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AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Note the time during the next couple of chapters, as Adrienne seems to have planned it all too well. Notice how Jack says he's giving his "two weeks notice" and leaves that very day. These are the final two weeks of Level 28
At one point in PART EIGHTEEN, Orlin and Sam's and Jack and Daniel's fantasies overlap in past events. So scenes you've read now might come up again with slightly different POVs and minor events. Try to play along. All will be explained.
And don't forget! Something happened to Jack while he was temporarily possessed by Anubis. The effects of this will be seen after Sam returns.
--My Microsoft Word isn't working at the moment so please excuse the grammatical errors.--
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And now…
PART SEVENTEENThe Mourning After
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Teal'c came back to a shattered home. Sam was dead. Jack was broken. Daniel was caught in the middle. And Janet. Janet had infiltrated their lives in the blink of an eye and taken off just as quickly.
Daniel kept up with her. But she was home for now, recuperating. Cassie was looking after her but that's all. They hadn't told her Sam died until 9 days after it happened. Jacob was away on assignment. He hadn't heard yet. He wouldn't for a while. By then it would lose all meaning. Death often did after a while. It was part of acceptance. But Jack couldn't let it go.
He'd taught himself to accept it, seeing it so often for so many years. He'd become numb to it, but not with Sam. He'd promised himself never to forget her and he was forcing himself to do just that. It was hurting him dearly.
They hadn't buried her yet. Her body still lay in the morgue. Jack hadn't visited her since it happened.
Everyone seemed to know how much they cared for each other, even strangers in the halls. He knew they all suspected but they all pitied him now and the looks alone were destructive. Hammond had offered him some leave. He hadn't accepted.
"I'd like to resign, sir," he said instead, his face blank but determined. It was so hard remembering her all the time. He couldn't remember the last time he slept.
"I understand, Colonel, but think about what you're saying. What about Adrienne? She still needs you. What about this program?" Hammond said.
"I'm finished here, George... Consider this my two week's notice."
And he left without another word.
Daniel hadn't spoken with Janet the entire time she was back. She refused to let him into her house and Cassie, to see her well sooner, did as she was told. They weren't sure why she was alienating herself but she was.
Outside her doctors, only Daniel and Adrienne had seen her. She didn't seem much different. Her hair was longer, her skin paler, her eyes hollow.
But she had let Adrienne come in once. Daniel had waited outside. When she came back out, her expression hid ghost tears and went straight to hug him. They walked out hand in hand. He didn't question anything further but he noticed the little things more.
Adrienne came closer to him, hugged him or kissed him hello like she'd known him for years. It was hard not to treat her like one of them. She fit so well, like the perfect puzzle piece in their little family. The question remained: would she take over for Sam?
Nobody knew of Jack's decision to leave. They still had one final mission and Jack didn't want to leave it alone.
Sam had been dead a week and already they were out. Adrienne would join the boys one last time before SG-1 was broken up. They hadn't talked about it but they knew it was inevitable. They hadn't even sat down together. Jack was avoiding them. Hadn't even bothered going to the briefing.
But now they stood at the ramp before the event horizon, completely exposed. They couldn't hide from each other.
Jack came in a little late. His P-90 hung as always as he fixed his hat. Daniel noticed Adrienne looking at it cautiously. She didn't trust him with it. He was planning something, she could tell. Daniel had decided to back her up given Jack's state.
Nobody spoke, only shared strange glances. Daniel and Adrienne walked side by side with Teal'c in the rear and Jack up front, his vision held high. Determination was often a self-destructive sign of a frequent mourner.
"Jack, do you know where you're going?" Adrienne asked somewhat cautiously.
"Yes, Ree," he said sternly, through gritted teeth.
"Then why are we going straight for a lake?" she asked back. Jack stopped and everyone stopped behind him. He took a left and kept walking.
"It's this way," he said.
Daniel looked to Ree and she responded with worrisome eyes. She looked to Teal'c and even his own expression seeped through his tough shell.
They reached what was once the village. Fire ruled there now. The screams drew them in. The cries for help could be heard a mile away. They ran to their target, Adrienne in the far lead. She refused to tire because she knew there was someone there she couldn't risk dying, not if she wanted to preserve any of the good things she'd left behind.
"Hurry! Run!" she yelled but they were too far behind.
Teal'c was the first to reach her, just standing there in front of the wreckage and flying debris. Jack and Daniel joined a half minute later. "What are you doing? Why aren't you helping?" Teal'c asked. "Do something, Ree!"
"I'm sorry, Teal'c. I can't. This has to happen," she responded with a truly remorseful face. Then she looked over to the edge of the village right before it reached the forest and whispered, "Go after her."
Teal'c looked over and saw Aileia run into the thick woods. She was covered in blood but something told Teal'c it wasn't hers. He didn't think twice and ran after her.
Adrienne saw him go and began walking through the burning village. The fire parted for her and like an angel, she went through hut by hut and carried out the children still alive.
Jack helped the surviving men kill off the Jaffa invaders while Daniel helped Adrienne stop the fire. But the invaders bore no mark. They were human. And once again, Jack found the life of another innocent person in his hand. They were mere children.
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"Aileia, stop!" Teal'c yelled, trying to catch up with the pregnant woman.
But she was already sitting on a large boulder when he reached the clearing where they'd talked before. She stood up, her eyes wide in fear, ready with a zat pointed at his heart.
"Teal'c?" she said in-between gasps and breathlessness. Tears had blended with the bloody palm print across her cheek. Someone she loved had said goodbye.
He didn't say anything. He knew Deryc's recklessness would catch up to him eventually. He'd just hoped it woudn't have to be so soon.
He walked towards her, knelt down, and hugged her as she wept into his shoulder.
"He's dead, Teal'c. They killed him."
"It's going to fine. I promise. I'll take care of you."
It didn't stop her from crying hysterically. Pregnant woman often did but never without so much cause.
"Are they gone?" she whispered in his ear, still holding tightly for dear life.
"Don't worry. You're safe now. Come on," he responded, helping her up off the ground, still holding her tightly as they walked side by side back to the remnants of the village. The fire had dwelled down. She broke away from him and walked down the charred road with quivering hands atop her stomach until she left the village and met them at the Stargate.
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"Hello, Samantha," she heard a familiar voice call out to her in the void. Everything was dark, empty. She felt herself floating as if in water. But when she opened her eyes, she was blinded by white light, and then she realized it was her angel.
"Orlin," she whispered but in her head, the echoes bounced endlessly. It reminded her of how Adrienne saw the world, almost surreal.
And it was just that. The unreal.
"Welcome to The Hollow, Sam," he said, walking through the light into a grand autumn day in DC.
"I know this place," she responded. "This park was a block from my house growing up."
"Indeed it was. It's good to see you again."
And then she felt her memories come back like a freight train hitting her head on.
"Jack..." she whispered, looking away. She noticed she was in a white dress, barefoot as she'd been so often as a child.
"He's fine, Sam. He's back in the real world."
"I'm dead, aren't I?"
"Getting there. Your body's dead but your soul is very much alive... Walk with me, Sam."
"This is one of those moments where you tell me to release my burden and Ascend, isn't it?"
"I see Daniel's been talking to you. Or was it Adrienne?"
"You know about Adrienne, huh?"
"Of course. I've spoken with her often in the last few weeks. Ever since she came back, actually."
Sam scoffed. "You still didn't answer me. Is this an offer of Enlightenment, or goodbye?"
"Why ask when we both know what you really want? You weren't supposed to die there, Sam. In the original timeline, you were never implanted with a Goa'uld. You Ascended," he explained.
"But I was. Does that change anything?"
"Everything. People died. I cannot help them. Neither can Oma. It's up to you to pay back their lives."
"How do I do that if I'm dead? Was it even my fault?"
"No but if you carry Jack's heart, you carry his burden."
"I carry his what? I never..."
"Can't lie to me, Sam. Besides, tempting time is not the smartest thing to do right now."
"Time or fate?"
"No such thing as fate, you know that. Time was laid out. When Adrienne came back, she made your destiny but fate it can never be."
"Do the other know you're helping me?"
"Yes. But I don't care anymore. I promised Adrienne I'd save a little piece of you."
"Which piece?" she asked, stopping to look straight into his eyes through lost strands of blonde hair.
"The parts that loved unconditionally. The slices of conviction. The bits you left in all our hearts."
"My soul, you mean?"
"It's all anyone is."
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Daniel, Jack, and Adrienne saw Teal'c and Aileia off at the Gate with some of the refugees. There weren't many. The injured ones that could not be moved laid covered in standard issue sheets on the ash-ridden streets outside their homes. Medics would come soon enough.
Jack wanted to wait for the meds at the Gate but Adrienne and Daniel refused to leave him alone.
"I'll wait with you," Daniel offered and Jack dismissed him but he insisted and Ree was already on her way to help the wounded.
"Jack, talk to me."
"About what, Danny?" he responded in a tired, irritated tone.
"You lost someone, Jack. You have to talk about it or it won't go away."
Daniel noticed he refused to look him straight in the eye. "If I wanted pointless retoric, I'd watch Dr. Phil, Daniel. Leave it alone."
A cliff had caught his vision instead. It was behind the Gate. He hadn't even noticed the Gate resided atop it, looking down over the vast, endless valley below. The sun was setting down right down the center in the distance.
Jack extended his hand as if he could catch the light in his closing fist. But when he drew it towards him, the sun still set in the distance. It reminded him of Sam. He thought he had her in his grasp but did he lose her or did he ever have her?
He went closer to the edge. "It's like looking onto Heaven, isn't it?" Daniel asked. The colors of the setting sun had splayed over the entire horizon and the sky overflowed with purples and reds and oranges that carried with them the sad tune of the dead.
Jack didn't turn around. "Heaven left me when she did."
"Ah, and so we come to the infamous question: why give immortality to he who spends eternity mourning?" Daniel asked. "After all we've done, it's hard to imagine we could ever die but we can, Jack. We do, we will."
"Don't pull that Oma crap, Daniel. There's no point to this life anymore. Sam was the last straw," Jack said as he and his friend stood side by side above the abyss, freezing hands in pockets that held no warmth.
"Was there ever?"
"No. Eternity is wasted on the predestined loners and unrequited lovers."
"Now who's sounding like Oma?" Daniel joked but Jack did not seem to budge from his sorrowful expression. "I lost someone too, Jack. I've lost family, some at my own hand. I've lost my wife and my home and my only reason for being. All I have left is this war. It's all any of us have left."
"So our only reason for living is to kill and be killed and witness the death of everything we love?"
"No! It is to die so that others may live," Daniel said passionately, turning from the light of the setting sun to his desolate friend. "We are protectors, Jack. As long as we remember that we are servants to a cause, to protect those who find no mercy, we'll stop ourselves from ever reaching the self-indulged madness of fake godlyhood. We are flawed! But we are alive and free to move, to live! Free to mourn as we wish..."
Jack was breaking down, Daniel could tell. His pain escaped his eyes, their cold jailcell. "Do you still remember her? Your wife? The way she was when she was alive..."
"The picture of her has faded but dreams hold me chained to her. Knowing I was once truly happy is all that feuls my resolve. Don't get me wrong, there've been moments since but there'll always be Sha're in the back of my mind," Daniel answered.
The two looked down at the abyss, the once-hidden truth of humanity as the sun rose from its quick slumber. Lights like powder rode the clouds of ominous orange light.
Jack thought of Sam's final moments, lost already to the human mind within him.
"I can't do it, Daniel," he whispered as he looked down at his boots, desperate to turn away from the harsh reminders of her. "It'd be like helping the very bastards that took her from me."
"Hmm. I get ya. But think about what will happen with both of you are gone? You think the NID will just forget everything we do here? You think they'll leave Adrienne alone? You think Hammond's going to be able to stop the enemies at the Gate now? You weren't the only one who lost someone. The world lost a savior."
Jack smiled a bit, his eyes still fighting back the pain. "Not bad for Dr. Phil, Danny."
Daniel smirked back and realized the medics still hadn't come and Adrienne hadn't come to see what happened. "Why do think the relief team is taking so long?"
Jack snapped out of it and looked at Daniel. "Oh crap," he said and went to the Gate. He began to dial Earth but the 7th chevron refused to lock.
"It won't dial."
They looked at each other for a moment, nodded, and ran back to the village. "Adrienne!" they both yelled. She knelt beside the wounded.
"The Gate won't dial Earth!" Daniel yelled.
Ree stood up quickly in shock. "What! No, that's not supposed to happen yet!"
"What? What's going on?" Jack asked.
"Ba'al's attacking Earth. We're cut off."
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To be continued in PART EIGHTEEN:
--Is Deryc really dead?
--Who killed him?
--Is Sam going to talk to Jack while she's still in "limbo" or will she return as flesh and blood?
--What have Adrienne and Orlin been planning?
--What happens in the final two weeks of "Level 28?"
--What of Teal'c and Aileia? Daniel and Adrienne? ...Jack and Sam?
--And finally... What will happen at the return of Janet?
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DID YOU KNOW? Originally, Janet was going to be infiltrated by a Goa'uld, not Sam. Sam was not going to die, merely make Jack realize his own guilt on the events and break away from her as he retires to save her further harm. The final breaking will still occur. But don't worry. The final two weeks will reveal all...
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