Rating: PG-13 for mature ideas
Spoilers: none really
Archive: SJD yes SJ fic yes, just ask!
Disclaimer: Not mine don't sue me!
AN: Sorry that it's been a while, but with school starting up again and all I was a little preoccupied. Hope you all enjoy!
Jennifer Carter: Hope this cures your nightmares!
LCTC: Oh I would've done worse to Ba'al, but this is Sam we're talking about.
Melissa: Thank you! Hope you enjoy!
SG1 Fanfic: Thanks! I love kick butt Sam too!
Lauretta: Thank you for beta-ing and making my stories better! I feel I can write Jack pretty well because, unfortunately at times, we share the same sarcasm.
When the transportation rings were activated, SG-2, the remainder of SG-1, and the rebel Jaffa positioned themselves around the perimeter to take down any unwanted passengers, namely Ba'al. Daniel released a puff of air when he caught sight of his friend.
"Whoa guys," Jack said and held his hands up. They had formed a perfect circle around the ring platform, not wanting to take any chances and let Ba'al get away. After they saw the Colonel, they all lowered their weapons.
"O'Neill, did you not find Major Carter?" Teal'c asked.
"Oh yeah I found her alright. She's still up there," he replied with a nod upwards. His tone was hard and brittle.
"Jack! How could you just leave her up there ...?" Daniel started only to be cut off by the thunder of explosions filling the sky from the vicinity of the ship.
"Get out of the way!" Jack yelled as everyone fled to a safer distance. Looking back to where they were seconds earlier, they saw that the tunnels were closed off again. Jack scrunched his face and rubbed his forehead, something he tended to do when he was aggravated and confused at the same time. Less than ten seconds later the rings were activated again.
"O'Neill!" Teal'c called out, reading his mind. If things were blowing up, there was a chance Ba'al was the one coming down in the rings. Jack sprinted as fast as he could to get to the rings. He didn't want to think of what he would do if Ba'al appeared. That meant Sam was dead, and that was something he could not deal with at the moment. He barely noticed the people around him when the rings lifted to reveal the traveler.
"Sam!" Daniel exclaimed, obviously thrilled to see his lost comrade once again.
"Hey, guys!' Sam called, mimicking Jack by putting her hands in front of her.
"Carter, is everything good to go?" Jack asked his concern banished and the shroud of command falling easily into place.
Everything good to go? He could have said so much more. Is the gate ready? Is Ba'al dead? What about your dad, do you blame me for that? Can we get through this rough spot like we usually do?
"Yes sir," she responded a little out of breath. Jack figured that she must have run flat out to get to the rings in time. He wondered what question of his 'yes' was the answer to.
"Good, let's move out. Everyone back to the 'gate." He would find out, but not right now.
Sam was sitting in her lab, trying to absorb everything that had happened in the last 24 hours. Her father was dead, the largest system lord was now dead, and they had a weapon to defeat the rest of the Goa'ulds. But her little talk with Ba'al was resting heavily on her mind. She was the reason that they had been sought out; so the egomaniacal System Lord could take revenge on a woman who was long dead. Everything the Colonel had gone through, all of the pain and suffering she had endured was because of Jolinar. How much more misery could that creature bring into her life?
"Sam, hi, how are you doing?" Daniel asked from his position in her doorway. He had a worried look on his face, not that she could blame him. She probably looked completely distracted right now. After staring at a blank wall for who knows how long, it took her eyes a few seconds to adjust to see Daniel properly.
"Ah. As well as can be expected, I guess." He slowly nodded, understanding a little of what she must've gone through.
"Sam, why don't you just head home for the day? The General's giving us until the morning for the de-briefing." He cocked his head to one side, giving her a harder look. "Are you sure you're ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I think I will head home. I could use a few hours of sleep." She nodded her head as if she were agreeing with herself on the novel idea. She stood up and wiped her hands on her thighs.
"Alright, you know you can call me if you need anything," he told her. She noticed the worried tone, appreciating the sentiment, but needing solitude.
"Yeah, thanks Daniel," she said and rested her hand on his arm as she past him out of her lab.
Jack made is way through his dark hallway, trying not to knock too many things over at once. He swore vehemently when he smacked his leg into the small table in the entry way, nearly knocking all of its contents over at once. He had an inkling of who was at his door this late at night.
"Carter," he greeted her when he opened the door.
"Sir, can I..." she started, and just pointed into his house, not sure how to invite herself in.
"Huh? Sure, yeah. Come in." He moved over to let her in. He checked the digital clock across the room. 3:24 AM. He mentally groaned at the early hour. She followed him into his living room where he sat on the sofa. She sat on the loveseat perpendicular to it.
"So, Carter, what brings you here this early in the morning?" he asked, not able to keep all of the annoyance out of his voice.
"I had to talk to you," she blurted out.
"Well, yeah that's evident," he chided, trying to lighten the mood.
"Right, well, after you left Ba'al and I alone, he told me something interesting." She didn't miss the grimace that crossed his face when she mentioned they had been left alone. "He informed me that he knew Jolinar." Jack was leaning on his knees, and cradling his chin in his left hand. His eyebrows rose, letting her know he didn't see the relevance.
"You came here at 3:30 in the morning to tell me that?" he pointedly asked her.
"Well, yeah," she said, not understanding what he was missing. After a few seconds of horribly awkward silence, she decided to continue.
"Before Ba'al was a Goa'uld, he was seduced by Jolinar while she was in Rosha so she could kill his leader. Ba'al never got over it, and wanted revenge on her. Ba'al knew about us the entire time. He's the one who had Cronus send the Ashrack to kill Jolinar. Word got around about how it had happened, somehow, and Ba'al knew about us. He knew about us four years before he acted on anything." Jack hadn't moved, nor had he changed expression.
"I'm sorry to hear that," he offered, still not grasping what she was getting at.
"Sir, basically, the whole situation, everything we've suffered at the hands of Ba'al is my ..."
"Don't! Don't say it Sam!" he yelled before she could say the words, before she could lay the blame at her own feet. Now he had her undivided attention. Her eyes went wide, shocked by his metamorphosis from passive listener to aggressive participant. He growled into his hands, not wanting to have this conversation, especially this early in the morning.
"Sam, our meeting with Ba'al was unavoidable. It would've happened sooner or later. And we both got some bad hands dealt to us because of it." He finally noticed how horrible she looked. He knew the bruises and the knife wounds were all healed she probably didn't even have a scar. But her face showed how defeated she was at the moment. Her eyes showed how worried she was about the entire situation, and he could tell she had no idea what to do at that moment. She was only following her instincts.
"Janet let you out already?" he asked quietly, showing his concern.
"No, I escaped," she said sarcastically.
"Leave the smart comments to me, they don't suit you," he scolded her.
"Sure. Janet had no reason to keep me. I told her I just wanted to go home."
"And this is your idea of going home." It was a statement more than a question. It took her a minute before she answered.
"I just didn't want to stay on base, and I really don't feel like going home." She was looking down on what had to be a very interesting spot on his carpet and trying to avoid his eyes.
"So you came here?" His question came out a little more harshly than he had intended, but he couldn't help it. He had a very hard day too, and he just wanted to go back to sleep.
"Sorry sir, you're right. I just felt that you should know about Ba'al before hearing it in the briefing tomorrow." With one comment, Sam was no longer present, Carter was, and she stood up, ready to leave and not look back.
"Sam, sit down." Jack was annoyed, but she knew it wasn't entirely with her. Hesitantly, she sat down.
"I'm sitting," she said. "Yesterday was hard. It was horrific. If I could go back, I'd erase it. But I can't, so we have to deal with what happened." She nodded with him, and he could finally see the stress being lifted off of her shoulders. "But not right now. Come on, you can have the guest room." It was obviously an order not an offer, so she silently followed his silhouette down the dark hallway.
She leaned against the doorframe while he took sweats, for her to sleep in, from his dresser. He plopped them down on the bed and walked over to her, his intense gaze never wavering.
Without a word spoken, he stood in front of her. Her gaze was level with his chest; she still couldn't meet his eyes. He took her right hand and gently brushed her cheek with his knuckles. Squeezing her eyes shut, she leaned into the touch and held his hand with her own. With his left hand, he softly stroked the other side of her face and gently lifted her chin, forcing her eyes to meet his own.
What he saw would've broken a lesser man's heart. All of the pain and despair shone in the moonlight, emphasizing her underlying feelings. Everything she went through was finally catching up with her, and she was going to have a hard time dealing with it. Jack knew that better than anyone, especially when it came to Ba'al.
Unable to stand Jack's intense scrutiny any longer, she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to will the tears away. Without thinking, Jack leaned down and kissed her on the forehead, trying to let her know that he knew what she was feeling and that he could help. Sam took the final step closing the distance between them and embraced him fully, feeling completed when she felt his arms wrap tightly around her. He couldn't believe how dichotic the events of a day could be. Earlier, he held a dying Sam Carter, willing her to keep breathing, urging her to hang on to the thread of life. Now, he was holding a very much alive, albeit grieving, Sam Carter, willing her to start living again. It wasn't going to be easy, but he would be there for her every step of the way.
TBC? Reviews Loved! Craved even!