Chapter three
The one nice thing about a small community like this, Sam thought, was that everyone looked out for everyone else. In their building alone there were six families, all with young children. They all took turns baby sitting and watching the kids in the play yard, and on weekends many of the adults organized games for the older kids. With everyone helping out and doing their part, Tok'ona was truly a utopian community. Sam sometimes wondered how big the settlement could become, before the perfect conditions deteriorated, and their community turned into just another town like the ones on Earth.
After picking up Mellie from Sgt. Jameson's, Sam and Janet went to the large one bedroom apartment that she and Mellie had been sharing with Jack for the past seven months. Their relationship had been very close, sexual even, since before Sam had given birth to Mellie, but she had held off moving in with him until after Mellie was born. She wanted to be sure he could accept another man's child as his own, and to do that she had to see him interact with the baby. Thus far Jack was succeeding even more than her wildest hopes and dreams.
Their apartment was at the end of the second story, which afforded them a good view of the settlement. What it didn't afford them was much privacy during intimacy. Now that Malinda was almost one, having her baby bed in their bedroom was becoming a real problem. And though they'd talked about moving, there simply hadn't been the time or the available space.
Janet sat on the living room floor and played with the baby, while Sam made tea at the other side of the big space. It was really just one big room, with a row of cabinets on one side with the stove and refrigerator at the end of them, a dining table in the middle and a large open area with windows on the other side. Then at the back was one large bedroom with an adjoining bathroom.
Sam put two boxes of cereal and a bottle of milk on the table and sat down, letting out a sigh. She just didn't feel like cooking right now...or eating for that matter. Janet looked up at her, concern showing in her big brown eyes.
"Sam, he really is going to be just fine! Don't you believe me?"
"I want to Jan, but... Even if he's okay this time, what will it be next? Every day he's out there doing God only knows what! And he wasn't supposed to be at the construction site without a helmet on! He knows that! Hell, he's always reminding me to wear a helmet, wear my steel-toed boots, wear a coat, take water with me when I go anywhere. And look what he pulls! I just can't believe he did something so stupid!" Sam hadn't meant to get so upset in front of her friend, but suddenly she found herself sobbing, her hands covering her face.
Janet got up from the floor and went to kneel in front of Sam, who immediately put her arms around her friend and hugged her, letting the tears fall freely. After a couple of minutes, Sam let Janet go. By this time the tea kettle was whistling, and Malinda was standing at the table holding onto the table leg with one hand, while patting Sam's thigh with the other.
"Mama, Mama!" the baby shouted. Sam picked her up and sat her on her lap, while Janet went to pour the water into the tea pot.
After a breakfast of cereal, toast and tea, Sam agreed to lay down for a little while. She hadn't been asleep long before memories of the past took over.
She was in her lab...in Martouf's arms, his face pressed to the side of her head as he whispered to her. They had never made love, although he had been pressing her to do so for several weeks. Today she was so mad at Jack, that the thought of doing it just to hurt him had its appeal.
"You know I'm right, Samantha. O'Neill can never truly appreciate who and what you are, but I can and do! We're alike you and I. We even think alike! Today was a perfect example of how O'Neill will treat you once you are married. He acts as though you are his property, not a fine officer worthy of his respect and trust. He had no right to forbid you to go to Tolana with your team. He embarrassed you in front of everyone!"
"He has his reasons, Martouf, and I'm in no position to question them," she said, trying to excuse Jack's behavior. This wasn't the only topic she and Jack had argued about recently, and the constant bickering was really beginning to take its toll on their relationship and on her patience. "I think he just worries about me," she added, as though that made Jack's actions acceptable to her. It did not.
"He worries about losing you. That's not the same thing, Samantha, and you know it. Come with us to Tolana tomorrow," he begged. Then he pulled her closer and kissed her, whispering against her lips, "Come with me now to my quarters and let me show you how much I care about you!"
She had gone and the rest, as they say, was history.
After Sam's nap, she and Janet got Mellie dressed in her coat and hat and headed back to the large, single story, concrete building that was the hospital. It was built in a C shape, with a children's ward at one side, the adult ward at the other, and the labs and surgeries located in the middle. They went through the door on the left and into the adult ward. Jack was in a double room across from the nurses' station, but he was the only patient in the room. Janet went to speak to the resident in charge of his case, while Sam took Malinda into Jack's room. She was glad they didn't have rules about taking children to see the adults, because she knew that Mellie would really miss Jack if she weren't allowed to see him. Once when he'd been gone a week to Washington, DC to speak to the President and the Joint Chiefs, Mellie had fretted and fussed the entire time he was gone.
As you looked down at Jack's peaceful face, she thought about what he had asked her just yesterday. Well, it wasn't really the first time he had asked not to call him 'Uncle Jack' around Mellie. And she really had tried to remember! But ever since Mellie was born, Jack had been Uncle Jack...even though he was the only father Mellie had ever known.
Martouf had been attacked by one of the hoodats, as Jack liked to call them. He had lost a leg, and one arm had to be amputated just above the elbow. But it had not been just the loss of his limbs or the loss of blood that had killed him. His symbiote had been killed as well, and of course there were no spare symbiotes available to cure him. She'd never forget his last lucid words to her, as she held his hand in the rudimentary hospital that had been set up in a large tent.
"I loved you from the first minute I saw you, Samantha. You didn't know that, did you?" he asked in a strained voice. His forehead glistened with beads of perspiration, and Sam dabbed at them with a cloth. She felt so helpless, and it was a feeling she didn't deal with very well. When it came to building a solar powered generator or designing a new computer program, no one was more confident than Sam. But when it came to the human body and illness or injury, she felt completely useless, and she hated the feeling.
"No, I have to admit my mind was on my father at the time. Now you just rest, so you can get well," she said. Actually her mind was on her father a lot these days, and she was trying desperately not to think about what her life would be like if Martouf died and her father continued to be gone on his missions most of the time. The baby she was carrying would never know its father or its grandfather. And although she hated to think of her own needs at a time like this, she was really scared about the prospect of raising a child all alone. Other than her father and her friends at the SGC, the only other person she was close to was Jack. Strike that. She and Jack had been close, but not anymore. Not since four months earlier when he'd walk in on her and Martouf making love.
She'd had no idea how much her life would change in just that one day. Although she and Jack still hadn't talked about what happened, she suspected that she had lost his love and respect. One thing was for certain, she had conceived the child of another man...a man who she believed she could come to love over time, if given the chance. But now her time with Martouf was being cut short, and she wasn't going to get that chance. The doctor had already told her that he wouldn't live out the night. And so she just sat with him and held his hand.
"Sam? Sam, are you alright?" It was Janet's voice that brought Sam out of her reverie, as she sat on a chair next to Jack's hospital bed. Malinda was asleep in her arms.
"I'm fine," she said, trying to sound as though she really were, but Janet knew her too well.
"You're not fine, Sam. But what you are is the Queen of Denial! You're falling asleep sitting there! Give me Mellie, before you drop her."
"No, Janet. I'm fine, really!" The baby was heavy, and her back had been hurting a lot lately, but she hated the idea of Janet coming all this way, and then having to baby sit while she slept.
"Sam, you're obviously exhausted. If I have to go and complain to your obstetrician, I will! Now give me the kid," Janet insisted as she slid her arms around the sleeping baby.
"Okay. But what about you? You shouldn't have to carry her!"
"I'll find a place to put her down for a nap. It's a hospital. I know my way around these places, believe me!" Janet whispered. "Now you get some rest, and stop worrying! I'll see you in a couple of hours."
Sam untied her boots while she watched Janet tuck Malinda's hat and bottle down into the diaper bag. Then Sam padded over to the empty bed and climbed onto it. With one hand Janet grabbed a spare blanket from the bottom of Jack's bed and tossed it to Sam, who spread it over her legs.
Sam hadn't thought she would be able to relax, but the minute her head hit the pillow, she fell asleep. But even though her body was at rest, her mind was not. Visions of events that had occurred following Martouf's death crowded in on her. It was as though she was living that same horrible time all over again!
Just two weeks after Martouf died, she had been awakened by yelling and screaming coming from outside their tent. She sat up on her military issue cot and looked over at her new roommate Marcia, who was also sitting up. Marcia was a biochemist and a civilian. And even though she had worked all over the Earth, and under some pretty harsh conditions like those in the Philippines and in Guatemala, Marcia still got spooked at night.
"Sam, you're not going out there, are you?" she asked in a frightened voice, as she watched Sam slip into her combat-style boots.
"I'll be fine. You just stay here!"
Sam didn't bother putting on anything else; her short pajamas would be enough to keep her warm in the 79 degree night air. Grabbing the Glock 38, semi-automatic handgun that she kept under her pillow at night, Sam ran out of the tent and toward the shouting. She could see someone laying on the ground near the mess hall, and several people were bending over the bloody, moaning man. There were also three armed people standing over the person on the ground, and one of them was General Jack O'Neill.
Sam walked up to him and stood aside, not wanting to get in the way of the medical staff who was looking at the man's injuries. She just stood there trying to remain calm, when in reality her heart was racing. She could see it all in her mind so clearly. This was a repeat of what had happened the night that Martouf had been attacked, and it made Sam's blood run cold as she imagined that it was him laying there on the ground once again, his symbiote Lantash laying next to him, ripped to green, slimy shreds.
Jack gave Sam a look that she couldn't quite read in the semi-darkness, as he spoke into his radio.
"It's Sullivan. His leg's been torn up pretty bad. So the thing could still be looking for a meal. Take two squads and do a sweep of all the buildings. Be sure to check the fence. But don't leave the compound! If we don't get it tonight, I'll go after the thing in the morning when I can see to track it. O'Neill out."
Sam turned over on the hospital bed and moaned in her sleep, but she didn't awaken.
TBC