Chapter Ten – Unprepared
It had been two days since he'd seen her last, that was all. After learning of their visit to Hetora on Monday, today, SG-1 had opted to return to Colorado on the Friday morning; Daniel and Teal'c in one car, them in the other. Both tired, he and Sam hadn't said much to one another as he had dropped her off home in the evening and exchanged goodbyes, glum to be returning home after a week being casual in one another's company. Seeing her now, however, getting out of her red Volvo in the mountain's internal car park, he decided it already seemed too long ago. Back on base, the conversations they'd shared, calling her Sam and performing small friendly gestures such as holding her hand and hugging her seemed trivial and daring. It was unfair, really. These were such simple things that other close friends took for granted.
And so he stood leaning on the open door of his truck, just watching in silence. It wasn't like he'd been waiting for her to arrive, or anything; he'd simply noticed her drive beneath the barrier just as he'd finished parking up. But had it been anyone else's car, Jack knew he wouldn't have lingered. It wasn't even as though he was desperate to talk to her; for some reason he just wanted to see her. Evidently, though, he wasn't as conspicuously hidden as he'd thought… nor too far away for her to notice him.
She stopped when she became aware of his presence, hesitating at the other end of the car park, taking time to bundle her keys in her pocket. God, this was so ridiculous. Slamming his truck door shut and locking it, he gave her a smile and a big wave as he began to cross the distance between them in long, easy strides, and was relieved when she waited by her car.
As he approached he could see she didn't look as nervous as he'd thought she'd be. But then, why would she be nervous?
"Carter!" he greeted like nothing had ever changed, as if they hadn't spent a week together in his cabin, as if they hadn't nearly kissed. But, she smiled.
"Hi, sir."
"Long time no see, huh?"
"What, the mountain?" asked Sam lightly, used to his sarcasm. "Yeah." They automatically started heading towards the familiar entrance elevator. "Can't say I've missed it, though," she added with another warm smile.
Jack nodded. "I'm glad to hear that," he said, and looked sideways at her. "All settled in back home, then?"
"Yep. Cassandra even offered to do my week's washing for me."
"Really? That's nice of her."
"Yeah," agreed Sam brightly. "It is."
"She's not pissed at you for leaving her alone for a week?"
"Actually…" She smirked. "I think she was pleased." When Jack raised his eyebrows enquiringly, she quickly explained, "New boyfriend."
"Ah! Got it!" There was brief pause as Jack swiped his card through the slot and the elevator doors opened. He punched the button for the floor of her lab. "You look well, Sam." And she did. This past week he'd watched the colour come back into her cheeks and her eyes lose their dark shadows—and here was the maximum effect of fishing-in-fresh-air treatment. Smiling, eager. She couldn't look healthier and he could tell she was ready to go right through that gate as soon as possible.
"I am, Jack," admitted Sam. "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't."
He held her sincere gaze. "So I guess from this point on we go back to 'sir's and 'Carter's?" he asked with a reluctant wince.
"It's for the best," she reminded him. "For now, at least."
"Yeah." Glancing down, he noticed that her hand was no longer bandaged. "Your hand okay?"
"My…? Oh!" She flipped it over to show him that the cut had scabbed over. It looked like someone had drawn a thick purple line down the centre of her palm. "It's fine."
Different images of their week spent together flashed in his mind. One of them stuck out to Jack and triggered an unusual show of curiosity. "By the way, while we were there, did you ever show Daniel that, uh… Octolato… thing… Oatlet…?" She raised her eyebrows in mild humour and he rotated his hand for help.
"Ochalet," Sam corrected, smiling again, and he screwed up his face.
"Whatever…"
"I'd actually forgotten all about it, but then looked in my coat pockets and… well…" Her hand suddenly appeared in front of him with the strange ornamental object sitting in her palm. The artificial light created a glint on the shiny amber stone. "I'll take it to Daniel before we go offworld."
"I still think it's a brooch," he remarked dryly, looking down his nose at it before his eyes flicked back to Sam's fascinated face. "But, I'd put it away. Wouldn't want my 2IC to be branded a bad fashion freak."
Sam appeared taken aback. "Since when have I been interested in fashion?" she questioned, wrapping the Ochalet back in tissue and sticking it in her pocket.
"Oh, there's a difference between having a lack of interest in fashion and having bad taste in fashion, Carter."
"So which one are you?" she smirked. "Both?"
Mildly offended, Jack just shot her a weird and disbelieving look.
"Well, come on, sir," she teased. "You never did tell us where you got those bright yellow fishing shorts Teal'c found in the drawer."
His mouth was already open and prepared to form a snarky reply when the elevator doors swung to the sides and Siler joined them; instead Jack settled for folding his arms and scowling at Sam.
"Colonel, General," Siler said as way of greeting. "Good to have you back, sir. And the place hasn't been the same without—"
"Well, thanks, Siler!" winked Jack, unfolding his arms to smooth over the creases in his shirt. "I always knew I was—"
"—you, ma'am."
It was subtle, but, out of the corner of his scowling eye, he could see the grin tilting the corners of his 2IC's mouth upwards.
"Siler," ground out Jack through his teeth, pointing at the Sergeant mock-threateningly.
"Sorry, sir. Place hasn't been the same without you, either, General."
"Good!" Jack appraised more brightly. "I was almost disappointed."
The elevator gave a pang and the doors juddered open again. He swept his hand towards the space in front of him, ushering Sam out in a friendly, gentlemanly manner. "Carter, I'll see you later."
"Yes, sir," she said, the hint of a grin still in her face. "Bye, Sergeant."
"Colonel," acknowledged Siler.
"Oh, and Carter!" Jack called loudly, jamming his hand between the double doors to keep them prised open. She turned back around curiously. "Almost forgot. This is for you." He handed her a brown-papered envelope from his holder bag.
"Sir?" she asked, suspicious and slightly anxious as he shoved it into her hands.
But he shrank back into the confined space of the elevator. "Open it," he advised with a smile as the doors began sliding together. "I think you'll like!" Then he waved and her frowning face disappeared as the lift jolted into movement.
Jack chewed his cheek for a few moments, and then turned back to the lift's other occupant. "So," he said conversationally, "Siler! You know what the special is in the commissary today?"
Not that it mattered. For the first time in months, the General of the SGC was going off world.
"Good morning…"
Sam looked round from her desk and smiled warmly at Daniel entering her lab, kicking the door lightly shut behind him. His hands were buried deep in fatigue-pant pockets and an already-curious frown characterised his face as he glanced to where she sat.
"Daniel," she welcomed, leaning forward to move a pile of paperwork from the opposite desk chair so he could sit down. "Ready to go back to work?"
"Well, personally, I was never ready to leave," he admitted without accusation. "It was kind of a favour to Jack. You know, to make you stay away for a while."
She raised her eyebrows and gave a swift smile. "Thanks."
"So," said Daniel, placing a plastic cup of coffee on her desk and keeping the other for himself, "what I want to know… is are you ready to go back to work?"
Taking a sip of coffee, cringing after a week of drinking tastier, more expensive substance, she pierced him with a hard and challenging stare. What was she to everyone at the moment, the fragile, unstable woman? "Do you think I'd be here if I wasn't?"
Shrugging, her friend lowered himself to the creaky swivel chair. "Anything's possible with you, Sam."
She didn't reply, but then again she didn't think her friend expected one.
"By the way," said Sam little sheepishly, "I wanted to apologise for the, um… argument I had with the, ah, the General—about going to Hetora, I mean. You shouldn't have had to hear it, Daniel, and we both knew we went a little over the top."
But Daniel, holding up a hand, brushed off her apology. "It was fine," he reassured her with a smooth smile. "If anything, Teal'c and I were glad you relieved the tension." He took another sip of coffee and leaned back in the flimsily-supported chair, watching her behind his glasses. "Am I right in thinking that you and Jack talked afterwards?"
Feeling awkward, she nodded once.
"Any decisions?" he probed hopefully. "Revelations I'd want to know about?"
She shook her head, saying, "No revelations, Daniel. There's something that might or might not happen in a few months and we agreed we'll re-discuss things then. In the meantime…" she sighed softly, "we carry on as normal."
It was a mark of their friendship that Daniel didn't ask what this "something" was; he knew that if she could, or wanted to share it, she would; but he would never push her. Pursing his lips, he nodded, and then spoke again kindly.
"If there's ever a time you want to talk, you know I'll always be here, don't you?"
Feeling very much comforted by his words she smiled and reached over to squeeze his arm in a gesture of thanks. "I do," she said. "And it's good to know."
There was a small pause and she gazed back down at the three photographs lay amidst a sea of paperwork, aware of Daniel's inquisitive eyes still focussed on her and her desk.
"What are you up to, anyway?" he enquired, and gave a marvellous fake yawn that didn't quite fool her.
"Well, I've only just arrived," Sam pointed out, and knowing he would inevitably find out and see them eventually, she scooped up the memorable pictures and passed them to him quite reluctantly. "Jack just gave me these."
Daniel, placing his coffee down, skimmed through them with a broad smile and then slowed his pace to inspect them more closely. She'd been delighted with the photos having realised their origin; even though the events told in the images had only taken place a week previous, their time spent together seemed a month ago or more.
"Looks to me like he's being suggestive," smirked Daniel as he held up the last picture, one of the two of she and Jack, predictably, but she just mock-glared at him and he didn't say anything more, just handed the selection back to her.
"Nice photos, aren't they? It was a good trip."
"Yeah. Don't tell Jack, but half of the time I actually enjoyed myself. Somehow I knew it wouldn't be Teal'c and I who were pressurised into fishing every sunlit hour of the day."
Sam grinned, not feeling in the slightest bit guilty that the other half of the time she and Jack had ignored the other two completely, and scanned her eyes over the photos once again.
One, the first she'd set eyes upon, was of SG-1: all four of them. Jack with a boyish grin, Daniel with a goofy smile and a wave, Teal'c with his lips curving slightly but still looking as sombre as always, she her with her own smile of pure happiness and enjoyment. She was simply glad that, for once, there was an image of all four of them out of uniform.
The other two… well, if she was honest, any stranger glimpsing the captured moments would be bound to assume that they were a couple. In one of the pair—and she remembered this moment clearly because the camera had ended up falling off the tree stump Jack had set it up on—she and Jack were sat side by side resting against the trunk of a tree. What made it intimate was his arm around her shoulders and her leaning into his side, heads very close together. They'd never had that captured on camera before.
The third was her favourite; it showed them simply just having fun. She'd always been aware of his sense of humour—that awareness was unavoidable, having been around him for more than eight years—but before this fishing trip she'd never imagined just how fun Jack could be when he was off duty. Even though it wasn't summer, even though the water was freezing cold, they had decided to test out the canoe which Jack hadn't used in years. Unlike the other two, Daniel had taken this one. She unconsciously beamed. Jack had been rocking it, so she'd splashed water in his face, which had prompted him to dive over to her side of the boat and grab her around the chest. Unfortunately, the uneven distribution of weight had caused the canoe to flip over and capsize, sending them both plunging into that ice cold pond. Daniel had seized this image for the camera right before it had tipped and it showed them knelt up on that vivid red canoe, laughing, entangled together in a loose and friendly embrace.
For anyone normal, this could have been considered highly dangerous. But they were SG-1 and had faced and suffered much worse than a quick dip in a pond of bone chilling water. A good warm shower (or two separate ones, she sternly reminded herself) and a huge mug of coffee had easily cured them of their shivers.
"Oh, Daniel," said Sam, suddenly remembering something else that was important, "I have something to show you."
"Besides photographs of you and Jack?"
She knew he was only joking, and didn't rise to the bait as she fished out the Ochalet from her coat pocket, which was hung on a peg on the wall, and silently passed it to him. Daniel carefully unwrapped it from the tissue with an air of excitement that Sam had seen a hundred times before and placed it down on the desk surface.
"Wow," he said. "What is it?"
"I know as much as you," she shrugged. "All I know is that it's called an Ochalet, whatever that means."
"I don't recognise the name," Daniel murmured as he looked over it closely, flipping it over to see if there was anything beneath. "Where's this come from?"
"My dad." When he glanced up at her, she explained, "He left an envelope with General O'Neill to give to me. This was in it."
"And… he doesn't say what it's for, or what it does?" questioned Daniel, puzzled.
She repeated the sentence her dad had written in the letter about using the object to bend the Tok'ra to her will, and he raised his eyebrows thoughtfully.
"You think he wants us to reform the alliance?"
"That's exactly what I thought," Sam nodded earnestly, "but I think we should get this whole Hetora business over with first before we show them this."
"Good point." Pinching her magnifying glass, he frowned as he scanned over the strange markings scored into the jagged silver edges. "Well, I don't recognise any of these markings. It's obviously some form of language but definitely not Ancient Egyptian, or Goa'uld…"
"Well, I wouldn't expect it to be Goa'uld," she smiled, "seeing as though my dad was Tok'ra."
"Another good point," Daniel said a second time, and was about to open his mouth to speak again when Harriman's voice was amplified through the speakers in Sam's lab.
"SG-1 and SG-3 to the briefing room. Repeat, SG-1 and SG-3 to the briefing room. This is not urgent. Repeat, not urgent."
Rolling his eyes, Daniel said, "Why does Walter always do the repeat thing?"
"Guess that'll be our briefing."
"Yeah." He wrapped the Ochalet up again and handed it back to Sam. "I'll take another look at this when I get back, but it's probably best if you keep it. You know how many things I've got in my office. It'll probably get lost or something."
Sam nodded. "Thanks, Daniel," she said, shoving it in the drawer before they left together.
"It's so damn good to be off world!" Jack exclaimed, picking his way down the steps. "Don't you agree, Lieutenant?"
Lieutenant Mannings of SG-3, sharp and direct as always, nodded stiffly beside him. "Yes, sir. Always good, sir."
They remained waiting on the bottom step as villagers all around peeked out from the windows and doors of their homes, and Jack grimaced at the water-clogged ground surrounding the dirty stone.
"Yeah, well," muttered Daniel under his breath, "you won't be saying that if Kalek's around."
"Sorry, Daniel, but he is…" Sam gestured with her P-90 towards a stony-faced figure approaching them. The Governor was wearing a long brown-furred coat and high spurred boots as if dressing for an occasion.
The archaeologist rolled his eyes. "Great."
"Easy, tiger," said Jack, a deep line settling between his brows.
"At least one good thing can be said about today's visit," Teal'c commented then, and Jack turned to face him inquisitively.
"What's that, T?"
"It isn't raining," guessed Sam grimly.
"Indeed."
Looking round at the muddy ground, the puddles and the dark ominous clouds above, Jack had a feeling his team had been right to complain about the climate. "It obviously has been, however," he needlessly observed.
It was then that Kalek, drawing his cloak around his lean body, reached them. Jack reluctantly moved forward and stuck out his hand, but his fingers twitched, curled and withdrew discreetly, when Kalek merely stared at the friendly gesture with obvious disgust.
"Yeah…" said Jack distractedly. "General Jack O'Neill, US Air Force. How do you do?"
But Kalek continued to stare at him with boredom and dislike mingling in his dark eyes. "You are the ruler of your planet," he stated flatly.
"Ahh, not quite," Jack smiled falsely, and turned around to look at Colonel Rhiley who commanded SG-3. "You didn't explain this to him, last time?"
"We did, sir," Rhiley informed him, exchanging a dark look with Mannings. "He's evidently forgotten."
"Well, I'm merely representing Earth. I don't rule it," he told Kalek clearly. "I command the SGC and make the decisions about what to do with planets like yours."
"Even though it is not your decision to make," replied Kalek snidely.
There was pause and Jack called almost feel the usually-patient Daniel yet again roll his eyes behind him.
"And you must be Kalek," he sighed at last and raised his eyebrows as he continued, "the cold, sinister governor who gave each of my teams only two minutes of his time, even when his planet and his people are in danger. Great to finally meet you!"
The Governor looked enraged and, turning sharply on his heel, swept away from the steps. "Come," he ordered harshly. Exchanging apprehensive looks with Colonel Rhiley, Jack gestured that they should follow.
"Well this is a joke!" remarked Jack. He jumped off from the table on which he'd been sitting and strode to a thatch window. He looked out, wincing when he saw that the rain had returned, and turned to his two teams with a face creased in irritation. "I'm sorry if I'm being crude, but leaving us here to wait while he fetches a few governors is acceptable. Leaving us waiting for two damn hours, however, is not!"
"Jack—" began Daniel as calmly as always.
"Daniel, don't even give me the 'other culture, different ways' crap! Kalek said he'd be a few moments, not a few hours!"
"I know," his friend replied swiftly, standing with his arms folded, "but this isn't a time for losing your temper."
"We're here to help them," Jack said. "Have you happened to notice how ungrateful they seem?"
"We did tell you Kalek was a jerk, sir," said Sam. "It's probable he's doing this on purpose to aggravate you."
"But I have a right to be irked? Yes?" Jack looked at each one of them pointedly.
"Yes, sir."
"Yes, General."
"I too am annoyed, O'Neill."
"Thank you," he directed towards Teal'c. Settling on the unsteady straw table again, the General hugged his P-90 to his knees. The protesting clicking sound his gun made as it was shifted was a two-second distraction from the sudden, nearing noise that droned in on their ears.
All eight present, Jack and SG teams 1 and 3, froze.
Daniel's face was written in dread. "What was that?" he said tensely.
Very slowly, Jack looked up, and happened to meet Sam's widened and surprised blue eyes which were darkened behind her cap. They knew that sound all too well. His hand automatically tightened on the holder of his weapon.
And then it amplified again, a great, wind-gushing swoosh that left the ground quavering as the aircraft flew by. Jack didn't think twice; he shot out of the tent in time to watch a death glider swerve to the right in the spacious air overhead.
"Death gliders!" Teal'c gravely observed, scanning the skies. Jack had already noted that vision was limited due to the dense, low clouds.
"Crap, crap… triple crap!"
But despite his cursing Jack didn't feel any better. As Sam came to stand next to him, she wriggled her hat onto her head to secure it firmly in place. "Geb?"
"Doesn't matter," replied Jack briskly, soldier-mode kicking in. "We need to get these people outta here."
Colonel Rhiley immediately stepped forward. "General?"
"Rhiley, you and your team start rounding people up. Drag them out of their homes if you have to." He stabbed his finger at each of his people in gesticulation that matched his orders. "Carter, Teal'c, go dial home now!"
The directions he barked out had instant effect and the others disappeared in a flash. With Daniel beside him, Jack ran across the sloppy ground to the nearest house in sight. Rain instantly soaked through his garments as the death gliders soared above their heads. Two. So far. At least they wouldn't have to call the Hetorian equivalent of 911 for inexistent fire control.
"Jack, wait!" Daniel grabbed at his friend's arm but the General wrenched away from his grasp. "They might not have agreed to this… negotiations aren't complete! You could be jeopardi—"
"I am not gonna walk away and let these people die, Daniel!" he yelled fiercely over the rain. "Now help me!"
The unmistakable sound of glider firing filled their ears. At the other side of the village an explosion burst into life with brilliant, booming energy which instinctively told them that something had already been hit.
Jack allowed Daniel one more hard glare before he kicked the nearest door open without hesitation. Inside the house a man and a woman stood tied together and jumped, startled, as the dense wood slammed like thunder against the frame.
"Come on, folks, time to go," he demanded firmly.
More blows of destruction echoed in his ears. Screams could be heard from the unfortunate targeted site, on which the powerful fire had undoubtedly impacted bare soil and homes of thatch work. Jack stormed forward and the woman's eyes widened in fear.
"Come with us!" Jack ordered and reached out to pull the woman outside. "Both of you need to get away from here."
He urged them into Daniel's care and moved on to the neighbouring house. Vaguely through the distant screams he heard his friend offering swift and reassuring words and smiled gravely. One could always count on Daniel.
In house after house, consciously aware of the passing time, Jack persuaded families to evacuate their homes one by one whilst the gliders circled the village as menacingly as any fear-generating predator. The houses were finally empty which was when the radio crackled into life. Carter.
"Sir, wormhole established. Permission to—"
"JACK!"
He hadn't needed Daniel's shout of warning and yelled, "Get out of the way!"
People screamed and fled for the narrow spaces between houses. The mud square took a hit and the ground shuddered angrily with the harsh impact. Fire roared up in the thatch roofs of several homes and, feeding off the woven straw but fighting with the rain, the flames were dampened but after many minutes remained unquenched. Jack swept his assessing eyes over the scene and was grateful to find that nobody in his line of vision had been hurt. Stumbling slightly, one hand pressed against the side of a house, he clamped his thumb down on the 'send' button of his radio.
"Carter, no permission needed—get as many as you can through that gate this instant!"
"Its okay," Daniel was saying to the scattered group clearly. "Head towards the Stargate—the Ring. People will be there to help you!" He looked to Jack questioningly who nodded. "Okay, follow me."
The villagers instantly hustled forward in swarms and one young woman fell face flat in the mud as she ran past. Jack bent down to help her get back onto her feet in the few seconds that it took for the glider to return and decline to the side at full speed. He glimpsed her face. White, panicked, shocked. It was no wonder, really—they weren't used to attack… none of them were.
"Go!" he shouted to Daniel and the band of Hetorians, and pushed the woman forward encouragingly.
Either the Tok'ra intelligence was wrong, or Geb had deceived them. Either way, the conclusion was the same.
He hated the Goa'uld.
Author's Note: Do I suck at "action"? Guess I'll find out, huh? I'm at college now, so my writing is probably going to become even more erratic than it recently has been (if such a thing is possible), but stick with me. Your reviews are fantastic and act as amazing boosts of motivation. Tell me what I'm doing right, and, in particular, what I'm doing wrong.