8
When he could see again after the light died, he was stood in a very empty room, with Jack, Sam and Julie, there was no sign of John.
"THOR!" Jack shouted and a little grey… man… thing walked into the room, it was identical to the one that Sam had been on telly with, like the one Colson had shown.
"Do not worry O'Neill, I have put the child into a medical pod, he will heal" Jack sank to the floor shaking, Julie with him.
"Thanks Thor, I couldn't have stood…" Sam moved the necessary steps to stand beside him and ran her fingers through his hair.
"You saved him Sir" she said softly
"I should have blocked access to the roof! I know kids will always do things they aren't supposed to, you would think I would have learnt with Charlie" he wiped his hands over his face and gave a huge sigh.
"Sir, this isn't your fault, and you saved him!" he sat on the floor for almost a minute before he got to his feet, gesturing for Mark to follow him, Mark looked where they were headed and saw a huge picture window, showing nothing but sky… then he took a couple of steps and realised, it wasn't sky, it was space! The earth was below them, he could see the terminator almost at San Diego. He gasped and turned to the man beside him.
"It's all true?" he asked
"I don't know ALL he told you, or what you have worked out for yourself, but you're a Carter, it was quite obvious you were thinking something yesterday, and no one ever accused a Carter of being stupid"
"Alison!" Julie suddenly said
"Thor, there's another child at my house, can you bring her up and place her in a bed until we are ready to leave?"
"It is done O'Neill, would you like to see the male now?"
"Yeah, I think that is for the best" Jack grabbed Julie gently by one arm and Mark by the other and guided them to the door.
"So Thor, did my solution work?" Sam was asking the alien
"Indeed it did Colonel Carter, once again you saw through the problem, now we just have to balance the ratio of the…" Mark zoned out, he knew what type of discussion this was going to be and he saw Jack roll his eyes at him as if to agree.
They walked into a room, almost exactly the same as the one they had left, this one had a couple of beds floating in mid air in it though, on one he could see Alison, curled on her side and fast asleep, the other was covered over by a lid, and only the top third of it was transparent, he could see John laid peacefully, so still was he and so unnatural to see him laid on his back that Mark could not help the fleeting thought that he was really dead! The pressure on his upper arm increased slightly and Jack nodded towards his wife.
"If Thor says he can fix him, he CAN fix him, never doubt that!"
Julie ran her fingers over the see through part of the lid. A beeping noise came from the device and she pulled her fingers back suddenly as if burnt.
"There is a slight imbalance in the chemistry of the brain" Thor stated and Julie looked at him in panic "this has nothing to do with his recent injury, it looks to have been present from birth, would you like me to correct it?" Sam walked over to him
"Could you give us more details Thor?" she asked, he went to a podium against the walls and moved some stones that looked just like the one Jack had yelled into, a display appeared in the centre of the room. Mark did not understand a single word of what was said over the next five minutes, he just kept turning around, amazed at how comfortable his sister was with all this, how she manipulated the controls on the podium
She called him back to himself with a hand on his shoulder "Mark?"
He jumped slightly and then looked at her sheepishly "sorry sis, what is it? Zoned out there for a bit"
"I've just been looking over the scans" he felt Julie press up against his side and put his arm around her shoulders. He nodded to Sam to continue "I'm no medical doctor, but… it looks as if John is slightly autistic" no, she had that wrong, Mark thought to himself, he was just… shy in company, autistic kids were the ones who wrapped themselves in their arms and rocked in a corner, moaning to themselves. John didn't do any of that.
He started to shake his head in denial when Julie nodded! What the hell! She NODDED? She AGREED? He pulled his arm from her shoulder and looked at her in shock. "Julie?"
"Oh Mark… please don't pretend you have not noticed… we have always known that there was something wrong, it was just never enough that we HAD to investigate!"
"My son is perfectly normal!" he told everyone in a voice that brooked no nonsense
"Mark… listen to me, Thor can fix the chemical imbalance in his brain, but he needs your permission to do it." Mark started to shake his head again when the small grey alien spoke
"Actually Colonel Carter I do not need his permission. I can fix the child without it."
"Don't you DARE touch my son! Your fucking freak of nature!" he snapped and was about to lunge for the tiny creature when he felt a pair of extremely strong arms wrap around him. He was immobile!
"Mark! Listen to what they have to say! Stop acting like an idiot!"
He struggled but it was no use, DAMN the man was strong, and this was no gymnasium work-out strong, these muscles holding him still were used to hard work under difficult conditions, solid as rocks.
"Thor, I'm going to release him… if he attacks you, send him back to earth, to the SGC, they will hold him while we sort everything out" the words worked as if he had been drenched in cold water, there was no way in hell they were sending him anywhere without his kids!
"Mark" Sam was talking again "the autism is only very slight, but it does explain his behaviour, the imbalance can be corrected on earth with drugs, if that is how you want to do it, but Thor can fix him now, permanently" Julie wrapped her arms around him and turned to the rest of them.
"Can we have somewhere to talk? Alone?" Jack Sam and Thor headed for the door.
"Just shout when you want someone to come Julie" Sam told them and the she bent slightly as she walked "Now Thor about calibrating that…" the door shut off the rest of what she was saying.
Julie came around to look him straight in the eye, she put her palms on each side of his face and drew his head down. She kissed him softly on the lips
"Mark, normally I would back your call, but this is the health and well being of our SON" she told him gently "we have both known for years that something is wrong with him, not enough to take him out of mainstream school, but… wrong" he started shaking his head but she held him immobile "How many of his teachers have called us and told us he has trouble interacting with his peers? They knew. They were trying to hint to us what the problem is. We need to allow these people to help, for Johns sake!"
"What if they slip, or do something wrong? He is HAPPY as he is! I don't want to lose my son!"
"He is OUR son! This is not just your decision, but Mark, you chose the wrong way now, and I will never forgive you, every time we try to make him join in with the rest of us, I will be thinking of today, every time he does something strange, I will blame the autism and the fact that he could have been cured!" Mark thought about it, she was right, he would too.
He folded her in his arms and breathed deeply of her scent, it was calming, soothing, he nodded into her shoulder and she lifted her head as Jack had done earlier and called "Thor" up to the ceiling.
The three others came in within a few seconds and Mark noticed something "how come Alison slept through all that?" he asked
"I have put her into a deep sleep so she is not traumatised by the condition of her sibling" the grey being told them.
"You drugged her?" he stared to feel his temper rise again
"No, there is no pharmaceutical element, the beds can just cause a natural sleep to deepen to the point where humans do not wake unless we allow it" he calmed down again.
"The scans indicate that both of your children have above average intelligence, but Johns is extremely high" the alien said, Mark had no idea what to say about that. "And with the genetic contribution of your wife, though not the ideal mating that the Asgard had hoped for, it is… interesting" his voice trailed off. He stood looking at something that Mark recognised from a documentary, a DNA string twisting in mid air.
He looked around, Jack and Sam were both looking puzzled so he felt slightly better, Julie, of course, hadn't a clue what was being said, any more than he had.
Jack spoke "Thor… buddy? Whatya mean?"
"O'Neill Julie Carter is a possessor of the Ancient gene. Though hers is not as strongly reinforced as yours, coupled with the Carter IQ…"
Sam looked at the children excitedly as if someone had told her they could cure the common cold. "You sure? And both children have inherited it?" she asked
The little mannequin nodded, and Julie spoke up "So what would have been the ideal mating?" she asked
"That would be O'Neill and Samantha Carter"