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He woke her after the sun was bright enough to make climbing easy. The day was beautiful, blue skies, clear weather, as if none of the last night had ever happened. He shook off the thought, and went to wake Carter.
"Hey." He handed her a cup of coffee as a sort of apology.
"Hey." She smiled at him sleepily, and then pulled her upper body up from the sleeping bag, resting on one elbow, and took the coffee in her other hand. "Thanks." She took a drink and sighed. "I could *so* get used to this."
He smirked, waiting for her to wake up fully and realize what she'd said. It was unusual for Carter to sleep deeply on a mission, and yet, she had.
"Uhh, sir. Sorry, sir." She sat up suddenly, realizing where they were and to whom she was talking.
He turned away so she didn't see his grin. "Not a problem, Carter. Breakfast is almost ready."
She finally joined him, much slower than usual, but her eyes were clear and her expression determined. "Mmmm… powdered eggs. Looks great. Your cooking skills are unsurpassed, sir."
He glanced at her, relieved, but still concerned. Apparently, she was determined to overcome whatever had happened last night, or come to terms with some of it, although he could still see bleak resolve in her eyes.
He decided to play it easy. "Watch it, Carter, or next time I'll top them off with some of those crickets you loved so much on P3X782."
She grinned half-heartedly. "Sorry. I will never question your culinary skills again." She paused, remembering. "And they weren't crickets. They were slimy, ugly slugs. The locals called them -"
"Ack." He raised his hand, interrupting her. "Eat."
She raised her eyebrows, but accepted the order, a real smile finally reaching her eyes.
He watched, contented, while she ate, both of them sitting cross-legged on the ground. When she moved toward the sterno for more coffee, he pulled her hand away and poured it for her.
She smiled, but said nothing, eating.
It was enough.
"So, change of plans."
She looked up at him at that, questioning.
"I did some recon at sunrise. The satellite phone isn't operating within a mile radius either direction in the canyon. Our best bet is to check the site again first and at the same time see if there's coverage higher up. If not, we'll have to hike out until we can reach the SGC and the locals."
Her smile dimmed, but she shook her head in agreement. "Sounds sensible, sir." She finished the last of her breakfast, clearly thinking. She looked up at him. "Did you sleep at all? You should have woken me for watch."
"I'm fine, Carter. I slept in the truck yesterday and you needed the rest." She looked like she was going to protest further, but in the end said nothing.
He shifted off the ground and began putting away the remains of their breakfast, cutting the sterno. "We head out in 10. Leave most of the gear. We'll bivouac here and just take essentials this time." He turned away, pulling his gear together.
He knew she didn't want to revisit the site, for that matter he didn't either, but they had to, and anyway, he thought that if it was clear, some of the nightmare of the last night might fade for them both.
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The climb was easier in full light.
They made first ledge, ignoring the body still covered with the tarp, and then started the rope climb to the site of the massacre.
Jack stopped, staring, when they'd reached the second ledge. "It's gone."
"What's gone, sir?"
He glanced at her carefully, concerned at her lack of memory. "The rock fall. Don't you remember? Now, there's an easy path to the cave from here. What the hell happened? Last night it was nearly impossible to get through."
Carter ignored his first question and looked down. "There."
Jack stared below him. The rocks that had blocked their path the night before were now jumbled down, an avalanche, toward the canyon floor.
"Ah, jeez."
Carter grimaced. "It's a confirmation of a change of timeframe, sir. The rocks would have -"
He interrupted. "Yeah, I got it. But we still don't know if we were really here back then, in the past, or if it was a –hallucination, or something."
She said nothing more, and bent down, steadying her equipment on the ground to see if there were any signs of activity in the cave.
He stared down at her. "Anything?"
She looked up at him and then stood, putting the equipment away. "Nothing."
"OK, let's head in."
He took lead, and headed carefully, weapon at the ready. He lowered it once inside.
There was nothing, as he'd predicted. But he hadn't expected this. The site was totally bare, nearly pristine. The ground, last night covered in blood and the debris of life and then death, was now simply dirt, almost as if someone had deliberately washed it clean, erasing any evidence of the night before. He turned a 360, remembering the pit houses, the structures burning, people hidden in their depths. All of it was gone.
Except for…what was that? He headed to the back of the cave, where he found two clay pots, one red with black geometrical designs, the other black on white, in the far corner. There were two handprints on the wall above them, painted in red.
Ten feet away on the right were the same petrogylphs they'd seen at the cave in Davis Gulch.
Carter came up next to him. "There's no way to know if this was here last night. The bodies -." She stopped and swallowed.
"Yeah, just more fun and games." He looked around once more. "There's nothing here anymore, Carter. Let's head out and see if the satellite phone works on the ledge before we head down."
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With some static and after two tries, he was able to reach the SGC. He crouched down on the ledge, holding the equipment carefully, adjusting the angle when the signal began to die. Hammond was clearly relieved to hear from them as the emissions had triggered again at both sites the night before. Jack was unsurprised when Hammond told him that Reynolds had already checked the Davis Gulch site and it was clean.
Typical. Apparently, the entities only came out to play when he and Carter were around. And apparently, a one shot at each site. He just wished he knew where they wanted to play next. The riddle was the key. And he had no idea how toy decipher it.
The General had ordered an emergency mission to provide back-up at Butler Wash, but Jack was able to dissuade him, and Hammond agreed to his plan to contact the local authorities and to order two members of SG6 to the site, prepped for a long stay. He didn't think anything would come of it, and it was going to be a long tiring wait for SG6, but it was better to be sure.
He already owed Reynolds, what was one more debt in the overall scheme of things? Of course, SG6 was…
"Dr. Jackson and Teal'c asked to participate in the emergency mission."
"What? Good for them." He grimaced. He shouldn't have said it, but he was still irritated with Daniel and he'd lost track of the conversation.
"Colonel?" Hammond was clearly annoyed at his flippant response.
He took off his shades and rubbed his eyes with his left hand, his right adjusting the phone once again. "Sorry, sir. I'm sure they did."
But Hammond must have picked up something from his tone. "You did authorize Dr. Jackson to return to the SGC, did you not?"
Jack swallowed. "Not exactly, sir." He hesitated and then decided to explain some. "Daniel's a civilian, sir. Sometimes he -"
Unfortunately, Hammond was always quick on the uptake. "He's also a member of this Command. Get your team under control, Colonel."
"Yes, sir."
Hammond was silent for a beat and then continued. "I'll send them with SG6. Dr. Jackson has deciphered the message. I've sent for him and he should be here… now." Hammond handed the phone to Daniel.
"Jack, I've got it."
"Hope it's not catching."
"Funny. I deciphered the language and -"
Jack interrupted, totally exasperated. It was bad enough that Daniel was disobeying his orders, but now *he* was getting reamed out for Daniel disobeying his orders. Not that that wasn't correct. Daniel was his responsibility, even if the man didn't understand that.
"Glad you had fun. If pointless. Ruess remembered how to speak English while you were gone. If you're done playing, maybe you could get your ass to Butler Wash before we all die of old age."
He cancelled the connection.
Carter came up behind him, putting two and two together. "Hammond blamed you for Daniel, didn't he?"
"It's all part of the job, Carter. It doesn't matter."
"It does." Her tone was vehement, her anger clear.
Jack responded instinctively. "Major, leave it. Hammond's right. Daniel is my responsibility."
"Sorry, sir." She stared out at the canyon bottom, clearly holding back.
He grimaced and stood up, staring at her, his anger dissipating in concern. "No, I'm sorry, Major."
He paused as she avoided his gaze. "What's going on, Carter?"
She shook her head. "He should have been here. He could have documented whether what we saw was accurate."
He stared at her, honestly confused. "And that matters, why? I was there. Is there something you saw that I didn't and I need to know about?"
She swallowed and turned the question aside. "Sorry, sir. It's not important."
He tilted his head. "And yet clearly it is."
She said nothing.
He rubbed his eyes again, suddenly extremely tired. He hadn't slept for days, it seemed. There were aliens on Earth that wanted to play games, his Command had just reprimanded him, Daniel was, as usual, ignoring him, and Carter wouldn't talk. Teal'c was probably pissed because he'd ordered him to watch Daniel's back and would think that Jack didn't have grip on the real problem at hand.
Which was true.
Damn. His team was dissolving right before his eyes, and he wasn't sure what to do.
Missions on Earth were the pits.
He gave it up and got back to the immediate matter at hand.
"It's alright, Carter. Let's contact the local authorities and then head back to the back-up site. No one will be here for six hours or so, and to be honest, I could use the sleep."
A/N. Sorry for the delay ( yeah, I keep saying that, sorry.) But, honestly, I am. More should come quickly as the next few chapters just need some edits. Thanks for reading and for your patience! I also very much appreciate all the comments! And the encouragement! Thanks.