3.
Premise
"Trust instinct to the end, even though you can give no reason." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
He walks her out to her rental. They go out the front so they don't have to pass Daniel and Teal'c. It's a decision that they both seem to make without saying a single word to each other. It's this silent communication that they settle into so easily that really disturbs him - even more than the kiss did. If he's honest with himself, he knows that the kiss was inevitable. But it's also something tangible, quantifiable. This thing that they are developing...
Not so much.
She smiles up at him before she pulls her door closed. There's something fragile about it, and he can't bring himself to smile back. He steps away as she begins reversing out the drive, and watches her go, hands deep in his pockets, standing in the driveway until the sound of the car's engine is nothing more than a low hum carrying across the cool night air. There's a distinct rhythm to the change in gears.
She drives stick, he thinks.
For some reason, this is what finally makes him smile.
He swivels around, and the gravel crunches unevenly under his boots as he heads across the drive and round back of the house.
The remaining members of his team are just where he left them. Daniel's got a look about him. It's the same one he wore that first night back from Abydos when he'd been asking about Sara.
And Sam, he remembers. He'd asked about Sam, too.
Jack hadn't told him anything then, but he doesn't think he needed to. Daniel might seem like the type who had his nose constantly stuck in a book, but he noticed things. He'd made a career paying attention to the details, after all. And it was lucky for Jack that he did; none of them would have made it back from that first mission if it hadn't been for Daniel.
So Jack's prepared to give the man some slack for being a little less than subtle with Sam earlier.
"Sam head off?" Daniel asks, sitting forward. He's rolling a beer bottle between his hands that Jack knows has been empty for a good thirty minutes. The movement casts long shadows across Teal'c, and Jack thinks he looks just like one of those statues in Ra's temple. He makes an imposing figure, even seated, and Jack is reminded that Teal'c is not human.
He shakes himself lightly and pulls a chair out, settling himself into it.
"Yup," he says, tipping the seat back a little. "Think she was beat."
Daniel hums in acknowledgement as he stares down at his bottle; Jack notices he's been picking at the corners of the labels.
"Does Doctor Carter reside at your base of operations?" Teal'c says.
Jack thinks about that for a moment and realises that he doesn't actually know. She'd been there at the base whenever he had checked up on her whereabouts, but she can't be living there, surely? He glances over at Daniel, but the angle of the light makes it hard to catch his eye. He realises that she and Daniel are really in the same predicament - both their homes are a long way away from Colorado Springs. And then he remembers them sitting together in her lab that morning and how close they'd been. How comfortable they'd looked with each other.
Jack is appalled at the sudden twinge of jealousy he feels.
He also realises he still hasn't answered Teal'c's question.
"I think she's staying in a hotel at the moment," he says, letting his chair fall forward with a soft bump. "At least, that's where she was staying a few days ago."
"A hotel is a place of temporary accommodation we stay in when we're visiting places far away," Daniel says. The light glints off his glasses as he turns towards Teal'c.
"I see," Teal'c says. "On Chulak, it is customary to show hospitality to visitors by inviting them into our homes." Teal'c's gaze shifts from Daniel to Jack, and Jack watches as he inclines his head in a way that he is learning is a very particular mannerism for the Jaffa. "As you have done for me this evening, O'Neill."
Jack doesn't miss the point Teal'c is trying to make, but he's not about to explain why Sam isn't staying with him as well. Not to mention the fact she's already stayed over once before.
Slept in his bed.
Kissed him.
No, right now he's not touching this subject with a ten-foot pole.
He stands abruptly and claps his hands together.
"Speaking of hospitality. One of you gets the couch, and the other, the spare room," he says. "Up to you to decide because I'm turning in."
"I don't mind the couch." Daniel says, absently gesturing at Jack with his empty bottle. "I'm still not quite used to sleeping in a normal bed."
He finishes with an aborted chuckle, but the grief underlying the words is unmistakeable. Jack thinks about Sara and Charlie and loss, and lets his hand fall on Daniel's shoulder, giving it a squeeze.
He thinks maybe Daniel has also had a bit too much to drink.
"And I do not require a bed for Kelno'reem," Teal'c adds into the quiet that's fallen over the porch.
"Don't care. You decide."
Jack plucks the bottle from Daniel's grasp and heads for the door before turning back. "There are some pillows and blankets on the couch. Get some sleep, Daniel."
He puts a certain amount of authority into his voice. He's the leader of this team, and he needs to make sure they are ready and able for their mission in the morning. It's the reason, he tells himself, that he ended up inviting them all over this evening.
But as he heads up to his room, that thought settles uneasily with him, because he knows that it isn't quite true. He's always been good at convincing himself of his altruistic intentions. He thinks that it was something he learned to do a long time ago when he used to run covert ops. Something he'd had to do to get the job done.
But then, he'd convinced himself it was okay to keep a gun in his family's home; that he was keeping them safe.
He'd also convinced himself that he had good reasons for detonating a nuclear weapon and killing himself; that it would be better for Sara that way.
Oh, yes. When he looked at it like that, he was pretty damn good at rationalising. He could sell himself his own good intentions by the bucket-load, it seemed.
The truth of it is, he's having a hard time separating this Sam from young Lieutenant Carter. It was easy enough before he saw how she handled herself on Abydos - how she fell into place so seamlessly under his command out in the field. And as much as he thinks she believes she's distanced herself from it, her bearing is still military. He sees the way she fights it, sees how she's caught herself nearly saluting, or standing at attention, or how several times she's bitten back a 'sir' at the end of a sentence. It's...
Confusing.
And suddenly dinner hadn't felt like such a good idea.
She'd used the word 'complicated' earlier. It is that, too, but he thinks that things are probably a little different from her perspective; she's a civilian ex-officer in a team operating under military command.
And he is that command.
She was right, of course, when she made that crack about re-enlisting - it would make things simpler. But if he'd learned anything from his reaction to her suggestion, it's that he didn't want 'simpler'.
If he could figure out what he did want though, he'd be pretty happy with that.
He kills the lights, and his room descends into darkness as he sets his alarm and gets himself comfortable. The house is eerily quiet, and he wonders if Teal'c and Daniel are still out on the porch. He hopes that they actually will get some rest. He's not so sure about Daniel, but at least the man can't get his hands on 24-hour commissary coffee here.
Really, he's surprised that Daniel isn't more wary of Teal'c after what happened to Sha're, but he supposes that Daniel is perceptive enough to see that Teal'c has also lost just about everything he's ever had in a very short space of time.
There has been far too much loss all around, he thinks.
It's probably one of the reasons he's getting in his own way when it comes to Carter.
Probably.
Or that may just be another one of his rationalisations.
He is at least sure of one thing, and that's that he owes her an apology.
He rolls over and stares at the curtains that, for a change, he hasn't forgotten to pull. It's typical that he now wishes he could see the night sky.
P3-575
There is white. And there is a pull, a flow - like a sense of movement. His foot lands heavily on solid rock when seconds before he'd been walking over the grating of the ramp leading up to the Stargate. He's not sure how he can feel or see anything when, logically, he knows that he's basically just molecules as soon as he steps into the event horizon, but it is what it is.
He thinks he should ask Carter about it.
And then he wonders what the trip feels like for her; whether she sees or feels anything, or whether each person's experience is different because it's all happening on a level that may be influenced by your own genetic makeup. He's not entirely sure how that all fits together, and between one thing and another, it's not something he's spent much time contemplating.
She must know a lot about it, though, because one tweak to the dialing programme, and suddenly he didn't feel like a human popsicle.
He looks down at himself then, at the lack of tiny ice crystals clinging to his fatigues, and it reminds him of where he is; what he is there for. The team went through the gate ahead of him, and he locates them all visually before scanning the horizon for potential threats.
It is quiet. And green. Not unlike Chulak, he thinks. There is a breeze, but it does nothing to lessen the humidity, though there is something cool and earthy about it - something familiar.
"Smells like rain," he says, even though he has no idea if the weather systems here are even remotely similar to those on Earth.
It wins him a smile from Sam, though, and he wishes he didn't find it so distracting.
He watches her head for the DHD before pushing the thought from his mind and making his way down the steps to stand beside Teal'c. The Jaffa looks relaxed enough, but Jack can see the way he grips his staff, holding it at the ready; his gaze is following Daniel who is picking his way across the open ground to what appears to be a rustic-looking bridge partly obscured by the shade of the trees at the edge of the clearing.
Not for the first time, Jack considers putting Daniel on a leash.
"Hey!"
Daniel's head comes up suddenly at Jack's call, and miraculously, the man stops. Jack strides out after him, Teal'c and Sam following closely at his heels.
"There's a bridge," Daniel says when they all finally catch up.
"I can see that," Jack says. "Just... stay close, OK?"
Daniel doesn't respond, but then Jack doesn't really expect him to.
"The construction is a little more modern than what we've seen so far," Sam says.
"Yes, exactly," Daniel adds, walking over to it.
The bridge is wooden, and looks like it's seen a fair battering from the elements, but Jack can see what Sam and Daniel are getting at. The wood looks like it's been cut cleanly, and smoothed like it's sanded. It also formed a nice little arch over the small stream running past them.
It makes Jack think of Vietnam.
"It almost looks oriental," Daniel continues, taking a step onto the first few planks. "Like a Taiko bridge."
"Yeah, well," Jack says, pulling himself from his thoughts, "better let me take point. Looks like we need to walk single file from here."
He points across the bridge towards the trail leading further into the trees, and wonders whether or not it would be better to actively stay off of it. It would be slower going, but he couldn't help thinking how being on a narrow trail in the middle of what looked like a small forest was a vulnerable position to be in.
And it was quiet.
Not even the call of a bird to break the silence.
He shakes off the feeling prickling at the back of his neck and starts off over the bridge and down the path.
They walk for well over an hour. The trail seems as though it is not well used, and is washed out in several places, making the terrain difficult to cross. It is the longest they've ever had to walk from the gate to find civilisation, or some kind of construction that is more noteworthy than a little picturesque bridge.
It both is, and isn't, encouraging.
He can't imagine any Goa'uld making this trek just to have their subjects kneel at their feet, so it means the people living here are either long forgotten, or there is something of great interest here.
It's possible the Goa'uld like to fly their big-ass ships down to this planet instead of using the Stargate.
Might be easier for transporting cargo, he thinks.
He's also painfully aware that their extraction point is getting further and further away, making a rapid retreat to the Stargate no longer an option for them should they meet with any hostility.
"This doesn't make sense," he hears Daniel say from somewhere behind him.
It's the first sound in about twenty minutes that hasn't been the snap of twigs or soft footfalls muffled by leaf litter, and it jars Jack from his thoughts and brings him to a halt. He turns; and his eyes immediately find Sam's. She's so close that he realises she must have nearly walked right into the back of him. She is slightly flushed from the heat and the exertion, but her lips are pursed together in a way that he thinks can only mean that something is troubling her. He is certain that he sees all his own thoughts of the past while reflected right back at him.
"He's right, Jack," she says after a beat.
"I also agree," Teal'c says.
Jack blows out a breath and steps past her, finding a sizeable moss-covered rock to plonk himself onto. They have been heading downhill for a while, and the landscape has changed a little where it looks like they are about to cross back over the stream from further up - if it is the same one, that is. He finds it strange that there is no bridge at this crossing, but maybe the stream got diverted at some point and the path was already long disused.
Or maybe he was just back to rationalising.
"Well, we're kinda at the point of no return here," he says, watching Sam and Daniel find their own spots to sit down. Teal'c remains standing, his watchful gaze still trained on their surroundings.
"It's obvious the Goa'uld don't use this path," Daniel says.
"And that's all we're here for?" Jack replies, raising an eyebrow at Daniel. He knows that isn't true. But maybe he's also underestimating Daniel's desperation to find Sha're; Jack never thought he'd be the one preparing to press on with a mission that had no evident strategic value.
"We have a little over twenty-two hours before we need to check back in," Sam says.
Jack glances across at her, and although there is still a shadow of that earlier worry lingering in her expression, there is something determined about her now. Jack thinks it's that military training kicking in again.
He catches Daniel's eye and then tips his head towards Sam.
"Right," he says. "So don't you want to find out why, Daniel?"
"Why the Goa'uld no longer come here?"
"And who built that bridge back there," Sam adds.
"There is something strange about this world," Teal'c says. He seems to aim this at no one in particular because his attention is still elsewhere.
Jack pushes to his feet and spends a moment readjusting the MP5 slung across his shoulder.
"I'm so glad we're all in agreement," he says, stepping back onto the trail, "because I'd hate to have to go ahead and pull rank."
He pauses for dramatic effect and looks back at the group falling in behind him.
"Oh, wait. No. I'm actually just fine with pulling rank."
Daniel rolls his eyes. Sam narrows her's in a glare. Teal'c isn't even looking at him.
He thinks that pretty much sums up this little team.
A/N: Sorry for the delay! I was away first. Sick second. But here it is, finally! I'm nervous about this one for some reason, so go easy on me.
As always, thank you so much to all followers/favouriters/readers/reviewers! I don't think I would have had the guts to write this sequel if it wasn't for you.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of the Stargate franchise. All other characters mentioned in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.