Shades of Friendship
by Adalia Zandra
For summary, warnings, and other details, please see part one.
PART THREE
Cassie eventually became bored with watching the adults attempt not to look guilty as they contemplated their recent behavior. "I'm hungry, Mom," she complained after they had whiled away most of the day with empty conversations about work and current events.
"Okay, honey," her mother replied, and then turned to the others. "We've been sitting here for hours and nothing seems about to happen. We might as well throw together some supper."
They did so, preparing several MREs and various snacks they found on the side table. The conversation remained as vague and superficial as it had since they had been unceremoniously deposited in their quarters by their Asgard escort.
Finishing her meal, Cassie interrupted the banal small talk with an abrupt, "Can we go see Jack now?"
Looking guilty again, the adults hemmed and hawed for a moment. Daniel ignored her request altogether and it was Teal'c who finally responded coherently.
"We are to wait here, Cassandra Fraiser. Commander Thor will summon us when the time is right," the Jaffa intoned.
Cassie looked first at him and then at the others with an expression of disbelief on her face. The adults looked everywhere but at her, even Teal'c refusing to meet her eyes for longer than a glance.
"I'm tired," she suddenly announced, her disgust at their passive reactions to their situation barely disguised in her voice. "Goodnight."
She headed for the sleeping area without waiting for a response, and curled up under a blanket. She appeared to drop off immediately to sleep.
One by one, the adults grew uncomfortable with the heavy silence and apparently fruitless waiting and followed her to bed.
When all was still Cassie cautiously sat up, wide awake. After reassuring herself that all her guardians were deep in sleep or Kel-no-reem, respectively, she snuck past them and out the door. Once in the hallway she stopped and thought for a moment about which way to go. Wanting to find Jack, but having no idea how to navigate the interior of an Asgard battle cruiser, she took a guess and picked the direction opposite from that which she knew led back to the room they had initially been beamed up to.
Wandering through the hallways she encountered no one, nor did she find any rooms containing king sized beds or sleeping Air Force Colonels. After what felt like hours to the young girl but what was really only about forty-five minutes, Cassie began to feel discouraged. She considered conceding defeat and heading back to the guest quarters, but her desire to find Jack and see how he was doing for herself caused her to push on.
Not more than ten minutes later she finally stumbled upon an occupied room. The Asgard inside turned their dark eyes on her and one calmly asked her why she was outside the guest quarters.
Nervous that she might have been wrong to sneak out of the guest quarters but unwilling to back down, she spoke demandingly but politely, "I want to see Jack, please."
The Asgard conferred amongst themselves for a moment, and then the one who had questioned her told her to follow him. She trailed him through several more hallways and was ushered into a room and told to wait.
Mere moments later, Thor entered.
"Is there something I can do for you, Cassandra Fraiser?" he inquired neutrally.
Thus assured that she was not really in trouble, Cassie decided to get right to the point.
"Mom and the others are too busy being guilty or in denial to actually do anything about it or apologize. But I haven't done anything wrong and I haven't even seen Jack in four months! I want to see him, Mr. Thor. Please?" she explained.
"I will take you to him," Thor agreed with a nod. "Your presence may do him some good. Come."
With that the Asgard commander led the young Cassandra back out into the hallway and across the ship. They arrived at a locked door which Cassie recognized as one she had been unable to open earlier in her explorations. Thor pressed a panel on the wall with one of the Asgard control crystals and the door quietly whooshed open. He waved the girl in ahead of him.
The first thing she noticed upon entering the room was a rather large Simpson's poster adorning the far wall, followed quickly by the imposing king sized bed that took up the majority of the available floor space. Curled up in the center of the bed, dwarfed by its size and nearly invisible amongst a nest of pillows and beneath a mountain of blankets, lay the man she had snuck out to find. He appeared to be sleeping restlessly.
"Is he okay?" Cassie stage whispered, glancing at her alien companion.
Thor replied in a whisper of his own, "As I said previously, he is ill. I believe his physical troubles will heal nicely on their own, given time and care."
Cassie regarded him frankly and replied, "But his friends were mean to him and that won't go away so nicely. And actually, we're more like his family, aren't we?"
"You are wise to understand the situation so clearly, young one," Thor complemented her with a nod. She smiled shyly back at him.
They both looked up as the pile of blankets on the bed stirred and they heard the man beneath cough. Thor headed for the side of the bed and Cassie came up beside him.
"Colonel O'Neill," Thor called gently.
That worthy coughed again, and the blankets shifted to reveal his face. His eyes were closed, an uneasy expression across his features. Hair damp with sweat spilled limply across his forehead.
"He looks really sick, are you sure he's okay?" Cassie asked worriedly, still speaking softly, as she crawled carefully up onto the bed next to Jack and reached over to gently push his unruly hair aside. He shifted under her touch, but remained asleep.
Thor picked up a small scanner from on top of a book that rested on the bedside table, and consulted its readout before replying, "His body temperature has returned to within normal parameters, but what he suffers from even the Asgard have no cure for. I believe the Tau'ri call it 'the common cold.' He simply needs rest and better nutrition. I have already done what I can to boost his body's own defenses against such disease."
As Thor spoke, his voice seemed to finally penetrate O'Neill's sleep fogged senses and register in his mind. His eyes blinked open and his admittedly blurry vision was filled with Cassie kneeling next to him on the bed, leaning over him.
"Why, Cassie, what a deep voice you have," he mumbled.
She giggled and replied, "That was Thor talking, Jack, not me!"
"Oh, that 'splains it, then," he said, reaching up to tickle her lightly. Even though the action was somewhat half-hearted she reacted with further giggling and shifted aside so he could see Thor, who had remained on the floor beside the bed.
"Greetings, O'Neill," the little alien said.
"'Lo again, Thor," Jack replied, a hand coming up to rub his eyes. "Thanks again for the rescue."
Thor nodded his acknowledgment and moved to put the scanner back down.
"So where'd you pop up from?" Jack asked, looking up at Cassie.
"I was hiding in the General's office 'cause I was looking for Mom and I heard you guys arguing, so I got beamed up when Thor beamed everybody else up," Cassie explained.
"Thor beamed everybody else up?" Jack questioned, turning back to the Asgard.
"I did, O'Neill," Thor nodded slightly. "Cassandra Fraiser's mother and the rest of your team are currently in the guest quarters of this ship. General Hammond is aware of this already, and is in agreement with me in this matter."
"What matter?" Jack wanted to know.
Cassie poked his shoulder lightly. "Mr. Thor and the General want to know why they're all being so awful. I think it's kinda like that time Mom grounded me 'til I apologized for knocking Freddy Lowell down at the playground."
Jack blinked at her, then at Thor. "Grounded?" he repeated.
"I believe that is a fair description, O'Neill," Thor replied. "But it is not for you to concern yourself with. Your only focus should be to rest and regain your health."
"Right," Jack drawled, yawning. "Not my problem. Retired, anyway."
"No you're not, Jack, the General never took your letter. Daniel stole it," Cassie reminded him. He winced at her mention of Daniel, a reaction she noticed. She went on, "But you don't have to worry about all that right now, 'cause me and Mr. Thor are here to make sure they won't be mean to you again."
As Jack and Thor both watched, one with detached amazement and the other with mild amusement, Cassie kicked her shoes off her feet and tossed them over the edge of the bed. She then proceeded to wiggle herself under the blankets around Jack, settling in so that she was curled up around his right shoulder. Her left arm snaked out and latched on around his chest, and her right hand reached up to hesitantly caress his forehead.
"You're still sick, Jack, you should go back to sleep. Right, Mr. Thor?" she asked, her hand moving down to rest against the side of Jack's head for a moment as she looked over at Thor.
"You should listen to your young friend, O'Neill. She is most wise," Thor said.
"Well, who am I to argue with such advice?" Jack replied, his voice fading as he relaxed back into the nest of pillows and closed his eyes. He sighed as Cassie tightened her grip across him and snuggled down with him, stroking her hand across his temple.
Jack unconsciously leaned into her soothing touch as the repetitive motion began to lull him back to sleep. When his breathing slowed and he appeared to have drifted off again, Cassie whispered to Thor, "I want to stay here. Will you make sure my Mom doesn't worry about me?"
"I will do so, Cassandra Fraiser. I am pleased that you wish to remain. It is better that he not be alone," Thor replied, nodding towards the sleeping man. He picked up a small device from the bedside table and showed it to the girl before placing it next to the duo lying on the bed. "This is a simple communicator. Press the indentation on the side if you or O'Neill need assistance of any sort. Either I or one of my crew will be with you as quickly as possible."
Cassie expressed her understanding with a nod and they exchanged hushed goodbyes. Thor left, closing the door behind him.
Jack sighed softly in his sleep, rolling towards Cassie and curling up on his side. She shifted with him, pulling up the blankets and then maintaining her grip with her left arm. She let her right hand trail down his face and come to rest on the pillow between them.
With a yawn of her own, Cassie let her eyes drift shut and joined Jack in slumber.
Thanks again for the comments, everyone! I really appreciate hearing that somebody's reading and maybe enjoying this little story. We have two more parts to go, and don't worry, there will be apologizing in the future.Then we'll see if I can get up the courage to finish one of my numerous SG-1/MacGyver crossovers and post it, as well.
In response to the concerns a couple of you have expressed now . . . I hear what you're saying. My aim with this story always included a premise which is completely unrealistic. Instead of trying to write a set up for it, which I thought would only draw out the ridiculously out of character actions of SG-1, I consciously decided just to jump in. (Hey, we're Stargate fans after all. If we can believe that Sam Carter could single-handedly blow up a sun, we can believe that SG-1 might fall apart this badly given just the right situation.) The point here, in my mind, is the team's journey towards understanding and reconciliation. If you can't stick with me on my way there because my premise really isn't valid or well introduced, it's my fault for picking this plot and your free choice to stop following the story. I'm sorry to lose a reader, and I hope my next fic agrees with you more. :-)