A/N: Hi everyone, I'm sorry it took me so long to post this chapter. I've been sick, and Christmas and New Years didn't help anything… anyways, no more excuses! It's posted now! Thank you Aria-wolfstar for beta'ing this for me! You rock!
I hope you all had a great Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Ch 8: Missing Child
Jack had left to go talk with General Hammond, leaving Sam alone to baby-sit the kid by herself. She didn't know where Daniel had disappeared to, and the girl didn't seem to really like Teal'c, so he had taken his leave out of kind respect.
"Finally." Sam muttered as she finished testing the minerals of a broken artifact SG-4 brought back earlier that day. She typed a few reminder notes on her laptop, before pushing a piece of the object under the microscope once more. "Hmm…"
"What's so, 'hmm'?"
Sam looked up to see her CO standing in the doorway. She couldn't believe he was back already. She could have sworn he'd just left a moment ago. "Umm, nothing sir." Nothing he would understand anyway. She closed her laptop and smiled slightly.
Jack looked around the room, for any signs of the kid wondering around, making a mess, and causing trouble. But he didn't see her anywhere. "So, what'd you do? Drop her off at Daniel's? Stuff her in a closet?"
"What-…" Sam had completely forgotten about the kid. She couldn't remember the last time she saw the child. She had started her tests, and left the girl playing with her coloring book and crayons. Had she really got so busy that the girl slipped out of the room? Panic ran through her like wild fire. "I…I…"
Jack raised his brow. "You what?" He looked around the room once more. "You… lost her?" he supplied.
Sam grimaced. "… Yeah. I think I may have." She made sure the child wasn't anywhere in the lab before she turned to Jack. "I can't believe I did that! I got so wound up in my work, I didn't even realize. I'm sorry… where do you think she would gave gone?" She was beyond panicking now. This wasn't the first time she'd lost a child before, she'd lost her brother's kid before, but it wasn't as serious as this.
"Don't worry, Carter." Jack said, feeling her worry. "We'll fine her. I'll go talk to Hammond again real quick."
Sam nodded. "I'll start looking."
And with that, they split up.
----
Jack ran into Daniel on to way to General Hammond's office. "Daniel!" He shouted, out of breath. "Have you seen the kid? Anywhere?"
Daniel looked up from him book. "What? What do you mean have I…- you lost her?"
"She's missing. Carter doesn't know where she went. Have you seen her?" Jack was beginning to lose the little patience he had left.
Daniel's eyes grew big. "Sam lost her?"
"DANIEL!"
"No, sorry, I haven't seen her." Daniel watched as his friend turned and fled down the hall without another word. "But I'll grab Teal'c and help you look for her if you want!" he called after the retreating figure.
----
Sam searched frantically through every storage room on that level. She stopped and asked everyone if they had seen the missing child, and so far no one had. She was about search all of the offices when she heard her CO's voice through the intercom.
"Hello, this is Colonel O'Neill speaking. We've seem to have lost a child on the base. If anyone sees her, or has her at the moment, please let Major Carter or myself know, and please do not try to bring her to us, unless you're ready for a fight. Thank you."
Sam laughed quietly. She could see an airman now trying to bring the stubborn girl to them. She finished checking all the rooms on that level, even the ones with access cards but found nothing. She then made her way to the elevator; the girl couldn't have gone that far, could she? Unnoticed?
"Major Carter." Teal'c greeted.
"Teal'c." Sam said, relieved she was no longer the only one looking. "You haven't seen her, have you?"
"I have not." He responded. "Do you require assistance?"
Sam took the offer gratefully.
----
Jack hurried out of the elevator, only to find Sam and Teal'c waiting to go in.
"She's not on this level, sir." Sam said, pressing the bottom for the next floor.
Jack shrugged and jumped back into the elevator before the doors closed. "Are you sure? Positive she's just not hiding in like, someone's office or something?"
"Yes, Colonel. I'm positive."
Jack nodded. "Okay. General Hammond has teams sweeping levels twenty-eight through thirty as we speak. He doesn't want this child to mess with anything."
"And knowing this child, she would." Sam said.
"Indeed."
They both turned to Teal'c, slightly surprised. He hadn't really met this kid before, so how would he know? There must have been a lot of rumors going on already. Poor kid.
The doors opened and they all walked out.
"Okay, Carter, you search every office, even the ones with access cards, just in case she managed to get a hold of one. Teal'c, you check the sleeping quarters, and I'll check the rest of the rooms." Jack said, clapping his hands together.
"Yes sir." Sam responded, pulling out her card and walking away.
Teal'c set out to do his task, leaving Jack alone in the big hall.
"Okay…" he picked his first room and began to search it, finding no sign of anyone being there in a few days. "This could take longer then I thought." Looking for just one person wasn't as bad, but looking for a small child who could hide anywhere and everywhere, well, that would be a while…
----
An hour later…
Jack felt like giving up, but he knew he couldn't. It wasn't safe having a child running around on the base; anything could happen. Especially if the child was a deaf alien. He already made sure the armories were locked by key. He had searched four levels with Carter and Teal'c, and there had been no sign of her on those, or any other levels.
"Colonel?"
Jack turned to Carter, who must have just finished looking through the last of the rooms. "What?"
"That's it sir. No more levels to check. She's not here sir. SG-5, SG-7, SG-10, SG-11 and SG-12 cleared the rest of the levels." She didn't know where else the girl could be, and she didn't think she could feel any worse than she already was.
Jack sighed. "I think they must have just missed her." In situations like this, it was just best to be optimistic.
Sam shrugged. It was possible; she was afraid she might have missed her too. The small child could fit in just about any small place imaginable. "Sir, I probably should go report to General Hammond. Fill him in."
Jack nodded. "Yeah. You go do that. I'm going to start looking on the next level, just in case they missed her."
"I will accompany you." Teal'c said, following him to the elevator.
Sam gave them a slight wave before taking off down the hall.
----
"So, Teal'c, where do you think… where would you go if you were a little kid in a new environment?" Jack asked as the doors began to close.
"I do-"
"COLONEL!"
Jack stuck his hand through the doors before they could shut, and quickly reopened them. "Carter? What's wrong?"
"They found her sir. Well, Daniel found her. She's in his office right now." Sam said, her face holding back a relieved smile. She gestured to him to follow.
And the three of them took off in a jog towards Daniel's office.
----
"Hey! You!" Jack called as he entered the familiar office. "Why'd you run off?"
The girl was staring at the fish tank in the corner of the room, her eyes wide with interest.
"Hey," Jack looked through the other side of the tank to see the girl's face.
The girl looked up at him and stumbled back in surprise.
"Sorry," Jack said, moving over to help her up. "What are you doing in here?"
Sam joined them.
"You can't run off like that. We were worried." Jack said. "I know the fish may be more interesting then us but you're not allowed to wander off by yourself."
"O'Neill. What will you accomplish by speaking to this child?" Teal'c asked.
"Umm…" He shrugged. "I don't know."
Sam began to look over the office, finding scattered papers and several broken artifacts, one that she knew Daniel would not be happy about. "Colonel. This isn't good."
"What isn't?" He turned to her. "Oh no…"
The girl stared at them innocently.
"This isn't good."
Just that moment Daniel chose to rush into the room at full speed. "Good you found her! I heard she was in my office so I came to see if… she…" he stopped once seeing the mess. "Oh no!" He rushed over to his artifact. "No! I was this close to finishing this up! I-" he turned to the girl, trying to calm himself.
The girl took a step back, sensing his anger. She looked up at Jack to protect her; afraid Daniel would do something.
Jack turned back to Daniel. "I'm sure she didn't mean to, Daniel. I think she was just looking around, and maybe bumped into it." He held out his hand for the girl to take. "I think she's sorry, just look at her."
Daniel looked away from the kid, annoyed. He quickly began to pick up the pieces and placed them on his desks, trying to figure out of he could even read the text now. "Jack, can you just take her out of here before she causes more damage?"
"Yeah." Jack began to lead her away. "Because that's her purpose for being here, so she can destroy all your stuff…" he shook his head slightly before walking away.
----
Sam walked slowly into the girl's room. She watched as Jack helped her color a picture. She smiled. He really did have a way with kids. "Colonel, a word?"
Jack looked up from the paper and nodded. "Yeah." He squeezed the girl's shoulders. "I'll be right back, okay? You can finish coloring the sun for me, huh?" he pointed to the yellow circle before standing up and walking over to Sam. "What's wrong?"
"I just finished talking with General Hammond…" Sam started.
"And?"
"And, he doesn't think it's a good idea to keep the kid on the base. He's worried she might get into more trouble. If she sneaks away from us again, and gets in the way of an SG team on their way out, or to the infirmary, it could be bad, sir."
"Then we'll just have a guard stand outside and watch her."
Sam shook her head. "No sir. I mentioned that to General Hammond. He doesn't think there should be a child on this base, period. So, I volunteered to take her home."
Jack's eyes widened. "You what?"
"General Hammond didn't think it was a good idea at first, but where else would we keep her? It's not fair to lock her up because she's curious about the base. So, General Hammond said I could take her home on one condition…"
Jack raised an eyebrow, wondering what that would be.
"Someone else has to be there with me. Just in case something happens, after all, she is an alien child. We don't really know what she's capable of. I didn't bother to ask Daniel, I don't think he'd want to leave right now, and the kid doesn't seem to like Teal'c very much, and-"
"I'll come." Jack said, saving Carter from fumbling over her words.
Sam nodded. "I thought you would. But, there are rules. General Hammond doesn't want us taking her to the park, or going shopping or something that involves somewhere with a crowd. We don't know how'll she'll react to that, and frankly I'd like not to take the chance."
"What? Can't take her anywhere with a crowd? Carter, name one place where we wont find a crowd! The poor girl is going to suffocate in that house!"
"I'm sorry sir. General Hammond doesn't want to take the risk." Sam turned to the girl. "I'll start packing up her stuff, if you have anything here that you need to bring, you might want to grab it. I'm going to be leaving soon."
Jack nodded. "Okay." He waved goodbye to the girl and hurried out of the room.
----
Jack returned ten minutes later with his jacket and baseball cap. "Okay, I'm ready, do you need some help?"
Sam had stuffed four boxes full of stuff, and placed them on the bed. "No, sir. I think this is all she'll need. I still have quite a few toys over at my house from the times Cassie spent the night."
Jack looked around the room. "Well, you might not want to forget her elephant, and the gameboy, I'm going to teach her how to play with it later." He picked up the two items and placed them in the boxes. "Okay, I can bring over a few things tomorrow if she needs them. Did you get her clothes?"
Sam nodded. "They're in the bags by the door."
Jack turned and looked at them. "Okay. I think she knows something's up."
The girl stared at both of them, puzzled.
"Yeah. I think she does. She's a smart kid." Sam picked up a few boxes. "Well, I'm going to take these to my car, can you watch her?"
"Yeah. Sure." He made his way over to the girl. "Hi. Oh wow. You finished your picture? It's very nice." He gave her a warming smile. "Very nice."
The girl nodded and picked up another crayon.
----
Jack and Sam escorted the child outside. Once there, the girl took in a deep breath of fresh air, obviously happy to be in the outdoors once again. They made their way over to Sam's vintage blue Volvo and finished loading the last of the stuff.
"Sir, do you think you should sit in back with her? Or do you think she's fine by herself? Or maybe she should sit in front?" Sam said in a top speed voice she normally only used in briefings, or under pressure.
"Carter." Jack said, holding his hands up for her to slow down. He could tell she was worrying too much about even the simplest thing, and a smile quirked on his lips. "She's fine anywhere we put her. Just… take it easy." He knew she hated when he said that, but he didn't care right now, he never saw Carter worry this much, even when some of the worst stuff went wrong, so she must be really freaking out. "She's going to be fine."
The girl stared at Sam with an expressionless face. She held tightly onto Jack's hand. The last car ride wasn't her idea of fun. She had never been in a device like that, it went to fast… in truth, it scared her.
"I don't think she wants another car ride, Colonel." Sam said. "Look at her."
Jack glanced at her. "Well, I don't think it would be a good idea walking thirty miles to your house… especially with all of this stuff. She'll live. I'll go in the back with her. It'll be fine. Trust me."
Sam nodded. She did. He was one of the few people she could trust. "Yes sir."
Jack gave her an encouraging smile. "Come on, let's get this party started." He tugged on the girl's hand and she followed him into the car. Jack buckled his seat belt and the girl quickly followed.
Sam shut the door for them before walking over and getting into the drivers seat. "Are we all set?" She asked, looking back in the review mirror. "Good, let's go."
The girl suddenly leaned forward and tugged on Sam's belt. Her face urging Sam to buckle it.
Sam looked back at her. "What's wrong?"
Jack smiled proudly. "I think she wants you to buckle up." He patted the kid's head. "No one can say I didn't teach her well."
Sam smiled and pulled the belt over her. "No sir."
----
Well, there you go, I'll try and post the next chapter ASAP, but I have a lot of school to catch up in, so, no promises when!
Thanks for reading!
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