Sleeping Beauty

By LetitiaRichards.

Rating:

Category: Angst, Drama, Hurt/Comfort, Romance.

Pairings: Jack/Sam.

Warnings: Fluff.

Season: 5

Summary: The team have a close encounter of the alien kind.

Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate SG-1. No copyright infringements are intended. Just borrowing the characters for a while. I promise to put them back as they were.

Author's notes: Just a little something that popped into my head one day and wouldn't go away.

SLEEPING BEAUTY.

by LetitiaRichards

Chapter 1

The event horizon of the Stargate shut off with a loud snap, plunging the deserted countryside into an eerie silence.

Colonel Jack O'Neill, leader of the SGC's elite first contact team lowered his weapon and relaxed his shoulders; there was no danger to be seen here.

"See anything kids?" he asked the members of his team.

His second in command swung round to look at him with a wide grin.

"Nothing so far Sir."

"Daniel?" Jack asked, waiting impatiently for the team linguist, archaeologist, anthropologist to respond. "Damnit. Daniel!" he yelled a little louder snapping the man out of his reverie.

"Huh? Jack?"

"Never mind. Did you check out the DHD?"

"Ah...yeah."

"And it'll work?"

"Yeeeaah!" Daniel drawled, stretching the word slightly in confusion. What was Jack driving at?

"So send the M.A.L.P. back!" Jack sighed, rolling his eyes. There were times when he wondered why he bothered. After all this time you'd think the man knew the routine.

"Oh! Yeah!"

Daniel busied himself dialling the SGC and sending the expensive robotic equipment home.

As soon as the wormhole shut down again, there was a distinct chill in the air, and a huge shadow passed over the four members of the team causing them to look up quickly.

Jack's first though was that they had been spotted by a Goa'uld Mother ship or an Al'kesh but there was nothing to be seen against the blue cloudless sky.

"Okay!" he said warily. "Was that just me or can everyone feel the change here?"

"Change Sir?"

"Yeah Carter. Sorta creepy change. Shadows an'...whatever."

"I can't see anything blocking the sun Sir, but there is a definite shadow over the land," Major Carter stated, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She looked across at her CO and saw him reach round the back of his neck to rub away the shivers down his own spine. They were obviously both feeling the weird atmosphere. They exchanged looks for a few seconds that passed secret concern for each other as they ventured into the unknown.

Jack looked away before the look could turn into something more. A need that couldn't be fulfilled; an itch that couldn't be scratched; at least not while they both worked on SG-1. Thoughts of retirement loomed large but he squashed that idea before it took hold. Who would watch her six if he wasn't there to take care of her? Not that he would voice it quite like that. Sam was her own woman, and didn't take kindly to 'men' trying to coddle her because of her sex. She'd already shot that idea down in flames the first time they'd met in the briefing room back when.

Instead he turned his attention to Daniel who seemed oblivious to everything around him as usual.

"Shadow?" Daniel asked looking around. "I don't see how you can say that Jack? The sky's as clear as..."

"Daniel!" Jack interrupted. "Just...don't! Are you ready to move out?"

"Ah, yeah, sure."

"Good. All set Teal'c?" On receiving a nod from the strait-laced Jaffa, Jack ordered him to take point, sticking Daniel in the middle with him and Carter bringing up the rear.

Jack and Sam hardly spoke on the long walk towards the ruins that Daniel was so interested in. Each of them made a special effort to concentrate on the area around them as they looked out for any sign of trouble.

Finally they climbed the hill where Teal'c called a halt as soon as he saw what was in the valley below. In the middle of an open landscape lay their destination. A ruined city or town or whatever it was, with one exception.

Daniel came up to stand beside the muscular warrior and Jack and Sam joined them looking down through the trees.

"Oh wow!" Daniel sighed happily. "Jack...this is great!"

Below them lay a fairy tale castle with turrets a plenty and complete with a drawbridge over the moat; all set in beautiful grounds, surrounded by green fields as far as the eye could see but covered with ruined buildings.

"Snow White?" Jack asked.

"Sleeping Beauty!" Carter countered knowledgably.

"You sure?" Jack asked, resisting the urge to ask how she knew.

"It's straight out of Disney Sir," she stated, amused at the stunned look on his face.

"Just so long as we don't run into the seven dwarfs, then I guess we should go knock on the door."

"Actually Sir, if they were around it would be the wicked Queen you'd have to worry about mostly. And besides that's Snow White's story and not..."

"Ack!" Jack snapped, giving her a glare that said 'if you value your position on my team, you'll just give the fairy tale thing a rest.'

"Ooops!" she murmured with a soft mutter. Sam took the hint and shut up.

"Are not fairy tales mere stories told for children's education O'Neill?" Teal'c asked in all seriousness.

"Yeah sure they are T. Though no-one believes they're actually real."

"Ah...there is some grain of truth in them Jack!" Daniel piped up hesitantly, waiting for the inevitable explosion of denial from his friend.

"What?" came the expected response.

"They're told to teach children morals mainly. Put in it's simplest form of teaching right from wrong."

"Daniel I hope that doesn't mean that we'll be running into the wicked witch of the west?"

"Wrong story Jack. The moral is there too. That film was a fairy story for adults."

Jack frowned at his friend, hoping that he wasn't implying anything about him watching a fairy story; he liked the 'Wizard of Oz'.

As if Daniel had heard his thoughts he added,

"You actually enjoy that story Jack!"

"Uh huh! So! And who enjoys watching Star Wars?"

Daniel and Teal'c both looked at him in curiosity.

"Now see, that's a modern fairy story which I just happen to know that at least two of my team can't get enough of."

"Touché Jack!" Daniel conceded. Teal'c stuffed his pride away by pulling their thoughts back to the present.

"There does not appear to be anyone around O'Neill," Teal'c said ignoring the growing tension between his team-mates.

Jack took his binoculars from his pack and scanned the area.

Teal'c was right. With a castle that size it should be teeming with life, but it wasn't, and once more the hairs on the back of his neck were standing to attention. Everything outside the castle walls was in ruins, yet the castle remained in good condition. He rubbed away the feeling that something wasn't right and ordered them cautiously forward.

There was only one way to find out what was going on and it wasn't by standing there gawping.

As one, they moved downwards towards the open fields; Carter was playing with one of her doo-hickeys.

"Sir...I'm getting some strange readings coming from the castle. According to this Colonel...it's made from pure Naquadah!

"What?" all three men of the team gasped.

TBC

Please, pleaseR & R... I need encouragement here!