Chapter 17
The briefing had broken up for a break about ten minutes ago; Harm had been standing next to Mac offering her comfort placing his hands on her shoulders. Janet was still on the phone to the infirmary checking on Sam's condition. Jack had been pacing in the hallway trying to get rid of his nervous energy, all he really wanted to do was go level sixteen and have a face to face with Stan. Daniel had poured himself a cup of coffee holding it nervously but not really drinking it. Teal'c had not moved from his seat, and looked to be meditating. Then Hammond returned from his office and called the meeting to order. "Alright everyone if you'd please take your seats so we can get back to the briefing. Colonel O'Neill if you're ready."
"Yes Sir," Jack said nervously, then he started to recount the events, starting with how he and Rabb had split up the searching with Daniel and Teal'c; as he continued his report of events Daniel and Teal'c had nodded in agreement with the events that included them. They kept a keen eye on Jack, Daniel noticing that Jack was keeping his voice under control betraying no emotions, but Daniel could tell it was an act. He'd known Jack for a while now, and knew he was hurting inside. Jack tended to take the weight of the world on his shoulders; he was feeling responsible and guilty for what happened to Sam.
"Then we saw what looked like a pile of rubble, Rabb and I rushed over and found there were bodies buried underneath. We removed the slabs of the ceiling and found Mackenzie covering Carter." Jack had to stop and take a few calming breaths the flash of memory still horrified him. "Carter wasn't breathing…" Jack continued to recount the events of rescue of Mackenzie and Sam.
"Sir." Rabb spoke up, "We had to move Mac to get to Carter and to get her away from the fire. I'm afraid that moving her may have caused the paralysis." The guilt was welling up in Harm, thinking it was his fault that Mac had to go through the pain of thinking she'd never walk again.
Mac saw the turmoil Harm was going through, "It's alright Harm, I'm okay now." this time she put her hand on his, to offer comfort.
"Thank you Colonel, Commander." Hammond said nodding his head to both men, seeing both of them fighting with their guilt.
"Dr. Fraiser, if you'd care to make your report." Hammond said looking over to his CMO who had been jotting down notes.
"Yes Sir, thank you." Janet said opening one of the files in front of her, and passing the general a few pages. "I took the opportunity to take a few pictures of some of the damage. As you can see Major Carter took quite an extensive beating, but what you can't see is the internal damage it caused or the two broken ribs."
Hammond took the pages that Fraiser had handed him, shocked when he saw they were photographs of Major Carter, the first of her abdominal area, which was covered in black, blue and red marks; there was no sign of her skin's natural colour. The second photo was of her face, he had to gasp and shake his head as he saw her once beautiful face was now swollen and also covered with bruises.
"She also sustained a concussion from Colonel O'Neill's report, and the continued blows only made it worse, as for her knee the x-rays didn't show anything so it's most likely a strain." Janet had put on her professional doctor's face for the briefing, but her emotions were fighting to come to the surface.
"And what about Colonel Mackenzie?" Hammond asked.
"Colonel Mackenzie sustained two broken vertebrae, a severed spinal chord as well as multiple contusions and abrasions on her back." Janet couldn't help but look at Mac who was sitting at the table.
"And yet here she is, up and walking; could you explain how this is possible?" Harm asked his curiosity getting the best of him, as well as knowing that Mac was dying to know as well.
"Before we can continue, Colonel Mackenzie as you know this is a high security classified facility; anything you've seen, heard or learned must remain confidential." Hammond pulled a document out of a file and handed it to Mac. "Before we proceed, I need you to sign this non-disclosure agreement."
"Of course Sir." Mac said while looking the document over then signing it.
"Very well then, Dr. Jackson if you would be so kind as to fill in Colonel Mackenzie. "
"Ah yes Sir." Daniel stood and started his explanation going into his lecture mode that Jack just loved so much. "Well Col. Mackenzie, years ago at a dig in Egypt an artefact was discovered…"
Mac was looking puzzled and slightly annoyed; she wanted to know what was going on around here, not a history lesson.
"Ah Daniel can we skip to the good parts." Jack said trying to move Daniel along, noticing Mackenzie's discomfort.
Daniel looked at Jack exasperated; he hated it when Jack would cut him off. "Ok Jack, well to hurry things along… the artefact was in fact a gateway. It allows travellers that pass through it to travel to other planets."
"What? Are you serious?" Mac asked dumbfounded.
"I assure you Colonel; he's telling you the truth." Hammond said, he motioned to Teal'c, who got up from the table and went to press the button that raised the blast doors, now allowing the gate to be viewed.
Both Mac and Harm got up and moved towards the window, Harm knew about the gate but this was the first time he saw it. Mac just stared down at the large room below, which held a large metal circle with some sort of writing on it. She then looked back over to Daniel, "How can this…ring, send people to other planets?" Mac was truly perplexed by what she had heard and what she was seeing.
"Well actually the best person to answer the how part is Carter; she's our expert on the gate." Jack told her.
"Actually, it works by forming a wormhole between two gates; when the wormhole is established you are transported to the planet the other gate is on."
"That's amazing, but…how do you know where you're going…and how do you get back?" Mac's brain was working a mile a minute trying to take this all in.
"Well you see those symbols on the gate, they are used as addresses, it takes seven symbols to form an address. Kind of like dialling a phone number." Daniel explained, he was used to these questions and he had given these answers many times before.
"Yea but it's the telemarketers you really have to worry about." Jack couldn't help giving one of his smart-ass remarks.
"So you people go to alien planets on a regular basis?" Mac said looking at Daniel, choosing to ignore Jack's remark.
"Yes they do Colonel." Hammond spoke up.
"So the device Sam used to heal Mac that came from another planet?" Harm asked truly amazed now that he had a chance to see the gate.
"Ah yes it did Rabb." Jack answered.
"So why was Sam the only one who could use it?" Mac asked, thinking back to the questions Sam had been asked during their ordeal.
"Well Colonel, Major Carter was exposed to something on one of the planets, which gave her the ability to use the alien devices." Hammond answered; they were being briefed, but didn't need to know everything.
"So why can't you use it to allow others to control the devices?" Mac asked, thinking how much good it could do.
"Well Mackenzie the ordeal almost killed Carter, so I don't recommend putting people through that." Jack said remembering how hopeless he felt when he found Carter in the cell after the attack from the ashrak.
Mac suddenly was brought back to the reality of the situation. "So how is Sam doing?"
"Well Colonel, using the device takes a lot of energy, and seeing that Sam didn't have a lot to begin with, well I'm not sure how long it will take for her to recover. She's always had some trouble using the device. I'm just amazed she was able to use it." Janet told her.
"Hey Doc, you know Carter, given her determination and stubbornness she can do anything." Jack said still astounded by Carter's abilities.
"You're absolutely right Sir, but right now I should be getting back to the infirmary; General, if I may be excused?" Janet asked looking at Hammond.
"Yes doctor by all means."
"Sir, I owe Major Carter so much, there must be something I can do to help her." Mac said looking at the general.
"Well actually Colonel Mackenzie, we have quite a few people in our holding cells, and we need definite identifications on them, to make sure they are the one's involved in your abductions."
"Yes Sir, I'd be more than happy to identify those responsible."
"Very well, Colonel O'Neill would you please escort Col. Mackenzie to the holding cells."
"Yes Sir, I'd be happy to." Jack said, revelling in the idea to finally face these bastards.
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Jack didn't know how he managed to get in this situation, but here he was in an interrogation room beating the crap out of Stan while Daniel held him and Teal'c held the door closed. He kept punching the man in the gut over and over again, not thinking of the consequences for him Daniel or Teal'c. Then he heard the pounding at the door and General Hammond calling for him to stop. 'There's no way in hell I'm stopping not until this bastard is dead.' "You Asshole, this will teach you to beat on the woman I love. "
"Colonel, Colonel O'Neill."
"No, won't stop." Jack said as he continued to pound on the now bloody man.
"Sir?"
Jack felt a hand shaking his arm, "Bastard!" He raised his head looked around and realized he had been sleeping. His arms still on Carter's bed where his head had been resting. Then he realized the hand on his arm was Carter's, he looked to her face and saw two blue eyes staring at him in confusion. "Carter, you're awake thank God."
"Really, I thought you just called me a bastard?" Sam said weakly, still trying to keep her eyes open and stay conscious.
"Oh no sorry, not you Carter, I was just having a dream."
"Must have been a hell of one." She said smiling slightly.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Jack asked extremely concerned.
"Tired and still sore." She said yawning.
"Has the doc seen you yet?"
"Don't know, just woke up."
"Well why don't I just call her." Jack said, knowing Carter must be feeling really weak and tired for her to use such short sentences. Jack reached for the call button and pressed it.
A few moments later Janet came into the room and headed to Sam's bed. "Well I see you're awake." Janet said checking her pulse then taking her trusty pen light out and checking Sam's eyes.
Sam tried to fight the pen light shutting her eyes and turning her head, but Janet had her hand next to Sam's head preventing her from turning it. "You know Sam, using the healing device was a stupid thing to do." Janet said, annoyed that Sam had make herself weaker.
"Did it work?" Sam asked ignoring the tone
"Hey! Sam am I glad to see you awake!" Mac said as she entered the room she used to occupy.
"Well I guess that answers your question." Jack said grinning as he stood up and let Mac sit down.
Harm followed her in went up to Sam squeezed her hand leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "I'm glad to see you're awake too." Then he stood back to allow Mac to talk to her.
Jack watched the little show Rabb put on and felt his anger start to surface again.
"Sam, you don't know how glad I am that you're okay, I just can't believe you risked your health to cure me. You shouldn't have done it." Mac said putting her hand on her forearm
"Had to…my fault you were injured." Sam said weakly trying to reach for a cup next to her bed.
Jack and Harm both noticed Sam's dilemma, but Jack reached the cup first, filled it with water and proceeded to help Sam. He reached under her shoulders so her neck was resting on his arm as he assisted her up slightly so she could get a drink. (If he was thinking he could have just raised the head of her bed and held the straw out for her; but then he wouldn't have an excuse to have her in his arms.)
"No Sam that's not true, it wasn't your fault; and I never blamed you; I blamed Stan and his cohorts. Now it seems I'm in your debt, I don't know how to pay a person back who's given me the use of my legs back."
"You don't owe me anything, you saved my life."
"Hey this argument just keeps going back and forth, and if you must know Rabb and I saved both of your lives; if you give us some time, I'm sure we can come up with some way you two could pay us back." Jack said raising his eyebrow and putting on an evil grin.
"You know you're right Colonel, there must be some way we could come up with to have them pay us back." This time Harm had his most mischievous smile on his face.
Janet finally had enough of this teasing; "Now now everyone, Sam needs her rest so I think everyone should leave for a while." She waited and watched as everyone filed out the door. "Now Sam, I really think you should sleep for a while. Do you need anything for the pain?"
"Well, I can't say that it doesn't hurt, but I just don't like the effects it has on me. You know it makes me have weird dreams, makes it hard to distinguish between mine and Jolinar's."
"Yea Sam I know, what if I give you something a little less potent, it will be better than nothing."
"Okay, that sounds good."
"I'll be right back." Janet said leaving to get the meds.
Sam closed her eyes to rest until Janet came back, then she heard a noise coming from the door.
"Psst Carter, is she gone?" Jack half whispered, but loud enough so Sam could hear.
"She'll be back in a few minutes; maybe you should wait until she leaves later."
"Gothcha, I'll just do my creeping around the hallway thing until the coast is clear."
"Okay Sir."
"Did you say something Sam?" Janet asked as she walked up to Sam's bed.
"Uh no, just thinking out loud."
"Well here's some pills." Janet said as she raised the head of Sam's bed then handed her the pills and held the water for her to sip. "Okay, now get some rest, that's an order." Janet said smiling at her friend.
"Will do Sir." Sam said joking with Janet, then closed her eyes and waited for Janet to leave. She waited a few moments then took a peek. "The coast is clear Sir." She knew she wouldn't be able to see him, but had a feeling he was lurking close by.
Jack slowly opened the door and peeked around the corner to make sure the coast was clear, then sauntered to the chair by Sam. "So Carter, I hope you don't mind my asking, but have you tried to use the healing device on yourself?"
"Well Sir I've tried to practice with it, but when I use it on myself it only stays on for a few moments, so if I want to heal a scrape it's not a problem. I think it has to do with some biofeedback loop or something or another."
"It's a shame; I sure hate to see you like this. The general has been trying to get a hold of the Tok'ra, but hasn't been successful yet."
"Calling my father Sir?"
"Well, I'm sure he'd like to know, and maybe he could fix you all up." Jack could tell Sam didn't like the idea of them calling her father, he knew she valued her independence, but sometimes you need to ask for help.
"How's the investigation going?"
"Well, Mackenzie identified the people we're holding, looks like we might have everyone…except for Kennedy."
"What about base personnel Sir?"
"Sorry, we haven't come up with anything." Jack said sounding disappointed.
"So nothing has really changed then?" Sam decided it was time to stop wallowing in her depression and decided to take matters in her own hands. "Well, one thing I know for sure; I'm not staying here. As soon as Janet lets me out of here I'm going back home."
"But Carter it may not be safe." Jack said looking at her not believing what he was hearing.
"It may never be safe out there, but I can't hide in here forever."
"Not forever, just until we finish the investigation." Jack was hoping he could talk some sense into her.
"We may never uncover who was in on this Sir; I'll have to go home sooner or later; I'd just prefer sooner. In fact I'm going to make sure Janet lets me out of here ASAP."
Jack could see Sam was trying to be forceful, but she didn't have the strength to pull it off, making her seem more adorable to him. "Well I'm sure we won't have to worry about that for a while yet, so why don't you get some rest for now." Jack stood up, took one more look at Sam before leaving the room, making sure that Janet wasn't able to spot him.
Sam watched him leave, and before she fell asleep, her mind was working on a plan to hopefully flush out those hiding and get her life back.
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A/N: I know a lot of you wanted Jack to beat the crap out of Stan, but I couldn't see a way without him being court marshalled. So I hope this was good enough. As always I appreciate all your reviews.