Once again thank you for your fantastic response. I'm really glad you're all enjoying this. Time for a little angst now though. Hope you have a tissue handy!
Junior
By Lingren
Previously:-
They chatted happily as they ate lunch in the restaurant, feeling pleased with all their purchases and once they had loaded the truck they headed back to the cabin.
Chapter 12
They left the presents in the back of the truck, covered over away from sight, but took in all the groceries as well as the birthday cake they had bought.
They had a good dinner and once Jon Junior was tucked up asleep in the bed, Jack and Sam went out to the truck to fetch the presents in.
Sam loaded herself up with packages while Jack had his hands full too. They carried them indoors, but Jack made one more trip out to fetch the rest.
"You need a hand?" Daniel asked when Jack headed out the door.
"Nah! I got it. There's only a coupla bits to fetch in, thanks."
Daniel turned his attention back to all the gear that they had amassed on the floor. Melissa enlisted his help in taking all the price tags off while she and Sam wrapped the gifts up in the brightly coloured paper that Sam had remembered to buy. Soon they were all engrossed in their given tasks.
Jack stood by the truck, looking back to see that no-one had followed him out there, then he took out his cell phone and dialled the local florist. Although it was late, he was friends with the couple that ran the small shop so they wouldn't mind taking his order. Once he'd finished the call he leaned over the tail gate, reaching for the last of the presents when he heard a twig snap behind him. He spun round and came face to face with a stranger.
Before he could react he was held in the powerful grip of a Goa'uld hand device.
"You are General Jack O'Neill of the Tau'ri?" the dual toned voice asked.
"Who wants to know?" Jack ground out through gritted teeth, falling to his knees in pain as the device robbed him of all strength to react otherwise.
"My Lord Ba'al sends his compliments and wishes to inform you that he and the System Lords have suffered your insolence for far too long. At his beckoning you will now die."
The hand device switched off, leaving him weak and shaky, unable to coerce his thoughts and before he could appreciate his sudden release from its hold, he saw the man point another strange looking weapon at him, and fired it. It hit Jack in the centre of his chest. The pain it caused was worse than anything he had yet endured. He couldn't scream, he could yell, the agony so intense it robbed him of any coherent thoughts. It felt like his heart was on fire and then the terrible pain radiated throughout the rest of his body. He couldn't cry out, he couldn't move away from it. He felt his life slipping away. His eyes rolled up into his head and he slumped to the ground in agony; hearing someone laugh was his last memory before blackness consumed his consciousness.
OoOoOoOoO
"Jack's taking his sweet time, isn't he? What have you got out there?" Daniel asked Sam after he'd missed Jack's return.
Sam looked up startled to think that he was still outside, realising that it was almost 20 minutes since he'd gone back to the truck.
"I don't know what's keeping him!" she laughed, "Maybe he's just taking a last look over the lake or something."
Melissa agreed with a snort of laughter.
"Jonathon likes to make sure we're safe for the night. He's done a perimeter check every night so far."
"I'll...em...I'll go see if he needs any help," Sam said eagerly, standing and heading for the door.
"Don't forget your coat dear!" Melissa called after her.
Sam grabbed her coat and smiled back before disappearing out the door.
Daniel sniggered.
"I doubt she'll need her coat to keep her warm where she's going, at least not if Jack has any say in the matter!" he grinned, making the others chuckle too, though Melissa appeared to be shocked.
"Daniel! You surprise me," she said in mock horror, causing him to blush, but she couldn't help agree with his sentiments.
Teal'c merely smiled serenely at the innuendo. He was happy to see his friends together once more. Colonel Carter's distress had caused him much deliberation and he was more than ready to confront O'Neill on her behalf if things didn't change for the better during their stay.
OoOoOoOoO
Sam called out in the darkness, staring into the night for any sign of her loved one.
"Jack?"
She could see that the area around the dock was empty so she moved around the corner of the cabin, but he wasn't there either. Finally she spotted something lying on the ground beside the truck. Thinking Jack must have dropped something, she approached.
As she grew nearer, she saw that it was a boot and that it was attached to a leg. She hurried over to it, putting a hand out to the side of the truck to steady herself as she careened round the back.
Jack was lying crumpled face down on the ground, his body still, his eyes closed. She yelled for the others as loudly as she could, dropping down to her knees beside him, frantically feeling for his pulse. She couldn't find one, and by the time the others came running, she had rolled him over and was pulling his jacket open to start CPR.
"He's not breathing!" she gasped in between her pumping when they arrived on the scene.
Teal'c immediately knelt down beside her and took over from her. Locking his huge hands together and pressed down in a rhythmic massage. Sam tilted Jack's head back and began to breath life back into him.
Melissa gaped in horror, her hand flying to cover her mouth, wondering what had happened to him. John was in shock too, but he managed to bring his wife into his arms offering her some comfort while they watched and waited for someone to say that Jonathon would be okay, and that their son was going to live again. Daniel speed dialled for medical help, having run back inside for the phone.
It seemed like endless hours had passed before Sam sat back on her heels, sobbing through her shock and exhaustion, announcing that Jack was breathing again. Teal'c stopped his ministrations, but kept his hand where he could feel the weak heart-beat throbbing tentatively under his palm.
"They're sending a helicopter. It's too far for the ambulance to reach him in time. He threw a blanket over the inert form of his friend and gave another one to Sam to put under Jack's head as a pillow.
Sam refused to let go of Jack's hand, and Melissa was snapped out of her living nightmare by a thin wail of distress coming from the cabin.
Melissa turned back to see Jon Junior standing shivering in just his pyjamas in the doorway wondering where everyone had gone. She hurried back to pick him up, grabbing her coat from the peg and wrapping it round the boy and herself. She hugged him tight, wondering what she was going to tell him about his father. She didn't know what had happened, but she hadn't see anything like a wound or an injury on him, but then, it was too dark to tell really. She calmed her grandson as best she could, but he kept crying for Jack, needing his father's loving arms around him to chase his nightmare away.
"I want my Daddy!" he cried, trying to wriggle from Melissa's hold.
"Daddy can't come for a little while my love, Daddy's poorly, but he wants you to stay nice and warm indoors while he's away."
Jon Junior wouldn't be pacified, and cried all the more. He struggled harder and slipped from Melissa's grasp, running out into the night to where everyone had congregated round the truck. His hysterical sobs broke everyone's resolve when he spotted Jack lying on the ground, to all intents and purposes looking dead to his eyes. His nightmare had come true. He'd cried out in the night when he relived seeing his family die in front of his eyes, and now it seemed to him that his father had died too.
He flung himself onto Jack, clinging with all the tenacity of a youngster filled with fear. Sam had to drag him off, her own tears and sobs blurring her vision. Junior clung to her fiercely, and she held on to him tight, needing him as much as he needed her.
A few minutes later they all heard the distinctive sound of rotor blades swishing through the night air. The helicopter had arrived, landing in the large clearing round the side of the cabin with practiced ease. Help had arrived.
TBC