Shadows of Fear – Part 3
"The tests are all negative, Colonel." Janet Fraiser glanced down at the papers in her hand. "The results are almost identical to those from your last pre-mission medical. Apart from being a little underweight for your height you're as healthy as the proverbial horse, which, given your diet, has always surprised me."
She smiled and waited for a joking response, or failing that at least a smile in return, but got neither. Instead Colonel O'Neill merely gave her a long look before nodding.
"You told me you've had several headaches recently. Did you have one earlier today? When you were in your office?"
"No, Doc. I'm tired, but nothing more. So there's nothing physical which would explain me seeing things that aren't there?"
"Not that I can see from these results, sir, but that doesn't mean there isn't something we've missed. I've only had time to run the most basic of tests." She hesitated, giving him an appraising look as she did so. She hadn't missed the stress lines that seemed to have appeared overnight. Whatever the colonel had seen in his office had clearly thrown him a lot more than he was admitting. As far as Janet could tell from the rather sketchy description he gave her, it had been a shadowy figure that had vanished within a minute or two. The base was now being checked, as was evidenced by the security team who had done a swift, but thorough search of the infirmary and surrounding isolation wards and offices.
As she told the colonel, there was nothing physical she could see to explain it. Which still left several possibilities – that there really was an alien intruder on the base, that someone who had legitimate reason to be on the base had slipped into the colonel's office without him seeing them there and had left in a similar fashion, that she had missed something physical, or that the reason was psychological.
Given the choices, Janet devoutly hoped the extremely unlikely second scenario was the case.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
Jack hurried down the corridor, heading for Hammond's office.
The Doc had given him a clean bill of health, which under normal circumstances would have pleased him, but not today. He almost wished he hadn't reported what he had seen to Hammond, and instead had just signed out and gone home early and gotten himself a good night's sleep, but he knew where his duty lay. No matter how much he wanted to deny it, he knew he had seen something - Charlie Kawalsky's ghost or more likely an alien projection - standing in front of him in his office, and he couldn't risk a foothold situation to protect himself. As it was he had skirted the line by not sounding the alarm immediately and trying to shrug it off when he first spoke to the general. Even as he had asked for the time off Jack had known he was doing the wrong thing, and it hadn't taken more than a couple of sentences for Hammond to point that out. The result was a base whose work had basically ground to a halt while every nook and cranny was checked for hiding aliens.
It also meant some sideways and occasionally annoyed looks from the personnel he passed in the corridors as word spread as to the reason for the search. He was only grateful for the general's tact in handling the situation. Jack had checked in with Hammond as soon as the Doc had finished with him, and had been told that so far, with only a few areas left to search, there was no sign of anything or anyone out of place.
Entering the Briefing Room, O'Neill was surprised at the number of people there already. His team was seated around the table, with Hammond in his usual place at the head. Major Wallace, the head of base security, was to Teal'c's right, and Doctors Lee and Chen sat opposite him on Carter's side of the table.
Daniel raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth as if to speak, but clearly thought better of it and just gave a brief smile.
"Sir." Jack greeted the general as he made his way to his chair.
Hammond waited until he was seated before addressing the people around the table. "Now that Colonel O'Neill has joined us, let's begin. Major Wallace, your report please."
"Yes, sir." The major spoke in a pleasantly modulated voice, the result, Jack knew, of several years of participating in amateur theatre. "Every level of the base has been thoroughly searched, including the sublevel storage rooms, with no sign found of any unauthorised intruder. A team has gone over Colonel O'Neill's office and although the results are inconclusive because of the number of personnel who have been in the room within the last week, there doesn't seem to be any trace of the person the colonel said he saw. All personnel, both military and civilian, have been accounted for."
"What about the security tapes?"
Jack started at Hammond's question, shocked that he hadn't even thought to check them – yet more evidence that he wasn't thinking clearly.
"I have them here, General." Wallace gestured to the screen behind Daniel's chair. "If I may?"
"Go ahead, Major."
Everyone moved into a position from which they could see the screen as it came to life, showing Jack sitting at his desk, typing.
Jack sat forward, knowing what was coming next.
He watched himself turn off the computer and begin to stand before reaching for the phone, then freezing for a second. Then he spoke. But who he spoke to … Jack's pulse began to quicken as Daniel articulated what they all could see.
"There's no one there, Jack."
The figure on the screen pushed back in his chair and lurched up. Jack felt every eye in the room turn to him, but he couldn't look at anything except the expression of absolute horror on his own face, there for everyone to see.
"It could be that whoever or whatever was in your office is unable to be seen by the surveillance camera, sir."
O'Neill tore his gaze from the screen and gave Carter a grateful look. "Is there any way we can test for that sort of thing, Major?"
"To a certain extent, sir – we can check for unusual radiation readings, see if there are signs of any sort of emissions or traces of any kind. Doctors Lee and Chen have already made a preliminary scan."
"The results of that search were negative, General." Doctor Lee gave Jack a brief glance before his gaze settling on Hammond. "But we do have other equipment that requires a bit more time to set up and run." He exchanged anticipatory looks with Chen, and O'Neill was sure he spotted a brief smile cross the scientist's lips. "Some of it is still in the developmental stage ..."
Hammond cut him off with a curt nod, turning to Carter. "See to it, Major."
"Yes, sir."
With that, Hammond rose. "As it seems there is no immediately threat to the base I'm ordering a stand down from alert. Doctors, Major, please complete your tests as soon as possible." He reached down and picked up the pad and pen he had been making notes on during the meeting. "Thank you everyone. Dismissed. Colonel, my office please."
Jack joined the others in standing and waited until they left the room, Daniel giving him a look which combined curiosity with an obvious demand to have a long talk – something Jack would make every effort to avoid.
"Come in and shut the door, Colonel." Hammond was already seated behind his desk, reading something up on the screen of his laptop when Jack entered the room. "I've been looking over Doctor Fraiser's further report. She has already expanded on her preliminary one and can find no physical evidence of illness, alien or otherwise." He looked up briefly and Jack nodded. "She does, however, say that you show obvious signs of tiredness and stress."
"I didn't feel stressed until Kawalsky appeared in my office dripping brains all over my floor, sir." At the look on Hammond's face, Jack bit back a further sarcastic reply, and offered an apology. "Sorry, sir."
"Maybe it would be best if you did take a few days off, Jack – just until the investigation is complete. Doctor Fraiser would like to see you tomorrow for some follow-up tests, so don't go too far."
"So fishing is out?"
"I'm afraid it is, son."
Jack nodded wearily at Hammond's answer. "I only hope this whole thing is the result of too much staring at reports."
He didn't say anything more, but both men knew what he was thinking – that if this was a hallucination brought on by stress, it would mean appointments with MacKenzie at best and at worst the end of his career.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
Daniel and Teal'c were waiting for him as soon as he stepped out of the elevator, and Jack couldn't help the grimace that briefly crossed his face.
"What's going on, Jack?"
He continued to walk as he spoke, heading for the locker room. "I'm going home, Daniel."
"You know that isn't what I meant. What did you see in your office? It was more than just some shadowy figure. Don't forget, we all saw the look on your face on the tape."
"It was a figure." Jack pushed the locker room door open angrily.
"Charlie."
Teal'c's unemotional voice pulled Jack up short. He turned, hearing Daniel's exclamation of shock as he did so, and stared at the Jaffa.
"What?"
"Is that not what you said, O'Neill? 'Hello, Charlie' "
"Oh God, Jack, was it Charlie you saw?" Daniel came up close, crowding him and Jack felt his hand grip his upper arm. "I can't imagine … damn it, Jack, why didn't you come to us?"
Jack turned his head, seeing the genuine concern in his friend's face and hurried to reassure him, at the same time as his heart lurched in his chest.
"It wasn't my Charlie. It was …" He paused, knowing he didn't have a choice except to admit what he had seen. "It was Charlie Kawalsky."
"You saw Major Kawalsky?" Daniel couldn't seem to wrap his head around the notion and Jack wondered why it had been easier to accept his seeing his dead son.
He opened his locker and began to change, not answering. There really wasn't much more to be said.
"You've seen Janet?"
"Yes, I've seen Janet. There's nothing wrong with me."
"There will be a logical explanation, O'Neill, of this I am sure."
Jack nodded as he pulled off his shirt, not looking up, but grateful none the less for his teammate's words.
"I could come home with you, Jack – make sure you're okay."
"No thanks. I appreciate the offer, but Janet told me to get some sleep." Jack knew Daniel was just itching to ask him more about what had happened, even if his motivation for the offer was mainly to help. But all Jack wanted at this stage was to have a beer or two and an early night, certainly not a heart-to-heart conversation.
It took some convincing, but he finally left his teammates and headed for the surface, anxious to get out of the mountain.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
Jack almost made it home – almost.
He had turned into his quiet suburban street and was approaching his driveway. With most of his attention on the mechanics of driving, he glanced to his right to check his mirror.
His truck ended up wedged against his mailbox as Jack scrambled for his handgun, all his attention fixed on the Jaffa sitting next to him, his throat a gaping wound.
TBC
Author Note: Many thanks to Inuyashasgirlfriendforever for pointing out the error with Kawalsky's death in Part 1. It's a long time since I saw that episode & I had forgotten it wasn't the iris that killed him.
