Chapter Thirteen.
Megan slowly opened the door, to the front of the house.
Wincing slightly as it creaked on its hinges.
Relaxing somewhat when she realized that no body could hear a thing above the noise of the television and the crying babies.
Quietly she made her way up the hall, nearing the living room where the woman who stole her children sat. As she got closer she heard another voice from the back of the house.
All of a sudden the room went dead silent, Baxter had turned the television off and was leaving the room. Megan froze where she was, quickly looking around for somewhere to hide as well as a weapon of any sort.
A few meters in front of her along the hall, there looked to be a bedroom with the door ajar.
Maneuvering silently, Megan gently pushed open the door with her foot waiting to see if she surprised somebody inside.
Satisfied that the room was empty, Megan entered and closed the door like it was a moment ago.
Megan heard voices from the back of the house roughly in the same area as she had heard the twins.
One male voice and the Lt.
"Lt Baxter, do you realize what you have done? You have kidnapped Colonel O'Neill's grandchildren. He will hunt you to the end of the earth to find them." Came the male voice Megan could not recognize.
"Hank that's why I called you, I took them in the heat of the moment now I realize that it could have been handled a lot better. I'm pretty sure that they don't know it was me, but I'm a bit nervous just the same. I need you to get them out of here. I know you have connections with the NID. Take them to your boss and see if I can get any credit for taking them. I'm sure they are worth something. After all you said it, they are O'Neill's grandkids and to sweeten the pot they are Daniel Jackson's sons."
"How the hell did that happen, I knew O'Neill's daughter had come through the mirror, which had been reported to my superiors. Are you telling me that his daughter is married to the geek?" The man called Hank started laughing at his own joke.
"I had seen pictures of her, she looked like a babe, except for the fat part." He added.
"It is called pregnancy Hank. It's a lot more common than you think. So can you take them?" The Lt asked rather nervously.
"Sure I'll take them, I'm sure they will be worth something, if worse comes to worse we can use them to bargain with and get O'Neill and the geek to do some work for us. They could come in very handy."
Megan heard them gathering some things getting ready to leave. Still not sure of what she should do, she looked around the room in one last attempt to find a weapon of any kind.
Noticing that it appeared to be the main bedroom, Megan opened the drawers quietly on the bedside table's hoping to find a gun.
Finding nothing she checked the top shelf of the wardrobe. She found a small velvet box, similar to the size that her father had always kept his gun in, carefully opening it she did indeed find a small hand gun, already loaded and ready to go.
Stepping into the hall way after listening to see where in the house they were, Megan slowly made her way to the back of the house.
Arriving at the desired door, Megan raised the gun in front of her and got ready to kick the slightly ajar door fully open. She mentally prepared her self to aim high so as to miss the babies.
Unknowing to Megan, just as she aimed with her foot to kick the door. A car pulled up at the front of the house.
"Colonel, there's your truck it's just up the road there." Carter said quietly as she pointed out the vehicle semi concealed in the trees.
The fact that it was still early in the morning meant that there were not that many people out walking around the streets. There were the occasional few walking their dogs or going for a jog Jack thought to himself.
Less likely hood of casualties.
"Ok, this is how we do it, Teal'c you go around the back and stop anyone from leaving. Use your Zat gun if anyone tries to escape, just in case they are holding the babies." Jack was about to continue, when he heard it.
The second time in his life that he had heard the most terrifying sound.
A single gun shot.
Suddenly the three of them sprung into action. Teal'c ran for the back of the house with Jack and Sam covering each other as they entered through the front door.
Agonizingly long seconds passed as Jack and Sam cleared the first few rooms of the house, as they neared the back of the house Jack heard somebody quietly sobbing.
He also heard Teal'c scuffling with somebody in the back yard.
Sam on one side of the door and Jack on the other they counted down silently together, 3 2 1.
Then they both turned and kicked in the closed door. Sam kneeling, with Jack standing behind her, weapon's drawn.
That is when Jack's heart sank it's lowest for the second time of his life. The nurse who took his daughters babies away, was standing up against a wall.
In her left hand she held a small handgun, in the other she held his daughter up by the hair.
Megan looked to be still alive, but he couldn't tell how bad she was by just looking at her limp body.
She had blood seeping down her stomach, and down to the floor.
She had a nasty bruise appearing on the side of her face and she was very pale.
The sobbing that they heard was Baxter, she was struggling to hold Megan upright so she could use her body as cover.
She also seemed to realize that she was in a dead end situation. She wasn't going to come out of this unscathed.
"Stay the hell away from me, or I'll shoot your precious little girl. Get away from the door, I'm going to leave, don't try to stop me."
Sam slowly stood up and scanned the room, seeing if the twins were in danger. It appeared that they were not hurt, but they were screaming their little heads off.
"Lt Baxter, let Megan go and we will sort this out. The babies look as if they are ok, so just let her go." Jack almost pleaded with her.
"Piss off, what do you care, Colonel?" Baxter said in the most condescending tone she could manage.
"No one gives a shit about me, all you care about is this man stealing bitch and her bastard children. She came out of nowhere and stole my man. I'm pretty sure that at the moment you would quite happily blow my head off, if I didn't have the upper hand."
"Baxter, you are covered on all sides, you have no where to go. If Megan dies then it is gonna get a whole lot worse for you before all this is done, so let her go and give yourself up." Sam said with calmer voice than Jack could have managed at the time.
Sam quickly surveyed Megan to see what damage had been done. It looked like she had torn her stitches and she appeared to have a bullet wound through her right shoulder, it looked like a clean exit, judging by the amount of blood pooling at her feet.
"Lt, don't do this. It won't take too much to seriously hurt Megan at the moment. You were one of her nurses you should know how much blood she lost during her operation."
Jack heard the front door open, and somebody walking heavily up the hallway.
Thinking it was Teal'c, Jack was surprised to see Daniel hobbling down the hall supported by the large Jaffa.
Jack looked back at the Lt and noticed that she was slowly loosening her grip on Megan. It didn't appear that she could hold her up much longer.
Jack was getting worried that Baxter might realize that there was nowhere to go and shoot herself and Megan. Jack stilled his thoughts as Daniel came up behind him.
"Jack, where is Megan?" Daniel asked from the hall. He hadn't witnessed the scene inside the bedroom yet.
Baxter froze at hearing his voice. She immediately knew who it was. Jack motioned with his head that Megan was in the room. Jack and Sam had both lowered their guns a few moments before.
Daniel's face paled, expecting the worse when he looked in the room. He could still hear the babies crying so that was a good thing he hoped.
Slowly he shuffled forward between Jack and Sam, and saw what had everyone at a standstill.
Faintly he noticed the sirens he could hear in the distance and hoped that there was an ambulance amongst the emergency vehicles.
What he saw as he entered the room stilled his heart. He never realized how deeply he felt for Megan until that moment.
He had been scared during her operation but one of his best friends Janet was doing the surgery and he trusted her.
But this nurse, Lt Baxter was holding the life of Megan in her hands and she was definitely not to be trusted with it.
"Alison, please let Megan go, she has to be seen by a doctor. I promise no one will hurt you if you let her go." Daniel spoke over the boys crying.
He tried to hide the truth on his face, that if he got a hold of her that he would strangle her with his bare hands.
Calming his voice trying not to upset the situation even more so, Daniel continued slowly into the room.
He could sense Jack fidgeting behind him, and could almost hear Sam's brain ticking over with scenario after scenario to secure the gun in the nurse's hand.
Daniel stayed with his eyes fixed on Baxter, knowing that any sudden moves could end in disaster.
"Alison, please let her go." He begged one last time.
"I can't Daniel. She took you away from me. She made you fall in love with her. She tricked you somehow. I can't let that go. How do you know she is telling the truth maybe she is a Gould after all?" Baxter started ranting at Daniel, most of it came out in slurs and incomplete sentences.
But he got the general gist.
"Alison, Megan did none of those things, you know that. I was never yours to take away." Daniel replied in a calm and soothing voice.
His head was throbbing and his heart was breaking.
He couldn't see Megan's face and it scared him. He kept slowly moving towards her. With his hands stretched out so she could see that he was holding no weapons.
Suddenly, Alison let go of Megan's hair and let her body slide to the ground. While everyone was focused on Megan, Lt Alison Baxter raised the gun to the side of her head and fired once.
Jack saw the woman raising the gun to her head. For a split second he thought about doing nothing and letting her finish it all for them.
But he knew that Megan would want to face this bitch when she was well enough, and to know that she hadn't gotten away with everything so easily.
Just as Jack raised his Zat gun to knock her out, Daniel lunged for the gun and Lt Baxter and pushed her arm out of the way just as she squeezed off a round.
It fired very close to her ear but it didn't connect with anything. The gun was knocked out of her hand as she fell to the floor.
Alison tried to get up from the floor, but received a right hook to the jaw that knocked her out for the count.
Daniel leant over Megan's unconscious form and brushed the hair back from her face.
She was deathly pale, and judging by her blood soaked clothes she was bleeding heavily.
Daniel scooped her up as gently as he could manage and seeing that Jack and Sam had both picked up a baby each after checking them over. Daniel headed outside towards Janet and a waiting ambulance.
Teal'c grabbed the Lt and dragged her out to the waiting Military Police.
Janet loaded Megan into one of the waiting ambulances and hopped in the back with her.
The ambulance speed off, leaving Daniel sitting in the gutter with his head in his hands.
Jack looked the babies over, they appeared to be fine. Just hungry it looked like.
Sam had Nick in her arms rocking him, trying to calm him down. Jack noticed her singing quietly, it appeared to be working Nick was slowly calming down and after a few minutes his screaming became a quiet whimpering.
He himself had calmed down Lachlan to a whimpering level as well.
Noticing Daniel sitting in the gutter, Jack went and sat by him.
"Daniel, she will be fine. Look at me." He exclaimed after a few moments. "Look at me." Realizing the first time had no effect.
"What Jack? How do you know she will be alright? She looked like death warmed up. There was so much blood." Daniel had started to sob into his hands.
He was a sensitive man. Normally he could control the tears but not now. He couldn't stand to loose anther woman that he loved.
Jack noticed that Teal'c had got ridden of his charge and was calmly walking towards them. Jack stood for a moment and handed Lachlan over into the huge arms that enveloped the baby.
Teal'c and Sam walked down to the truck, to put the babies in the car seats that Jack had bought only a few days ago.
Before Janet had left she had said that she wanted them to take the babies to the hospital just to be sure.
Jack sat down again, this time he laid his arm around Daniel's shoulders.
Usually this kind of emotional outburst freaked Jack out, but at that moment he felt like joining in. Daniel leaned into Jack's arm, still sobbing.
"Jack what am I going to do, I can't loose her. Not after Shar`e. I can't go through that again. What am I supposed to do with the babies? Megan was breastfeeding them, and Johnny what am I supposed to tell him? He was supposed to come in and see her this morning. I know that technically that the children aren't mine but I don't care it feels right. It feels right when Johnny calls me dad. I love it."
"I know Daniel. But stop talking like that. I don't want to loose another child either. And I know like you said, it feels right her calling me dad. I think we should go to the hospital. Sam has put the boys in the truck, I grabbed the spare keys when I left the base."
Sam stood beside the open door of the truck, watching the Colonel and Daniel. She had never seen the Colonel so open with his feelings before. She had to admit her heart had skipped a few beats when she first saw Megan like that.
Even though Megan had only been here for a month or so, she had really warmed up to her. Sam considers her on the same par as Janet in the best friend category. She had a lot to thank Megan for.
After all, her arrival had heralded the new step in her relationship with Jack.
She watched as Jack slowly got off the ground. He put his hand out to help Daniel up. When Daniel was on his feet he looked rather unsteady.
Jack casually put an arm around his waist and helped him towards the truck and in to the passenger seat. After helping him put on his seatbelt, Jack came over to the driver's side where Sam was standing.
"Come here." She said to him.
He didn't need any further invitation. He let her encircle him in her arms.
It was not a passionate embrace.
It was a supportive embrace that told him that she would be there for him no matter what. They stood like that for longer than they normally ever would have in public.
It just didn't matter any more. An unspoken decision had been made at this house that morning.
Neither of them talked about it at the time. But they could both tell, that from now on, no more hiding.
What they had was too precious, too special to care about the consequences.
They had both seen the look on Daniel's face as he entered the room, thinking that Megan was already dead. They were not going to hide there feelings any more. And god help any one who stands in there way.
"Follow me to the hospital with Teal'c." Jack stated as they finally let go of each other.
Not trusting herself to answer without bursting into tears, Sam just nodded and turned back to her car.
Please read and review. Ellie Mae
Megan slowly opened the door, to the front of the house.
Wincing slightly as it creaked on its hinges.
Relaxing somewhat when she realized that no body could hear a thing above the noise of the television and the crying babies.
Quietly she made her way up the hall, nearing the living room where the woman who stole her children sat. As she got closer she heard another voice from the back of the house.
All of a sudden the room went dead silent, Baxter had turned the television off and was leaving the room. Megan froze where she was, quickly looking around for somewhere to hide as well as a weapon of any sort.
A few meters in front of her along the hall, there looked to be a bedroom with the door ajar.
Maneuvering silently, Megan gently pushed open the door with her foot waiting to see if she surprised somebody inside.
Satisfied that the room was empty, Megan entered and closed the door like it was a moment ago.
Megan heard voices from the back of the house roughly in the same area as she had heard the twins.
One male voice and the Lt.
"Lt Baxter, do you realize what you have done? You have kidnapped Colonel O'Neill's grandchildren. He will hunt you to the end of the earth to find them." Came the male voice Megan could not recognize.
"Hank that's why I called you, I took them in the heat of the moment now I realize that it could have been handled a lot better. I'm pretty sure that they don't know it was me, but I'm a bit nervous just the same. I need you to get them out of here. I know you have connections with the NID. Take them to your boss and see if I can get any credit for taking them. I'm sure they are worth something. After all you said it, they are O'Neill's grandkids and to sweeten the pot they are Daniel Jackson's sons."
"How the hell did that happen, I knew O'Neill's daughter had come through the mirror, which had been reported to my superiors. Are you telling me that his daughter is married to the geek?" The man called Hank started laughing at his own joke.
"I had seen pictures of her, she looked like a babe, except for the fat part." He added.
"It is called pregnancy Hank. It's a lot more common than you think. So can you take them?" The Lt asked rather nervously.
"Sure I'll take them, I'm sure they will be worth something, if worse comes to worse we can use them to bargain with and get O'Neill and the geek to do some work for us. They could come in very handy."
Megan heard them gathering some things getting ready to leave. Still not sure of what she should do, she looked around the room in one last attempt to find a weapon of any kind.
Noticing that it appeared to be the main bedroom, Megan opened the drawers quietly on the bedside table's hoping to find a gun.
Finding nothing she checked the top shelf of the wardrobe. She found a small velvet box, similar to the size that her father had always kept his gun in, carefully opening it she did indeed find a small hand gun, already loaded and ready to go.
Stepping into the hall way after listening to see where in the house they were, Megan slowly made her way to the back of the house.
Arriving at the desired door, Megan raised the gun in front of her and got ready to kick the slightly ajar door fully open. She mentally prepared her self to aim high so as to miss the babies.
Unknowing to Megan, just as she aimed with her foot to kick the door. A car pulled up at the front of the house.
"Colonel, there's your truck it's just up the road there." Carter said quietly as she pointed out the vehicle semi concealed in the trees.
The fact that it was still early in the morning meant that there were not that many people out walking around the streets. There were the occasional few walking their dogs or going for a jog Jack thought to himself.
Less likely hood of casualties.
"Ok, this is how we do it, Teal'c you go around the back and stop anyone from leaving. Use your Zat gun if anyone tries to escape, just in case they are holding the babies." Jack was about to continue, when he heard it.
The second time in his life that he had heard the most terrifying sound.
A single gun shot.
Suddenly the three of them sprung into action. Teal'c ran for the back of the house with Jack and Sam covering each other as they entered through the front door.
Agonizingly long seconds passed as Jack and Sam cleared the first few rooms of the house, as they neared the back of the house Jack heard somebody quietly sobbing.
He also heard Teal'c scuffling with somebody in the back yard.
Sam on one side of the door and Jack on the other they counted down silently together, 3 2 1.
Then they both turned and kicked in the closed door. Sam kneeling, with Jack standing behind her, weapon's drawn.
That is when Jack's heart sank it's lowest for the second time of his life. The nurse who took his daughters babies away, was standing up against a wall.
In her left hand she held a small handgun, in the other she held his daughter up by the hair.
Megan looked to be still alive, but he couldn't tell how bad she was by just looking at her limp body.
She had blood seeping down her stomach, and down to the floor.
She had a nasty bruise appearing on the side of her face and she was very pale.
The sobbing that they heard was Baxter, she was struggling to hold Megan upright so she could use her body as cover.
She also seemed to realize that she was in a dead end situation. She wasn't going to come out of this unscathed.
"Stay the hell away from me, or I'll shoot your precious little girl. Get away from the door, I'm going to leave, don't try to stop me."
Sam slowly stood up and scanned the room, seeing if the twins were in danger. It appeared that they were not hurt, but they were screaming their little heads off.
"Lt Baxter, let Megan go and we will sort this out. The babies look as if they are ok, so just let her go." Jack almost pleaded with her.
"Piss off, what do you care, Colonel?" Baxter said in the most condescending tone she could manage.
"No one gives a shit about me, all you care about is this man stealing bitch and her bastard children. She came out of nowhere and stole my man. I'm pretty sure that at the moment you would quite happily blow my head off, if I didn't have the upper hand."
"Baxter, you are covered on all sides, you have no where to go. If Megan dies then it is gonna get a whole lot worse for you before all this is done, so let her go and give yourself up." Sam said with calmer voice than Jack could have managed at the time.
Sam quickly surveyed Megan to see what damage had been done. It looked like she had torn her stitches and she appeared to have a bullet wound through her right shoulder, it looked like a clean exit, judging by the amount of blood pooling at her feet.
"Lt, don't do this. It won't take too much to seriously hurt Megan at the moment. You were one of her nurses you should know how much blood she lost during her operation."
Jack heard the front door open, and somebody walking heavily up the hallway.
Thinking it was Teal'c, Jack was surprised to see Daniel hobbling down the hall supported by the large Jaffa.
Jack looked back at the Lt and noticed that she was slowly loosening her grip on Megan. It didn't appear that she could hold her up much longer.
Jack was getting worried that Baxter might realize that there was nowhere to go and shoot herself and Megan. Jack stilled his thoughts as Daniel came up behind him.
"Jack, where is Megan?" Daniel asked from the hall. He hadn't witnessed the scene inside the bedroom yet.
Baxter froze at hearing his voice. She immediately knew who it was. Jack motioned with his head that Megan was in the room. Jack and Sam had both lowered their guns a few moments before.
Daniel's face paled, expecting the worse when he looked in the room. He could still hear the babies crying so that was a good thing he hoped.
Slowly he shuffled forward between Jack and Sam, and saw what had everyone at a standstill.
Faintly he noticed the sirens he could hear in the distance and hoped that there was an ambulance amongst the emergency vehicles.
What he saw as he entered the room stilled his heart. He never realized how deeply he felt for Megan until that moment.
He had been scared during her operation but one of his best friends Janet was doing the surgery and he trusted her.
But this nurse, Lt Baxter was holding the life of Megan in her hands and she was definitely not to be trusted with it.
"Alison, please let Megan go, she has to be seen by a doctor. I promise no one will hurt you if you let her go." Daniel spoke over the boys crying.
He tried to hide the truth on his face, that if he got a hold of her that he would strangle her with his bare hands.
Calming his voice trying not to upset the situation even more so, Daniel continued slowly into the room.
He could sense Jack fidgeting behind him, and could almost hear Sam's brain ticking over with scenario after scenario to secure the gun in the nurse's hand.
Daniel stayed with his eyes fixed on Baxter, knowing that any sudden moves could end in disaster.
"Alison, please let her go." He begged one last time.
"I can't Daniel. She took you away from me. She made you fall in love with her. She tricked you somehow. I can't let that go. How do you know she is telling the truth maybe she is a Gould after all?" Baxter started ranting at Daniel, most of it came out in slurs and incomplete sentences.
But he got the general gist.
"Alison, Megan did none of those things, you know that. I was never yours to take away." Daniel replied in a calm and soothing voice.
His head was throbbing and his heart was breaking.
He couldn't see Megan's face and it scared him. He kept slowly moving towards her. With his hands stretched out so she could see that he was holding no weapons.
Suddenly, Alison let go of Megan's hair and let her body slide to the ground. While everyone was focused on Megan, Lt Alison Baxter raised the gun to the side of her head and fired once.
Jack saw the woman raising the gun to her head. For a split second he thought about doing nothing and letting her finish it all for them.
But he knew that Megan would want to face this bitch when she was well enough, and to know that she hadn't gotten away with everything so easily.
Just as Jack raised his Zat gun to knock her out, Daniel lunged for the gun and Lt Baxter and pushed her arm out of the way just as she squeezed off a round.
It fired very close to her ear but it didn't connect with anything. The gun was knocked out of her hand as she fell to the floor.
Alison tried to get up from the floor, but received a right hook to the jaw that knocked her out for the count.
Daniel leant over Megan's unconscious form and brushed the hair back from her face.
She was deathly pale, and judging by her blood soaked clothes she was bleeding heavily.
Daniel scooped her up as gently as he could manage and seeing that Jack and Sam had both picked up a baby each after checking them over. Daniel headed outside towards Janet and a waiting ambulance.
Teal'c grabbed the Lt and dragged her out to the waiting Military Police.
Janet loaded Megan into one of the waiting ambulances and hopped in the back with her.
The ambulance speed off, leaving Daniel sitting in the gutter with his head in his hands.
Jack looked the babies over, they appeared to be fine. Just hungry it looked like.
Sam had Nick in her arms rocking him, trying to calm him down. Jack noticed her singing quietly, it appeared to be working Nick was slowly calming down and after a few minutes his screaming became a quiet whimpering.
He himself had calmed down Lachlan to a whimpering level as well.
Noticing Daniel sitting in the gutter, Jack went and sat by him.
"Daniel, she will be fine. Look at me." He exclaimed after a few moments. "Look at me." Realizing the first time had no effect.
"What Jack? How do you know she will be alright? She looked like death warmed up. There was so much blood." Daniel had started to sob into his hands.
He was a sensitive man. Normally he could control the tears but not now. He couldn't stand to loose anther woman that he loved.
Jack noticed that Teal'c had got ridden of his charge and was calmly walking towards them. Jack stood for a moment and handed Lachlan over into the huge arms that enveloped the baby.
Teal'c and Sam walked down to the truck, to put the babies in the car seats that Jack had bought only a few days ago.
Before Janet had left she had said that she wanted them to take the babies to the hospital just to be sure.
Jack sat down again, this time he laid his arm around Daniel's shoulders.
Usually this kind of emotional outburst freaked Jack out, but at that moment he felt like joining in. Daniel leaned into Jack's arm, still sobbing.
"Jack what am I going to do, I can't loose her. Not after Shar`e. I can't go through that again. What am I supposed to do with the babies? Megan was breastfeeding them, and Johnny what am I supposed to tell him? He was supposed to come in and see her this morning. I know that technically that the children aren't mine but I don't care it feels right. It feels right when Johnny calls me dad. I love it."
"I know Daniel. But stop talking like that. I don't want to loose another child either. And I know like you said, it feels right her calling me dad. I think we should go to the hospital. Sam has put the boys in the truck, I grabbed the spare keys when I left the base."
Sam stood beside the open door of the truck, watching the Colonel and Daniel. She had never seen the Colonel so open with his feelings before. She had to admit her heart had skipped a few beats when she first saw Megan like that.
Even though Megan had only been here for a month or so, she had really warmed up to her. Sam considers her on the same par as Janet in the best friend category. She had a lot to thank Megan for.
After all, her arrival had heralded the new step in her relationship with Jack.
She watched as Jack slowly got off the ground. He put his hand out to help Daniel up. When Daniel was on his feet he looked rather unsteady.
Jack casually put an arm around his waist and helped him towards the truck and in to the passenger seat. After helping him put on his seatbelt, Jack came over to the driver's side where Sam was standing.
"Come here." She said to him.
He didn't need any further invitation. He let her encircle him in her arms.
It was not a passionate embrace.
It was a supportive embrace that told him that she would be there for him no matter what. They stood like that for longer than they normally ever would have in public.
It just didn't matter any more. An unspoken decision had been made at this house that morning.
Neither of them talked about it at the time. But they could both tell, that from now on, no more hiding.
What they had was too precious, too special to care about the consequences.
They had both seen the look on Daniel's face as he entered the room, thinking that Megan was already dead. They were not going to hide there feelings any more. And god help any one who stands in there way.
"Follow me to the hospital with Teal'c." Jack stated as they finally let go of each other.
Not trusting herself to answer without bursting into tears, Sam just nodded and turned back to her car.
Please read and review. Ellie Mae
