Forgotten

Rose Stetson

Summary: I thought I had all my memories back, but that moment with Jack in the elevator... Well, it made me wonder. Missing Scenes from Grace 7x13.

"Hey, Jack." I sat across from Jack at a nearly empty table in the mess hall, my pancakes on a tray in front of me.

Jack didn't look up from his bowl of oatmeal or the open report beside him. "Hey."

Something didn't feel right as I pulled apart the packet containing my utensils and napkin, and I studied him a moment longer. "Sleep well?"

Jack just closed the report he was reading. "Daniel, whatever it is, I'm not in the mood."

"Whatever what is?"

Jack gestured toward me. "This. You only get this bouncy and positive when you've made a discovery, and I'm telling you, so help me, I'm not in the mood."

I studied him, that growing feeling that something was off. "Aren't you the same guy who wouldn't let me get two words out about Abydos and Anubis before you insisted on pleasantries?"

"Yeah, well, you're back now. It's not the same thing."

I gave him the look I always gave him whenever he was BS-ing me. "Oh, yeah. Sure."

Jack dropped his spoon in his bowl. "Okay, fine. How are you, Danny? Good?"

"Well, yeah, actually. I'm looking forward to Sam's report about this gas cloud. It sounds fascinating, and she got that twinkle in her eye that she gets whenever she's trying to pretend she's not as excited about something as she really is."

Jack's expression was difficult to read as he played with the spoon in what was left of his oatmeal. "Yeah. Fascinating."

I blinked at him. "Jack, do you miss her?"

There was a long moment before Jack looked at me with that confused expression that seemed to come out whenever he wanted to conceal his real feelings. "Don't you?"

"Well, yeah, but I know this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for her. She's been staring at this thing through her telescope for awhile, and now she gets to go take a look while the Prometheus charts its way home. Aren't you happy for her?"

Jack picked up his report and started clearing his place. "Happy for her? Sure, Danny. But I'm gonna sleep a lot better when she's back here."

His eyes took on a faraway gaze as if his thoughts were a million lightyears away from where we stood. Then, he cleared his throat.

"Same as I do any time my team's split apart." He waved over his shoulder. "Hammond's got me briefing another round of 302 pilots. You good?"

I just nodded. "Yeah. Fine."

Jack managed a grim smile before he headed out the door of the mess hall.

I just watched him go, puzzling over the whole exchange in my mind.

I couldn't put my finger on it, but I knew he was lying to me. Not completely, he'd had too much practice for it to be a bald-faced lie, but something niggled at the back of my mind anyway. Like one of those memories just after I'd come back from being ascended. Only I couldn't begin to guess what it was.

I hurried down the hallway to the General's office, translation in hand. For months, I'd been puzzling over the tablet Jonas and I had found on Abydos. Even though I hadn't cracked the code just yet, I had a feeling I'd finally made some progress.

As I got closer to the door, though, Jack stormed out of the General's office. He started walking down the hallway toward the elevator, but when he saw me, he tried to make an about turn and go down the stairs to the control room instead.

Maybe it came from being the kid everyone thought was the nerd in high school, maybe it had come from academics walking the other way when they saw me coming, but I had learned a long time ago not to let someone walk away from me. Not if I could help it. "Jack."

He stopped in that overly dramatic way he did whenever he wanted someone to know just what a burden it had been for him to stop. "What is it, Daniel?"

I waved to the open office door. "Something obviously happened in there. You want to talk about it?"

Jack pretended to think about it. "Uh, actually, Danny. No. I really don't."

"It's just that you and Hammond are hardly ever at odds. The last time, I think you were actually undercover, trying to figure out that NID thing."

Jack's brown eyes seemed to warn that this wasn't the right time to press. I always seemed to forget until moments like this just how dangerous Jack O'Neill could be if he wanted to. That thought sent a chill down my spine.

"Well, you know where to find me if you change your mind."

With a sarcastic smile, Jack turned and went on his way as I took a breath and finished my journey to the General's office.

"Thank you, sir. I'll pass that along." General Hammond hung up the phone and waved me inside. "What can I do for you, Dr. Jackson?"

"Uh, I think I translated more of the text about the Lost City." I looked out the window at Jack's retreating form. "I'm sorry, General, but is he okay?"

Hammond sat back in his leather chair and sighed. "Not nearly as okay as he wants us to think, and to be honest, I'm right there with him."

My blood ran cold. "Anubis?"

The General shook his head. "No, son. Nothing like that, but you still might want to sit down."

I did as I was bidden. "Me, sir?"

He nodded. "In a way, this concerns you too. The Prometheus didn't check in at their last scheduled radio contact time. That was sixteen hours ago."

A knot formed in the pit of my stomach. "Sam?"

"I contacted the Tok'ra. They said they'd pass the information along to Jacob. Even offered a ship to fly the route that was mapped out for the Prometheus, they just aren't sure when they're going to be able to do that. Frankly, by the time they secure a ship and map out the course, it could be too late. At this point, I have to admit that the entire crew of the Prometheus is MIA."

I was out of my seat faster than I could have thought possible. "General, we can't just give up."

There was a reluctant smile that I suspected had more to do with my non-military status than any actual humor in this situation. "Missing in Action doesn't mean we stop looking, son."

A faint recollection of him saying those words played in the corner of my mind. Like a lot of those little things that I still was piecing together after my ascension.

"I read something about a mission while I was gone, General... SG-1 was onboard the Prometheus. They had to land, but the people didn't know where their stargate was."

"What do you propose, Dr. Jackson?"

"I could put together a list of the planets with stargates on them. You know, the ones in range of the Prometheus."

The General nodded, as if he'd already thought about it. "You give me a list like that, and I'll send SG teams to check them out."

"Thank you, sir."

I wasn't foolish enough to believe it was much, but it was something. And if anyone knew the value of that kind of hope, it was me. That was the tiny silver lining that had come from the seemingly fruitless search to free Sha're all those years ago.

Jack almost groaned again when I slipped into the elevator beside him.

"You heard about Sam?"

He grunted a response, his mood even darker than it had been at breakfast.

I rehearsed everything the General and I had talked about, and it was clear from Jack's responses that he already knew everything I knew and maybe a bit more.

Maybe that was what Jack had been talking to Hammond about before I got there with my translation.

In the back of my mind, I cursed. I'd never gotten around to tell the General about my latest discovery. I really needed to make a note so I didn't forget to circle back to that when things with Sam eased up.

I looked back at Jack. He looked awful. More like the Colonel I met when we first went through to Abydos. Maybe that was why he'd been in such a bad mood two hours ago, outside the General's office.

"Sounds like a long shot."

I studied him a little more intently. I had to bite back a flippant comment wondering if this was the great Jack O'Neill. The man who had convinced Teal'c to turn on a god and save us all from an impossibly secure prison

This wasn't the time to crack a joke, though. I could read that much in Jack's expression.

"Well, unfortunately the Tok'ra are unable to send a ship at this time. They've promised to retrace the route of the Prometheus as soon as they can, but you know, visiting these planets is—"

Jack gave a little shove against the wall before he turned to me. "What? Is what?"

The look in his eyes shook me. It was so familiar and yet so foreign. I'd never seen it in his eyes before, but I'd seen it in my reflection plenty of times. He's in love with her.

"Is something," I finally managed.

As the realization solidified in my mind, I felt a pang of sympathy for the two Air Force officers. A vague memory settled over me as I recalled Jack saying something about it being against regulation. A couple memories of Samantha Carter kissing Jack O'Neill. Alternate realities, my brain supplied.

That time Jack tried to beat me up for asking if Sam was all right.

That look on Sam's face when I asked her if she and I had been romantically involved, still confused by the amnesia.

Jonah protecting Thera when Keenan tried to put her in her place. The way they leaned on each other when they thought no one was looking.

Damn, how'd I forget all that?

I could almost hear Oma Desala laughing in the back of my mind. If you immediately know the candlelight is fire, the meal was cooked a long time ago.

Jack sighed, apparently giving up the fight. "Yeah."

I knocked on the door, hoping that Teal'c wasn't in the middle of kelno'reem or something.

"Enter."

Even though the voice was deep, I could hear it through the door, and I turned the handle and stepped inside.

Teal'c turned from where he'd just blown out one of the candles on his dresser toward me. "Daniel Jackson."

I closed the door behind me, not wanting anyone to accidentally overhear us. "Hey, Teal'c, I need your help."

"Indeed." Teal'c gestured for me to sit beside him on the floor.

Thanks to his decor, I sat in a common meditative stance, though I had no intention of attempting kelno'reem. "I think I remembered something, but it's not the kind of thing I feel comfortable asking just anyone about."

Teal'c lifted his eyebrow the way he did when he was intrigued by something.

Even as I sat there, I wondered if I was breaking a confidence by asking Teal'c this question. Was I putting him in an incredibly awkward position? It's why I hadn't gone to Sam's best friend, Janet. Why, even though I suspected he already knew, I didn't ask Hammond.

"I ran into Jack in the elevator a few minutes ago. Asked him if he'd heard about Sam."

The quirk of Teal'c's head indicated he hadn't heard. "Is Major Carter unwell?"

I shrugged. "It's the Prometheus. They're overdue for contact. General Hammond says he's about to list them as MIA."

A note of worry sparked in Teal'c's eyes. "Has O'Neill been informed?"

I raised a finger, like he'd just come round to my original question. "Why did you just ask that?"

The slightest unnatural pause. "He is her commanding officer."

I shook my head. "No, Teal'c. I don't think that's why you asked that. I think you know what I just remembered."

Teal'c shifted. For a Jaffa of preternatural discipline and stamina, that was as much an admission as I could expect to get. "Daniel Jackson, I am unsure to what you are referring—"

"But if you were, you'd tell me to be quiet, right?"

Teal'c stiffened.

I waved my hand. "Just tell me one thing. How long has this been going on?"

Teal'c didn't say anything.

"I remember Jack trying to beat me up when he was infected with the Virus from the Land of Light, and there were a few moments when we had those memory stamps when it was clear they were becoming an item, but is there something else I forgot?"

Teal'c remained stoic.

"Look, I just want to make sure Jack knows we're here for him. Apparently, he doesn't want to hear from me. Though that's probably because I hadn't connected the dots, so I didn't act the way I might have if I'd known. I'm afraid that if I go, he's going to—"

"I will go."

Something about that seemed to suggest that Teal'c had known about their secret far longer than he was willing to admit.

That was fine with me. If I was in their position, I'd want Teal'c as my secret keeper, too.

"Okay. Uh, let me know if there's something I need to worry about."

Teal'c just inclined his head a fraction of an inch.

As I left Teal'c's room on the base, exhaustion seemed to crowd in on me all at once. I'd never really be one for praying, but I looked upward as if my thoughts could find Sam wherever she was. Come home. We need you. He needs you.

It hadn't been like I expected some sort of celestial receipt of my message, but I had to admit that with all I'd just learned, Sam's disappearance weighed a little more heavily on me, too. Searching the galaxy for Sha're had been hard enough. I wasn't about to watch Jack go through the same thing while we looked for Sam.

Maybe I was a coward, but I wasn't sure I could watch that story play out a third time. Certainly not with a similar, empty-handed outcome.

No, Sam had to come home, and if I had to be the one to hold out hope that she would, I'd carry that burden gladly. And when she was back, we'd go search for the Lost City of the Ancients.