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Chapter Five
Without headlights, a flashlight, or even lightening to guide him, Jack was running, tripping mostly, down the incline. He didn't bother calling her name; he knew she wouldn't answer. He heard Daniel's frantic voice calling to him, but he ignored it as it grew more distant. Jack was beyond rational thought. He didn't care that he had a bag in the back of his truck with a change of clothes and even some old boots from the last time he'd gone camping. He didn't care that there was probably a flashlight in there too. He didn't care that the four-wheel drive in his truck could probably handle the sloping ground better than his bare feet or that the headlights would give him the advantage of not being blind. He didn't care about anything except finding Carter.
His foot caught on a fallen branch, anchoring his bad leg and bringing him down hard on that quasi functional knee. The pain shot through him, freezing him on the spot. Agony rolled through him in waves, nauseating him. He already knew, from the sheer force of his fall, that he was going in for another surgery.
But it wouldn't matter, he told himself as he climbed back to his feet despite the pain. If he didn't find Carter, or God forbid, he didn't find her alive, he was going to kill himself. Simple as that.
He forced himself to continue on with the excruciating pain. He had no idea where she was. Even working from his dream, he only knew where she'd left the road. He didn't have any clue how fast she'd been going or how far she could have fallen. She didn't stand a chance if he was the only one looking. He started the slow climb back to the road in defeat, blinded more by his tears than by the darkness. And he realized, had it been the other way around, had Carter been searching for him, she would have known exactly where to look - because she would have known all that shit about force and acceleration and gravity and how that all translated into the exact distance a 180 pound man would have landed from the curve.
Daniel was nearly hysterical when Jack all but collapsed on the blacktop. He offered his strength to help Jack back to the truck, but Jack was too worn out to move. He sat in the gravel, feeling the dampness seep into his pants and watching the blood gather from the cuts on his feet.
Daniel squatted down beside his friend, trying to reassure him with a hand on his back. "Look, Jack, I don't know what you're operating on here, but the odds that Sam is out here are very slim."
"Where are the cops? Shouldn't they be here by now?" Jack searched the sky for a helicopter with search lights. He saw only clouds.
"They're not coming." He held up his hand before Jack could say anything. "I tried, Jack. I lied and said we knew she went out here tonight to ride and that she was supposed to be back early. They won't send a team out for an accident they don't know happened. They said she's an adult and unless there's a witness, she's not considered missing yet."
"I saw it, Daniel." His voice was flat and defeated. Evidently the panic had drained out of him with the oozing blood.
"What?" Daniel couldn't hide the alarm in his voice. "What do you mean you saw it?"
His head was throbbing already from the adrenaline; his knee ached a bit more every moment. He looked at Daniel, too desperate to be embarrassed and too scared to realize Daniel was the only person on earth wouldn't question his explanation. "I was sleeping, Daniel. But I felt it, I saw it. I can't explain it. It was like I was here with her. I saw it, even before she lost control. She went out because she was mad at me and then the storm came up and she didn't see the turn until it was too late."
The only sound from Daniel was the crunching of the gravel as he sat down next to Jack. He simply offered his presence as comfort until something came to him. "She must have been thinking about you pretty hard for you to have felt it." He saw Jack's head bob his agreement. His next question was so terrifying that barely a whisper escaped his throat. "Do you think she's still alive, Jack?"
He'd been worried about finding her and it had crossed his mind that she might not be, but he heard the implication of Daniel's statement. Daniel wasn't questioning the veracity; he was trying to find a cause. Jack could only shrug as the lump in his throat cut off his words. He couldn't process the idea that those moments had been her last, that perhaps it was only in death that she was able to share it with him. "We have to find her, Daniel. She's here. She's right here and she's hurt and we're all she's got."
Daniel reached for the phone in his pocket once again. "That's a great idea, Jack." Jack looked at him curiously. Daniel searched the list of numbers for the one he'd been given 'in case of an emergency,' the one he'd never gotten around to deleting. He felt the situation certainly qualified as an emergency. A voice answered on the fourth ring; the answering machine clicked on simultaneously. "Pete? This is Daniel Jackson."
Jack hung his head, fearing he'd never hear the end of it from Carter when she found out they'd called Shanahan. But he didn't really care, not if she was well enough to give him hell.
His attention turned back to Daniel, whose voice had grown loud and irritated. "Yeah, well, I'm glad she didn't marry you!"
Jack watched in horror as Daniel disconnected the phone angrily. He couldn't believe it.
"He won't help. He said he can't send out a search without filing a report and he can't file a report until she's been missing for twenty-four hours." Daniel glared at the phone. "I'm so glad she dumped him."
"Of course if she hadn't, he'd probably be willing to help." Jack reached for the phone, remembering suddenly that he was a general. He didn't have to wait twenty-four hours for anything. He dialed Peterson and started ordering people around.
Within twenty-four minutes, two choppers were scouring the area and at least thirty men were pouring through the woods on foot. They'd brought in lights that made it bright as day. Someone had taken the liberty to notify the SGC as well and there were many airmen there, whose names Jack couldn't place, looking for Carter. No one mentioned Jack's less than proper attire or how the search had come about. No one questioned a general, least of all the low level airmen who were working at that unfortunate hour.
Daniel tried to coax Jack back into the truck, claiming that he was cold. Jack only shrugged and said he wasn't leaving. Daniel kept trying. "Jack, if you get sick, she's going to blame me. I'm not asking you to leave. I'm not going anywhere either until they find her or she calls and asks why you called her six hundred times while she was out." He stood and nudged Jack with his knee. "Come on, Jack. Get up."
"I can't." He motioned toward his knee, the swelling of which was obvious even through his jeans.
Shouts from the woods interrupted their conversation and the pain was forgotten once again as a group of airmen lugged a badly damaged motorcycle back onto the road. Jack sprang to his feet, the pain in his heart far outweighing the pain in his knee.
He'd known, and yet, he still hadn't expected it. He gripped the fabric of Daniel's jacket in a tight fist. "Oh, God, Daniel, no!"
Daniel stared at the mangled bike in horror. As sympathetic as he'd been in listening to Jack's explanation, he hadn't truly believed it was possible. Half in shock, he supported as much of Jack's weight as possible as they approached the unlucky men who'd stumbled on the bike.
The young man was probably barely out of his teens and his eyes widened in fear when Jack gripped his collar tightly. "Did you see her? Is she down there? Where did you find it?" The airman could only stutter out a few half words.
Daniel worked Jack's hand free. He pointed toward another man he recognized from the base. Although he had no idea of his rank, he figured it didn't actually matter at that point. "Go tell the Lieutenant over there to take a group of men exactly where you found it and start searching from there." He waited until the group had descended into the trees again. "Is there a medic here?" His shout was loud enough to draw the attention of the men who'd been summoned for the express purpose of transporting Sam to the hospital if they found her.
One of them approached, looking around for evidence of the victim. "Yes, sir, what do you need?"
Daniel froze for a moment, eventually realizing that he was being mistaken for an officer. He almost grinned at the thought - he was the most un-military type ever. "General O'Neill needs someone to look at his knee."
They brought over a stretcher for Jack and began looking at his injury. "I think you've got a fracture here, although you really need an x-ray to be sure. Might even be some ligament damage. We'll get you to the hospital right away."
Jack shoved them away and hopped up onto one foot. "I'm not going anywhere, airman. Get the hell away from me. That's an order." As soon as they complied, Jack glared at Daniel. "I'm not leaving here without her."
Daniel nodded and resumed his position at Jack's side to help him sit back down in the dirt. "You can ride back in the ambulance with her. I'll follow in your truck."
Jack nodded. "They'll find her, Daniel."
"Of course they will, Jack."
Some men nearby were talking about waiting until daylight and bringing out dogs. Jack clenched his teeth and stared in direction they'd found her bike. To him, dogs meant they were looking for a body, not a person. "They'll find her."
"I know, Jack." He glanced at the blank expression on Jack's face. Anyone else would think he felt nothing, that he was as impassive as his carefully schooled features implied, but Daniel knew better and he could see the terror in those dark eyes. "She'll be ok, Jack. She'll be fine. She'll be complaining about you embarrassing her with all this."
Daniel's words did nothing to quiet the anxiety Jack felt. Every part of his body ached, not from his fall, but from the knowledge that Carter, his Carter, his Sam, was lying out there somewhere, helpless and injured and terrified. Jack hung his head and tried to hide his tears.