Not mine - no money- no infringement intended. Just playing with them, and I promise to put them back. 0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Previously in Chapter 11: Jack turned to look at him. "Don't matter what you say. I'm doing this. I'm not letting you die in this God forsaken place, not for lack of tretonin anyway."
"Consider it a spoil of war." With that he turned and belly crawled toward the Jaffa. Daniel and Teal'c followed Jack.
"For what's it worth, Teal'c, I'm with Jack on this one," Daniel whispered to Teal'c.
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Thanks for reading, and especially for reviewing. This has not been Betaed, sorry for any errors.
Chapter 12
The Jaffa patrol stopped and settled down to rest while Jack, Daniel and Teal'c waited. Two of the Jaffa walked the perimeter of their camp, while the others reclined in a semi-circle against a sand dune. Jack watched through his binoculars for a long time, not saying anything else. He was done arguing the point. His mind was completely fixed on his goal; he would wait this out for as long as it took.
After some time the conversation in the Jaffa camp died down. It looked as if all but the two patrol guards were asleep. Jack signaled for Daniel and Teal'c to go around to the side of the sand dune that they had been using for cover. After observing for a few minutes and determining that neither of the guards noticed them moving about, he signaled for them to slowly and quietly follow the guard to the left.
Jack waited for the guard to make his path back toward him. He signaled the guys to move in. When the guard came within a few feet of him, Jack jumped out and leaped at him. He zatted the guard once.
He signaled for Daniel and Teal'c to help. Working as fast as they could, he and Daniel removed the guard's body armor and weapons. Jack opened the guard's shirt and pushed his hand into the symbiote pouch. He could think of nothing worse than the sick, fearful feeling this gave him. Removing the symbiote as carefully as possible, making sure he held it tightly below its head, he placed the symbiote in the stolen canopic jar he had readied.
Knowing that they had to hurry, he handed the jar to Daniel then zatted the guard two more times. The guard disappeared into thin air. He gathered the guard's weapons; and tried to hand them over to Teal'c, who was staring at the ground in a daze. Teal'c snapped his attention back to Jack and held his eyes in a dead-like glare.
"Teal'c, we had no choice. We need you," Jack replied to his unstated objection. Saying nothing, he lowered his gaze to the staff weapon in Jack's hand, and then slowly took it. Jack stuffed the armor into his knap sack, and slung it over his back.
They moved away as fast as they could. The Palace was almost twenty miles from their camp. Jack prayed Ra's First Prime wouldn't suspect anyone from their camp in the patrol guard's disappearance.
They weren't able to move as fast as Jack wanted; Teal'c had lost so much of his strength that he wasn't keeping up. After a few miles, they stopped to rest. Jack looked at Teal'c, "You alright, T?"
"Indeed"
"You want to do this here or wait 'til we get to camp?" Jack knew Teal'c wasn't happy with him, but he also knew this had to be done. Daniel looked at Teal'c, then at Jack.
"What do you mean, Jack?" Jack, wondering how Daniel could be so smart and so dense at the same time, just glared at him.
"My symbiote pouch is surgically sealed," Teal'c answered Daniel.
"Oh, --- OH! ... You mean? ... Ohhh" Daniel was at a lost for words. "How will that work?" he finally asked Jack.
"How do you think, Spacemonkey?" Even though his voice sounded calm, the look he gave betrayed his fear.
"We need Sam." Daniel didn't wait for them to answer; he turned and started walking toward the direction of their camp.
"Okay. I guess we go get Sam," Jack said mostly to himself. He hated that she had to be a part of this. He hoped neither Daniel nor Teal'c would tell her how they'd obtained the symbiote. He wasn't ready to admit to Sam that he had killed another person in cold blood, even if he felt justified in doing so. After all it was a life for a life. Right? Any of Ra's Jaffa would kill any one of them for much less reason; at least he was saving his friend's life. Right? His thoughts didn't seem to ease his conscience much at all.
"O'Neill, I know how much this will weigh on your soul, my friend. Though I do not feel right about this, I do appreciate it." Teal'c looked at Jack, seeming to read his mind. "I do not think it is something Samantha need know."
"I don't know about that Teal'c. I really don't think so either, for her sake. But she has a way of finding out things. Most things she just figures out. If she asks, I'll have to tell her," Jack stated flatly. His emotions were on the surface. Truth was he needed to tell her. She made everything bearable. Even if he did have mixed emotions about his actions, he thought Sam would understand.
They decided that it would be best not to make camp, but traveled through the night as covertly as possible, each with their own thoughts buried deep. They had to stop every few miles for Teal'c to rest. Just after daybreak they made it home.
When they were within a few hundred yards, Sam saw them coming, and ran out to meet Jack. He grabbed her hugging her close, not saying anything. When she looked into his face, she knew immediately something was wrong.
"What is it?" she asked. "You guys alright"
"Yeah, Sam. Fine." The pained look in Jack's eyes betrayed his words. "How much of the surgical supplies do we have left?"
"What happened? Who's hurt?" She asked, her eyes searching Jack's body looking for blood. Then she turned to Teal'c checking over his body. She couldn't see any blood on either of them. "Daniel, are you hurt?"
"No, Sam, I'm not. None of us are. That's not it. We have to help Teal'c, though," Daniel answered her. "Help Teal'c? ... How?" Her eyes inquired of Jack as she waited for one of them to answer her.
"Samantha, I am out of tretonin. We have acquired a symbiote, but my pouch has been surgically closed," Teal,c stated as a matter of fact. He knew he wouldn't be able to keep it from her.
"Come inside," she said as she turned and quickly walked back to her tent. She checked on Grace, who was lying in the crib that Jack had made for her and then looked back at the guys. "Get the medical supplies, Jack. Teal'c, lie down so I can examine your stomach." Jack handed Sam the bag and sat down by Grace's crib.
The bedding area was not large. Daniel kneeled down on the other side of the bedding as Teal'c did as Sam had asked. She raised his shirt and ran her fingers over the healed scars. Teal'c shivered. Sam watched his eyes.
"You know this is going to hurt, right? I can deaden it some, but I'm not sure how effective the medication will be. It has to be done Teal'c. The question is, is there still a viable pouch there?" She looked at Jack, then back at Teal'c.
"Samantha, I am aware it will be most painful. I can only hope it will be worth the price we have paid." Sam could read the remorse and sorrow in his eyes.
"Okay." Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes as if to pray then looked back at Teal'c, "I hate to have to hurt you like this, I really do," she said begging for him to understand.
"Samantha, could it be worse than your birthing little Grace?" he asked her sincerely.
"God, I hope not!" She answered before she thought. "I knew it! It was way worse than you ever let on!" Jack exclaimed.
"Not now, Jack," she answered. "Okay. Daniel, I need water boiled and clean clothes. Jack, your knife will need to be sterilized. I'm going to feed Grace first, so she won't cry during this," she said as she prepared a syringe to deaden the areas around the healed X marks on Teal'c stomach. She gave him as many injections as she thought necessary. "Rest while that takes affect and I feed Grace," she said getting to her feet and picking up Grace.
Sam turned away from the guys as she usually did when there were others in their tent. At first Grace didn't seem interested. "Come on, baby, please eat. Mommy knows it's a little too early, but the grownups have very important business," she cooed at Grace. Grace's big blue eyes just stared back at Sam's eyes as if she understood what her mother was saying, kicking her little feet and waving her arms in the air cooing back at Sam. Sam teased Graces' mouth with her nipple.
Jack was watching over her shoulder. "Want daddy to take a bite first, Gracie," he teased Sam. "Jack!" Daniel rolled his eyes.
"Do you always have to be so crude?"
"It's not crude, Daniel. I loved biting Sam's ..."
"JACK!" Sam and Daniel both screeched at the same time.
"Enough! Jack!" Sam said, with just a hint of a smile at him.
He grinned back. "Just trying to lighten the mood, guys. You okay, T?" he asked his big Jaffa friend.
"Indeed, O'Neill. I will be fine."
"Teal'c, just give us a little longer," Sam smiled at Grace as she nursed. Sam burped the baby and laid her back down in her crib. "Mommy's good little angel." Sam smiled at Grace, gathering strength to do what she must.
"Sam, you think Daniel should take her out?" Jack asked.
"I don't know, we may need Daniel," she looked knowingly at Jack. Teal'c was remembering his Prim'ta ceremony as one of the most vividly painful events of his life; but he hadn't made a sound during the process. It was not the Jaffa way. How much worse could it be now?
"I will not scare Grace, O'Neill," he said. But his eyes were on Sam, he wished for her to understand.
"Okay, Teal'c. Jack, you get on one side, Daniel, you on the other," she commanded.
"Sam, I can do this." Jack was asking her with his eyes if she would rather he do it.
"No, Jack. You may have to hold him. I'm not strong enough for that," she said. "You guys ready? Teal'c?"
He nodded at Sam. "Indeed." Jack and Daniel leaned into his shoulders, each holding him down with one arm and grasping his hands.
"Okay, buddy, my hand is just now returning to normal after Sam broke all my fingers, I'd appreciate it, if you'd consider that!" Jack tried to joke. Daniel rolled his eyes and Sam made the first incision before they knew what she had done.
Teal'c crushed both of their hands as they tried to hold him down. She had cut pretty deep into the bottom half of the X mark. Before Teal'c could catch his breath, she had cut the other half. Jack held Teal'c tight. Daniel's eyes watered as he watched the pain in those big dark brown eyes.
"Damn, Sam. You in a hurry?" Jack asked with a look of horror in his eyes.
"The faster this is over the better off he will be. We have to know if the pouch is still there. If not, I have to sew him up before he loses too much blood." She hadn't missed the look of torture on Teal'c face as she'd made the first incision. She knew the injections weren't as effective as they should have been. She opened the pouch, while Jack shined a light into it. "It looks okay to me," she said.
"Would you know what okay is for a symbiote pouch?" Jack asked sarcastically.
"Jack, not now, please," she said.
"What? I just wondered." He asked.
She opened the other parts of the X mark as fast as she could, cleaning off the blood as it dripped down Teal'c body.
"Hurry, Daniel. Give me the symbiote," Jack stated. Daniel handed the jar to Jack. He took out the symbiote and headed it into the pouch. "What if it doesn't like the pouch?" he asked Teal'c.
"I do not know, O'Neill. This is not something I have done previously." His voice was filled with pain.
"We wait and see." Sam said. "Is there any chance the symbiote would come out if it isn't suited to the pouch?" She asked Teal'c.
"Of that I am unsure, Samantha. To be safe, you should take Grace and all move outside. If the symbiote is to adjust to my body, it will soon begin to heal the incision. If it is not, then I will die without the tretonin. There is nothing else to be done. Please, my friends let me rest alone for a while," Teal'c looked at Sam as he spoke softly.
Sam cleaned around the wound and rubbed disinfectant over his stomach with a clean cloth. She really didn't know what else to do. "Can I give you something for pain?"
"No, Samantha, if it is going to adjust, I will not need anything. If it does not, I will not use what you will need later." He spoke softy, then closed his eyes as if to say the subject was closed. They chose not to argue with him just now. Jack picked up Grace and Sam washed her hands using some of the disinfectant soap. They all moved out of the tent and waited outside.
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It seemed like an eternity that they waited in a deep silence. Sam held a sleeping Grace as she leaned her head against Jack's shoulder. Daniel was stretched out in front of them on a ground rug woven of palms. They all jumped, startled when Teal'c walked out of the tent after about three hours.
Teal'c looked at them and stated rather unlike himself, "The symbiote seems to be... at home."
Jack looked up at him and chuckled. "Indeed! So, what now?"
TBC