A/N: Meh. I decided that I actually did want to continue this of my own volition. I'm such a schizophrenic loon. Oh, and SG-1 definitely doesn't belong to me, or it would be like one of those animes that has several different alternate story archs. Heh.
o o o
Jack had to leave after only a bit, being the head of the SGC and all. Daniel hung around for as long as possible, but finally had to excuse himself to return to more catalogueing and such work. Teal'c also excused himself, and so Samantha was left alone with O'akah.
But that situation didn't last long either, because General O'Neill called, saying O'akah needed to get herself checked out in the infirmary. So, Sam took her to the infirmary and waited around while they ran their multititudinous tests on her.
What they found wasn't anything special, just a girl of about eight to ten years of age in perfect physical condition. Blood work and some other tests would take a bit longer for the results to come back, but they would have to leave it at that for the moment.
"So, I'm just a normal kid," O'akah said to Sam, questioningly, swinging her feet back and forth as she sat on the examination table.
"That's what it looks like," Sam replied, keeping her tone light. O'akah had this way about her. It was as if she knew more about herself than she was admitting to, but she was still innocent because it wasn't anything that would harm them.
At least that's what Sam believed. "I'm going to have to stay here a while though, aren't I? Until you have time to understand me better, right?"
"Yes," Sam answered, not knowing where this line of questioning was headed.
"So, where will I sleep for the night?" O'akah wondered, looking as if she were quite nervous.
Sam blinked. "Oh. Well, I hadn't thought about it, but you'll probably have to spend the night in a room here, though," Sam warned.
"That's okay," O'akah admitted cheerfully, "As long as I don't have to sleep in one of these beds."
"What's wrong with these beds?" Sam wondered, although she wouldn't want to have to sleep in the infirmary, she wondered why O'akah would have a hangup with it.
"It's too busy and crowded here," O'akah explained. "And there've been sick people here. I don't like the atmosphere."
"I don't blame you, and don't worry. You won't have to sleep in the infirmary," Sam reassured.
Around that time, General O'Neill came strolling into the infirmary and up to Sam and O'akah. "How's it going?" he wondered, casually.
O'akah slid off the end of the bed and bounced up and down in front of Jack. "They ran all these tests on me-- a lot, a lot of them! But Sam says they won't make me sleep in here, so it's okay!"
"Is there any chance one of us could take her off base?" Sam questioned. "If not, I'll spend the night over here, so you won't have to be alone, O'akah."
"I'd be okay alone," O'akah assured her, eagerly, "I was sleeping in that grave for over a hundred years..." She trailed off, seeming distracted by some thought or something. "I think I remember something."
"What is it?" Sam questioned, wondering what could give the normally carefree girl such a dark expression.
"Hmm?" O'akah asked, looking up toward Sam and blinking. She smiled suddenly, all the shadows fleeing her face. "Oh, nothing," she answered, a bit too quickly.
Jack said, "Er, we can't let her off the base. No security clearance, but you can stay if you wan't, Carter."
Sam nodded, and O'ahka beamed at her, confirming Sam's suspicions that she really did want the Colonel to stay with her. "Are you hungry at all?" Sam questioned, and O'ahka started grinning.
"Do they really have blue food?" O'ahka questioned, following Carter out of the infirmiry.
Jack shook his head as he watched them go. That was a really strange girl...
o o o
As O'ahka sampled some red, green, and blue jello--she'd insisted on trying all three, Sam finished off her own blue jello and wondered, "Are you going to get hyper from this?"
"Not like a normal child would," the little girl replied, "Do you know what Doctor Jackson wants out of life?"
What an odd question. "Not a clue," Sam murmured, wondering why Daniel had even stayed in the stargate program this long. At the beginning he had been so wide-eyed and full of a sense of adventure. Now... It was hard to explain the difference, but maybe it had started when he'd lost Sha're.
"Do you think if he had his wife back, he would be happy?" O'ahka questioned, pausing in her jello eating to look up at Sam hopefully.
"Ah... I don't think that's something you can give him, or should," Carter told the alien child, remembering now what Daniel had discussed with her about O'ahka wanting to repay him for awakening her. "Besides, no one said that Daniel was unhappy." But was he?
O'ahka looked down at her unfinished jello. "He seems sad," she said quietly.
"He's just serious," Sam assured the girl, without much conviction. Why shouldn't Daniel be happy? He had the team, and he had the knowledge that he was doing something amazing with his life. Wasn't that enough? Was it enough for her when she lay awake some nights thinking about Jack or what might have been if she'd decided to keep Cassie?
"You seem sad, too," O'ahka added.
"I don't think any of us will be completely happy until we know that Earth is safe and we've defeated the Goa'uld for good," Sam told her the propaganda designed for small ears.
O'ahka sighed. "I'm just worried that there will always be someone more left to fight, and none of you will stop to think about living your lives." She really wasn't a normal little girl, was she? That was almost an echo of Sam's own internal fears. How could she respond to that?
"Let's go ahead and get you to bed." Ah, good old fashioned evasion tactics.
o o o
O'ahka couldn't sleep. Must've been the jello she had for desert, she decided, slipping out of the Air Force issue bed. She tiptoed into the hall and asked the guard standing just outside her door, "Mister SF, can I take a walk?"
He knelt down next to her and asked, "Do you need to go to the bathroom?"
She giggled. "No, sir... Do you think Dr. Jackson is still awake?"
A wry look passed across the young man's face. "That's a definite possibility, miss."
"Will you take me to him?" she wondered, tugging on the officer's hand. He nodded, rising to his feet and walking with her down the hall.
They stopped in front of an open door a little while later, and O'ahka spied Daniel sitting at his desk, studying some strewn about artifacts and pouring over some notes simultaneously. "Daniel!" she called, releasing the SF's hand and running into the office.
Daniel glanced up, startled by the girl's entrance. "O'ahka," he said, surprised.
"She wanted to see you," the SF told him, politely. "Shall I wait outside?"
"Uh," Daniel glanced toward the young guard, "Oh, uhm, go ahead." The SF nodded and went to stand outside the archeologist's door.
O'ahka leaned her hands on Daniel's thigh and looked up into his face beseechingly. "I couldn't sleep. Why can't you just talk about something that you want? It doesn't mean I have to give it to you--you can still say 'no'."
Daniel frowned. "It's not that simple."
"It's because you don't trust me, isn't it," the girl said, starting to sound as if she were going to go into a sulk.
"Okay," Daniel relented, "If I talk about something that I wish I had, will you go back to bed and leave me alone? And not grant it." If she even could. Daniel wasn't sure what other powers she had besides being able to read minds, but he wasn't certain she could do what she claimed she could. Or even if she meant what he thought she did...
"Okay," she said, sounding somewhat subdued but pleased, nonetheless.
"I would like to go back to 'digging up rocks' one day, to start a family that I can actually keep. I would like to not have to live in fear of whether tomorrow the world might be overrun and taken over by Goa'ulds." He would like it if he could be sure his friends would still be there tomorrow, smiling at him, making their usual jokes. Telling him about their latest favorite things... Instead of dying--in his arms. Like Fraiser--on some alien planet, trying to save someone else's life and losing her own.
O'ahka's eyes teared up and she began to sniffle. "Ah, uhm," Daniel said, touching her shoulder. "I--What did I say?"
A tear rolled down her cheek, and she smiled at him and claimed, "I-I'm all right." She then turned around and fled his office.
"Hey!" he heard the SF calling after her in the hallway outside. Stunned, Daniel turned back to his work, staring at it blankly for a long time.