"Whoa, whoa, whoa, where do you think you're going?"
"Out to help Sam and Teal'c."
Carolyn crossed her arms and wondered if escape attempts from the infirmary were a requirement for being on SG-1. "Fine, if you can get out of that bed without falling over, I'll let you leave."
Jackson smelled a trap; but he also wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He sat up slowly and swung his legs off the bed. Daniel's entire body ached from the force of the crash, but he'd managed to escape with nothing more than a concussion. He glanced up at Lam with a confident smile on his face, but his knees buckled the second he let go of the bedrail.
Carolyn easily caught him beneath the arms and helped him back up onto the bed. "Give it six hours Daniel." She chewed her bottom lip as she helped him cover his legs back up with the blanket, "I know you're worried about Cameron, I am too, but if anyone can find him, it's Sam and Teal'c." Lam did her best to keep the uncertainty out of her voice; the fact that she hadn't heard from Sam yet was telling her that he hadn't been in the area.
Even with his double vision Daniel could see the intense fear in her eyes. "You like him, don't you?"
"Um, I-" Carolyn paused to compose herself slightly, "of course I like him, he's my friend. Just like you are." She managed to hang on to her best 'who me?' grin for several seconds before the reality of the situation caught up her again.
"Riiight."
That's when she melted.
Lam slumped down on the edge of the bed and dropped her face into her hands, "I could never figure out how to tell him; and now I may be too late."
Daniel awkwardly pulled her head down onto his shoulder, his scrub shirt soaking up her tears. He'd never seen Carolyn so un-glued before, the depth of her sorrow spoke volumes to how much she truly cared for Cam. And here he'd been ready to wallow in his own guilt over not being able to protect Mitchell, but right now a friend needed him.
He gently rocked her back and forth, waiting for her sobs to diminish "hey, come on now, we will find him, and he will be ok."
Carolyn finally sat up and discreetly wiped at her eyes, "thanks Daniel. Ok, back to business; headache?"
"Getting better."
"Nausea?"
"Not anymore."
"Good." She flicked the pen light across his eyes one more time before making some notations in his chart. "Rest, I'll let you know if I hear anything from Sam and Teal'c." She was several steps away before another thought struck her, "and Daniel, there was nothing you could have done. This guy would have gotten to Cameron one way or another."
Jackson allowed his head to drop back onto the pillow; logically he knew she was right, this guy was beyond persistent, but that didn't stop the guilt from eating at him.
He was a little foggy on everything that had happened, but he knew it had been a spectacular fight. It had been apparent from the start that not only was the attacker well trained, but that he'd studied Cameron's fighting style extensively. And Daniel had just sat there watching; granted, he probably wouldn't have stood much of a chance against the larger man, but maybe together he and Mitchell could have gained the upper hand.
The different scenarios played in Daniel's head as he slowly drifted off to sleep.
STARGATE: SG-1
He held his breath, listening to the soft crunch of the gravel driveway as Wilks made his way around to the back of the truck. Cam feigned unconsciousness as Wilks opened the hatch to the topper and roughly lowered the tailgate; he slit his eyes open just enough to get a location on the marine and realize that there was a 9 millimeter in his hand. The second Wilks reached for his legs, Cameron let loose with a vicious kick, knocking the gun from his right hand; the back swing catching Wilks squarely in the jaw.
Wilks stumbled back several steps from the sudden attack, another boot to the chest sent him crashing to the ground. He had severely underestimated his captive; he hated the Col with a passion but there was no denying that the man knew his business.
Mitchell didn't waste any time as Wilks stumbled away from the tailgate, landing one more blow; he managed to scramble out of the bed of the truck somewhat gracefully. He didn't bother looking back at Wilks as he ran for the woods; if he made it to the dense vegetation, he had a chance of getting away clean. The quarter moon gave him just enough light to navigate his way across the clearing, but Cam knew it would also provide plenty of shadows for him to hide in once he reached the trees. He heard a commotion behind him and knew that the marine Sgt had made it to his feet; from the sounds of things he was pursuing immediately rather than taking the time to look for his hand gun. Cameron wasn't really sure if that was a good thing or not; on one hand it would have given him more of a lead, on the other, he didn't really feel like getting shot at right now.
Legs pumping as hard as they could, Cam forced himself to ignore the pain in his body. He once again sent a mental thank you to the Sodan; his agility training at their hands was probably the only reason he was still on his feet in the rough terrain despite his bound hands altering his center of gravity.
He hurdled a log at the entrance to the woods, but nearly collapsed as he landed on his injured knee. Three more steps and the knee gave way again, sending Mitchell crashing into a tree and trying desperately trying to maintain his feet.
Wilks smiled as he saw his prey stumble several times; he waited until the Col managed to scramble back to his feet before taking them both to the ground in a diving tackle. Flipping the struggling man to his back, the marine drove his fist into Cam's jaw and immediately felt the fight leave him. He slung his semi-conscious captive over his shoulders and started the trek back toward the small cabin.
"That was not smart Col. You shouldn't have ignored my first warning; now you will see what I want you to see and then I will decide your fate."
Cam suppressed an unconscious shiver at the Sgt's cold tone. He would have liked to make a smart ass comment at that point, bolster his own confidence, but his brain was now running about three minutes behind the rest of him. A quiet, croaked 'why?' was all he could manage as Wilks shoved the cabin door open.
"Because you are not perfect and everyone doesn't love you as you seem to believe."
He dropped Cameron into a wooden backed dining room chair and re-secured his zip-tied hands to the back of the chair. Wilks didn't say another word as he moved into the small kitchen, apparently to fix himself dinner.
Cam really couldn't have cared less; Wilks's words had taken nearly as much fight out of his as his fist had. And with the adrenaline from the last several minutes starting to wear off, he was having a very difficult time maintaining a conscious state.
Unable to control the directions his thoughts took, Cameron was brought back time and again to the marine's comment. He wasn't pretentious enough to believe that everyone loved him, but he couldn't help but wonder if there were others that hated him as much as Wilks obviously did. He'd been blind enough to miss Wilks's animosity, not that he'd ever spoken more than two words to the man. Cam was introspective enough to know that he was much happier when he was liked by those around him; but how much had that clouded his judgment of reality.
From the other room, Wilks watched with an evil grin as the pilot's head dropped further and further toward his chest. It was easy to discern that his mental and physical warfare were both taking an extreme toll on Mitchell.
STARGATE: SG-1
General Landry surveyed the people surrounding the conference table as he tried to keep his cool, "how many?"
"Thirty-one, sir, but several of those can be ruled out since they belong to female personnel. According to the security tapes and Dr. Jackson, Col Mitchell's assailant is male. If we move out two hours from their departure time, the number of viable suspects goes up to fifty-eight."
Landry accepted Reynolds's report with a depressed nod. He turned his attention to a quiet figure at the end of the table, "Dr. Jackson, how are you feeling?"
"I'm fine General." In truth his head hurt like hell and he was incredibly stiff, but Daniel wasn't going to let that stop him from taking part in this investigation.
The General wasn't fooled in the least, but he had enough bad news to impart during this meeting, so he wasn't going to push Jackson right now. "Col Reynolds, you're in charge of the investigation, I want updates every four hours. The Odyssey has been recalled, it will be here in three days in case we don't find Col Mitchell by that time."
"General, what of the satellite system that was developed for the locators? Can we not use that to locate Col Mitchell?"
"I'm sorry Teal'c, it won't be operational for another month."
Sam hung her head, blaming herself for the delays in the project; she'd handed off the locating system technology to be implanted in the satellites two weeks ago, but development had taken longer than she expected. She looked up when she felt a warm hand drop comfortingly onto her shoulder. Carter gave the other woman a half smile, all the while avoiding meeting Carolyn's eyes, knowing that she would see her own fear and worry reflected there.
"Moving on, we received at transmission from the Birnyans a short time ago. They are ready to begin negotiations tomorrow; you leave at 0900." Landry discreetly prepared himself for the outburst he knew would be coming.
"WHAT!? I'm sorry sir, but I'm not going anywhere until we get Cameron back."
Teal'c's outraged growl and Daniel's sputtering effectively showed their support of Sam's statement.
"Col, I don't like this anymore than you do, believe me. I attempted to explain our situation to them, but the Birnyans won't budge; it's you or no one, and it's tomorrow or never. The IOA is chomping at the bit to get their hands on the Birnyans' shield technology; they're not giving me a choice on this one." The General's explanation had done nothing to soften the glares that were being shot in his direction from everyone at the table, but he did have an ace up his sleeve. "However, I did manage to convince them that our delegates were not allowed to negotiate for more than six hours in a span of two days, union regulations and all. And I will recall you immediately if we find Col Mitchell."
Daniel finally nodded, not doubting that Landry had done everything in his power to talk their way out of this one. Mitchell and the General weren't exactly close, but anyone could see the immense respect they had for each other. That and Jackson had overheard a conversation between the General and Jack; Landry telling O'Neill how impressed he was with Cameron, and that if Jack couldn't be there, he was glad it was Mitchell leading the team.
Sam quickly checked her watch, realizing that it was now well past 0300. It was going to be a short night.
"Go get some sleep people; we've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow."