AN: And now it's Sam's turn!
Spoilers: This was written for season six, so spoilers up to that.
Disclaimer: Sooooo not mine.
Rating: Kid Friendly
Summary:
The flames of sacred fire show you what you wish to see:
What was, what will, what might come true,
And what can never be.
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What Might Come True
Samantha Carter was not a biologist. Nor was she a chemist. She was a physicist. She dealt with numbers: pure and simple. Well, maybe simple wasn't the best word, but she had always found them easy when others didn't. Hers was a clean science.
She had spent the last few days in Janet's make-shift field laboratory, cranking out dose after dose of the vaccine. It wasn't science, the work she did here; it didn't require her to think. It required only that she read the recipe in front of her and then duplicate it. Again and again and again, until all the vials they brought from Earth were full, and then some more when replacements were sent through the 'Gate.
She was exhausted and she felt horrible for being so tired. She wasn't tired because she had been carrying bodies. She wasn't even tired because she had been helping to cure them. She was tired because she was hugely bored and hugely useless and hugely angry at herself for both.
After she'd gone up to Jack's room to tell him that it was time for the funeral, Sam followed her CO through the streets of Laca in a daze. She could see signs of what had once been a bustling market; the roads were well marked with wheel ruts, and everywhere there were colourful signs hanging above boarded up windows. She was seized by a sudden desire to come back here when the city was alive again, to see it when everything was right.
At the wall, Sam and the Colonel met up with Jonas and Teal'c, and they walked out into the Burning Field as a team. She was struck by the sheer number of those they hadn't been able to save. The field seemed to go on forever, and everywhere there were bodies. She watched the families of the deceased spread flowers and noticed that the priests who stood on the edge of the field seemed to be controlling some kind of air processor, but she didn't really stop to think about the technology, even as she absently explained it to Jonas. Instead, her attention was wholly riveted on the bodies that lay before her. The people that she hadn't been able to save.
SG-1 came to stand beside Janet, and Sam traded a brief smile with her friend. Janet was exhausted too, worn out from the lab and organizing all the vaccinations and finally, the disposal of the bodies. Every member of the SGC team had been quietly grateful when they found out that Lacastrians burned their dead, but Janet even more so, because she understood the risk of secondary infection. Sam wondered if that kind of practicality made them cold.
A loud noise jolted her out of her reverie. All around the field, there was the sound of horns and drums. Then fire streaked through the sky and spread across the field. Everywhere, the flames leapt higher and Sam watched them in fascination as they moved in front of her. She heard voices, right on the edge of awareness, and listened hard to make out the words. The music got louder, and the clarity of the loudspeaker increased.
She was standing on a dais, the Washington skyline in whites and blues behind her, surrounded by her teammates. The air was full of snapping flags and camera shutters and anticipation. When the President arrived, they were all getting medals for bravery and service to the planet Earth. Janet would accept Daniel's and Catherine Langford was getting a special award for starting the whole process in the first place.
In the front row of the audience, her father sat with Mark and his family, the latter all looking slightly overwhelmed. Finding out that their sister and aunt was an interplanetary hero had been easy to accept. The revelation about Jacob's dual citizenship was a little harder to swallow. Still, it had been a long time since they had all been together as a family, with nothing between them, and that made Sam the happiest of all.
On her left, closer to the podium, Jack shifted his weight from foot to foot. His knees had held out long enough to save the Galaxy, but only just. He was being promoted today, to General, and then he was bound for a desk job. He had selected the Alpha Site, which Sam expected was a way of slowly getting himself out of the centre of the action, and she completely understood.
Teal'c, on her right, remained as solid as ever. He would be leaving Earth soon, bound for the remnant Jaffa colonies. They were free, but their freedom had come at a great price and Teal'c hoped to put some of the pieces back together. Earth was to help where it could, but Teal'c had another long struggle in front of him.
All around her, Sam could feel the pride of the men and women she had worked with at the SGC. Their families were here today. Their families knew what they did. The Goa'uld were defeated and Earth had taken its place among the stars. The time of secrets had ended and a New Age was dawning on the planet Sam had fought so hard and so long for. She found herself grinning hugely as the world watched.
President Kinsey stepped on to the dais and the USAF band burst into "Hail to the Chief".
And then the spell was broken and the Washington fell out of space and out of time and ended, and she saw that the field had burnt to ash before her, and her friends were all around her. Everywhere, it seemed, there was a mother, a father, a husband, a wife, a sibling, a child, all with tears on their faces and a light of wonder in their eyes. Sam could see it clearly in the faces of her team mates and knew that it lit upon her as well.
The Lacastrians made their way back into the city in silence, and the teams from Earth went back to the Stargate, also silent in their awe. Jonas dialed the address, and just before she stepped through, Sam heard a voice on the edge of familiar sing.
The flames of sacred fire show you what you wish to see:
What was, what will, what might come true,
And what can never be.
------
finis
AN: Kinsey is always President when it's wrong. I like that, so I stole it.
GravityNotIncluded, November 6, 2006