Author's Notes:
This is actually two chapters put together so I wouldn't leave you all on too high a cliff until the next installment. I will be away again, this time for a whole week (aaacckkk! No computer! Withdrawal pains are already beginning!) and I didn't think you could wait that long for Sam to be rescued. You're welcome.
"What's the problem?" the officer asked.
"We're members of Stargate Command, and the crowd recognized us and tried to jump us," Sam replied breathlessly.
The officer peered into the car, trying to see the four celebrities for himself.
"I'll give you a police escort, just follow me," he replied, finally sitting back. "Where to?"
"National Airport." Teal'C and Daniel were so going to miss their flight if they didn't get moving.
"Done."
Jack and Sam were back at Andrews, suddenly glad to be back inside the plain military installation safe from the public's slightly crazy eyes. Daniel and Teal'C had flown back to Colorado, and Sam was likewise getting ready to go home, but Jack's job was here now.
He had to stay.
The last thing Sam wanted to do was to leave him here alone, facing the endless meetings and media questions, but Jack seemed unflapped by it all.
"Don't worry, Carter, I have a plan. I always have a plan," he told her. "It's not going to be like this forever. People will start to realize that nothing has changed, and they'll calm down and get back to their normal lives. Most people are smart. They'll start to realize that the Hansens of the world are just trying to stir up trouble."
"So, how long will all this take, for things to get back to normal? Because, last I checked, those people were ready to lynch us. They recognized us. I'm not so sure everything's just going to be fine all of the sudden."
"Sure it is. Don't worry, okay? We just tell people the truth and they'll start to see reason."
"I had no idea you were such an optimist," Sam accused him. She stood up and sighed loudly.
"Well, I'm headed back to my quarters. My flight takes off from Dulles tomorrow morning and I need to get up early. Goodnight, Jack."
She started to leave, but Jack was on his feet and blocking the door in an instant.
"Hey. Uhh. Thanks for coming. It's been great to have you here through all this, I mean it, Sam."
Jack reached out and pulled her into his arms.
"Thank you. For everything."
"Of course."
In the few seconds it had taken him to cross the room, the atmosphere in the room had become electric with welcome tension. Jack smiled down on her infectiously, holding her with a yearning that he didn't quite know what to do with. He grew awkward as they stood there however; after all their years of being bound by regulations, he wasn't sure how much to say or do.
"It's okay, Jack. Just give me a kiss goodnight, please?" Sam responded boldly to his confusion.
So he did.
Sam arrived home after an uneventful flight. Jack had somehow talked the airline into bumping her up to first class so she'd be around less people, and therefore less likely to be recognized, so the flight had been more than comfortable.
Still, it was heavenly to be home. She would have driven straight to her house, but General Landry had called on the cell phone and asked for her to come by the SGC first, so now she was in the elevator on her way deep into the bowels of Cheyenne Mountain.
Daniel met her as the elevator doors opened.
"Welcome home, Sam! I had the security guard call me when you got in the elevator," he explained his happening to be in the right place at the right time.
"I see," Sam grinned, amused at his attentions. "What's up that can't wait until I've been home for a shower?"
"Well, actually, if we'd known you needed a shower, we would have-"
Sam cut him off by punching him in the arm.
"The General wants us to watch a talk show with him," was all Daniel would say, with a mysterious smile. He waved Sam into the conference room, where the TV was indeed on and turned up loudly.
Sam gasped.
Teal'C, Jack, and ...yes, it was Thor...sat in a row on a talk show on the screen. It was Ivan Angle's, a popular talk show in the U.S. that boasted the largest daily audience of any day time broadcast. The two aliens and Jack were draped casually in easy chairs looking like they were on vacation.
"Well, he said he had a plan, but-" Sam frowned suddenly, remembering something. "I thought Teal'C flew home with you last night?" Sam asked.
"Nope, he received a call from the General at the last minute to remain behind. You and Jack had already left the airport." Daniel explained.
They turned their attention to the TV screen and caught Thor just as he was answering a question.
"...Jack O'Neill has been of invaluable help to the Asgard, making all the people of Earth dear to the Asgard and worthy of our worlds' mutual friendship, trust, and partnership."
"Geesh, no wonder Jack wanted him on the show," Sam laughed, listening while the tiny grey alien continued to shower praise on the beaming General at his side.
"I can't believe he never told me about this," Sam mused.
"Mr. Teal'C," Ivan turned to the Jaffa, "Can you tell us how your impressive tattoo was applied?"
The audience was very appreciative of Teal'C's overly detailed explanation based on their horrified 'oohs' and 'aahs.'
"Thank you, Mr. Teal'C," the host finally cut him off, looking a little green around the edges.
"And... General O'Neill, my final question of the day is for you. What advice do you have for the men and women of our country who are trying to deal with a suddenly much larger galaxy?"
"I'd say to remember three things. First, remember that the Galaxy was this big long before you knew about all these other folks, and that they've known about you for a long time. Long, long time, in the case of the Asgard. Second, most of the folks we've met out there are not very different from you and me. They're living their lives on their planets just like we're living our lives here. In fact, they're more like you than you know, because a lot of the people of the galaxy had their start right here on Earth. But that's a story for another day. Which brings me to my third point. Keep an open mind. There's a lot of knowledge out there and we're just beginning to tap into it. This is as exciting time to be alive."
Sam smiled proudly. Jack had done well.
"We have about five minutes before the show breaks. Are there any questions in the audience for any one of our guests?"
A young, thoughtful looking man in the front row stood and made his way to the mike, set up for the purpose of taking questons from the audience.
"My question is for Teal'C. Many people I have talked to this week feel that your existence threatens our religion, our belief that God created us and our world. What do you think of this, and do you have a religion?"
"I once had a religion in which I served and worshipped beings I thought were gods. They were revealed, by people from Earth, to be impersonating gods, but in reality were parasitic creatures using my people. Since gaining this knowledge, I have found that I do believe in a Creator, a higher power, but never again will I serve another being who is pretending to be a god. I do not understand how knowledge that there is life on other planets can threaten a belief in a Creator. Do you not find that by discovering that there are many peoples scattered throughout the galaxy simply reveals the Creator God as even bigger and more powerful?"
Teal'C resumed his seat next to O'Neill, who was observing him with renewed appreciation.
Ivan Angle looked at Thor.
"Anything to add, Supreme Commander Thor?"
The little grey Supreme Commander was looking supremely uncomfortable as the clock for the show ran out just in time to get him off the hook. O'Neill exchanged an amused glance with Teal'C that the camera managed to catch just before the closeup shot on Ivan took over the screen.
"Well, tune in next week, folks, when we'll have more discussion on our current topic, 'No Longer Alone In The Universe.' Thanks for watching!"
The theme music cued for 'Ivan Angle' and General Landry stood up and clicked off the television.
"Tomorrow, O'Neill and Teal'C have a spot on World News Tonight, and then the next day, they'll be interviewed twice on CNN. Then they have a public speaking engagement at the White House for an event that Homeland Security has put together."
"O'Neill as a spin doctor. Who'd have ever believed it?" Daniel said, amazed at his friend's hidden- well hidden- talents.
Sam rose, still smiling from ear to ear. Maybe Jack was right. Surely things would soon be back to normal.
Sam stopped at the corner store about two blocks from her home and picked up some milk and cereal, cream for coffee and a loaf of bread. She grabbed a newspaper at the counter and threw the grocery bag into the passenger seat as she took a minute to scan the days' headlines.
Even the headlines were back to business as usual. O'Neill's appearance on the popular talk show was front page news, but only as a small box on the bottom right hand side of the page. A small headline caught her eye, though. It read, 'Militant Survivalist Groups Experiencing Record Enrollments Since the Revealing of Stargate Program by US Government."
"Really?" Sam asked out loud, turning to page six for more details on the story. She read for several minutes, growing increasingly concerned as she read, before finally tossing the paper aside and starting up her car engine.
Not for the first time, she wondered what the long term effects of the disclosure would actually be.
Sam slept long and well that night and woke up much later than she usually did. The sun was already up. Jumping out of bed on this, her first day off in over a week, she pulled on some jogging shorts and a T shirt and went for a quick jog around the neighborhood.
She took her usual route, being a creature of habit, and enjoyed all the familiar sights along the way as she trotted along somewhat sluggishly. The park was the last long stretch before she turned off on her own street, and she was almost all the way through when she heard footsteps jogging up behind her, very heavy... very fast. Sam whirled to face the approaching runner, but before she could react, a meaty hand clamped down over her mouth and she was thrown down to her knees, her attacker still behind her where she couldn't see his face.
"Colonel Carter," a deep, gravelly voice breathed into her ear, causing her to shudder.
"We're going for a little ride."
"Who are you?" Sam demanded fearfully.
"I was told to say, 'a taste of your own medicine,'" he whispered fiercely, quickly tying her arms behind her back and jamming the barrel of a gun into her ribs.
Hansen? He'd sent someone to kidnap her. But why?
A cloth soaked in some awful smelling substance was shoved across her mouth and nose and within seconds, Sam's world went dark.
Jack and Teal'C had just left the CNN studios in New York and were looking for a cab to go to the airport when Jack's cell phone rang.
"Just a minute there, T," Jack instructed his friend, pointing to the ringing phone. They both stepped back onto the sidewalk.
"O'Neill," he answered.
"Jack," Sam's terrified voice rang out.
"Sam, what's wrong? What's happened?"
The next voice to talk, however, was not Sam's. "O'Neill," a strange voice addressed him coldly. "We have your precious Colonel Carter."
"What do you want?"
Jack was motioning at Teal'C to use the Asgard communicator to contact Thor, up above Earth in orbit as he had been for a few days now. Jack knew that Thor had the technology to trace this cell phone call as long as he kept the man on the line long enough. Teal'C whipped out the smooth oval communicator and stepped far enough away from Jack that his conversation with Thor would not be overheard.
"I know what you want," The kidnapper responded in a threatening sneer. "You want Colonel Carter back, unharmed. Well, that's not going to happen unless you do exactly what I say."
'I hope she kicks your butt,' Jack almost said out loud before biting his tongue and reformulating a spoken reply.
"What's that?"
"Cancel all public speaking appointments you have already made. Be at the ticket counter in Union Station, Washington, D.C., at exactly 11:00 tomorrow morning, where I will find you and give you further instructions."
"What do you want?" Jack asked again, emphasizing every syllable.
"Just do it, or you'll never see her again." The connection went dead, and Jack flipped off the phone, desperately afraid for Sam.
"Did you get it?" He almost shouted at Teal'C. Teal'C held the Asgard communicator up to his mouth.
"Thor. Did you obtain the location of the cell phone signal?"
"Yes. Shall I beam you up?"
"Tell him yes," Jack indicated, stepping closer to Teal'C.
The other people on the street gasped in amazement as the two men disappeared in a brilliant flash of light.
Sam woke to darkness, her hands and feet tied so tight her muscles were beginning to cramp. She could tell she was blindfolded and in a moving vehicle, for she could feel the motion of the car and could hear voices around her. She kicked out experimentally with her bound feet and impacted the soft flesh of someone's thigh.
"Keep still!" A man's voice snarled at her, pushing her roughly back into her confined position against the side of the car. "She's awake," the same man then announced to the other occupants.
Sam felt slightly sick from the effects of whatever they had used to knock her out, and not being able to see was making the nausea worse. She gladly remained still and unmoving as she fought to control the sick feeling in her stomach.
None of the car's occupants spoke to their captive, and eventually Sam began to drift off again, mesmerized by the rocking motion. She was jerked awake when the car suddenly came to a stop and the engines were killed.
"Get her out," she heard a man from the driver's seat bark. Immediately, two pairs of hands were around her arms and legs and she was hoisted roughly from the back of the car and found herself on the ground.
"We'll be doing some walking from here out, Colonel, and it will go faster without your blindfold. I'm going to remove it in a few minutes, once we're down the trail a piece. But don't try anything. If you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you."
Something about the man's tone and rough voice warned Sam that she'd be better off complying for now, so she nodded submissively. She stumbled along in the man's grasp for what felt like an hour when he finally stopped and removed her blindfold.
They were in the middle of a forest on a mountainside, no trails visible that Sam could discern. Surrounding Sam were three men, dressed for rugged outdoor living, brandishing rifles and daypacks. Their feet were shod in heavy workboots and they wore cowhide gloves.
Sam, in comparison, was still in her running shoes, shorts, and T shirt. She was already sporting several bloody scratches and a few torn spots on her clothes from the brush they had been hiking through while she was still blindfolded. She caught her breath as the men took five after undoing her blindfold. Staring balefully at them each in turn, she nevertheless remained silent, waiting for them to explain themselves.
But no explanation was forthcoming.
"Right, let's go," The leader announced, giving Sam a hostile stare and prodding at her back with a gnarled finger. She followed after the man breaking trail, stumbling over roots and rocks in her no longer white running shoes.
"So, Thor. This is where the call was made?" Jack asked dubiously. The Asgard had beamed them down into a clearing where a car was parked partially obscured by a bush, along the berm of a dirt logging road running up the side of a mountain.
"Where are we?" Thor pushed a button and up sprang a three dimensional representation of the northern hemisphere of Earth with a red light flashing in the northwest quadrant.
"There," Thor answered. "I do not know what you Tau'ri call this place."
"We call it Wyoming, I think," Jack answered hesitantly, peering closely at the holographic map floating in the air before him.
"O'Neill." Teal'C was standing at the far edge of the clearing. "A group passed this way not long ago. Three maybe four, and someone who was not very adept at avoiding the thorn bushes, perhaps someone who was blindfolded."
Teal'C pointed out several places along the path where bushes had been broken and a drop of blood had dried darkly. He even found a small scrap of white T-shirt material, ragged and ripped, further down the trail.
"Sam."
"She's clumsy from being bound and blindfolded, perhaps."
"Good work, T. Let's go. Thor, stay in touch." Thor smiled as much as possible for an Asgard, bowed his head, and beamed back to his ship.
Sam was blindfolded again. She had been escorted into a cabin about fifteen minutes ago, and she could hear her captors starting a fire in the stove and bustling about in general. She heard footsteps approaching and one of the men sat down right beside her, giving her the creeps when his thigh brushed up snugly against hers on the small bench.
"Colonel Carter, if you cooperate, we will allow you to stay alive. We want you to write a letter, asking your comrades to renounce this heresy about a Stargate to the world. You and your comrades are evil, and you must be stopped."
Sam's heart felt like a block of ice.
"What are you talking about? Who is behind this kidnapping?"
"We are a private militia dedicated to protecting and defending our way of life."
"Your way of life? Why do you think the Stargate is, uh, heresy? Do you think we made it up? Why would we do that?" Sam was thinking out loud, as was her habit, but after she finished spouting forth the questions burning in her mind she cringed, hoping she hadn't incensed the man.
"Stargate," he spit back at her sarcastically. "The government really expects us to believe lies like this? You of all people know it's made up, so the government can control our lives more and more."
Sam tried frantically to figure out the man's logic, to no avail. She said nothing in return.
"You don't deny it because it's true," he sneered triumphantly.
"I don't deny it because I know you won't believe anything I say," Sam spat back. "I could show it to you, would you believe me even then?"
He jumped up and left her side, his anger palpable. He was back in a few seconds. He ripped off her blindfold none too gently and shoved a pen and notebook into her hand.
"Now write what I tell you."
"This isn't going to work," Sam protested stubbornly.
"Do it!" He screamed hysterically.
Jack and Teal'C had no trouble finding the trail left in the wake of the group of kidnappers, thanks to Teal'C's Jaffa training. After a few hours, they had found the cabin and were hidden in the brush just beyond its clearing, pondering their next steps.
"Thor," Jack whispered into his handheld stone.
"Yes, O'Neill," Thor answered clearly and a bit too loudly.
"Shhhh! We've found a cabin. Can you scan for lifesigns at this location?"
There was silence for a moment, then Thor's voice came on again, this time in more of a whisper.
"I read three regular lifesigns and one lifesign with naquadah in it, all inside the structure you and Teal'C are near."
Good, Jack thought with relief. She was alive. He desperately hoped and worried that she wasn't too badly hurt.
"Great! Beam us in there."
"Are you sure, O'Neill? That course of action could prove dangerous."
"These jokers? Don't worry, Thor, this is going to be fun."
The unwarlike alien shrugged and prepared to do as O'Neill requested.
"You've got to be kidding. You actually want me to write, 'I confess I have lied about the Stargate, there is no life anywhere but Earth, and the government is trying to destroy the beliefs and wholesome lifestyle of Americans..."
"Shut up and write what I say!" The man's face was purple now. He wasn't used to such stubborn women.
"Well, I'm writing it as fast as I can, but I keep having to correct your very poor grammar, so it's taking me longer to-"
"It's taking you longer because you won't shut up!" He shouted, exasperated.
"What's that..." the man exclaimed in horror, looking around wildly.
A buzz familiar to Sam's experience filled the room, and Teal'C and Jack were suddenly there in the room with them.
The other two men jumped to their feet, but Teal'C quickly zatted them just as Jack stepped over and zatted Sam's interrogator. As the three crumpled to the floor in zatnikatelled misery, Teal'C made quick work of tying them up.
"Are you okay?" Jack was gently freeing her arms and hesitantly touching the bleeding scratches.
"I'm fine, really," Sam assured him. The worry lines between her eyes were quickly fading, but just thinking about the danger she'd been in moments ago did something to Jack. Jack pulled her against him gratefully and held on with all his strength.
"I was so worried," Jack breathed fervently.
Sam was hugging him back, hard, and Jack could now feel how scared she'd been. He didn't think he could love her any more than he already did, but he was being proven wrong. She was so precious to him.
Teal'C had been searching around the room, and now came up to the two, watching their reunion affectionately.
"Colonel Carter, I am very glad to see you are unharmed."
"Thank you, Teal'C." Her voice was muffled against Jack's shoulder from which she had not moved.
"O'Neill, I found this phone number and letter by the radio over there." He handed Jack two slips of paper.
"Good work, T. Let's get back to the SGC and get this phone number traced to find out who's behind this. Yo, Thor buddy, beam us up," Jack announced into his Asgard stone with a satisfied grin.
"I've always wanted to say that," he confessed to his teammates as a flash of light removed them from the cabin.
TBC