Shades of Friendship
by Adalia Zandra

For summary, warnings, and other details, please see part one.

PART TWO

On the observation deck of an Asgard cruiser the light deposited six humans before vanishing again. Daniel's truncated question was turned into a shout of surprise when he saw the sixth person in the group.

". . . want with . . . Cassie?"

"Cassandra!" Frasier gasped at the same time. "What are you doing here? I thought I left you in my office!"

"I'm sorry, Mom," Cassie answered, contritely. "But I was looking for you to ask you if I could use your phone to call Alice. My friend from school," she clarified for the others, then continued, "I knew you were supposed to be in a meeting with the general but you said it was supposed to be a short one and I was getting bored waiting so I went to go look and the general's office was empty but the other door was part way open and I heard voices yelling and I peeked out and . . . why were you all being so mean to Jack?"

"That is a question I would also like an answer to, Cassandra Fraiser," Thor said, suddenly appearing in the doorway, with a distinctly angry tone to his voice.

"Thor," Hammond breathed a small sigh of relief to know for sure that they had been 'abducted' by an ally an not an enemy. "Is Colonel O'Neill alright?"

"He is presently asleep in his quarters," Thor replied vaguely.

"Jack has quarters aboard your ship?" Daniel asked in surprise.

"This is, in fact, O'Neill's ship," Thor said, amusement creeping into his voice. When the others just looked dumbfounded, he clarified. "I believe the correct Tau'ri phrase would be to say that he won it in a game of cards?"

"I am going to have a chat with the good colonel about playing poker with our alien allies," Hammond muttered. "Exactly how much time has he been spending with you without telling anyone?"

"O'Neill often spends a great deal of time on board when I am able to remain near Tau'ri space. We determined it would be beneficial to assign him permanent quarters. He has installed a . . ." Thor paused for a moment, trying to remember the proper words, then continued sounding very smug, ". . . a full king sized bed."

"Wow," Cassie said. "Cool!"

"Is he alright, Thor?" Carter repeated Hammond's earlier question, trying to bring the conversation back on topic.

The smile that had entered Thor's eyes when he spoke of O'Neill's card games and king sized bed left again when he replied, "When we are both in Tau'ri space I have developed the habit of keeping track of O'Neill. He requested that I do so in part so that he would not be transported aboard at an inconvenient time if it could be avoided. I had been called back to the Asgard High Council to report after the mission O'Neill performed for us. I arrived back in Tau'ri space several hours ago but had not started monitoring him again until only a few minutes ago. I noticed right away that he was ill and in distress. I admit to listening to the end of your conversation before transporting him here. I found what I heard very disturbing."

"But is he alright?" Fraiser asked.

"He is ill. He suffers from exhaustion, stress, and neglect. His temperature is several degrees higher than is normal. I have done all that I can for him. As I said, he is presently sleeping."

"May we see him, please?" Hammond asked.

"Not at the present time, no," Thor replied, the angry edge firmly back in his voice. "Before you ask any more questions I would like to hear the answer to Cassandra Fraiser's question."

"I . . ."

"He . . ."

"We didn't . . ."

Several voices started at once, overlapping each other. Thor raised a hand to silence them.

"Does any one of you have an explanation for your treatment of O'Neill since his return from the mission?" Thor demanded.

"I suspect not, Thor," Hammond sighed, glaring at the three present members of SG-1. "If you were listening to that conversation you know the status of things currently."

"Indeed, I do. And that is why I will only be returning you to the planet, General Hammond. I will require that the others remain until they can give me a satisfactory explanation for their behavior," Thor replied, pinning each of them in turn with his piercing gaze. Then he turned back to the general. "I understand that you may not remain away from your command for that length of time. Take this communication device so that we may contact each other if it becomes necessary. I will keep you updated on events here if you wish."

Hammond took the device and slipped it into his pocket. "I would appreciate that. Thank you."

Thor nodded. "I will transport you back when you are ready."

Hammond nodded back and then looked at the others. He thought for a moment, then spoke quietly. "I think this is for the best. I expect you to straighten yourselves out, people, and give Commander Thor his satisfactory answer. I am very much looking forward to hearing it, myself. Dr. Fraiser, I'm sure Thor will allow it if you wish Cassandra to return with me."

Cassie grabbed her mom's hand and said, "Can I stay, please, Mom? I don't have school all this week and I want to see Jack."

"Okay, honey," Janet replied. "Thank you, General, but she can stay."

"Alright then. Behave yourselves, all of you. I don't want to hear about any more altercations like the one in the briefing room. Understood?"

The chastened members of SG-1 all nodded their replies. Hammond sighed and shook his head almost sadly before turning back to Thor.

"Thank you, Commander Thor."

"I will keep in contact, General Hammond," Thor replied. He moved one of the controls on the panel in front of him and Hammond disappeared in a flash of light, transported back to the briefing room in the SGC.

Thor then turned to the remaining Tau'ri. "Sufficient nourishment for your stay here will be beamed up from your base stores. I will also have temporary quarters prepared for you. I will send someone to take you there in a short while, as I have things to attend to elsewhere in the ship. I suggest you spend some time discussing today's events. Good day," he said, and acknowledged their parting words with a nod before leaving the room.

They took a moment to let their situation sink in, sharing glances full of silent communication. Cassandra was the first to speak.

"Daniel?" she said, approaching him timidly. "Why are you so mad at Jack?"

"I . . . it's complicated, Cassie," Daniel waffled.

"Indeed it is not, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c spoke up. "We have in fact treated O'Neill with great disrespect in our puerile desire to seek retribution for actions which he did not willingly take against us."

The others stared at Teal'c for a moment.

"Huh?" said Cassie, breaking the short silence.

"He said we've been mean to Colonel O'Neill because we blamed him for something that happened which wasn't really his fault," Carter explained.

"What happened?" the girl asked curiously.

"Well, that is kind of complicated, honey," Carter replied.

"No, I have to agree with Teal'c," Fraiser said then. "It isn't complicated at all. He pushed us all away like that because he was trying to protect us. And in return we've continued to treat him like the traitor he was forced to pretend to be. Meanwhile, he's gotten sick and we never even noticed. We're supposed to be his friends. I'm supposed to be his doctor!"

Daniel looked petulant and forged on with his argument, ignoring Janet's mention of Jack's sudden illness . "He meticulously tore apart his relationships with us. When I went to see him at his house he said our friendship had no foundation."

"He said those things so you would leave without asking more questions, Daniel," Sam pointed out, beginning to accept that she'd been wrong. "He really didn't want to hurt you, or the rest of us. But he had to, to make sure that we didn't get caught up in the dangers of his mission."

Teal'c nodded. "I believe it caused him great pain to do this. We have failed in our duty as his comrades by refusing to extend our forgiveness and support."

Fraiser and Sam nodded thoughtfully, but Daniel's expression was still clouded with simmering anger.

Cassie, standing silently, was starting to form her own opinions about what had apparently happened. She looked back and forth between the adults, almost as if she was watching a four way tennis match.

"I just can't let it go that easily," Daniel said pointedly.

Before the others could respond, an Asgard appeared in the doorway and beckoned them to follow. He led them to a fairly large room a few corridors over which had been set up with enough living and sleeping arrangements to accommodate the five of them nicely. There was a table along one wall laid out with what appeared to be standard SGC field rations. Their guide warned them that unauthorized wanderings beyond their quarters would not be tolerated, and left them to their own devices.

Sam investigated the food, glad that they would not have to eat the Asgard version thereof. The others settled themselves in around the room. Cassie sat quietly near her mother, and since no one else seemed willing to restart the conversation they waited in silence.

Many thanks to those who commented! Since ya'll asked so nicely, I'll shorten my update schedule a bit. But be warned, this means I may not have the final part finished by the time I should be posting it on this new schedule. By the way, I freely admit that the characters would never act this way on the show. I decided to take them out of their usual characterizations for the purpose of setting up the situation I wanted to explore, one where Cassie and Thor were better models of friendship than SG-1 was.