"Level 28"

By "AriadneInLove"

DISCLAIMER: This Fanfic is based on Stargate SG-1 right after Daniel returned from Ascension and before Mitchell joined the team and Jack O'Neill became a general. (Circa Season 7, Death Knell) I did not invent Stargate or own any part of it or its characters.

SUMMARY: (Sam has recently been MIA and has just been rescued. This takes place as soon as she gets back to Stargate Command and 48 years after.) A powerful stranger from the future seeks asylum at Stargate Command. What will happen when SG-1 discovers she's the daughter of one of their own and wants to kill her parent before she can be born? What will Daniel's feelings for her develop into when he realizes who and what she is? READ and REVIEW!

MAJOR 'SHIPS: Jack/Sam, Daniel/Adrienne.

And now…

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PART FOUR: No One's Daughter

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Silence followed her down the hallways of Cheyenne. She felt like the personnel's eyes followed her as she walked, her papers eternally attached to her hands. She felt the world's eyes upon her and needed to escape. She moved quickly towards her office but then she heard the call over the speakers, beckoning her to her next perilous instant.

Major Carter, please report to Isolation Room 1.

She sighed and moved in the opposite direction from her office. When she reached the Iso Room, Jacob was already there beside Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c on the observation deck.

"What's going on?" she asked, still haven't looked down into the room below. Daniel's face was solemn as if he knew what they were doing was wrong but could do nothing to stop it. Jack's that hidden, stern angst he used to keep his emotions from surfacing and Teal'c was his usual neutral self.

Jacob's apologetic eyes moved down to the room. And then she saw it.

Adrienne was tied down on a bed, struggling madly to escape. Doctors and technicians were circling her all over the room with masks and hazmat suits.

One was bringing a large needle near her and stuck her in the neck. The needle broke, unable to penetrate.

"Note the voluntary thickness of her epidermal layer. Sedation is impossible at this point. We'll continue nonetheless," the doctor with the needle noted aloud.

They brought a scalpel and began to see if they could break through the skin on her palm. Adrienne looked up at the observation deck as Sam dropped all her papers on the floor and raised a hand to the glass. Her heart dropped a beat and she could not help the welling tears.

"What are they doing to her?" she asked or rather demanded of the men.

"They're experimenting," Jack said with a deadly tone, his arms crossed and eyes fixed.

"Colonel, that's your daughter!"

"No, she's not. She's no one's daughter."

"Jack, she's a part of you! You can't deny that. She's a part of me too and I'm not standing by while they do this to her," she said firmly, turning on her heal and running out the entrance and down into the room, Daniel running after her. Jack shuddered, forcing himself not to move.

Jacob turned to him and said, "That's my granddaughter in there, Jack. Think about what you're doing."

They watched as Sam and Daniel broke in below and, Sam pointing a gun at several scientists, they pulled her out of her restraints.

"Sam, don't do this," Adrienne warned, no matter how happy she was to see them.

"What are talking about?" Daniel asked, freeing her bleeding hand. She shot a smile at him and began to free her other hand as he freed her bare ankles.

The doctors and nurses stepped aside but Dr. Faraday refused to back away from the single greatest scientific discovery since the Stargate.

"It must be studied, Major. It could hold the key to countless medical breakthroughs, save millions of lives…"

"The 'It' you're talking about is my daughter, Dr. Faraday, and I'm not letting you use her as a guinea pig to further your career."

"Major!" she heard General Hammond yell from the other side of the room. "What's going on here?"

"They were killing her!" she responded. "We had to do something!"

"Killing her? We would never go that far," Dr. Faraday defended himself.

"But you condone torture?" Daniel asked, having finally freed her and holding her in his arms.

Dr. Faraday did not respond. He looked like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Major Carter, please lower your weapon. This issue can be resolved diplomatically," Teal'c said, coming into the room with Jacob behind him.

"We didn't know she couldn't be sedated, Sam. I swear," Jacob said.

"He's right Sam. Put down the gun," Daniel chipped in, still holding Adrienne's head against his chest.

"You mean you were going to experiment on this girl without any sedation and without her consent?" Hammond began to scold the scientists. "Airmen, get his ass over to the cells, pending immediate dismissal and criminal charges."

Two airmen with very large guns came and took the doctor away, shock still written over his face.

Sam threw the gun across the room and went to Adrienne who looked at her as if saying, "What have you done?"

Sam was confused. She'd saved her despite her original misgivings. She'd been a good mother… well, incubator. Why wasn't Adrienne grateful?

But just as Sam was about to turn around, Adrienne said, "Thank you, but you didn't have to do that."

"Yes, I did."

"I can handle myself," she said sternly.

"Is that what this was about? I know you control that little layer of protection you've got. Why didn't you let them sedate you?"

"Because they'd find out what I am."

"I already know what you are."

"No, you know nothing."

"So you're preserving the future and yet you're here to screw it up anyway?"

"Nice little conundrum, eh?" Adrienne said, her father's sarcasm escaping to the surface. It made Sam smile.

After everyone had left the room, Adrienne and Daniel followed. Sam took one last look around. There was a puddle of blood where Adrienne's hand had bled. It closed up while she was in Daniel's arms.

She turned towards the door with a clipboard in hand, ready to leave this day behind, when she saw Jack walking in. His face was still stern and determined, emotionless. He looked straight at her tired eyes.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Sam said through gritted teeth, throwing the clipboard onto the bed in the middle of the large room. He winced but she didn't care. He knew what he was doing was wrong.

She continued, "I get that you're angry but she's still you. I'm still her mother and she's still your daughter so pretending you didn't care that she was in pain-"

"You're right," he interrupted.

She froze at his words. "What?"

"I'm so sorry, Sam," he said sincerely. "I didn't know Faraday was going to do that and I'm sorry for not putting a stop to it as soon as he went too far. I'm sorry I was angry, but know it wasn't at her. I know I took it out on her and I promise I'll make up for it but have to understand. She's yours and she's mine but she's not ours."

He'd walked slowly towards her, a hand on either one of her shoulders.

"What?" she whispered looking up at him with teary eyes.

"She's not ours. What love I had -- have for her came from knowing she was our child, of our marriage… of us."

She was in reluctant tears, a blend of sadness and anger. "You don't abandon a child, Colonel. Doesn't matter whose it is."

"She's not a child! She's a General for crying out loud! She can take care of herself."

"That doesn't mean we're the ones that push her off the cliff," she said and pulled away, storming out of the room and leaving him to his mistakes… and his guilt.

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Daniel took Adrienne to the infirmary as soon as he got her out of that room. Her hands were still shaking, her mind still reliving the phantom pain of the scalpel, even after the wounds had sealed. Her wrists and ankles ached but the abrasions had healed as well.

"Janet can look this over for you," he said holding her shivering, cold hand as he helped her onto the hospital bed. He was about to leave but she firmed her grip.

"Don't go," she whispered. He sat on the edge of the bed, facing her.

"I'm sorry, Ree. I should have stopped it sooner."

"It's not the first time it's happened. You believed it would better mankind what they could learn from me," she said. "I'm used to it."

"No one should be accustomed to being used."

"And yet I am, no?" she smiled weakly, slightly avoiding his gaze. "Sometimes, there's no point in changing the past. Things happen everywhere."

Daniel raised an eyebrow. Her words' meanings dug into him and his curiosity spiked but just as he opened his mouth to speak, the sirens began to sound again.

"It's Ba'al again. He's kidnapping a few SG-teams as we speak and plans on infiltrating them with a Goa'uld and setting up bombs all over the SGC… blah blah blah… the usual," she joked.

Daniel didn't find it so amusing. "Do you know who he's infiltrated yet?"

"Well I can't tell whether they have yet but I'll help any way I can."

"Why are you so willing to help us save Earth, almost eager to share all that you know, but you won't tell us about yourself?" he asked calmly, his hand still atop hers on the bed sheets.

"The future I plan for you, for all of you, does not include me. If I save you, I will never be made. I will never be born. I will only live to see you saved and I will be off in peace. Maybe I'll find myself a nice cabin by a lake and spend the rest of my sickeningly long life in peace." She seemed almost suicidal. Daniel thought she was more like her father than she really knew.

"I'll go get Frasier and then I'll be right back, ok?" he asked sweetly with a smile. She smiled back and nodded and they parted hands.

She lied back on the bed and rested on her side, her head upon the back of her hand on the pillow. She hadn't closed her eyes in days but she was so tired, so at peace, that she felt her eyelids heavy themselves down to sleep.

A bit later, she felt someone the sheets up to her shoulders and she smiled to herself. She knew who it was.

"I'm awake, Teal'c. What is it you require?" she asked calmly, turning to sit up on the bed.

She saw him walk over to the bed beside hers and sit on the edge. He was dreading asking her.

"Ask away, T. I know what you're going to ask anyway."

"Then perhaps I do not need me to ask."

"No, but you need to ask to get over this. You'll come to me often for advice as I'll go to you. It's always been like that; since I was born I've come to you."

"I see. Then I must ask: what of my family in the future?"

She smiled. "Bra'tac lived a hell of a long time, which he used to teach an entire battalion of Rebel Jaffa. He helped me greatly during the First Wave. Rya'c is a fine warrior. I've fought beside him once or twice. His daughters lead many armies of Amazons and his son is a leader among Jaffa. Your legacy carries well. Your wife joined the Jaffa rebellion after you died in battle. She was always a great leader. It took the elders a bit to get used to her but she was a great ally for the Tau'ri after the…"

His eyes welled up and his mouth turned into as much a smile as Teal'c could give. "Might I ask… what I called you in the future?"

She smiled back at him with her great blue eyes and said, "Ree. You were the first to call me Ree."

"And of this wife…"

"Don't even go there, T. You're going to have to find her all on your own."

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Sam reluctantly went home that night, ordered by Hammond. Actually, he ordered her to take some time off but she practically laughed in his face. So instead, she got in her car and began to drive on the way home before she noticed that just 10 miles off her usual path home sat Barkley's Bar and Grill, even though it was more bar than grill.

As she walked in, she noticed that the place was actually pretty nice. There were fishing and game trophies in glass cases all around the back wall and animal heads mounted everywhere, which she thought was grotesque but just like Jack's usual outdoorsy style. It seemed like, more than anything, a gentleman's club… without the strippers but she wondered if they'd be coming out from under the tables later.

She sat down at the bar and asked the rather cute bartender, "Get me something that'll make me forget all about today, kid."

"Tough day, huh? Want to tell me about it?"

"Well I would but then, I'd have to kill you," she said with a smile and took the blue drink which she chugged down ungracefully.

After her fifth shot and a few little umbrella drinks, she decided she was shnoggered enough and decided to call a cab. Before it arrived, she'd beat 3 of the guys at pool, despite seeing 2 of everything.

Merry in her conquest, she fell asleep on her couch. Two hours later, around 3AM, she felt a light knock on the door as if whoever was there did not want to wake her but did not want to leave. She staggered out of the couch, bumping into several pieces of furniture and opened the door wide, holding onto the frame of the door as her feet wanted to give.

"Daniel?" she asked, the figure in the dark already turned to leave.

He swung around and quickly took his hands out of his pockets to catch her before she fell forward. "Whoa! Where have you been all night?"

She groaned but didn't answer. Daniel took her back inside where he put her to bed and fixed himself a shot of whatever was in her liquor cabinet before she woke up.

7:00AM: The alarm clock rang beside her head. The sound made her wince and the light through the window made her head spin.

She shut off the alarm and made her way to the kitchen for some aspirin. Surely enough there was Daniel, asleep on a chair with his head on the table and a glass of wine in his outstretched hand. Her eyes went wide and she looked back to her crumpled sheets.

Oh dear God what have I done? she thought.

She hurried over to the cabinets in search of the aspirin, desperate to remember… or forget. The banging of the doors woke him.

"Sam?" he asked. "What time is it?"

"7:00. Feel like filling me in on what you're doing here?" she asked, finally grabbing the bottle and chugging two pills down dryly. She winced at the texture in the back of her throat.

"I came to talk to you about Adrienne but you were knocked off your ass last night. What were you thinking?"

"Just talk? Oh thank God. For a second I thought…" she interrupted herself and looked away.

Daniel shifted in his chair and cleared his throat.

"What happened with Adrienne?" she tried to avoid any other subject.

"Oh a hell of a lot, actually. Did you know she can read minds? Well not minds, feelings?"

"What?"

"Oh yeah, I found out after she took me to her little nook and tried to… kiss me."

Sam raised an eyebrow and smiled. "You poor man?"

"She thinks I'm someone else, Sam. Someone from her future. And what sickens me most is that I wish I were him if it meant having her."

A short silence followed. "I'll talk to her. Give me a ride back to the base?"

"Sure but you might want to take the little umbrellas out of your hair before you talk to Hammond, too."

"Hmm. True. I'm going to go take a quick shower. Make yourself at home," she said and left for her bedroom, hitting a few nightstands on the way to the shower.

Daniel went to the couch and grabbed himself the remote control, flipping through until he found the history channel. There was something about Ancient Egypt and Ra and he decided to watch for laughs. He felt marvelous knowing more than the supposed TV experts.

Just as he was going into a cackle as the section on the practical uses of a sarcophagus popped up, the doorbell rang and he shut it off to go open it reluctantly.

"One minute!" he yelled as he got up from the couch. As soon as he opened the door, he felt taken aback. "Jack?" he asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you the same," he said. "Where's Sam?"

"She's in the shower. Come on in," Daniel responded as if nothing.

Jack raised an eyebrow, ready to decline but Daniel was already inside the kitchen and he was just standing in the doorway. So he went in and closed the door behind him, cautiously moving through the hall on the way to the kitchen. He sat down on the stool as Daniel poured them a drink. He noticed the shot glasses already out.

"So what brings you by, Jack?" Daniel asked with a friendly smile. Jack looked up from his glass.

"This was a mistake," he said. But as he got up and turned towards the door, Sam was already out in a white bathrobe.

He stopped nearly bumping into her, their faces in shared shock.

"Colonel?"

"I'm sorry," he whispered and looked away, heading again towards the door.

She didn't stop him for she felt her feet had melted to the floor at the first sight of him, there, in her very kitchen. She looked at Daniel and for a second, he thought he saw a tear but it must have been his imagination. Major Carter did not cry unless provoked.

"You feel like telling me what that was all about?" he asked.

"It's a story too long and too old to tell," she said and walked back to her room to get changed for another day of turmoil.

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To be continued in PART FIVE:

--Why didn't Daniel tell Sam about Dionysus?

--What did Jack want to tell her?

--What does he think happened between Danny and Sam?

--Who's Teal'c going to marry?

--Why is Janet so detached? What of her feelings for Daniel?

--When will Jack and Sam finally begin this secret relationship you're all dying to read about?

--And finally… What can kill an immortal that fears no pain?

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Keep tuned in! It gets a little scary for a while and then someone dies. Stories develop between characters. We finally understand the natural abomination that is "Adrienne O'Neill." The snogging begins! Someone retires, someone gets married, someone dies, and someone goes all the way down the rabbit hole… READ & REVIEW!