Yay, I've written more than one chapter in a week that's gotta be some sort of record for me, if you all hate me for leaving the cliff-hanger at the end of this chapter then I'm sorry but it hadta be done.
Thanks for all the reviews, I hope you fee l this chapters review worthy too.
It had been nearly 3 weeks since Jack had seen Sam, the others had returned over a week earlier but without Sam who had chosen to stay with the Tok'ra and her dad until he had recovered from his stay in hell. Jack had been in the mountain waiting for a meeting with Hammond when the Stargate had been activated. Charlie had been at home with Cassie at the time working on a geography assignment so had been looking after Joey and Sean.
Mrs Hess had gone to Florida to watch her oldest son get married a few days earlier, this trip had been planned for a number of months and although she had not wanted to leave Jack on his own he had insisted she went and although it was hard work Jack was having the most fun he could remember having in a long time. Joey was now happily toddling around the house causing more mischief than her brother and picking up more and more words each day.
Jack had been sitting at the briefing room table waiting for Hammond to get off of the phone and nervously fiddling with the piece of paper in front of him when the claxons went off. He rushed to the briefing room almost sensing it was his team returning, although he had been having fun with the kids Jack was primarily a soldier so had hated being stuck at home unable to help his friends and family with their struggle in hostile territory. To Jack's immense relief it was SG-1's signal, he immediately ordered the iris to be opened not waning his friends to be splattered against it.
When a rather tired and dishevelled looking Daniel and Teal'c stepped through Jack's happiness at seeing his friends alive and well was tinged with a fear that his Sam may not have made it. "Daniel, Teal'c" he said through the intercom, "long time no see". As the two weary men smiled back at him; well Daniel smiled, Teal'c just bowed his head in his customary greeting, General Hammond appeared at Jack's shoulder.
"Good to have you back gentlemen, go and get checked over and freshen up and we'll debrief in 30 minutes" Hammond said, both men nodded and made their way towards the infirmary.
"Um sir, aren't you a bit worried as to where Major Carter is?" Jack asked
"Jack we received word from SG-1 early this morning as to when they would be returning that's why I didn't rush to see who it was. Major Carter's fine unfortunately Jacob didn't fare as well and is in a critical condition. Maj. Carter requested that she was allowed to stay with him and the Tok'ra until his health improved, a request that I allowed. So there's no need to worry Jack Sam's fine and should be back with us very soon. Now what was it you wanted to talk about that made you come here on your time off?" Hammond said leading Jack into his office.
After his meeting with Hammond Jack had stayed to speak with his friends and make sure they were alright and also so he could sit in on their briefing and find out what had happened to them. That had been a week ago and Sam had still not returned, it seemed as if Jacobs injuries were worse than first feared and Hammond would not let Jack go to the Tok'ra base and see Sam as he was still rather annoyed at Jack about what he had said in their meeting a week previously.
Sean and Joey were both starting to play up as the were missing their mom as despite her frequent visits through the Stargate they had not been parted from her for this length of time before so didn't understand where she'd gone. They had grown very clingy towards Jack, especially Joey, in case he disappeared as their mom had. Charlie also missed having his mom around as not only was his dad useless at giving him advice on homework or on the inner workings of the female mind he was also useless at tidying up so that job often fell upon Charlie.
Charlie has noticed his dad's mood change over the past week or so, he could tell that he was enjoying the time at home and the break away from work but he was also missing Sam. Although it upset Charlie to see his dad so sad he was also secretly pleased as something may have finally happened to them to make them see how much Jack and Sam needed each other and how right they were for each other.
On the Tok'ra base where Jacob was being treated Sam's mood was not much better. Whilst on Netu Sam had two goals in her mind, the first being locate her father and make sure he was alive and the second get back to her family. When Apophis had used the blood of Sokar on her it had been Jack and then Sean he had chosen to impersonate in order to gain knowledge from her. She had known almost instantly that it wasn't Jack talking to her as he would never be so mean or unpleasant towards her.
She was missing Jack and the kids terribly and hated to think what they were going through whilst she was away but knew that she could not leave her father until she knew that he was better. She also knew that if Jack came just to see that she was ok and he was to draw her into his arms as she felt sure he would do as soon as he saw her even if it was in the middle of the gate room with General Hammond watching. She knew that the minute she was in his arms once again she would not want to leave and would return with him home despite whatever condition her father was in, it was for this reason that Sam had asked Gen. Hammond not to let SG-1 go and visit her blaming t o personal reasons which is basically what it was.
Thankfully her father was recovering well with the help of Selmak and the other Tok'ra so felt sure that she would be going home to her family any day now. Despite his ill health Jacob had picked up on the fact that something other than himself was upsetting his daughter but when questioned on it Sam would clam up and refuse to talk to him until he changed the conversation. Jacob was fascinated by the pictures Sam had brought him of his grandchildren he could tell that they were O'Neill's just from the few photos he had seen and had warned Sam to watch them carefully as they'd be a handful when they were older and already seemed to have Jack wrapped round their little finger as one of the photos showed Joey and Sean climbing all over their father as he lay on the couch trying to play chess with Charlie.
Jacob had decided that once he was better he was going to return home to visit his newest family members and also Mark and his kids. Jacob could already feel his strength returning and knew it would only be a few days before he was well enough to be released he would have to go through an extensive meeting with the high council but after that he was sure they would allow him some time to visit his family. Now all that was left for him to do was convince Sam that he was well enough for her to go home to the family she was so dearly missing, that task, however, he feared would be harder than getting the high council to agree to giving him some time off.
He was finally able to convince her that he was fine when he manage to get up and walk around unaided. She still did not want to leave him and it was only hen gen. Hammond finally ordered her back due to Jacobs request that she begrudgingly went home. Jacob promised to follow her to earth in the next few days for their family reunion. When Sam did finally return to the SGC it was 3 weeks and 2 days since she had left and he middle if the night before she was finally able to make her way home.
She couldn't wait to get home and just see her kid's faces and then go to sleep in Jack's arms. She had not wanted to leave her father but was still the happiest she had been since before she had left as now she was finally going home. The roads were deserted due to the late hour of the night but Sam was still careful, stopping at the cross roads until the light changed to green, unfortunately for her the driver in the car in the perpendicular lane was not so careful and jumped his red light smashing directly into the side of Sam's car. As her world turned to black the last thing Sam thought of was that she had failed in obtaining her second goal, she would not be returning home to her family.
OMG I can't believe I just wrote that, is Sam dead? I honestly don't know cuz I haven't decided yet so I guess we'll all just have to wait and see.