A/N: Okay, raise you hand if you actually thought I was going to make this (Jack and Sam getting together) easy on anyone? Please this is them, they only do things the hard way, but don't worry, ship moments are coming in the future. A big thank you to everyone who has reviewed, this story has surpassed every expectation I have ever had for it. So, sit back, relax, enjoy this installment in Worlds Collide, and please don't for get to hit the purple button at the bottom of the page when your done.
P.S. Arrant Schemata, I give up, I ask.
Chapter 14
Katie stood at the base of the ramp, aguishly waiting. The Tok'ra had contacted them an hour ago saying that they were bringing what they needed to free the host. The Tok'ra still didn't know that the snake they were removing was Tanith. Katie stared nervously at the active wormhole, she was trying not to move her hands too much. Like her father, when she got nervous or board, she fiddled with things and right now she had nothing to occupy her hands with. So she went with the old O'Neill standby, she shoved her hands into her pockets.
Hammond looked downed at her from the control room and smiled. If she started rocking back on her heels then she would remind him even more of his 2IC. With everything, except the Tanith situation, cooling down, everyone, even him, were being to really get into the idea of having two O'Neill's on base. Hammond suspected that if everyone didn't know that Jack was the new doctor's father, then the infirmary would be the most popular place on base. As it was, very few people, and even fewer men, were willing to risk the wrath of SG-1's leader by approaching his daughter. He didn't know if Kate had noticed it yet, but if the reports about their argument a few days before the mission were any indication, well, he couldn't wait to hear the fight that Jack's over protectiveness would cause.
Finally two Tok'ra came through the shimmering blue event horizon. Jacob and Anise. Anise hadn't been by in a few years, so that would be interesting, and Jacob, well, it was always good to see hi old friend. Especially since things went crazy with the alliance and Jake hadn't been sure if he would be back anytime soon. Perhaps the Tok'ra's current willingness to help was a good sign for the state of the alliance.
Kate smiled at the two people walking down the ramp carrying a box between them. She removed her hands from her pockets and approached the two once they were on "solid" ground again. "Hi, I'm Dr. O'Neill, the new chief surgeon, thanks for coming." Let it never be said, she thought, that I can never be nice. Sara had drilled politeness into her, said she spent too much time with the Miller boys and needed to learn to be a lady. She had used the weeks Kate had spent home in bed and then just at home after her hospitalization to try to change her. Kate had learned an appreciation of malls, living so close to Philadelphia at that point had helped in that. And eventually Sara had drummed lady like manners into her, and Kate had taught her new mother how to change the oil in a car and do most of the maintenance a car needs. She and Sara had found their understanding, and she knew that she and Sam would find theirs, but first she had to deal with the patriarch of the Carter Clan.
"O'Neill? George don't tell me you let someone related to Jack on this base!" Jacob laughed. Looking at the young woman she seemed about the same age as Sam, Jacob was slightly confused, he had never heard Jack mention a much much younger sister.
"Dr. O'Neill is a member of the surgical staff, Jake. She's one of the best at what she does," George's voice boomed over the speakers behind Kate.
"Listen, can we continue the introductions in the infirmary? I really want to get this….symbiote, out of the host." Kate had been antsy about Hebron's health for weeks and had only left his side to talk to her father about his relationship with Sam. Between Teal'c's sneak attacks, which she wouldn't have fought off without the help of Major Griff, the one exception to the new unofficial rule of the SGC, 'If you are male, do not go near Kate O'Neill unless you want to face the wrath of the Colonel.' Normally Kate would have called her father on this over protectiveness, but right now she was almost glad of it. She didn't have the energy to keep Hebron alive, keep Teal'c out of the infirmary, and deal with board military men who just wanted a date with the new, very civilian, doctors.
"What is your relationship to Colonel O'Neill, Doctor O'Neill?" the woman Tok'ra asked. Kate tried to remember what she'd been told about the woman, who had introduced herself as Anise when they had left the Gate Room.
"My relationship is we are related." Kate gave a non-answer to the woman, who she already didn't like. She didn't want to deal with Jacob Carter finding out who she was. Right now she just wanted the two of them to remove Tanith with no complications, no conflicts, and no Tok'ra double-talk. The other three doctors were off-duty at the moment, so she only had Hammond and Griff, who was currently guarding Tanith/Hebron, to help her detect any trickery.
Normally the others would be here, but it was 0330 and she didn't feel that they really needed that early of a wake up call.
"Oh, so you're not telling is that it?" Jacob teased.
"I don't see how my relationship to Colonel O'Neill matters right now. All I want is for you to remove the snake so I can finish physically healing the host, and he can get into therapy 'cause Lord knows he's gonna need it," she snapped. Nearly two weeks of high stress and little sleep were getting to her and with her father off-world she found herself worrying about that too. Not that she could do anything about his job, but she had always worried when he was away. She had simply learned to hide the worry and fear of the phone call better than Sara had. At least until the end she had hidden it better, after Charlie, when Dad had left on the suicide mission (for both she and Sara had known that was what it was), which she now knew to be the Abydos mission, Sara had been better at hiding it, though Kate wasn't entirely sure her stepmother had any fear and worry to hide at that point.
Shaking herself out of the past, Kate focused on the two Tok'ra and the task at hand.
