Disclaimer : Don't own anyone, not getting paid , open to offers Mr Greenberg, Sir !
Spoilers: One obvious one for an episode in season 6. Can't elaborate or it will spoil it ! although if you haven't seen it you won't notice so nevermind !
Alpha thanks to the Beta girl ! You know who you are !
A/N Thanks for the continuing reviews .Keep going !Many reviews make me type faster .
Chapter 10
Teal'c continued to stare at the screen for a long time with his head cocked almost imperceptively to one side, his left eyebrow raised slightly and the corners of his mouth turned down.
Had Janet not known him well, she would have found even this minute display on his normally impassive visage startling. Instead her own features mimicked his and she heard herself enquiring, "Did you see something relevant, Teal'c?"
"I do not know," he intoned warily and then as if recollecting what he was doing the corners of his mouth turned up and he replied, "I do not believe it was anything of great importance, Doctor Frasier. Many images flashing in succession can successfully convince the eye it sees something which is not in fact there."
"Trick of the light, Teal'c?" She enquired in an amused tone.
"I believe so." The warrior replied, nodding slightly in her direction.
Janet smiled in a wry fashion; she would never get used to the Jaffa's subtle humour and elegant language but she had grown to love him all the same. She loved his sense of honour and integrity; his respect that once gained was not shaken easily. Equally, it was hard to shift him once he had formed a dislike for someone and she noted now, with some humour, that he had continued to almost completely ignore Anise once his two teammates had left the room.
The screen had continued to display disturbing images of brutal and painful punishment inflicted upon the little girl. The subject slumbered on unaware of the dreamlike memories pouring out of her subconscious. She lay so silent and still that Janet had to keep reminding herself that the child was there at all, and was in fact the focus of her attention.
"It appears that the Scientist's reports were accurate," the jaffa stated into the near silence of the room. "They have indeed attempted to condition O'Neill's child to respond with fear."
"You are correct, Teal'c," the Tok'ra scientist spoke quietly from the shadows, "The records stated that Baal was attempting to break the child's will using conditioned responses before attempting a blending. He wished to see if a compliant host made his mate a more powerful Goa'uld."
"Judging from her earlier behaviour, he failed." Janet stated with a hint of humour.
"That is because she is the child of O'Neill and Major Carter, Doctor Frasier. Their combined tenacity," replied Teal'c.
"And stubbornness!" She interjected.
"Their combined stubbornness and tenacity make her a formidable enemy."
Images of rough-hewn jaffa in armour, escorting her towards a ship appeared, and there continued to be a succession of the fearsome warriors in her memories for some time. Some teaching, some training, and some minor punishment but mostly blunt tenderness in the midst of the Goa'uld's continual cruelty.
Teal'c's heart swelled with pride in his race, as he saw how the warriors had continued to avoid causing her pain wherever possible.
"She had found a place in the hearts of these warriors," he said. "They have sought only to offer her loving reproof, to correct her somewhat errant behaviour."
"Hmmm," the Doctor sighed. " I for one am glad that we weren't around for that tantrum!" The doctor gestured towards the screen from which stern jaffa faces frowned, their words drowned out by the now familiar torrent of angry shrieking. Looking down at her sleeping charge it seemed almost impossible that the angel before her could be so much trouble, but the doctor had been at the receiving end of two similar tantrums in the last twenty-four hours and knew there would be more.
"It is clear where she learnt her command of goa'uld invective, Doctor Frasier," Teal'c mused, a forbidding expression on his face.
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Up in the observation room, Jacob had shrugged and offered a small smile to General Hammond.
"I'd suggest washing her mouth out with soap, but I don't think Sam would have it, George." He said lightly attempting to lighten some of the heavy mood that had descended within the small room.
His old friend chuckled quietly recalling some of Jacob's battles with his own children. "Did you try that one, Jacob?"
"No need, Sam was a good kid, in the main," the tok'ra replied turning towards his former comrade.
"Oh, how age dulls the memory!" The general laughed and mock scowled admonishing his friend, "Jacob, I lived two doors away from you, remember? I could easily hear you yelling from there."
Inside his mind Selmak chortled, 'your old friend knows you well, Jacob, it pains me to see you attempt to deceive yourself!'
'Harrumph!' he snorted internally, the outrage showing plainly across his face.
"Sorry, Jacob I couldn't resist. It's not often I get the opportunity to tease you is it?" Hammond smiled, his eyes crinkling up with laughter lines.
"Yes well, I think I'll head up and see how Sam and Jack are doing." Jacob stood and walked towards the door smiling to himself.
'Hmmm. Sam and Jack, in the same phrase. When did you come round to my way of thinking, Jacob!' Selmak quipped sarcastically. This type of humour had become second nature since he had blended with this host, and he wondered how he had survived the preceding centuries without ever resorting to dry humour before.
Jacob's face fell; 'Shut up!' was his only reply.
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At this late hour, the commissary was empty except for a couple of members of catering staff and the two military members of SG-1.
They had chosen to sit at their usual table as it had been available, and after several halting attempts to begin a conversation, they had settled into a companionable silence.
Sam sat back suddenly and put down her cutlery with a sigh. Jack slowly looked up, his fork halfway to his mouth "You finished?" He asked carefully, glancing down, his eyebrows gathering in a puzzled frown at her plate of food, barely touched. Her face was pale and she looked close to exhaustion; Jack closed his eyes momentarily and tried to control his rising exasperation.
"Not hungry," she said in a small voice raising her eyes uncertainly to his face.
"Sam," the colonel stated gently, "you have to eat!"
He gesticulated at her with his fork, " and please don't insult me by saying you had lunch cos I know for a fact that you didn't." He paused dramatically raising his eyebrows, daring her to refute his statement but she couldn't.
"I could try dessert." She wheedled flashing him a killer smile.
Jack just shook his head in wonder; "Carter, a balanced diet doesn't consist of just blue jello and coffee in equal amounts!"
She shovelled in a few cubes from the glass and waved, her attention drawn to a spot over his left shoulder. The colonel twisted in his seat and saw Jacob approaching the table wearing a formidable scowl. His heart plummeted, as he saw the older man's expression and he offered up a silent prayer to any God with his ears on, that he wasn't the cause of his current black looks.
"Have a seat Dad," she said through a mouthful of blue goo.
"How's it going down there Jake?" Jack asked tentatively still not sure if he was the cause of the older man's mood.
"Still going," he said and suddenly his face softened into a smile.
"She knows some interesting terms in Goa'uld, Jack " Jacob chuckled and narrowed his eyes in an accusatory glare but the fact that colonel O'Neill didn't understand any goa'uld and probably never would, soon had the corners of his mouth turning upwards in a grin.
"Erm, yes, we'll have to work on that. Any sign of a name to put to the face?" His daughter's companion replied still somewhat unsure of his current status in the tok'ra's books.
"Nothing but honoured host so far," the Tok'ra mused his face changing to a study in complete disgust as he recalled the behaviour of the goa'uld who had mistreated her. 'One day, Selmak, He is going to suffer a horrible fate,' he mused to the symbiote in his mind. His mental companion was already reeling off ancient and terrible forms of torture they could attempt should the opportunity present itself.
Their private conversation was truncated by the ringing of a cell phone.
Sam reached for her pocket at the first signs of the insistent buzzing of the cell phone.
"No, its mine, Carter." Colonel O'Neill pulled a compact black phone from his uniform combat pants and flipped it open with a flourish that caused the older man to smirk.
"O'Neill," he snapped into the receiver, his features hardening as he listened with intense concentration for a couple of seconds before abruptly standing up and walking out into the hallway.
"What was that about?" Jacob wondered aloud, peering over his shoulder towards the still swinging door.
"Dunno," his daughter stated suddenly exposed to the full glare of her father's scrutiny.
"Sooo, how are you doing in all of this, Sam?" The older man asked leaning forward and taking her hand tenderly across the table.
"Fine," she hedged looking down at their hands.
"So less than forty –eight hours ago we brought back a kid who genetically at least is yours and the colonels, and you've just watched her being tortured on 'widescreen' but you're fine. My what a super soldier you are," Jacob railed at his daughter in mild reproof.
"Ok, Ok." The younger Carter sighed, "I'm just not sure how I feel right now. I mean yesterday I was a scientist, an air force Major, and the colonel's second in command." She paused and looked away before continuing in a hollow voice, "and today I'm in Iso room three watching a kid tortured by the goa'uld and the kid is mine," her voice faltered and when it returned it was barely a whisper. "…mine and the colonel's."
"Whatcha decided to do?" Jacob asked carefully, inwardly fearing the answer he knew he was going to receive. He had known as soon as he had seen his daughter in the gateroom, and the proximity to her that the colonel had placed himself, exactly where their paths were headed.
"We're going to keep her."
"We?"
That one word in all she had spoken declared volumes to her father about Sam's choices for the future. It didn't come as any great surprise; he was her dad after all. He had been able to see the direction the river was flowing a while back. However he had taken Selmak's advice and kept his opinions to himself, now he wondered whether he had been wise.
It wasn't that he didn't like Jack, though he would never let on, he had grown to love the smartass but he was much older than his precious daughter and Jacob knew enough about special ops guys to realise he'd been round the block a bit.
"WE!" Sam repeated meeting her father's stare head on.
She would have rather not have had this discussion until she had a litany of good reasons why Jack was a decent guy, and her life was her own etc, etc. However it had come up, and she knew what she wanted. Her life was her own but she wanted, and needed her father's support now more than ever, but if he disagreed with her choice, well, that was just too bad. Samantha Carter had seen the future and she was going to have it.
They both gazed at one another for what seemed to each of them like an eternity frozen in time and then, prompted by Selmak's loud insistence that his daughter's regard was worth more that his pride, Jacob looked away.
"Right," That one word in Sam's eyes was tantamount to a blessing to marry.
"I can't do it without him dad." She whispered drawing her father's eyes back to hers. The blue eyes swam with tears of emotion, overcome by the events of the last couple of days.
"I won't do it without him." She corrected herself, just as the man in question made a timely appearance through the door. She swiftly swiped an escaping tear away and plastered a smile on her face.
"Ok, Major I think we should return to the slide show and take the next shift," Jack quipped upon his return, a swift frown darkening his deep brown eyes. He glanced minutely at Jacob and back to hold her gaze, in a silent inquisition, but with an imperceptible shake of the head, she flashed him a brilliant smile to set his mind at rest.
"Dad, you coming?"
"No, I thought I'd grab a bite to eat and then get my head down."
"Ok," Sam leaned forward as she stood and kissed him swiftly, "We'll catch you later." She moved from behind the table and the colonel stepped back and gestured for her to precede him.
"After you, Major," he said politely and they walked together out through the swinging doors.
'Why him Selmak?' Jacob sighed, 'She could have anyone, why him?'
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Some hours later, the dreams had become less violent and began to contain more innocuous things. Colonel O'Neill watched as she played a jaffa game of 'hide and go seek'. Teal'c assured him that it was a training exercise designed to sharpen a warrior's ability to evade his enemy but it looked like a game to him. Suddenly the dream morphed and the two men sat forward abruptly, as Jonas and Teal'c came in to view, several feet away slightly obscured by long grass and the leaves of a shrub.
"Sure put those skills to use on you buddy." The colonel smirked.
"Indeed," His friend returned softly, the ghost of smile on his lips.
Carter had fallen asleep some hours before, her head resting on her arms as she leant on the end of the little girl's bed. Just after this he had instructed Doctor Frasier to send along a nurse to sit with them, and suggested she get some 'shut eye' too. She had agreed readily, her reasoning that it was unlikely that the child would suffer any ill effects so many hours after the process had begun. She also had reasoned to herself that when the child awakened the following day she might have an unforeseen reaction then, and she wanted to be fully alert in case of that. So, after topping up the sedative and needlessly reminding the nurse she was merely down the hall, she retired to her quarters.
Jacob and Selmak had relieved Anise at about three o'clock and Teal'c began to Kelnoreem unobtrusively in the shadows by the doorway.
Jack stretched in his plastic regulation infirmary chair and stood up, his knees popping as he did. The older smiled and raised his eyebrows.
"Just don't say it," Jack started when his attention was diverted. The screen had subtly changed and now showed a mixture of green and black, soft whimpering could be heard, causing the nurse to look sharply at the sleeping child before once again relaxing. A small hand came into view and curled round fabric, part of a green military issue BDU shirt and over the persistent sobbing came the unmistakeable sound of the his own voice.
He gazed stricken, lost as two memories now played in his mind. The first his newly discovered daughter, still nameless, the next his son, Charlie, similar behaviour binding two children together, in a way that reality and untimely death never could.
He was so lost in his thoughts that he never heard the older man approach. Jacob placed his hand on the younger man's shoulder.
"You love her already, don't you Jack."
"Yeah. Never thought I'd get another try." He said his voice full of wonder as he gazed at the screen.
"You'll do fine." Jacob stated confidently giving Jack's shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
"I dunno," the colonel said thoroughly unconvinced, "It isn't gonna be easy. I dunno if she'll recover from all of that." He gestured towards the screen.
"You both love her," Jacob said indicating the sleeping form of his daughter at the end of the bed, "That's all she'll need."
"Thanks Jake." The colonel murmured as once again the scene changed on the screen before him; a dark grey gloom, with only the sound of soft breaths and the distant clang of jaffa armour receding in the distance.
"I'm going to turn this off now and remove the device, Jack. I think we've learnt all we're going to." The Tok'ra operative moved towards the child's bedside.
Goa'uld words, the child's words could be heard penetrating the gloom on the screen.
'Am I alone?'
As Jack watched he had a sense of her head turning, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as if someone were watching him. The sense of a reply, merely an unintelligible murmur and then a pair of clear blue eyes emerged from the inky blackness and a voice he knew well.
'Tal'mate Daniel.'
The screen retracted in mid air, seeming to roll itself away neatly. Jack stood open mouthed for a long time as Jacob removed with device deftly, nodding at the nurse to deal with the single drop of the child's bright red blood it's withdrawal had caused. Then the colonel shook his head in wry amusement, as though suddenly unconvinced by what his own eyes had seen and attempted to rouse Sam. She wakened unsure of her immediate surroundings and nodding a quick goodnight to her father allowed the colonel to steer her towards her quarters. On the way she listened sleepily as the colonel informed her he would be returning to his home that morning and that he intended to return some time before nightfall. She wrinkled her nose perplexedly, but he didn't elaborate, simply telling her he an important matter to attend to and it couldn't be avoided.
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The colonel had intended to settle down in his favourite armchair to rest for a few moments, however after waking up several hours later he realised that he had been much closer to exhaustion than he had supposed. Glancing at his watch he blearily read that the time had reached eleven thirty and the accompanying growl in his stomach reminded him that he had neglected to eat breakfast.
He looked at his cell phone wondering if he had slept through the call but there had been nothing. Jack scowled and wondered if his trip home had been a waste of time, but he'd said it was important and he owed him at least until the evening to make an appearance. He showered quickly, changed into some comfortable clothes and shrugging on a fleece sweater he turned on the gas to his outdoor grill.
The Colonel was returning to the deck in his yard to make one final turn of the hotdogs he was cooking for his dinner when, with a start, he realised there was one missing. Looking around carefully Jack's eyes rested upon a familiar face, leaning nonchalantly against the far railing of his decking.
"I helped myself, I hope you don't mind?" rasped the sarcastic tones of thoroughly ex-colonel Maybourne.
"You're eating my dog!" O'Neill whined back irritably, not surprised to see the man but at the sudden nature of his appearance.
"You want it back?" The former NID operative spoke through a mouthful of food as Jack resigned to the conversation that would inevitably now take place, sighed.
"You want a beer to wash it down."
"Already got one."
A/N ok , paradise lost ! Review, review or the laptop gets it !