*****
"Good morning, Jack." Daniel came in to find the colonel sitting up in his bed fiddling with some odd-looking piece of medical equipment: some sort of wheel-like torture device.
"Hey, Daniel!" He grinned widely and then whispered conspiratorially, "Did you bring any food?"
Daniel produced a McDonald's bag that contained two Egg McMuffins.
"Attaboy!" Jack beamed at him.
"How's the head?"
"Aaa its ok. Headache is pretty mild. But I feel like I ran a marathon." Jack rubbed at his calf muscles as he mentioned it. The image of him twisted by convulsions shook Daniel a little and he wrapped his arms tightly around his chest.
Jack noticed. "You ok?"
Daniel licked his lips, "Sure. Just...it's good to see you feeling better." Damnit, he'd been there for the seizure part, Jack realized.
"Daniel, I'm fine." Jack leveled a gaze at the young man. He didn't think it was fair to put Daniel through any more anxiety and stress. He wanted his friend to know that he really didn't need to worry about him.
"Yeah." Daniel rewarded him with one of those shy blue-eyed smiles that made the wayward archeologist so irresistible to everyone.
Daniel licked his lips reflexively. "What happened Jack? I mean, how did you..." he left the more unpleasant parts unsaid.
"I t'k muh eyes ofph thuh road at precisely thuh wrong sp't." Jack explained through a mouthful of Egg McMuffin. "That road is treach'rous. I's messin' with thuh CD play'r. Next th'ng I knew I's upside down." He chewed on his food a little and got a far off look to him. 'Why was she walking along that road, at that spot, at that time?' He had not been able to escape thinking of the woman he'd nearly killed for more than a few minutes at a time while awake. 'Shaboni.' Beautiful name.
"Oh, did you see? Sam brought your bag. She got your things out of your truck for you." Daniel walked over to where it still lay in a chair. He picked it up and set it on the foot of the colonel's bed. It fell open and the CD was lying on top of the pile of clothes. Daniel looked down at it surprised. Then he blushed mildly. He'd meant to explain things to Jack about that CD, but he never found the timing to be right. 'Who are you kidding? The timing is never right for you to actually say something that means anything.'
Jack saw what he was looking at and pulled the bag to him. He considered acting like the whole thing hadn't happened, but an impulse to push finally got the better of him.
"Why did you give me that CD, Daniel?" Jack held his gaze.
Daniel took a deep breath and let it out. Could he say all the things he wanted to say? He never had. The only person he'd been able to say everything to was Sha're. He opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again not knowing where to begin.
Just then Major Carter appeared in the room. "Good morning, Sir." She smiled at him brightly. Daniel looked at his feet.
"Good morning, Major." The colonel saw that the opportunity had gone, and he gave a little mental wave to it as it flew out of the room.
"How are you feeling?"
"I'm feeling fit as a fiddle. Ready to get going on that vacation." He took another bite of his sandwich. They turned as Dr. Fraiser entered the room. She looked to Sam like she hadn't slept at all. "Hi, Janet."
"Good morning, people. Colonel, what are you eating?"
He held up his sandwich saying, "brekfass ov champins."
"Well, I'm glad to see your appetite is so healthy." She checked the notes that had been made to his chart. "You are certainly looking better today."
"Thnkfs," he grunted.
"If your condition continues to improve at this rate and no other complications arise I don't see why you shouldn't be able to go home tomorrow."
"Yes!" he exclaimed triumphantly.
"With help."
"No!" he was crestfallen.
"Yes. You will have help for several days, anyway. It's that or you stay here." She grinned at him with a slightly lopsided smirk. She knew what he'd say.
"Oh, whatever. Daniel?"
"She got to me before I got to you, Jack. I'm already signed up. Unless something changes I'll be back in the morning to pick you up."
"It's settled then. When you finish eating we'll take that IV out and you will spend the next 24 hours under observation. Then you will be allowed to return home. But Daniel is going to take you home and stay with you for the remainder of the week."
Jack shot Daniel a sour look, and Daniel grinned at his irritation.
"Well, it looks like you guys have everything in hand." Sam hated to admit it, but she enjoyed the tortured look on her CO's face. "I'm going to go home. It is my vacation, after all." And with that she breezed from the room.
The next morning Daniel returned with another bag of breakfast for Jack.
"Well, I'm ready when you are." Daniel situated himself on the edge of a chair as Jack dug in to a heavy grease-laden breakfast sandwich.
"Lumme finsh." Jack mumbled around his breakfast.
"By all means."
"Gentlemen," General Hammond strolled in.
"Genr'l,"
"Sir." Daniel stood as the general entered the room.
"Colonel O'Neill, it is good to see you up and about. You look a great deal better off than you did even yesterday. I understand the doctor is cutting you loose this morning?"
"Yes, Sir. Got to get busy on not being busy, right?"
"Dr. Jackson, are you going to be driving the colonel home?"
"Yes, Sir. And staying for a few days."
"Very good. I will see you next week and not before, and you can consider that an order."
*****
Things had been quiet on the ride to Jack's house. They were winding their way up the pass when the silence started to get the better of them.
"You, uh, feeling ok?" Daniel asked awkwardly.
"Yeah. I'm not what you'd call a hundred percent, but the headache is much better than it was."
"I came by yesterday afternoon to see if you needed anything and you were asleep. Janet said you'd fought it all day and finally crashed around 3 PM."
"Ah, you know how it is. Infirmary beds are not like home. Besides, there was some commotion with SG-8 comin' back covered with some kind of insect stings. They were whooping and hollering." Jack grinned at the image of Lieutenant Braeburn refusing to allow the nurses to treat the stings that he got 'beneath his trousers'. The young officer had hopped from one foot to the other stalling until the pain got bad enough that it won out over embarrassment. He'd never noticed the colonel laying on his gurney with an open curtain viewing the whole scenario.
"Listen, about that CD…" Daniel started when suddenly Jack sat forward. He pointed out the window at something. They spotted his truck still sitting on its lid against the trees.
"Daniel, stop for a minute." Jack got out and walked down to the truck and inspected it closely. "Totaled," he muttered.
"Looks like it's totaled," Daniel called from the top of the incline. Jack flashed him an aggravated look.
Jack walked around the perimeter of the vehicle and came to the point where it rested against the tree. He could see further down the incline to a ledge of rock that jutted out from the side of the peak before it became a sheer cliff. There was a dark-headed figure lying prone on the outcropping.
"What the hell? Shaboni!" he exclaimed, seeing her lying on the ledge. "Daniel get down here and give me a hand!" He began to make his way to a place where the incline was gentle enough that he didn't fear he would go head over six trying to get to her. Daniel was lowering himself to his position with ease despite his aversion to heights. Jack still felt like he had been run over by a linebacker and not as sure on his feet as he'd like to have been.
They made their way as quickly as was safe to the narrow plateau where she lay.
"Shaboni?" Jack tried to elicit a response by calling her name. Remembering what had happened the day before he didn't want to touch her. He warned Daniel, "Don't surprise her or she might throw you right off this cliff."
But Daniel was already next to her. She was lying curled on her side. "What is she doing here, Jack?" He looked up at him.
"How should I know?" Jack answered, exasperated. "I'm serious, Daniel, be careful. I made the mistake of touching her without her knowing I was coming and she broke my nose."
"She did that? I thought you got it in the wreck." Daniel looked wide-eyed at the prone figure beside him. "She's not conscious. Does your cell work?"
"No, there isn't a signal right here for some reason." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the cell just to double-check and sure enough he saw that same "No Signal" message.
Daniel decided it was worth the risk to him. He reached down and felt for a pulse. She had one. It was a little fast, but strong. He bent low to see if he could feel her breathing. Her breathing was shallow and he heard a definite wheeze.
"She sounds sick. We need to get her to a hospital." Daniel started to position himself to pick her up. The wind was blowing steadily and as soon as he maneuvered her into a sitting position her hair blew into his face causing him to stumble. It smelled so good he nearly got dizzy. Clean and sweet like vanilla.
As Daniel started to put her over his shoulder to carry her up the steep incline she moaned. "I think she has some fractured ribs from yesterday. Better not carry her like that. Here," Jack bent over to help grasp her under one arm. "You take the other one."
Daniel got himself under her other arm and they dragged her to the top of the incline. Once they got on level ground Daniel slipped his other arm behind her legs and scooped her up like a child, gracefully and with ease the older man noticed with a touch of envy. Jack opened the car door and they slid her into the back seat. Jack got in the back with her and Daniel started to get into the driver's seat when she came to.
This time Jack was prepared for her violent reaction. She was completely disoriented, but she woke up the way a field operative woke up. When you can't afford those few seconds of drowsiness you learn to switch modes instantly. She started to attack him and Jack tried to pin her to the seat. "Shaboni!" he struggled with her.
"La'at" she fought against him. "Tijkthar ne'esh!" Daniel thought the translation but didn't have time to give it to Jack, 'No! Don't hurt me!'
"We're only taking you to the hospital. You're sick!" She got an arm free and started to pull herself in the direction of the force he was applying. The action used the strength he applied to slip sideways and helped push her towards the opposite door.
"Oh-no-you-don't." He gritted his teeth and threw himself across her, locking the door. "Daniel, DRIVE!" He yelled as Daniel sat staring wide-eyed at them from the front seat. Daniel jumped and turned around immediately, starting the car and putting it in gear.
"Enta aian, Shaboni! Mehtag atryhené." Jack spoke soothingly. 'You're sick, Shaboni, you need to rest.' In translation mode Daniel didn't even register that Jack had spoken in Arabic.
"La'at, ana mesh fahem…eh el beyehsal!" the woman cried. "Min fadlak!" 'No, I don't understand…what is happening. Please!' She was obviously becoming more alert. "Ento behaamalou eh hena, Jack?" 'What are you doing here, Jack?' Her using his name shocked the hell out him and he gaped at her. She suddenly switched to English, "Where am I?" she asked very softly.
"You're in Daniel's car. Shaboni, I don't know why you keep coming up here, but when we got here you were completely unconscious. You need medical attention."
"I do not..." she demanded desperately. "I do not want to go to the hospital. Do not take me." She was getting quieter. Jack saw that her strength was giving out. Her breaths were coming in shallow gasps and an audible wheeze accompanied every inhalation.
"Why not?" he demanded.
"Jack?" Daniel looked to him for instructions. "What do you want me to do?"
"Please," she whispered. "Please no more doctors. I will be better if I may sleep. Just let me sleep. I promise." And then she closed her eyes. Her breathing was so ragged.
"If you take me there they will find me." She opened her eyes and said quietly. Her eyes blazed with fear, and Jack was certain her fear was that he would take her to the hospital. She was in the car of a stranger with the other stranger who'd hit her with his truck and she was more afraid of the hospital than she was of them. It didn't make sense, but he could see how desperate she was.
"Jack?"
"Just a minute, Daniel," he snapped. He ran his hands through his ever-grayer hair, wincing as his fingers brushed the spot on the side of his head where he'd made contact with the door of his truck. He looked at this woman who was filled with so many contradictions. She was a soldier, of that he was certain. But she also looked so very fragile at this moment. "Let's take her to my house. Maybe she's right and if she gets some rest she'll be better."
"If you say so." Daniel didn't sound like believed this was the right idea. It wasn't like him not to say something if he disagreed. 'Take what you can get, Jack,' he thought to himself.
Jack let Shaboni make herself comfortable in the back of the car for the few minutes left of the ride to his house. When they arrived he said, "Shaboni, we're at my house. I'm going to take you inside." She didn't resist as he lifted her out of the car and carried her in the house. He laid her on his couch. Daniel retrieved a blanket from a chair and covered her. Jack sat down at the bar in his kitchen and stared over the dining room half-wall into his living room where she lay. He suddenly realized that Daniel was banging around in the kitchen.
"What are you doing?" he asked irritably.
"I'm making coffee."
"You do have your priorities. It's in the cabinet above the coffee pot. Hold it down, will ya?"
He grabbed the can of coffee from the cabinet and started filling the pot. "Jack, hot coffee is a good bronchodilator, if she is awake enough to drink it." His hands never stopped preparing the coffee. "It will help with the wheezing."
Jack looked back to the couch. She hadn't moved. He didn't think she was awake enough to drink hot coffee because she wasn't awake enough to swallow. He put his head in his hands.
Daniel seemed to have gotten to the waiting part of coffee preparation. He leaned up against the counter and watched Jack. "You feeling alright?"
"Yeah." He was lying. "No," he admitted. "Head hurts again."
Daniel disappeared around the corner. Jack could hear him opening the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. Daniel had stayed with him when he first came back from Abydos. He had not stayed for more than a night or two since then, but he certainly remembered where Jack kept the aspirin.
"Here." He held out a hand with two tablets for Jack. He took them. Daniel turned and got a bottle of water from the refrigerator.
"I didn't even know I had water in there," Jack said with interest.
"There are four things you always have, Jack: coffee, beer, aspirin, and water." Daniel examined the coffee pot that was slowly filling with his favorite consumable. He walked into the living room. Jack assumed he was going to check on Shaboni. He opened his water and swallowed the aspirin then rested his forehead on the cool surface of the bar. He closed his eyes...just for a moment....
And was jolted out of his seat by a loud crash in the living room. He ran in to find Daniel being held by the throat by a semi-conscious half-delirious Israeli soldier. Daniel grabbed at her hands with both of his. 'Ah, Daniel, we've covered this.' Jack thought. Daniel had kicked over the coffee table trying to get away from her chokehold.
"Sweep her arm, Daniel." Jack said, somewhat amused that Daniel had ignored his warnings about approaching her. Daniel looked at him slightly panic-stricken. Jack mimed for him to strike her at her elbows to help loosen her grip on his neck. Daniel did as Jack was instructing and was pleased to find that it worked well enough he was able to get free. It occurred to him on some level that this woman was in an extremely weakened state...if she'd been at 100%...
Jack grinned at his red-faced friend and sing-songed, "Told ya'!"
Daniel backed away from Shaboni a few steps. She was clearly not completely aware of her surroundings. "Jack do you think it was wise to bring her back here?"
"No, Daniel, I don't think it was wise. But..." he looked at her and then gestured at her as if something about her physical presence would explain his reasoning to Daniel in a way that words could not.
"Right. Here she is." 'See, Daniel understands.'
The woman on the couch was pushing at the blanket trying to get up. Jack went over to her. "Shaboni," he called her name gently. "You have to lay still. Daniel, go get that coffee," he instructed as he heard the tightness of her chest. She looked at Jack blearily and spoke something in Arabic. "Irk hene, min fadhlik!" 'Let me go, please.' Daniel started for the kitchen and was absolutely floored when he heard Jack responding to her, in Arabic. He spoke comfortably and reassuringly to her. "Mit khafeesh. Atryhené. Enta aian." 'It is safe. Rest. You're sick.' He suddenly realized that Jack had done the same thing in the car and he'd missed it.
Daniel filled a cup with hot coffee and dropped an ice cube in it to cool it down enough that it wouldn't burn her. He brought it to Jack who, having heard Daniel's approach, had a hand thrust behind him in waiting. Daniel placed the mug in his hand and stood back as his friend attended to Shaboni. "Sa iduni," she said. 'Help me.' Jack spoke to her again softly "Eshrab." 'Drink.' He helped her sit up slightly and held the cup to her mouth and together they got some of the coffee in her. After a few sips she took the mug from him altogether and drank deeply. Jack backed away and picked up the coffee table, setting it close by so she could put her cup on it when she was ready.
When she set the mug on the table it was empty. "Feel better?" Jack asked her, in English.
"Yes, a little." She turned to Daniel, "I hurt you." It was one of those statementquestions.
"I'm fine," Daniel assured her.
"So you wanna tell me why you don't want to go to the hospital?" Jack sat in a chair across the room.
She looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. "Because there is nothing they will do for helping me that I can not do for helping myself," she offered her explanation. Jack doubted she would be more forthcoming than that.
"What did you mean by they'd 'find you there'?" She opened her mouth and then she started to cough again. He watched as she coughed painfully. Her lungs sounded very congested. Jack was starting to think that it had nothing to do with her ribs, but it was just misgivings as far as he knew. Her coughing subsided. "Never mind," he muttered. For now.
"Thank you," she said quietly. "I am very grateful for your helping me."
"Um, Shaboni," Daniel piped up, "why were you out there? I mean, how did you get up there?"
"I walked. I have no car."
"But why?" Daniel sat down on his knees.
"I am very tired," she clammed up.
"Would you like us to take you home so you can rest in your own bed?" Daniel asked.
She closed her eyes for a moment and tried taking a deep breath. She winced slightly. "Of course. I am staying at a hotel in the town." She started to push herself up.
"No, no. We thought you lived here. There's no reason for you to stay in a hotel when you're already here. Just rest. We'll let you sleep." Jack stood up and motioned for Daniel to follow him into the kitchen.
"Jack, there is something very wrong with this situation." Daniel spoke first.
"Ya think?" Jack ran his hands through his hair. "Look, she obviously has secrets. So do we. Besides, I don't imagine she wants to be all that open with the guy who ran her down."
"I don't think you're right there." Daniel shook his head.
"Well there's a surprise." 'When do you ever?'
"No, don't misunderstand me. I'm saying that I don't think she is being evasive because you hit her. I think it is something entirely different. She trusts you to some degree." He pushed his glasses back up his nose. "I didn't know you spoke Arabic."
"I don't. Not really." Then he pushed ahead, "You were right in the first place. Bringing her here was not a bright idea. But I understand not wanting to go to a hospital. Hospitals suck. Still, there's something more than that."
"Something about somebody finding her," Daniel raised his eyebrows at him.
"That's what I think, yeah."
"So what do you want to do?"
"I want to go to bed. My head hurts," he grumped.
"About Shaboni?" Daniel waved a hand at the living room.
"Let her sleep. The coffee seemed to help her breathing. If she doesn't want to tell us anything about how she came to be unconscious on the side of a mountain I guess that's her prerogative, Daniel. When she gets some sleep we should take her back to her hotel. You ok?" He gestured towards Daniel's neck.
"Fine. She was fast, Jack. Blindingly fast."
"Imagine what she could do to you if she wasn't sick," Jack smirked.
"I did. It was not a happy thought." Daniel rubbed at his neck.
Jack laughed quietly and slapped his friend on the shoulder. Then he went back to the living room and sat down in a chair. Shaboni was sleeping soundly in the same position she'd been in when they left the room. Jack leaned back and watched her. She was an unusual looking woman. Her dark hair surrounded her face in billowy curls. Her skin was very light, but had an obvious olive tone to it. There was a large bruise on her cheek, but other than that he saw no obvious evidence of the incident from the day before.
Daniel appeared in the doorway with a cup of coffee and questioned silently if Jack wanted some. Jack shook his head. Daniel went back to the kitchen.
Jack sat in silence watching her sleep. His headache began to subside and a fierce weariness settled over him. He put his head against the back of the chair and promptly fell asleep.
When he awoke the shadows had lengthened and he was covered with a blanket. He realized that it was the blanket Daniel had used to cover Shaboni. She was no longer lying on the sofa. Jack could hear sounds coming from the back of the house. He went to investigate.
When he pushed open the sliding glass door to the deck he found Daniel tending the grill, Shaboni sitting in a chair snickering, and a most heavenly aroma filling the air.
"I smell meat," he commented hopefully.
"While you two were sleeping I ran to the store and picked up some food." Daniel gestured toward the table. Jack saw empty butcher wrappings, a plate of potatoes, and a bowl of salad.
"Yes, you did!" Jack inspected the grill. STEAK!
"Beer's in the fridge," Daniel informed him.
Jack went straight back inside to retrieve some. It occurred to him suddenly that Daniel had left him alone in the house with a completely unknown entity. Thinking on how utterly foolish that was he was momentarily tempted to scream at him. The pain in his head stopped him long enough to catch the sounds coming from the patio. Clearly nothing bad had happened. He could hear Daniel and Shaboni talking with each other. Daniel has an easy way with people. They gravitate to him. Young, old, man, woman, Daniel could talk to anyone. He has sincere interest in who they are and cares about what is important to them. He feels their passions and their pain. It makes him one of the most fearsome enemies of anyone who would subjugate a people through cruelty or oppression. It makes him one of the most tireless and dedicated members of the SGC. It was something about Daniel that Jack didn't fully understand, but something he valued and respected greatly.
Lunch was perfect. The food was good. The air was crisp, but not cold. They ate and talked and let Shaboni get to know them a bit. Daniel talked about archeology and his studies of ancient cultures and Jack talked about hockey. Jack noticed that she didn't eat much, but she seemed to enjoy the conversation and beer. When they'd finished she said, "This is a beautiful home. It is nice to be surrounded by trees and the mountains."
"It's not a bad way to live," Jack admitted.
"I would like to see more." She looked around and indicated with her hand that she wanted to explore.
Daniel looked at Jack with concern. Jack considered it for a moment. She still looked very pale. But her breathing seemed fine.
"I'll show you around, if you want," Jack said. It would give him a chance to find out more about this strange woman.
"Yes, I would like that." She stood up and began to clear the table in front of them.
"I'll get that." Daniel reached at took the plate from her hands. "You guys take a walk." He flashed a look at Jack hoping he would catch the silent request to take it easy.
"It's a little cold," Jack looked at Shaboni. "Would you like a coat?"
"Yes, please," she smiled at him. Her gray eyes sparkled so brilliantly it gave him butterflies in his stomach. 'Stop that,' he told himself.
Jack went into the house and retrieved a jacket for her. It would be too large, but it would keep her warm enough. He went back to the deck and said, "Let's go."
Jack and Shaboni took the steps from the deck to a trail that led into the woods. He showed her how the trails near his home intersected at the back of the house, which sat about 1500 feet from a relatively sudden drop-off. The house was situated about halfway up a particularly lonely peak surrounded by luscious pine trees. He took her to a spot where she could see the view that living on a mountain afforded.
She stepped close enough to the edge that Jack's heart sped up a little. Daniel had never come this far down from the house. His teammate had a fear of heights that he was constantly battling in the field. But when he was on down time he would have nothing to do with high places if he could help it. Shaboni stood facing the open sky with a chilled wind blowing her hair. She pulled the coat in around herself and coughed.
"That sounds like a pretty mean cough," Jack commented.
"I will be fine."
"So you've said. Is that from yesterday?" He clenched his teeth waiting for the answer.
"No, Jack, I do not cough from the accident." She sounded tired.
That little revelation confirmed his suspicions from earlier. She'd already been sick.
"There is water near here," she turned to him.
"Oh yeah, there's a stream back that way." He hitched a thumb over his shoulder.
"Show me," she smiled softly.
They walked back the way they'd come and turned before they got to the section of trail that led back to the house. They emerged from the trail into a small clearing bordered on one side by a softly babbling steam. It was shallow from lack of rain and rocks stood out on the shore. There was a Cape Cod beach chair situated near to the shore.
"You come here," she said to him.
"My little piece of heaven on Earth," he beamed proudly. "Do you fish?"
She looked at him with a puzzled face, "I do not understand."
"Samak," he translated for her. "Fish."
"Oh! No I have not fish."
"Fish-ed," he instructed.
"Fished," she corrected herself.
"You speak Arabic."
"A little." He bent over and picked up a handful of stones and started chucking them into the water. Shaboni went to the chair and sat down pulling her feet beneath her like a child would sit.
"So why are you in Colorado Springs?" He wasn't going to let her duck the question this time. It was time to find out a little about this woman. An Israeli special-forces soldier who spoke Arabic instead of Hebrew wandering around a military town like Colorado Springs? Things were looking less like 2+2=4 and more and more like some kind of Trigonometry that he would never grasp.
"I wanted to find someone."
"And did you?"
"No." She looked across the surface of the water as a stone startled a bird into flight.
"Who are you looking for?"
"My husband."
That shut him up for a minute. He watched her. It looked to Jack like she was fighting back tears. 'Ah hell. You had to go and make her cry.' Jack went to her and squatted beside her, flinching as his knee reminded him of the abuse it'd suffered a couple days before.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset you." He reached out and patted her shoulder gently.
She bit her lip and turned her face away from him. Her shoulders began trembling as she cried silently. He plopped down on his rear end rubbing her upper arm with one hand, awkwardly trying to offer a little comfort. 'Daniel should be here. He's WAY better at this stuff.' She rubbed tears away from her cheeks with her fingers and started coughing again. This time it didn't stop right away. Her face showed the strain of it, veins in her neck and forehead bulged, and it looked to Jack like she was in terrible pain.
"Let's go back." He got up and offered her a hand.
"Yes. Thank you for showing me..." she stood up as she spoke and promptly fell to one side as if her right leg would not take her weight. She crashed to the ground heavily.
"Whoa! You okay?"
"Yes. My leg is...no feeling," she patted her leg.
"It probably just went to sleep when you did that twisty thing and sat on it."
"Of course," she didn't sound as though she agreed.
"Here," he bent down and started helping her up again.
"Let me sit. It will pass."
He sat down next to her on the grass and leaves and pine needles. The sun was sliding through the trees casting light from above and behind Shaboni. To Jack it looked like a halo. 'She's married,' he reminded himself.
"You know, I'm sorry I hit you," he looked her in the eyes as he said it.
"I am not angry with you, Jack."
"Well that's good to know because if you were I'd have to be very afraid." He grinned at her, brown eyes shining teasingly.
She looked at him puzzled. He didn't realize that she had no idea she'd hit him.
"Yesterday, after I, uh, hit you, you got up and started walking. I surprised you by walking up behind you and...," he pointed to his nose.
"I did that," she stated wide-eyed. She leaned closer to him to study the dark blue bruises under his eyes and the swollen nose. "It is fracture."
He grinned lopsidedly. "A little. Its fractur-ed," he emphasized the correct pronunciation for her.
"Fractured." She blushed. "I do not remember having hit you."
"You are trained in Krav Maga, aren't you?"
Astonishment overtook her face. "How do you know this?"
"It was the way you were standing. When you flattened my nose you took a posture I'd seen before...in the Middle East. I knew a group of Israeli special forces attached to unit 5707. They sparred a lot and I learned a few things from them." He took a stick and started poking absently at the ground.
"You are familiar with the T'ZASAM." Then her eyes narrowed as she realized what had just happened. "You are attempting to gain information from me."
He looked at her openly. "Yeah...I am."
"I will tell you nothing of value." Anger flashed in her stormy eyes. How could she have been so foolish? She knew perfectly well that this man was a colonel in the American Air Force. But he had tricked her. It was completely uncharacteristic for her to have volunteered information like that. It went against the deepest levels of her training. She took it for evidence of the reality of her condition and forced the thought aside.
"I am not trying to get any information out of you other than who you are and what you are doing here," Jack said with a touch of heat to his voice. "Look, Shaboni, you didn't want me to take you to a hospital when you clearly needed one, and because I am an idiot I didn't do it. Twice this week you've been up on the side of The Horn. And without a car, I might add. It is a long walk up Stage Road. Very long." He stopped himself, realizing he sounded angry. She looked very suspicious, contemplating something. He thought maybe he'd chosen the wrong tact.
He tried a different one: "Never mind. It's none of my business." He looked back at the ground. "Are you ready to try again?" He inclined his head towards the house.
She looked at him for a moment longer, wringing one hand in the other as if she were trying to coax feeling back into it. She took a deep breath that sounded extremely tight to Jack and said with round gray eyes fixed on him, "I came here to find my husband."
"You really don't have to tell me anything. I just wondered why I keep finding you alone on this side of this mountain."
"No I want to tell you. It might be good to tell someone."
He settled down and waited for her to continue. That had worked better.
"My husband was a chemist. He was asked to work on a project that he could not tell me about. It was a strange thing, Jack. I am an officer of intelligence for my government. At least I was. My clearance was higher than his." She looked down at her hands and shook the one she'd been wringing. "He said he had to go to United States. That there was something here that was more important than anything anywhere. All of the work he had been with was to stop. Some of his projects were important for the military. But they were all to be stopping. And he left. He could not tell me where in America he would go. And he never came home." She had a steely look. Her mouth set determinedly against the rising emotions.
"So you think he came here?" Jack asked. His heart had definitely sped up a little. This story was staring to have a very suspect ring to it. He suddenly wanted to talk to Carter.
"As I said, I was an officer of intelligence. Initially I was a soldier. I had never wanted to be anything else. I became part of a unit called Shaldag. It is Sayeret. The Mossad were seeking personnel and were to be recruiting from the military intelligence units. I became Mossad officer." She looked him squarely in the eyes. Hope seemed registered there. Maybe if he knew of T'ZASAM he would know of other Israeli units. She was rewarded by a look of recognition and something that resembled impression on the colonel's face. "I spent a great deal of time operating in enemy lands. I can tell you that I was to be infiltrating a terrorist organization in Syria, but that is everything I may tell you on that. I cannot speak further of my activities." She would never reveal to anyone anyway the unspeakable acts she'd committed as a service to her organization. Assassins and whores have very much in common, and for much of her adult life Shaboni had felt that she was both.
"I so understand that," Jack commented tellingly.
She understood his statement. 'He must operate secretly as well.'
The darkness of her gaze seemed significant to Jack. He wouldn't speculate, but the evil he kept in a box for use 'only-when-necessary' seemed touched by the intensity of her stare. Did she have a similar box she kept hidden, even from herself and especially at night?
"So when time had gone on and my husband was not returning I decided I must find him. I resigned from Mossad. I contacted those who might tell me something, but no one would tell me anything of value. He was gone here a year before I began to look and I was looking another year. I found something one day when working with a Russian chemist who was friend of my husband. He had document on the computer, which was speaking of a program in Colorado. Someone had requested for him as well."
Jack could tell where this was going. He felt the need to stop her before she said anything further, but at the same time if he reacted too strongly she would become suspicious. He decided to let her tell him everything she wanted to say and then tonight he would call Carter. She had to know if the SGC had recruited chemists from other countries to work on the program.
Shaboni continued, "I was asking him about the file on the computer. He was denying that it was there. He would tell me nothing and he forced me to leave. He said I must never contact him. He said we would both die if I was not to let it go." She was talking more quickly now. "I went home but I had found a name in that file of someone who might know of such a project employing an Israeli chemist in the United States. I knew of him. He worked as mercenary. I told him who I was and what I was looking for and he would not tell me anything until we met in Prague. I saw this man, also a scientist, in Prague at restaurant where he told me of need to test the molecular structure of items recovered from highly classified missions. They were saying the objects were to be found on other worlds. I did not think this could be correct, but I was thinking that he was knowing at least where my husband had gone. After we ate he showed me his lab and something he was building for some Americans." Her eyes took on a far away look. To Jack she appeared positively haunted. She paused, biting her lip, then continued. "He showed me his work. There were men." She was having difficulty speaking now. She paused, catching her breath, "There were men who came into the lab, Americans. The man who was helping me was shot and his lab was destroyed. I was able to get away. I had been hiding for two weeks." Her breathing sounded too tight to Jack and he wanted to get her back to the house and out of the cold.
"He had told me that my husband was working on Star Gaze Mountain in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I came here and could not find this Star Gaze Mountain. So since the only man who would help me was dead I was not knowing what else to do. I went to a library and looked at the maps. I was thinking maybe I had found it so I came up here. I have not found it. I have no other information and no other place to search." She stopped again biting her bottom lip. Then she looked Jack fully in the face, "I accepted long ago that my husband is dead. The man in Prague also believed him to be dead. He would have contacted me if he were living. I am wanting to find out what happened to him." She stopped and took a wheezing breath, which brought on a serious bout of coughing.
"Okay, party's over." Jack got to his feet and reached down and took her hand. He helped her get to her feet. "Let's get you back to the house."
Shaboni could not yet walk because she was coughing so hard. She leaned forward and Jack held her arm to keep her from losing her balance. When the coughing finally subsided she spit at her feet spraying blood on the ground.
"Jesus!" Jack exclaimed. "You need a doctor! Come on, let's go."
"NO!" she yelled. "You said you would not take me to hospital!" She pulled away from him.
"Okaayy! Okay! I won't take you anywhere yet." 'I'm gonna be SO sorry I said that.'
"Promise me!"
"No, I won't promise that. I will promise that I am not going to take you anywhere NOW. But I won't promise that I will do nothing if it looks like you're going to DIE IN MY LIVING ROOM." That was going to have to be good enough.
"Very well," she acquiesced.
Shaboni let the colonel help her back to the house and by the time she got there she was clearly having difficulty breathing. Daniel was in the living room reading one of Jack's books. He put it down when they came in.
"Daniel, do we have any more of that coffee?" Jack asked when he saw them.
Daniel jumped up and got a cup of fresh coffee. "How do you like it, Shaboni?"
She looked at Jack puzzled by the question.
"Do you want sugar in it? Or milk? Not that I have any milk..." Jack explained.
"Oh, no. I do not want anything in the coffee but coffee," she called to Daniel.
"My kind of woman," Jack grinned at her. She visibly blushed. He left it alone.
She sat down on the couch and pulled her shoes off. Then she tucked her feet underneath her as she had down by the stream. Daniel brought her the coffee and sat down across from her. Jack decided that now was not the time to tell Daniel about their conversation. Nor was it the time to call Carter. But later....
"So, kids, what do we want to do tonight?" Jack hopped up, suddenly wishing he hadn't as a wave of dizziness and nausea swept over him.
"Jack?" Daniel saw the look on the colonel's face and knew it meant trouble. Jack tried to make some nonchalant comment to blow him off, but decided that he felt entirely too swimmy to say anything. He sank back to the chair, gripping the handles as he waited for the buzzing and graying to pass. "Jack!" Daniel insisted.
"Just...a...minute," he managed.
"He is not well," Shaboni was not asking a question with her statement this time. She stood up with her cup of coffee and walked to him. "Come and lay down." She took his hand from the armrest and led him shakily to the couch. He didn't resist and he didn't make a sound as he carefully laid himself down. Shaboni moved to a chair and sat down, tucking her feet under her and still drinking her coffee.
Daniel wasn't sure he was up to taking care of two sick people by himself. He knew if he called Sam to come and help him that Jack would be distinctly unpleasant. He guessed he would just have to make the best of it.
Daniel left the room and reappeared with the bottle of aspirin and a bottle of water. He handed them both to Jack and when the grizzled-looking colonel didn't do anything with them right away he took them back out of his hands and opened the bottle himself. He poured a couple of tablets into his hand, opened the bottle of water, and then handed them both back to Jack as a directive. Jack shakily obliged. He put the bottle of water on the coffee table and put his hands over his eyes.
"Overdid it?" Daniel asked him.
"No," Jack snapped.
"You overdid it." And with that Daniel walked from the room.
Jack rubbed his head with his fingernails trying to push the pain back a little bit. Daniel was right. He'd done entire too much messing around for the seriousness of the concussion he'd received. He vowed to rest for the next few days. He would feel better in a day or two. Right after he called Carter...
Daniel returned with Jack's bag from his car. He put it down on the floor in the living room next to Shaboni. She'd finished her coffee. "Would you like another cup?"
"Yes, I would." She handed him the empty mug. She looked over at the colonel who now knew more about her than any other person in her life. She knew that her desperation had been the major reason she'd told him so much. Of course he couldn't know what she was talking about and he surely couldn't help her, but she was out of time. She just wanted to know. Just wanted to know what had happened to Emil. And if she couldn't find out she wanted someone else to know.
A fresh fit of coughing roused the colonel from his resting. He lifted his hands and looked over at her. She looked back at him. When she saw how concerned he was as he looked at her she smiled so brightly it took his breath away. He had to double check to be sure that it was in fact her brilliant smile, and, yes...there it was...it was definitely her smile and not the knock to the head. He couldn't help but smile back at her.
Daniel came into the room to find his two patients grinning at each other. They turned and grinned at him. He felt like he'd missed something important. He handed the cup of coffee to Shaboni and turned to go back to the kitchen for a cup for himself. The bag lying on the floor next to her feet tripped him. The top was unzipped and some of the contents spilled out. Among them was the CD that Sam had put in the bag.
"This is American music," she asked.
"Um, no, it's actually a British artist named Sting." Daniel wrapped his arms around his chest.
"This is good," she looked at them both questioningly.
"Yes, it is," Jack answered her and glanced at Daniel who shot him a tense look.
"Then we must listen to it," she declared and began to take it to the stereo.
"No, not right now," Jack stopped her. "I know, let's watch a movie."
She looked distinctly disappointed, but sat back down in the chair.
"Uh uh, over here." Jack swung his feet off the couch and patted the seat beside him. "Can't see the TV from over there. Daniel, you pick."
Daniel titled his head and gaped at his friend. That concussion must have knocked something loose! He was NOT acting like himself. Was it the head injury or was it the woman?
Daniel chose Stripes. He had not yet seen it and had heard that it was very funny. He was not disappointed. He put together some sandwiches and sat the food on the coffee table. Jack had wolfed down two, but Shaboni had not eaten half of one. She had barely touched her lunch, either. Still, she drank a couple of beers and laughed heartily at the movie.
"I am loving this revealing view of American military!" She giggled and punched Jack on the arm.
They had a wonderful evening. By the end of it they were all exhausted.
"I do not have money to pay for a taxi, Daniel. Will you please take me to the hotel?" Shaboni said shortly after the end of the movie.
"You do not have to leave, Shaboni." Jack turned to her. "You are welcome to stay here."
She looked at him warmly. "If you are certain that I will not be imposing I will stay. I have no wish to sleep at the hotel."
"Then it's settled. Daniel, can you show her to the spare room?" Jack pushed himself carefully up from the couch. He went to get her some towels and sweats. Daniel followed him.
"Are you sure about this, Jack?" He sounded alarmed.
"Completely. I need to tell you what she told me this afternoon, but not now." He waved him off. Daniel went back to the living room and showed Shaboni to her room. Jack came behind him and gave her some fresh towels and the sweats.
"If you need anything I'm the first door on the right and Daniel is that one back there." He pointed down the hallway to indicate which rooms he was referring to.
"Thank you so much, Jack. And thank you for everything today. I did not think I would get such a chance as this." She leaned in and kissed him softly on the cheek. Daniel's eyebrows shot up.
"You bet," Jack grinned at her. "Let's go, Daniel. Let the lady get ready for bed."
Daniel followed Jack back to the living room. When they heard the bathroom door shut Daniel said, "Okay, so what did she tell you?"
"Daniel you are not gonna believe this one." Jack shook his head.
"I will never have the chance if you don't get to the point and tell me."
"Temper, Daniel. Okay, the short version is she was Israeli special-forces and then she went to work for the Mossad, which is the Israeli version of the CIA. She was part of a unit of the Sayeret. Her unit, the Shaldag, is one of the most secretive and highly advanced in all of the Sayeret. Apparently she was recruited away from the Shaldag by the Mossad and spent several years infiltrating a terrorist organization in Syria."
"That would explain why she spoke Arabic when she was coming to, instead of Hebrew. She would have to revert to Arabic or she could be discovered," Daniel explained to himself.
"Yeah, that is exactly why. Those spies go through an incredible amount of conditioning to be able to assimilate in such a complete way. Anyway, she was married to some chemist. He was recruited for some classified project going on in the US and told her it was very important. He joined the project and she never heard from him again. She tried to get help from a friend of his who just happens to be a Russian chemist. Apparently he had a file on his computer that indicated he'd been requested for a US program running in Colorado. The Russian freaked out on her when she asked him about it and she went back to Israel. But she'd gotten the name of another guy from the file, who she then met in Prague. This guy told her that her husband was working on a project where he was testing the molecular structure of items that were being found on highly classified missions. He told her that the items were of alien origin. Then he told her that the program was at Star Gaze Mountain or something like that."
Daniel's eyes were hugely round. "Jack, do you realize what this means?" He looked towards the hallway listening to the sound of water running.
"It MEANS that either the SGC was bringing in foreign nationals to work on their little science projects, which I'm fairly sure they weren't, or that the NID, posing as SGC, did it. Either way, someone forgot to mention it to the general and we have a serious security leak with at least a Russian scientist, another one in Prague, and God only knows who else."
"What about Shaboni? I mean, she knows something, but not enough, right?"
"Well she made it this far and I don't have any doubt that she could figure out the remaining piece or two of the puzzle that would lead her to the Stargate."
"What do we do?"
"We call Carter, first, to see if she knows about the Stargate program bringing in foreign nationals. Then we call the general and inform him of the situation." Jack rubbed his forehead.
"What about Shaboni?"
"What about her? She can stay here. In fact I'd much rather have her here than traipsing about all over the mountain trying to find..." He stopped abruptly.
"Jack?" Daniel asked, alarmed at the look on Jack's face. "What is it?"
"The Horn."
"The what?"
"The Horn. That's the name of this mountain. And it has a lookout somewhere. And dollars to doughnuts it's called Star Gazer's lookout or something similar." Jack pushed himself off the couch and started rummaging through a desk in the dining room. "It's here somewhere...," he muttered.
"What are you looking for?"
"A map." He pulled some things out of his way and tossed them on the floor. He dug through a few drawers and finally exclaimed, "Here!" He unfolded the map and Daniel saw a topographical survey of the Colorado Springs area. Jack turned the light on in the dining room and leaned over the table searching the map. He stabbed at it with a finger, "Here it is!"
Daniel bent over the map and looked at the area where Jack's finger was poking the page. It was along the side of The Horn at about 4750 ft near a road that had been labeled Stage Road. "Isn't that the main road up the mountain?" Daniel asked.
"Yep. And THAT is the bend where my truck is lying dead."
"And where we found Shaboni." He looked at it again. "That little outcropping is Star Gazer's Point?"
"Look at the name on it, Daniel. She must have gone looking for it hoping that it was somehow related to what that guy in Prague told her."
"But think about it, Jack. You say she's special-forces. She's obviously pretty smart. Surely she wouldn't think the program her husband was involved in could be found on a topographical map of the area."
"I don't have any idea what she thought. I think she's gotten desperate. But I do know that we found her at Star Gazer's Point. She went there for something."
"Star Gazer's Point. Is it me or is that a really cheesy name?" Daniel commented.
"Oh it's cheesy. But it also sounds a lot like our own little classified operation. Someone heard Cheyenne Mountain and Stargate and got mixed up. The problem is, someone heard, Daniel."
"What's her husband's name?" Daniel asked. His wheels had started spinning.
"I don't know. You got her name last night, right?"
"Her last name is Uziel. I'll call Sam and see if she knows the name."
"Go." Jack waved him towards the bedroom where he could use the phone in private.