Chapter 9

"So you're living in Toronto, now?" Jack asked Sammi. He was sitting with the younger two children on a built-in stone bench, in one of the little conversation nooks surrounding the alien building. Sammi was sitting to his right, Daniel to his left. Right now he was engaging the youngsters in conversation while waiting for Janet, Teal'c, and Bra'tac to complete Teal'c's medical exam.

"Uh-huh," said Sammi, nodding emphatically. She was filling him in on the many moves she'd already experienced in her short life as a "Military Dependent" of a an officer who was rising rapidly through the ranks of the Cold War Air Force. "Daddy is working with the Canadian Air Force on something very important," she told him earnestly, her big blue-grey eyes widening dramatically. "But Mark and I aren't supposed to talk about anything we may overhear, or listen on the extension when Daddy's on the phone, or brag to our friends, or even mention that he's doing something important." Then a look of comic dismay filled her face and she sheepishly said, "Oops!"

"Hey, hey, it's okay!" O'Neill reassured her. "You're in the future now, remember? And if you're talking about the North American Satellite Defense Program, that was declassified years ago. It's posted on the internet now, for crying out loud!"

"What's the internet?" asked Daniel, pulling down his royal-blue pant leg after having just finished checking–yet again!–that his lollipop was still safely tucked into the top of his sock. The lightweight track pants he was wearing lacked pockets. He slid the heel of his bent leg off the bench and resumed swinging his legs as he looked up at Jack curiously.

Oh, crap! Yep, that was a bucket of worms opened right there. Jack opened and closed his mouth helplessly. Now Sammi was looking up at him curiously as well. O'Neill tried to think back to his childhood to see how he would have thought of the internet back then. But nothing in Buck Rogers or Disney's gleaming Tomorrowland came close to paralleling the incredible reach, scope, and creativity of the internet, or the speed with which it had become indispensable and inescapable in American culture. It had literally gone from zero to everywhere in 15 years or so. He was a fish trying to explain the ocean to mountain lion cubs.

Sammi giggled, "You look funny. Your eyebrows keep going up and down and your mouth keeps opening and closing."

Daniel rocked back and forth, laughing with glee, "You look like my daddy did when Ahmad told him the marketplace was all sold out of coffee!"

Sammi looked at Daniel with interest, "My daddy likes coffee, too! He gets upset when my mama tells him we're out." She grinned with impish amusement.

At this opportune moment, Janet, Teal'c and Bra'tac emerged from the building. Teal'c's mouth was downturned in disgruntlement as he stared at the band-aid on his left arm. Jack wasn't sure if that was because of the primitive state of Tau'ri medical science, or the cartoon figure on the band-aid. They'd been able to find some standard BDUs that almost fit him, Jack noted. He hoped no one pointed out to the boy that they were undoubtedly sized for female personnel. Or was that the reason for his disgruntlement? The grown Teal'c would have been amused, but this Teal'c was at an age that was very self-conscious about his masculine dignity.

Bra'tac claimed the youth's attention by clapping one hand on his shoulder. "Teal'c, please watch over your younger teammates while I confer with our allies. I know this is a task that you can perform well. Keep alert, and use all your craft and strategy."

All sulkiness dropped off of Teal'c's face, replaced by conscientious eagerness. "I will do so, Master Bra'tac." Damn, if Bra'tac could bottle what he had and sell it, military programs everywhere would be lining up to buy it. Jack would score a barrel of it for his own use with some of the disciplinary cases it was his pleasure to deal with as Hammond's 2IC. Before being assigned to this position, he wouldn't have thought "laundry abuse" was even possible.

Teal'c took up a slightly officious stance near Sammi and Daniel, who were looking up at him with surprised fascination. Jack pushed himself off the bench, giving the smaller children a reassuring smile, and Teal'c an acknowledging nod as well. Then he joined the physician and the leader of the Jaffa resistence.

As he did so, the General saw them gathering, and excused himself from his discussion with one of the members of the archeology department. They moved toward Hammond as he headed in their direction, which resulted in everyone meeting at a convenient distance from the research teams and the children.

"Master Bra'tac, Colonel O'Neill, Doctor Fraiser," General Hammond acknowledged each of them in turn. "What have you learned so far about... this situation?"

Janet, after a glance at the other two, took the lead. "Well sir, none of them–including Colonel O'Neill–shows any signs of infection with any viruses or nanites that might be communicable." Jack raised his eyebrows in surprise, not having considered that possibility. He'd thought she'd taken his blood sample as an example for Daniel.

Janet took a deep breath. "The next issue is that Teal'c's symbiote, er "Junior" seems to be missing."

"Whoa! Doesn't he need that?" exclaimed Jack in concern.

Bra'tac took that question. "While it is traditional to implant Jaffa children with their first prim'ta at 100 moon-cycles of age, or sometimes earlier if it becomes necessary due to injury or illness, a Jaffa can survive until the onset of puberty without one. Teal'c at his current age had not been implanted yet, because he missed the time of ceremony in Cronus's domain, and the next one in Apophis's domain had not occurred yet.

"But though a Jaffa child doesn't not need a prim'ta implanted until puberty to survive, once one has been implanted he will grow ill and die if it is taken away afterwards. And as the adult Teal'c did have a prim'ta... I do not know what that means yet, for Teal'c now." Bra'tac's voice was outwardly calm but his expression was grim, and his grip on his staff weapon was white-knuckled.

"And of course that leads to the big question of 'Where's Junior now, if not in Teal'c?" O'Neill said slowly. "Or should it be, 'Who's Junior now?' given that we've had yea-many people in and out of that planetorium by now?" And is it me? Kawalsky didn't know HE'D been infected by a Goa'uld at first, either. Jack shuddered; once was enough!

The Jaffa warrior grimaced at Jack's flippant way of referring to the larval Goa'uld who served as the adult Teal'c's immune system. "Teal'c's current prim'ta--'Junior' as you say– is far too immature to take a host at this time, or even survive for long out of a Jaffa's womb or a priest's symbiote tank. We need not worry that any of your people have become a host. And as Teal'c's womb has been restored to an unawakened state, we can hope that he is now able to live without a prim'ta. Hoping and knowing are different things, however. I will not be content until I again know that Teal'c is well and healthy."

"And to confirm that, we need to get Teal'c back to the SGC. Now, before his immune system has a chance to crash, if it is going to crash." Janet's voice was very serious; she was completely focused on her role as physician. And the glance she flicked to General Hammond paired with a jerk of her head toward Jack indicated that she remembered what happened with poor Kawalsky and a supposedly immature Goa'uld from a Jaffa's pouch as well. They needed to do their standard post mission exams ASAP.

At that moment they heard a dull thunk followed by a brief sound of spattering water droplets and a squeal of childish outrage. The adults turned to see Daniel by the trunk of a small tree, one leg still crooked and arms outspread for balance. The trunk had a wet shoeprint on it at about Daniel's current waist-level, and its branches were swaying with transferred motion, releasing a burst of leftover raindrops on Daniel and his two compatriots.

Before any adult could remonstrate with the little boy, who was staring up into the little tree's low canopy in surprise, an avenging angel with sparkly butterfly sticker stalked over to him, grabbed a branch above his head, and vigorously shook the branch, revitalizing the tree's slowing motion and generating a fresh sprinkling of water. She glared at him and shouted self-righteously, "See!"

Daniel cringed apologetically and said, "Sorry." He looked up at Sammi through his eyelashes appealingly, grimacing with embarrassment.

Teal'c came over to them and said reprovingly, "That was foolish, Sammi Carter."

Sammi's mouth dropped open indignantly. "But, Teal'c, he sprinkled me when he kicked the tree! You saw him. He even sprinkled on you, too!"

"Yes, and by shaking the tree again you have increased the ... sprinkling. In fact, more so than Daniel Jackson did originally. On yourself, as well as Daniel and myself."

It was Sammi's turn to look embarrassed, as she realized the truth of this. She looked down and muttered, "Sorry."

Now Teal'c turned to Daniel and said, "And whoever this "Bruce Lee" may be, it is unwise to shake trees on unfamiliar planets. They may contain noxious insect life, that will sting or bite in their own defense if they are disturbed." Teal'c rubbed his neck, a look of pained recollection on his face.

Daniel looked up at the tree in alarm, and began backing away from the shelter of its boughs. "Um, yeah. Nick told me about tree-scorpions in Mexico and Central America. Maybe we'd better..."

The word "scorpions" was enough for Sammi; she was already out from under the tree. "Come on, boys! You need to get out from under there!" She looked around anxiously at the surrounding vegetation, as if eight-legged arachnids with giant curved stingers were waiting to shower down on them.

"Indeed. It would be judicious." Teal'c put a hand on Daniel's shoulder and hastened the already-retreating little boy out from under the shadow of the stilling tree, which now had ample payback against its harassers. Jack could almost imagine arboreal snickering in the rustling of its leaves.

General Hammond chuckled. "Well, it looks to me like it's time to get these kids back to the SGC. Let me have a last word with the science teams, and then we'll move out. Colonel, Major, if you'll get the youngster's ready? Master Bra'tac, I'll be back directly."

Bra'tac turned from gazing at Teal'c with pride and amusement. "As soon as you are ready, Hammond of Texas. I stand prepared"

Hammond moved off, and Jack turned and called his kids over to them, interrupting speculation on whether this was the right climate for scorpions, and if stinging caterpillars were worse than scorpions or vice versa.

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After the children had been reassured, somewhat inaccurately, that this was obviously too damp a climate for scorpions, they were ready–finally!–to move back toward Earth and the SGC. Not before time, either: The shadows were already starting to lengthen despite the long, late-spring daylight, and the kids were looking more and more longingly at their lollipops. (Teal'c had chosen the blue raspberry one.)

The returning group had said farewell to the engrossed research teams and started back to the Stargate. Most of the storm runoff had... run off by then, but there were still plenty of impressively-large broken off branches to distract the youngsters from their rumbling bellies.

Jack kept a weather eye out for Teal'c, but it seemed the older boy was still fully healthy, if getting very hungry. O'Neill wasn't alone in that; not only Bra'tac and Doctor Fraiser, but General Hammond and Major Dixon were discreetly monitoring Teal'c's condition. But if anything he seemed to be weathering the hike back better than Sammi and Daniel, who had shorter legs and less cultural inhibition against whining. Though the sight of a lightning-struck tree excited their scientific interest for a while.

But it was the sight of the Stargate that really revived the two flagging younger children. They stared at it mouths open in amazement as Major Dixon, a family man himself who knew all about "the witching hour", went immediately to the DHD and started dialing.

Since his youthened teammates seemed safely occupied for the moment, Jack stepped over to where Janet, Bra'tac, and General Hammond had just freed the medical F.R.E.D. from yet another broken off tree limb. "Doc, whatever your plans are for these kids, you need to get them fed soon, or their blood sugar is gonna crash. That's not fun in the adult versions."

Janet sighed, "Well, I had wanted to..."

"C'mon, Daniel! Last one there is a rotten egg!" an excited, childish voice called out, cutting off the rest of Dr. Fraiser's sentence and turning O'Neill's blood to ice. He spun to see two curious and delighted Earth-born children, start running forward to investigate this new phenomenon at close range, toward the real-life danger of the unstable vortex of a forming wormhole...

Jack's special-ops trained reflexes threw him forward into a lunge, and he managed to grab a handful of Daniel's shirt. His other hand just missed Sammi's shoulder. Overcompensating to keep from falling on top of Daniel after the missed grab, he sat down hard in the leaf mold, bringing the small boy down with him.

None of the other adults were in a position to catch the athletic little girl either, as she sprinted full-speed toward the Stargate just after Major Dixon hit the central crystal. A look of horror covered the major's face as he saw the unfolding situation, and he surged forward desperately to intercept her path, defying time, distance and pitiless reality.

The wormhole vortex was starting to form in the Stargate as Sammi reached the bottom of the ramp, poised to continue up it straight into a plasma backwash. The intent child didn't seem to hear the barely-started cries of warning behind her, she was so completely focused on futuristic science and competitive fervor.

Then she was flying sideways off the ramp into the underbrush as the white wave of the kawoosh clipped the shoe of her tackler, before subsiding back into the blue and harmless-looking event horizon, as if it hadn't almost forced Jack to relive the worst event of his life.

Time started again, and as if freed from an evil spell, everyone ran to where Teal'c lay on top of a stunned Sammi.

"You...you pushed me! Why did you do that? I didn't do anything to you!" The little girl's lower lip was trembling again, her huge eyes full of hurt indignation.

"You were about to run into the shrel'en'avak of the chaapa'ai, Sammi Carter!" returned the shaken but resolute Teal'c as he moved off the smaller child and sat up. "It is death to do so. I realized that if you did not know of zat'nik'itel, you might not know of this danger either, and I feared you would be consumed before you could be made aware."

"But... but... I didn't... No one..." Sammi literally couldn't seem to think what to say, her eyes puzzled and embarrassed.

"He is correct, foolish girl of the Tau'ri!" Brat'tac said harshly. "If Teal'c had not acted as swiftly as he did, you would no longer be among the living!"

Jack had seen Bra'tac intimidate decorated Marines and Special Forces commandos, but what caused Sammi to break down completely was General Hammond's solemn, "I'm very disappointed in you, Samantha Carter. I thought I could trust you to act sensibly."

Curling in on herself, she pulled up her legs and wrapped her arms around them, hiding her face in her hands. She burst into a storm of heartbroken tears from shame, surprise, and unexpected censure.

"Hey! It wasn't her fault! She didn't know!" Daniel Jackson wormed his way through the forest of adult legs to plop down beside Sammi and put his arm around her. "Please don't cry, Sammi. I would have gone, too, if Jack hadn't grabbed me. It's not your fault. Please don't cry."

Sammi was beyond such easy soothing, however. The multiple shocks of the day were too much for her on top of this last trauma, and her shoulders shook as her crying reached hysterical intensity. Daniel's eyes widened with dismay at this response to his well-meant efforts. The adults exchanged worried looks. Their reprimands had been from the reflexive anger of sudden relief, but no one had intended to cause this kind of desolation!

Aww, Sammi. She had seemed so confident and self-possessed in dealing with her strange dislocation that Jack had been focusing on Daniel and Teal'c. He walked forward and sat down by her other side and wrapped his arm around her. Daniel, looking relieved at the adult back-up, let go on his side. Pulling her close, Jack spoke in a quiet, gentle voice to the overwrought girl. "It's okay, Sammi, everything's okay. It's all right to cry. Nobody's mad at you, we were just scared. I should have warned you about what would happen when the Stargate dialed up. It was my fault, not yours. Just go ahead and cry–you're entitled."

Sammi turned toward him, and then somehow she was in his lap, cradled in his arms with her face buried in his jacket as she sobbed out all the disappointments, terrors and injustices she'd experienced since she'd woken up in the hallway of a building on another planet, 27 years in the future. But the sense of hysterical overload was gone, and these were the healing tears that "cleaned your eyes and heart out" as Sara used to tell Charlie.

Daniel was rubbing her back now, his face full of sympathy. Teal'c knelt in front of her looking concerned but uncertain of what to do. Jack could hear Hammond talking on the radio in the background, then the wormhole disengaged.

Slowly, her tears began to subside as she gradually cried herself out. Finally she was still and quiet in his arms, except for a few residual hitches, but her face remained buried in his jacket. He rubbed the back of her head with one hand and asked softly, "Hey, are you okay?"

A muffled, embarrassed voice replied, "I've gotten snot all over your jacket."

It was both so prosaic and so quintessentially Sam Carter that it surprised a brief laugh out of him. "Hey, that's okay. Like the bumper stickers say, 'Snot happens'."

She burst into a fit of watery giggles at that. "That's not what they say! They say... a bad word."

"Well, that's what they SHOULD say. Because everybody cries, sooner or later, and with tears, come snot. I don't know why it's that way, but it is. 'From every nose some snot must run'."

She giggled again, and the laughter shook the last few tears out. At last she lifted her face a little away from his jacket. Janet, who was squatting nearby, handed the little girl some wet wipes to clean her tear-...and snot-... stained face.

Sammi wiped her face clean, then tried to clean off O'Neill's jacket as best she could. Afterward she put the used wipes into a plastic bag that Janet held out for that purpose. Only then did she lift her face and look up at the faces around her in chagrin. "I'm sorry," she said in a subdued voice.

"For what?" asked Jack calmly, taking up the back-rubbing that Daniel stopped while she cleaned her face.

"It is we who should apologize, Samantha," said Bra'tac earnestly. "Any Jaffa child of your age would know the dangers of the chaapa'ai. And your adult self was better versed in them than I myself. I forgot that in your Tau'ri childhood you would have no knowledge of such things. When I saw Teal'c fling himself into harm's way to save you, my terror for both your lives was great, as was my wrath afterwards once the danger was past. I then spent my wrath on one who truly had no fault in the matter. Ai! I am an old man, and my brain has grown as wrinkled as my face!" A faint, shy smile from Sammi rewarded Bra'tac's self-deprecation.

Hammond came back over and knelt in front of Sammi, holding out his arms. "I'm sorry, dear. Would you forgive your old Uncle George and give him a hug?"

Sammi smiled a big, wonderful smile and reached up and hugged the General. Then she hugged Bra'tac, to the seasoned warrior's delight, which she followed by hugging Teal'c "for saving me." Daniel also received a hug "for sticking up for me," and Janet got one "for being nice." Major Dixon got one "so he wouldn't feel left out," she said with a giggle after the experienced father pretended to whine at the unfairness. She didn't give a verbal reason for the one she gifted Jack with, but he understood nonetheless.

Teal'c of course, came in for a lot of praise from all the adults for his swift heroic response. Master Bra'tac did call him his best student, to Teal'c's delight (and Jack's relief that his own credibility was now propped up). Daniel looked up at the older boy with hero-worshipping eyes, as did their little blonde tomboy. The trainee Jaffa warrior seemed both gratified and embarrassed by all this regard.

And while all these warm fuzzies were wonderful, the adults involved exchanged meaningful looks as Sammi was trading embraces with the other children. It was apparent that integrating three "time travelers" into 21st century America was going to be far more complicated than all had first realized. Their "adventure in the future" was rated R for Real Danger.

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Janet determined that Sammi and Teal'c had received a few scratches from their rough landing, which were immediately disinfected; they'd learned not to take risks with offworld pathogens. In addition a sizeable chunk had been taken out the sole of one of Teal'c's boots by the edge of the plasma backwash, only the multiple layers of socks protecting his flesh from damage. This discovery seemed to call for a new round of hugs to Sammi, and no one begrudged it. They had come way too close to a horrible tragedy.

But finally enough love had been shared, and as a gorgeous sunset began, the gate was dialed again without incident, with Jack holding Daniel and Sammi's hands. This time the younger two showed no disposition to surge forward, even after the plasma backwash receded. But with the grown-ups and Teal'c' urging them, they came hesitantly up the stone ramp. Major Dixon demonstrated walking through the ramp and through the Stargate, and Jack warned them that matter could only go one way to prevent anyone from trying to run back to PJC-876 after arriving at the SGC.

By now both Sammi and Daniel looked very alarmed, and O'Neill cursed himself again that he'd neglected to explain all the important information about the Stargate on the trip in. If they could have avoided the near miss with the unstable vortex, the smaller kids would be loving their first experience with the 'Gate as much as their adult selves had. Say, that was an idea...

He told them both of their first experience with the Stargate "in the future" and how Daniel had stood and played with the event horizon for a good five minutes before stepping through. This was information Jack didn't have until viewing the video footage after his own return to Earth, as he told Sammi when she got indignant at the news he'd pushed her through long before she'd had near that much time to play with it.

But her competitive spirit seemed to have completely eradicated her apprehension, and all three of them played with the puddle for several minutes. "All three" being Sammi, Daniel and O'Neill, of course. To Teal'c, the chaapa'ai was old hat, and he quizzically watched the childish antics of the Tau'ri with an amused Bra'tac at his side.

Jack stopped playtime after Sammi learned to slap the puddle in exact counterpoint to Daniel's rhythm, canceling out his ripples. She seemed to feel that the smaller child would be happy to have this fascinating principle of physical science demonstrated to him. Instead, she was miffed when the younger boy gave an annoyed demand for her to "Quit it!" Jack grabbed them both by the hand and tugged them through the event horizon before relations could deteriorate any further.