4
She had watched helpless as her CO and the man she was starting to fall in love with slowly lost his mind and personality in front of her. When they eventually escaped from the very hot binary system, and she learnt he had provided the plans for her to fix the DHD, she was amazed and grateful, but as she looked into his eyes at the bottom of the ramp, she saw nothing but confusion and sadness.
She tried to follow his workings, she studied the power source he had used to get an intergalactic wormhole open, but she was left with no clue… about any of it.
He returned from wherever he had been, he seemed calmer than before, as if someone had answered an important question. She watched over him as Janet insisted he had a 24 hour obs stay in the infirmary. He may be calmer, but he was still doing it, still his sleep was interrupted by the rigid pose.
However she was soon to receive a massive shock, which made her think for a while that she had never known him at all.
She was still smarting over his reprimand, that she knew she deserved, about watching people die…slowly, the fact that she had been unable to shut off the gate, and so they were still having to watch it meant that she was constantly being reminded that she had acted like a robot rather than as a human being.
She knew that Hank was a friend of her CO, she had liked him enormously too but the Colonel had trained him and was the one who recommended him to lead a team, so she understood he was in pain as he watched, unable to look away, as the video feed slowly arrived.
Then after being told to 'think of something' she entered the control room that had a definite chill to the air, which had nothing to do with the temperature.
"Captain Carter… Colonel Cromwell, he's come to rescue us" then in a low voice, that the person in question could definitely hear, as he was closer than she was "but I wouldn't count on it" she looked at him shocked, hearing the venom in his voice. The newcomer didn't react at all to the comment, as if he expected it!
Once again she felt an urge to know what made her CO tick, though always willing to do his utmost in any situation, he always carried an air of ease around him, allowing her time as well as inspiration for her to work something out. Now it was as if he was made from diamond, he was hard and unyielding, and he refused to look at her direct.
After it was all over, Colonel Cromwell having lost his life during the attempt to get the wormhole to jump, she stood beside her COs bed as he came around. He congratulated her on her idea, and she saw into his eyes once more, he was tired, and more than could be explained by lack of sleep, it was as if he was carrying some burden that was too heavy, for too long.
Everyone else left, she sat there watching as he slept. This time though when he went rigid she noticed sweat standing out on his forehead, and every time he relaxed, his hands shook.
She placed her hand over his, stilling the movement gently, and he turned his hand over, gripping hers firmly. She knew he was asleep, but she hoped in some way he was taking comfort from her touch, as she had taken comfort from his before.
Eventually Teal'c arrived and she rose from the chair, she stretched herself, glancing at the clock, she noticed that she had been sat for over 2 hours in which he had not had a single 'episode' the minute she stood he went rigid.
She made her way to level 16 and into the security room, she commandeered the tapes for the time she needed and carried them all to her lab. She ran the tapes and then using a computer programme compressed the hours and hours into a 4 minute window. She watched shocked as her CO confronted Cromwell, 4 months in an Iraqi prison? Damn she had been a part of dessert storm, she knew people who had been captured, and even knew 2 who had suffered in their prisons.
Neither of her ex classmates had continued in the service after their release, both being discharged on medical grounds as unfit for active service. She knew of no one who had been held who had NOT had to retire, and yet here was her boss, he had been held more than four times as long as anyone else she knew, and he was still on the front lines!
She HAD to know more!
She made a connection to the Pentagon, and carefully, making sure she left no trace and tripped no security programmes she got into the unabridged version of Jack O'Neills files.
She quickly downloaded the files and saved them to a flash drive, she slipped it into her BDU pocket and then made her way out of the mountain. General Hammond had given the team a long weekend to recover, she decided to spend it going through the incredible life of Jonathan O'Neill.
He had been picked for special ops early in his career, though he still kept up with his flight training, which a lot did not. She also noticed he had several high level qualifications as well as being able to speak several languages.
He had been used in a lot of quick jobs, not a lot of undercover work, more extractions and terminations. He was a marksman and had been used several times as a sniper, and his hand to hand made her level 3 (advanced) look like a child slapping someone in the playground.
She arrived at the 'chute accident that he had mentioned, what he had failed to say was his mission had been to seek out a party of suspected suicide bombers and on his way out of the dessert he 'happened' to crawl his way past the village they were in and gather the intel needed. As soon as he was picked up by a patrol over the border he had passed on the information and the cell had been neutralised.
Communiqués found in the leaders home suggested they had a market square in central Baghdad targeted, he had saved tens, if not hundreds of lives, and all while severely injured. In fact by the time the cell was dead, he was STILL in the operating theatre being pinned and pulled about.
He was put back into action as soon as they could get him passed by the MO. And that was the mission where his long time friend Cromwell was in charge.
According to Cromwells report, Jack had been less than 400 yards from the extraction point when he received a bullet to the back. The rest of the 4 man team was headed for his body when they saw 3 jeeps full of insurgents come over the dunes. They had to leave.
Cromwell had insisted on being the one to let Sarah know, she was left with a 3 year old son to take care of.
It was only early the next year, when the US brought arms openly to the area in an attempt to stop escalation that papers were found that told that Colonel Jonathan O'Neill was alive and being held in one of the most notorious gaols in the country. An extraction team was sent in and he was rescued.
Sam wept when she viewed the pictures of the man she knew so well. When he was extracted he weighed little more than Cassie. He reminded her of the pictures of Jews who survived the concentration camps. It was obvious he had been starved, but it was also documented on his body that he had been repeatedly beaten, and abused.
The medical files stated that for the first week the only thing they could get out of him was his name, rank and serial number, he seemed to think he was under the influence of drugs, making him believe he was free. Tests showed a very high concentration of hallucinogens in his system, they had been trying to brain wash him. He had not cracked… if he had his reaction to the hospital would have been very different.
He went through a painful withdrawal, made worse by his weakened condition and the fact that he had a visitor.
Cromwell had gone to visit him a week after he made it back to the states, evidently he was lucky that Jack was in such bad shape as it still took 2 SFs to drag him off the man. The CMO told him not to return.
Sarah was not allowed to see him until he had been 'home' for 2 full months, by that time he had got back some weight and muscle tone, but he was still suffering from sever nightmares.
His reaction to anyone who tried to shake him out of his dream cycle was violent and swift, he injured several SFs and a couple of doctors. Eventually he was admitted to the care of a psychiatrist who noted his total reluctance to communicate.
A note on his records said that he had been advised if he did not deal with his problems he would receive a medical discharge. At that time his medical doctor noted the incidents of nightmares had receded but he had started a strange sleep habit of stiffening his body and any attempt to get him out of the state he had withdrawn into resulted in violent spasm, which threatened to cause injury to himself.
It was theorised by the psychiatrist that he was internalising the nightmares in an effort to stop himself harming others. He knew he could not be released home until his wife was safe from his reactions.
However the psychiatrist refused to release him from care, and pressure was brought from higher up, eventually another shrink signed off on him, he was put back into the field less than a year after his rescue.