Chapter 20: The Return (Atlantis)
"Atlantis? For how long?" She put the spoon back in the pan. She turned to him. Like every night since Sam had been attacked, they should have had dinner together, but Jack's phone had rung.
"Time to negotiate a treaty... Woolsey has obviously managed to push the Ancients to the limit... I should be gone a week, maybe less." he assured her. "The President doesn't really give me a choice. I have to go and support Woolsey." He placed his hand on hers. "It doesn't make any difference, it's just like when I commute to Washington." He reminded her.
"But you'll be in another Galaxy." She counters. "That's different."
"I know... But it's not like we have a choice." She sighed deeply.
"I know." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, a habit she had copied from him. "I'll miss you..." He leaned over and brushed her cheek with his fingertips.
"I would count the minutes until I got home." He promised her.
"When are you leaving?" He put on a grim face.
"Immediately. I'm sorry." Sometimes juggling their romantic and professional lives proved to be much more challenging than they had imagined lately. Jack commuted from Colorado Springs to Washington twice a week, finding it difficult to stay away from her since Anateo's attack. He was there every weekend or Samantha would join him. It worked. When Sam returned to the off-world missions, it would continue to work. She was to undergo a psychological evaluation, mandated by General Landry, the following week. Then she could return to duty with SG1. Jack's departure for the Pegasus Galaxy threatened their balance.
"Everything will be fine. Don't worry." He tried to reassure her. She approached and kissed him passionately.
"Take care of yourself... Come back to me soon."
(...)
"Atlantis is under attack from replicators! Somehow, they've figured out how to override their programming. The Ancients were taken off-guard and have lost most of the city already. Request immediate evacuation." Behind him, Woolsey fires a pistol.
"They're coming!"
The transmission abruptly terminates. Everyone stares in shock. She was still in her exploration suit. SG1 had just returned from the mission. The team members were watching the video sent by General O'Neill from the Pegasus galaxy a few days earlier.
"They never made it to the gate." General Landry informed them.
"General... Are you telling us that General O'Neill is at the mercy of the replicators ... Alone with Woolsey in the city of Atlantis?" She sat down at the briefing table, her legs severed. She had gotten used to being the one to worry about. It had been over two years since Samantha had feared for Jack's life. Two years since he'd been in danger. He was safe in Washington or the Pentagon most of the time. She didn't notice the concern in Teal'c and Daniel's eyes. Her reaction, while legitimate, was perhaps a bit too... heated.
"It was supposed to be a diplomatic mission. A one-week round trip at most, how could this have happened?" Questioned Daniel.
"I'm sorry SG1. We've lost contact with Atlantis. We sent the Daedalus... General O'Neill had made a decision should this occur... The Daedalus will bomb Atlantis with a nuclear device to cut off any chance of the Replicators invading Earth."
"No!" Daniel and Sam had exclaimed in one voice. But, General Landry was obviously done with his officers' insubordination.
"Colonel, need I remind you who is in charge ? My orders come directly from General O'Neill." Cutting short any form of protest.
"But let us at least..." She began.
"Be quiet, Colonel." Landry ordered angrily. It was costly for the General to be so firm with SG1, but... he couldn't do otherwise. "Sheppard and his entire team have already violated General O'Neill's direct orders. We've already lost them, I refuse to let SG1 go on a suicide mission. This galaxy needs you." He had raised his voice. He resumed a tone below. "I'm sorry, I know how much Jack means to all of you, but his orders were clear. If the Replicator threat to this galaxy became real, the Atlantis gate has to be destroyed." He gestured to the guards posted outside the briefing room. "You will be placed under arrest until this mission is completed. I'm sorry SG1, but Sheppard has left me no choice." Daniel, Sam, and even Cameron, protested but, there was nothing they could do, the guards were numerous... they were prisoners of their own side.
(...)
"How about yourself? Do you check out okay?" Elizabeth questioned him as he joined her on the platform.
"Apparently I don't have any little tiny robots floating in my bloodstream, which is always nice to hear." Jack informed her. He was declared "free to go home" as the base doctor, Dr. Beckett, had informed him.
"Huh! That it is. So what now?" Elizabeth asked him. Jack couldn't resist teasing her.
"Oh, a jumper ride home to the SGC, followed by a hot shower, followed by a hot toddy, followed by..." And I'm going to get a terrible dressing down from my fiancée, he completed in his mind.
"I was thinking a...little more selfishly. What are the chances of my team staying here in Atlantis?" That was what he thought she was going to ask him. Nevertheless, he couldn't help but push the teasing a little further.
"Oh. Elizabeth, if it were up to me, I'd ..."
"It is up to you."
"Right! You can stay." Elizabeth's eyes shone like a child's at Christmas.
"Really?" He confirmed her with a nod. After what had happened here, she could be sure of that.
"You're probably still gonna have to get the rubber stamp from the IOA, but since you saved Woolsey's ass, and you did a fair job on mine, I don't think that'll be a problem."
"Well, I think I speak for all of us when I say thank you very much."
"Hey, you came back to rescue me..." He reminded her, without her team, he would be with his companion tonight.
"Hmm! Yes, we did."
"Of course, next time, consider bringing Carter with you." He said. She had to eat her heart out while waiting for his return. And to be perfectly honest, for the first time in his life, he didn't feel like he was ready to die on a mission. His life was waiting for him there, on the other side of the Stargate. "Welcome home.."
(...)
She had stood up as soon as the door to the quarters opened. For several days, they had been kept isolated from each other in their respective quarters. Prisoners of their camp. Samantha had tried to come up with a plan to leave the SGC but... isolated from Daniel, Teal'c, Cameron and Vala, any plan she had come up with was bound to fail. She had resigned herself to the fact that Landry had come to tell her that the Daedalus was approaching Atlantis. When the General had closed the door to her quarters, she had prostrated herself in the corner of the room, knees pulled up to her chest, devastated by the loss of the man she loved. She thought Landry had come to tell her that the mission had been accomplished. She had heard the signal of an unscheduled activation of the vortex, but at no time had she prepared herself to find him, alive, in front of her. The door closed behind him.
"Jack!" She didn't care that they were at the base, that the soldiers on guard outside her quarters might hear. He smiled tenderly.
"Lucy i'm home." She stood up and threw herself into his arms. He held her close, savoring the feel of her body against his. "It's okay Sam..." He whispered as he hugged her even tighter. "I'm home." And as suddenly as she had jumped into his arms, she pushed him away and sent a blow into his arm. "Ouch! That's how you treat your fiancé!"
"A little diplomatic mission of nothing ? Like I'm in Washington!" She fulminated. "You forget to tell me about the annihilation order you left in case of a Replicator invasion?!" She was furious. Furious that he had kept it from her. Furious that he had given that order. Furious that she had been kept locked up, reduced to helplessness, while he fought alone. She had never understood what Jack was going through since he took command of the SGC and then the Earth's defense system. Now she knew what it felt like to be left behind, reduced to a spectator, powerless while others led the fight. Yet, instead of cornering him again, she took his mouth, kissing him as if her life depended on it. And her life ... depended on it. She had thought that this time she would never see him again.
