Author's Note: I don't own Stargate. I can't believe that this story has been going on for two years! For two years I've been on a journey through the Stargate with you all and I thank you. BTW I decided you all deserved some fluff after the oh so serious chapters lately, so enjoy. Italics indicate a different language is being spoken.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Teal'c and I walked down to Apophis' hospital room. We had been walking side by side in silence for several minutes.
"Erin Clark you are troubled." Teal'c suddenly spoke.
"Nope." I said emphasizing the "p". I crossed my arms and kept walking.
Teal'c raised his eyebrow and continued after me. "You have been since we returned from the old Tok'ra homeworld."
He caught me off guard. If it been anyone else but the old Jaffa warrior walking with me the fault in my steps would have gone unnoticed.
"You need not answer, only listen. When warriors focus solely on one goal, once that goal is reached they know not what to do. And their attempts to remedy the situation can in fact make it worse."
"Me a warrior? Right." My laugh was heartless. Not wanting to talk about my issues right now I tried to make a joke. "How do you fix it?"
"Distance yourself from what is bothering you. Let time and patience be your aid rather than rash decisions. Anger at the situation will become anger for yourself and the others involved" Teal'c said and without waiting for me to respond entered Apophis' room.
I sighed and brought myself up to my full height to steel myself for what was sure to be an unpleasant interaction.
"I will not speak to the Shol'va." Apophis said as I came to stand beside his bed.
Of course he wouldn't.
Without acknowledging his comment I cut straight to the chase. "Sokar is firing an energy beam through our Stargate. What do you know?"
He smirked and turned his gaze up to the ceiling, "Only that there is no defense."
"He lies." Teal'c gritted through his teeth.
"He used the same weapon against me. And I shall die with a smile on my face knowing that you all shall perish with me." Apophis struggled against his restraints to sit up. Then fell back in a fit of coughing and pained gasps.
Janet raised a syringe to inject morphine into his IV. Teal'c's reflexes were fast and his hand was suddenly wrapped around Janet's.
"Come no further. Let him suffer." Teal'c's usually quiet voice boomed startling both Janet and I. "And when he can stand the pain no more, he will tell us how to defend ourselves against Sokar's weapon."
"Teal'c." I yelled in warning.
Janet took a deep breath and gently flexed her hand but Teal'c's grip remained firm. "Teal'c, please move."
Teal'c only glared.
"There was a time when you would die for me, Teal'c." Apophis choked out.
Teal'c leaned down, dangerously silent. When he was only a few inches from his former god's face he spoke. "That time is no more."
"Teal'c!" This time I seemed to get his attention, "Outside. Now!"
Teal'c let go of Janet who rushed to administer the sedative. The liquid squirted into Apophis's IV and within seconds he was unconscious.
Once Teal'c and I were down the hall far enough away from the guards that might hear us he stopped.
"Why did you interfere Erin Clark?" Teal'c asked lowly.
"Because I don't think I'm the only one with an anger management issue." Then I sighed and ran my hand across my face.
Teal'c moved to storm away but my hand gently grabbing his arm stopped him, "Listen, gah man when did this all get so complicated?" I asked rubbing my sore neck. "Listen though, as much I as I want to go in there and blow his smug smile right off his face, we need Apophis alive and well enough to give us what we need. And I think I would be best if we both kept our distance from him."
Teal'c contemplated this for a moment and then bowed his head, "I will suggest to O'Neill that someone else be in charge of the interrogations."
"Good idea." I nodded, patted him on the shoulder before stuffing my hands in my uniforms pockets and walking in the general direction of my room.
When I opened the door to my room ten minutes later it took me a few seconds to realize there was someone already in my room.
My first thought was of Cassie as we lived in this room together almost as much as we lived at our condo. Then I remembered that I dropped her off at school before the off-world mission. I received a call earlier from our neighbor, an SGC scientist, whose house she was staying over at their house till all this was over. Thank the gods because I didn't want her on the base if Sokar managed to melt though the Gate's iris.
My next thought was that the person was one of my teammates. But when my bleary eyes focused I saw Skaara standing in the middle of my room.
"Hi." I spoke softly, our last conversation and all my thoughts since blaring in my ears like a horn. My fingers were fiddling with the ends of my sleeves and then I thought it would probably be a good idea to shut the door for privacy's sake.
With the door now closed I turned back to him about to apologize, the suggestion that we keep our distance from each played around in my consciousness when I was suddenly in a tight hug. Skaara had his arms wrapped tight around me, his face buried in the side of my neck.
My own arms were still held up in shock at the sudden embrace. Though he'd been back for a few weeks he'd, besides our immediate kiss when he'd been freed, he'd barely ever touched me beyond holding my hand.
He didn't say anything and neither did I as I brought my arms around him and melted into the embrace. One of his hands moved from where it was on my back and up into my hair to cradle the back of my head.
It was a quiet moment and it felt safe, finally it felt safe here in our little bubble.
I felt something wet on my neck and with a jolt I knew he was crying.
"It's okay." I said stroking the back of his head.
"I'm sorry." He croaked.
"So am I." My voice was muffled in the fabric of his shirt. "How are we going to fix this?" I asked.
We both knew I wasn't referring to the crisis unfolding a dozen floors below us.
"I'm so sorry I took so long to get you back. Gods I'm so sorry." I have a few chances to get him back and I failed. I failed him. "I'm sorry that he's here. The last thing I ever wanted was to cause you more pain."
"I made it home because of you. And I'll get to see my family again. We're not broken, we're stronger than that." He pulled back, both holding both sides of my head, "Where ever you are is my home."
He placed a soft kiss on my forehead and part of me still couldn't believe he was standing right here. I feared that when I opened my eyes again I'd be staring at an empty room. But when I opened my eyes again he was still there, and with a smile I pressed my lips to his cheek and settled back into the comfortable embrace we'd been in.
"We've still got a lot of fight left in us." I sighed happily, wavering slightly on my feet.
His hands moved down to my waist to steady me on my feet. "When was the last time you slept?"
"Don't remember?" I groaned. "You?"
"The same." He walked me over to the bed. "You should sleep."
Sitting down on the bed I pulled off my shoes and curled my feet under me. He ran his hand down the side of my face and I caught it, pressing it to my face before letting him go.
He turned to leave for his quarters.
"Skaara." My voice was small.
He stopped and turned back expectantly.
"Will you stay with me?" I pulled my knees to my chest half expecting him to outright say no. Back home on Abydos we were barely allowed anywhere unaccompanied, much less spend the night together even if it was just sleeping as we weren't married.
His mouth turned up in a small smile as he sat down on the other side of the bed. Laying back Skaara raised his arm and I settled beside him with his arm around my shoulders.
Within a few minutes his breathing evened out and I stole a glance and his face. Finally after all these years there wasn't any pain there or the haunted gaze he'd adopted since he returned. No was there the hate that Klorel twisted his features with. He looked peaceful. Finally.
With a contented sigh I settled my head down and soon drifted off.
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Few hours later, at least I think it was a few hours, I was rudely awakened by my door slamming open. My eyes cracked open.
"Wakey! Wakey sleepy head!" Jack's all too cheery voice shouted as he strolled in. "Hammond's called a meeting and you need to… Oh for Crying Out Loud." He slapped a hand over his eyes when he processed that I wasn't alone, Skaara was stirring beside me. "Nothing! I saw nothing! I swear I saw nothing!" Jack shouted staggering out.
"There was nothing to see!" I threw one of my shoes at his retreating figure. "Come on, let's get up." I placed my hand on Skaara's chest and gently shook him, which fully woke him up.
His brown eyes met mine as he rose from the bed.
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The observation window was steamed up when Jack, Skaara, and I entered the briefing room. Sam was fanning herself with some papers and Daniel was visibly sweating. Martouf and the other Tok'ra didn't look physically stressed, I supposed that their symbiotes were keeping them adjusted to the raised temperatures.
When we entered the Tok'ra, beside Martouf, raised their heads and zeroed in on Skaara. Beside me I felt Skaara stiffen. They hadn't met Skaara before or if they had, in the commotion they'd overlooked him. But now I knew that they sensed that Skaara had been a host, and I knew that Skaara sensed them as well.
I took his hand in mind, offering a comforting squeeze and led us to the seats by Daniel. The Tok'ra relaxed determining that they were just sensing a Goa'uld remnant.
Skaara was pale and visibly shaken taking his seat next to mine. Daniel looked over at us and I patted his arm. He nodded in understanding and looked back at the reports that were strewn on the tabletop.
Hammond entered the room and stopped next to Jack at the window to look down at the Stargate below. "The temperature in the Gate room now reads 130 degrees Fahrenheit, which means the iris must be six or eight times that."
"Even if he fails to breech the Gate, he will come by ship." Martouf surmised.
Sam nodded. "Martouf is right. What we really need to be concerned with here is another assault from space."
Skaara's hand in my tensed as he'd been leading the last assault on Earth, well forced to lead. My thumb ran circles over the back of his hand and his grip on my hand lessened.
Sam continued. "That's exactly what we're inviting by refusing to hand Apophis over."
"Well, we couldn't right now, even if we wanted to." Daniel added and pointed his pen over his shoulder at the still active gate.
"Not with Beelzebub banging at the door, no." Jack rapped his knuckles over the glass.
"I've informed the President of our new situation. Our new orders are to cease all medical intervention." Hammond announced.
"That will effectively end his life, General." Janet protested.
Hammond took his chair at the head of the table. "I'm aware of that, Doctor. The President and Joint Chiefs have decided that the risks are too great not to heed the Tok'ra's warning. Our orders are to send Apophis' body back through the Gate to the coordinates where you found him."
"Will that be sufficient to make Sokar cease his attack, Martouf?" Teal'c asked the Tok'ra.
If Martouf was the kind of guy to shrug, then I bet he would have. As it was he lowered his eyes thoughtfully. "Sokar is at war with Her'ur. He wants no part of the Tau'ri for the moment, but you may have come to your senses too late. He will soon burn through your iris."
"Well, I've been working on a way to dial out faster. If we can open our Gate in the next window, we should be able to send Apophis through." Sam pointed to a page in the report she was holding.
"And when will that be?" I asked.
Sam pulled up her sleeve and glanced at her watch. "Seventeen minutes."
Hammond nodded and turned to Jack who still stood by the window. "Colonel, make arrangements to send Apophis back through the Stargate."
"Yes Sir." Jack answered.
Everybody left except for Daniel, Skaara, and I.
"Apophis doesn't have long." Daniel said looking between Skaara and I. "If you wanted to be there when… you know." When we didn't say anything he shifted uncomfortably. "If you wanted to be there for closure."
"No. I don't need to see that." Skaara said.
"Yeah, I think I'm going to stay here with Skaara." I answered, pressing Skaara's hand between both of mine.
He looked at me, his face full of silent gratitude.
"Ok." Daniel said standing. He gripped Skaara's shoulder tight and then walked out and down the stairs.
We walked down to the control room and waited hand in hand.
At some point Hammond and Sam entered from behind us. The clock counting down to the next window was running out of time.
Down below SGC personnel were spraying water on the red hot gate to keep temperatures barely livable.
Hammond watched on of the man collapse and have to be carried out. "I can't keep those men in there much longer."
"They've got to stay until the next window, sir." Sam was regretful.
Sparks suddenly erupted from the computer panel to out left. Skaara ducked my head down to shield me from the sparks.
"Wow!" I breathed, grabbing his chin and checking to make sure he was all right. Seeing he was unharmed I gripping his hand I pulled us further into the center of the room at what was hopefully a safer distance from the dangerous electricity.
"Sir we're about to lose the critical systems." Simmons shouted over the exploding computer panels. "The heat."
"Captain?" Hammond urged Sam.
"We need them, sir. One more minute until the window." Her hand hovered over the keyboard, ready to punch in the code for the gate address.
After an eternity in which I feared the gate would just keep going and going, it shut down.
"That's it. Initiating the dialing program." Sam yelled a she quickly typed in the code to dial out.
The Gate's chevrons initialized one right after the other, the inner ring spinning faster than I'd ever seen our Earth gate move.
"Chevron seven locked." Simmons announced. The Gate initialized with a whoosh of water.
The lower left blast door in the gate room slid open and Teal'c walked through carrying a body wrapped in linen cloth. He walked up the ramp, stopping just this side of the event horizon. Then Teal'c lifted the body and pushed it through the vertical pool of water.
Once the body was through the gate shut off and didn't reinitialize.
Skaara sighed beside me, sounding like a thousand was lifted off his shoulders. "It's over." He looked to me, "It's really over."
Author's Note: I hope you liked. Again, I've been thinking about doing a series of one shot s based off Skaara's perspective in this story. Let me know if that is something you'd like to see. Again thank you for two great years traveling through the galaxy with me.