S Chapter: 7

Authors Note: Some of you might recognise this chapter as some of it has been up before. From the lack of reviews and response to chapter 6, I'm thinking that most of you don't have time to read large chunks of the story; therefore they'll now be posted in shorter chunks (although not necessarily more frequently…sorry!)

If anyone wants to me to do otherwise, please let me know at do you two mind if I find Jack?" Jacob asked as they walked the way to Sam's lab. "I think Jack and I need to have a serious discussion."

Daniel and Teal'c looked at each other; did they dare leave their friend with the father of the woman whom he was infatuated with? Then Daniel shrugged, and Teal'c handed over the medication, bowed and left quietly with Daniel. The alien Jaffa barely restrained the urge to roll his eyes as Daniel immediately started chattering his ear off.

Jacob shook his head at them as he watched them walk away, these were then men he entrusted with his ass and wellbeing on joint missions, but they didn't act like it! He turned to head toward his daughter's lab where he just knew Jack would be. The man was so thought of what he might say or do that he rounded the corner and walked straight into Jack.

Funny, we're in the Science Tech wing, but we're nowhere near the Astrophysics labs. Jacob mused.

"I would concur." He heard Selmak agree. He was about to say something to Selmak when he felt his body contact with something solid and braced himself against the wall for a fall. Jacob looked up to realise that that something was Jack O'Neill.

"Jacob. I'm sorry." The younger man said helping him regain his balance.

"It's okay," Jacob couldn't keep resist temptation and voiced his and Selmak's curiosity, "What are you doing here?"

Jack looked at him oddly, then spoke slowly, as if talk to a slow child, "I work here, Jacob," a small smile tugged at his lips, "Why, what are you doing here?"

Jacob rolled his eyes, ignoring the question, "Yes, but, what are you doing here."

Seeing that Jack wasn't following him, he emphasised. "Isn't this strictly nerd territory?"

Dr. Lee who was just passing by with Airman Latchman heard this and glared at Jacob who smiled serenely back. Jack could barely control the little tug at the corner of his mouth. Jacob Carter was as bad as his daughter, sometimes. It was one of the reasons he liked them so much. Carter more than Jacob of course. A whole lot more….

"Well? Isn't it?" he prompted when Jack didn't answer.

"Well, yeah. But I was just here asking SG-6 what they thought of that worm…thingie. Gees. I work here fer' crying' out loud. Can't I do that anymore?" Jack looked pissed, and Jacob would have apologised had he not been more interested on what his friend might have found.

"And?"

"And you know that Sergent Wilson has a crush on your daughter?" Jack said in one of his strange epiphanies, after simmering down a bit.

"Not for long he doesn't." Jacob growled, "So? What did you find?"

"Well, I don't think the solution is in the computer anymore." Jack said as they started walking again.

"Really? Why?"

"Well the way Wilson explained it was the worm came in the spud which came in 'something' else also. And apparently that 'something' else had some obscure Ancient Scribble on it."

"So we decipher the scribble and save Sam?" Jacob grinned, then he saw Jack's half- excited,

half-annoyed expression, "What's the catch?"

"We don't know where Sam put it."

"Damn, it's always something like that." Jacob muttered, "So we find the thing, decipher the squiggles and then save Sam?"

"Right." Jack confirmed as they stepped into Sam's lab.

"That's great. Now, you are going to get some rest."

"But! Whah? I just..."

"You've been hard at it for almost two days, no sleep, barely anything to eat." Jacob reasoned, "The human body was not supposed to be put through this?"

"You sound like the Doc." Jack insulted, as he realised that Jacob would literally drag his sorry ass to his quarters and lock him in if need be. He diverted his attention to a penlight sitting on top of a pile of books. He picked it up, tried to twirl it, only to drop it on the bench top with a metallic clatter and shatter of the globe. "Damn. Carter's gonna kill me. She loved that thing."

Jacob rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well…"

"And I suppose you having a snake inside you just makes it all just makes it all better for you, huh Jake?" Then continued as an afterthought, "No offence, Selmak."

"None taken." Came the transition to the distorted voice, before Jacob's voice returned. "Now Jack…"

"But DAD!" Jack whined, catching odd looks from personnel once again. "What if I don't wanna go to sleep?"

"Don't make Selmak come out and make you, Jack." The Tok'ra-Earth ambassador threatened, his eyes just daring the younger man to challenge him. Inwardly, Selmak and Jacob were a little amused, was it just him (sorry, them) or was this a little bit likes something that might happen between a weary father and his stubborn son?

Frankly, he wasn't really surprised. He thought of Jack as son, and held him in high regard. In the world of Jacob Carter, he had many enemies, and few friends, and Jack O'Neill was one man he was willing to allow to entrust his six.

"You wouldn't!" Jack challenged back.

"Wouldn't I?" Jack knew that Selmak and Jacob both would, even just for the fun of it.

"Bad example." Jack swatted with his hand. "But…"

"Colonel O'Neill." The distorted voice of Selmak spoke, and Jack yelped. Jacob/Selmak strode forward.

"Selmak! Don't do that!" He saw what must have been a hint of amusement on Jacob's face, which must have been from Selmak. "Jake…do something!"

"Look, I'll strike a deal with you." Jacob proposed, as he regained control. "I'll let you take Sam's laptop. But you have to take these and come get some food with me." He held up the pills.

"What are they?" He took them. They were blue…and pill-like. Jack wondered for a split-second whether they were poisonous or contained cyanide or saxatoxin.

"They'll help you sleep better and when you wake up, it'll make you last longer." Jacob huffed, getting impatient, "And you can use Sam's laptop right up until you fall asleep. Fair?"

"Fine." Jack grumbled, although he knew that he could really do with some food and rest. Now that he thought about it…he could use with toilet break too. The events of the past two days were draining him and he needed to recharge, or rather…discharge.

"We'll come back for the stuff later." Jacob ordered and practically shoved Jack to the door, pushing Jack to the ground in the process. Jack frowned at him, but walked with the older man.

"So Jack, I heard you told ole' George to go away by telling him to 'toodles'?"

"Well you know me, always polite to my superiors."

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COMMISARY

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"Alright Jack, you got your vanilla cake," Jacob said again practically dragging the man to the door, "Now move it, soldier."

"Going already! " Jack grumbled, trying in vain to shake of Jacob's firm hand on his BDU's.

Jack was not a happy camper. He'd tried to negotiate with Jacob and Carter, but man and symbiote refused to budge. He'd bugged Janet when she'd come down for something to eat, only to find, it was her who had prescribed the drugs. Apparently, anyone who outranked him (officially or otherwise) on the base was all ordering him to rest.

"Fer crying out loud! I'm going!" He finally managed to shrug Jacob off but was still wearing a scowl.

They'd managed to reach an agreement of him staying in Sam's room, although Jacob wasn't happy about it. Jack argument had been that he would look for the device there, and if anyone was going to go rooting through her stuff, it should be him.

They both reached Sam's lab, Jacob purposefully strode to the other side of Sam's bench. He hastily grabbed the laptop on the bench and shoved it into the black carry case with enough force that Jack almost felt sorry for the thing. Jack calmly stood to the side, more than willing to procrastinate and waste time.

The Tok'ra conspicuously glanced to the side on the bench. The little cube was sitting there. For an observant man. He shook his head, for an observant man, Jack tended to crumble a bit around the edges when it came to Samantha Carter. But it was unlike him to overlook alien devices.

He picked the thing up gingerly, only touching the edges; he tossed the device at Jack, gruffly muttering, "Here take this. It'll keep you entertained."

Jacob led the way out, Jack soon following. Out of his peripheral vision, he saw Jack attempting to decipher the secrets of crystal cube. To be honest, he didn't really have much of an idea what it was either, although he had his own suspicions. He'd been left the cube along with specific instructions as to when to use it. That was it.

He slowed his pace, so he was next to the younger man. He looked at the crystal that lay flat on his companion's open palm. As Jack pressed his finger on one of the six faces, Jacob thought he saw a red laser sight shoot out and point to a wall, before it faded. Jacob had a good mind to yell 'Hit the Deck!' or 'Get Down!' if it hadn't been the fact that his daughter had been the person to leave this with him. She'd told him only to give this to Jack under hopeless circumstances.

Jack probably would have seen the red beam too, had Daniel and Teal'c who had come up from behind and flanked either side of him and distracted him. O'Neill closed his fingers around the object, forming a fist around it. The colonel looked up, hoping to talk to someone other than a seemingly mute Jacob. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We are here to escort you, O'Neill."

"Fine. I'm not talking you." Jack grumbled.

"Fine!" Daniel said.

"Fine!" Jack shot back.

"Fine!" Daniel half- yelled back. The two men glare at each other before a silence settles across the whole group again. When they all got to Carter's base quarters, they all filed in, standing around awkwardly until Jacob broke the silence.

"So? We all set?"

"No." Jack scowled at the crystal. "What about that thingo? Are you guys going to look for it?"

Jacob nodded. Teal'c and Daniel looked confused, but didn't say anything. They figured they'd get filled in sooner or later. "Yes. And if we find it, we'll begin the translations. Now take the pills and sleep. You can play with your cube till you fall asleep." He added as an afterthought.

With that, Jacob herded Daniel and Teal'c out, moving to close the door before one final warning, "Don't try to break out. I've got airman outside." Then as an after thought, he added amused at Jack's demise, "Need me to tuck you in, Jack?"

Jack chucked the cube at Jacob who grinned and pulled the door shut to use as a shield. A faint clicking and whirring noise could be heard. The cube started to glow the colours of the spectrum.

"Jacob! The cube's making noises!" Jack yelled, concerned for his safety. No one answered. "I'm serious! It's changing colours."

When 2 minutes past and no one came to open the door, Jack gave up and sat on the bed. He wasn't really that concerned; it was more a 'one-last hope to get our thing' thing. He thought that ought to be more worried about those pills. Besides there was no way Jacob would try kill him like that anyway, was there? Jack realised he still had a problem though; the cube was still 'doing things'.

Carelessly, he tossed it in the wastepaper basket. He reached over to where Jacob had left the laptop, and moved to unzip the bag. He booted it up, logged on, smiling faintly again at the password. He shut the lid and left it on standby mode, he'd take a look at it after he'd done all his pre-sleep things.

He tried valiantly to ignore the colours that were coming out of the wastebasket, and he hoped this was one of those lights that were on that planet…what was it. He mumbled vaguely, "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Colonel speaking. Welcome to P3X niner-eight-niner. Where it's a balmy, room temperature and smells like Carter."

However, it didn't seem to be working, so he got up and retrieved the offending object, before getting under the covers. Again, he sat it in his open hand, willing it to reveal its secrets to him. Suddenly a red beam shot out, and this time it stayed visible and swept an arc across the entire room.

When it seemed satisfied, it shrunk back inside. The rapid glowing slowed, and the colours seemed to all make an appearance for one last time. …. Green…blue…. violet…indigo…

Suddenly, out of the top shot what seemed to be a hologram projection. Jack assumed it was of Asgard or Goa'uld origin, until he saw the SGC symbol on it. It didn't seem to do much else, at least not for the moment, so he reached for the medication that Janet had prescribed. He looked around for a glass of water, something to wash the pill down.

He found half a bottle of flat diet soda under the bed and grimaced at the thought of it being 'diet', before checking the used by date. He chugged it down, washing down the pill, trying to ignore the disgusting taste. Unfortunately, he'd tasted much worse during his Special Ops days. Still, there was something about slightly warm, very flat, almost out of date diet soda that made even the strongest of men's stomach prickle in distaste.

The image on the hologram wavered for a moment, before it changed completely. And not for the first time that day, Jack wondered what the hell was going on. Needless to say, he was more than a little surprised at seeing his 2IC appear on the hologram and offered him two simple words and a smile

"Hello Jack."

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As I said, this is re-edited and reposted, but basically the normal thing. But now you know who left the cube and a possible way to save Sam. But exactly what does Sam have to say about herself? At the risk of sounding corny…. stay tuned for next weeks episode!

LOL…never mind. Anyway thanks heaps to Bekki for her advice!

Also, to all those looking forward to the latest updates of 'All or Nothing' or 'Wormhole Mistletoe'…there is a major delay. It seems that a Goa'uld has gotten into my computer and some of the files got wiped…that and I'm just pissed at my mum for frying the comp…but they'll be up soon! (I hope)

Please Review and lemme know what you think!