
"Yeah. Well, mostly Carter was worried, and I reassured her."
"You did what?" Daniel's voice was getting louder.
"Daniel, don't yell, I'm right here." Jack said.
"Sorry. You reassuredher?" Daniel asked.
"What's wrong with that?" Jack asked.
"Everything!" Daniel said, flopping down in the chair opposite Jack. /
Daniel shot a look at Sam, "Sorry." He said.
She shook her head, engrossed in what her friends were saying on the screen.
/"Teal'c?" Jack asked, giving up on Daniel.
"O'Neill, do you not harbour feelings for Colonel-"
"Right that's it. Stop right there!" Jack said. "Sit." He said to Teal'c, who inclined his head and took a seat.
"Right, first of all, there are no feelings" Daniel opened his mouth to speak. "Ah!" Jack held up a warning finger. "And, if there were, it wouldn't matter anyway. Right, second, it really is none of our business who Carter gets engaged, or even married to. She's a grown woman, for cryin' out loud! Okay?" He looked from Daniel to Teal'c and back again.
"But, Jack…"
"No,Daniel. Don't."
But Daniel wouldn't be swayed. "You have to talk to her, Jack. If not for yourself, then for her. This guy he's… not right."
"Daniel, I don't have to talk to Carter."
"You're supposed to be her friend." Daniel said.
"And you guys are supposed to be my friends, and yet this is the first time I've seen you in like, what, three days?"
"O'Neill, I see you every day in the gym." Teal'c interjected.
"I was talking to Danny there, T." Jack replied.
"Point taken, I've been locked up in my lab." Daniel admitted.
"Just sayin' Daniel." Jack said in a softer tone.
Daniel opened his mouth, ready to say something further about Sam, but Jack jumped in, saying, "Right. We done here? Got a briefing." He hustled them out of his office and closed the door behind them, leaning on it.
"Damn archaeologist." He muttered, before going back to his desk./
As the images began to speed again Sam looked round at her friends. "I can't believe you guys did that." She said.
Daniel looked at her, trying to gauge how she felt about it.
Teal'c spoke. "I apologise for not speaking to you directly, ColonelCarter. However, DanielJackson and I felt that you would benefit more from speaking with O'Neill."
"How, exactly?" Sam asked.
"You would both then be happy." Teal'c said, leaving the other occupants of the room in no doubt to what he had expected O'Neill to say.
"Two birds with but one stone." Daniel said, in an uncanny impression of Teal'c, earning a giggle from Sam.
"Stubborn." Jacob muttered again.
As they watched the images flicker past, Sam sobered up. On screen she could see their recent experiences.
/"Lieutenant Colonel Carter! On your feet!" /
Sam jerked automatically, but managed to save herself the embarrassment of actually coming to attention. Jacob and General Hammond smiled.
/"Oh for cryin' out loud, go to your safe place, Carter."/
"I don't believe that actually worked." Jacob said, amused.
/Sam in the cell, being held by Jack: "I thought I'd lost you."
"Yeah, well, rumours of my death, yadda yadda yadda…"/
/Jack and Daniel walking down a corridor on the mothership:
"You wanna say something, I can tell." Jack narrowed his eyes at Daniel.
"I do not."
"You do."
"Do not.
"Do too."
"Don't."
"Do."
"Don't."
"Daniel!"
"It's just… you brought him along to help Sam, and it was you that ended up doing it."
When Jack said nothing, Daniel went on, "It just seems to me that –"
Jack cut him off, "Don't even go there, Daniel."/
Then the images flickered again. They saw the Goa'uld using the hand device on Jack, and his subsequent argument with Sam. They saw him head to some sleeping quarters and lie down.
/Jack woke up. Not that a casual observer would have been able to tell. There was no sudden intake of breath, he didn't sit up, didn't even open his eyes fully.
He had sensed someone in the dark room.
Suddenly he was hit by blue zat fire.
As he fought to maintain consciousness Pete Shanahan loomed over him, smiling slightly.
Shanahan held up a vial, the one that carried the memory suppressant drug, and pulled out the stopper.
"Here we go O'Neill. Time to forget all about her." He said, his voice carrying a sing song tone. "No more General Jack O'Neill. And we all live happily ever after." Shanahan appeared to think about this for a moment, then added, "Not you of course."/
"What the…? He's flipped." Daniel said.
Sam was staring in horror at the screen.
/Jack struggled, but sleep combined with the zat blast made it easy for Shanahan to subdue him.
Shanahan held Jack's nose. When Jack was forced to open his mouth in order to breathe, Shanahan poured the liquid down his throat, not allowing Jack time to think.
O'Neill swallowed convulsively.
Shanahan backed away, satisfied.
"Goodbye O'Neill." He said, as Jack tried to get up off the bed, then fell to the floor beside it.
"When you wake up, you won't remember a thing." Was the last thing Jack heard before he lost consciousness. /
The screen went blank.
"That's it." Jacob said, stating the obvious. He rose and left the room to detach the memory recall device from Jack's head.
"Has that guy been taking lessons from the Goa'uld? How to do sinister, in three easy steps." Daniel asked.
"It's my fault. Oh, god, what have I done?" Sam said quietly. "He did that because I broke it off with him."
"Sam, he as a jerk. He did that because he didn't like Jack." Daniel said.
"Dr Jackson is right, Colonel Carter." Hammond said.
"No, sir. You heard what he said. He wanted him to forget about me." Sam said.
"ColonelCarter, did you say anything to PeteShanahan concerning O'Neill?"
"No, but he worked it out anyway." Sam said, apparently forgetting that General Hammond was her superior officer.
"This isn't your fault, Sam." Hammond said, using her first name to reassure her.
Jacob re-entered the room. "He's just sleeping now." He told them.
Hammond nodded. "Go get some rest, people. I'll have you all paged when he wakes up." He thought for a moment, then added, "That's an order."
SG-1 nodded and stood. They filed out of the room and in the direction of their quarters.
Sam was the last to leave. "Sir, I just let Pete walk out of here." She said.
"I know. We'll find him." Hammond said, not taking his eyes off Jack. "This isn't your fault Colonel." He repeated, firmly.