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"Major. Major, can you hear me?" a soft, determined voice sounded in Sam's ear. Where was she? What was going on? Mission. Bad. Hit. SHIT!
Sam's eyes flew open and she jerked away from the woman taking care of her.
"Major Carter, it's okay. It's me, Laira. You came through our stargate. You are injured, try not to move too much. We don't know how bad your internal injuries are."
"Colonel?" Sam whispered hoarsely.
Laira crinkled her nose in confusion. "I'm sorry?"
"O'Neill?"
Laira felt her heart drop at the anguish on the other woman's face. "He's not here," she gently announced.
Sam closed her eyes as a tear slipped from the corner of her right eye.
"I'm sorry, Major Carter. Daniel and Teal'c came looking for him shortly before you arrived. When you came through, we sent for him, but he was already gone. We have no way of getting in contact with him."
Sam clenched her eyes tighter and nodded minutely. Laira handed her a glass of water and helped the woman sit up enough to sip the liquid.
Once Sam had drank half of the water, she laid back down on the bed. Seconds later she was asleep once again.
Laira sighed and stood up. Grief and guilt filled her body as she watched the earth woman sleep restlessly. Grief that the major had to go through this ordeal without O'Neill here to take care of her, and guilt that she had been the one who took O'Neill from her to begin with.
She had known all along where O'Neill's heart lied, and still she was too selfish and needy to give him up right away. Even after she discovered she was not with child, she held onto Jack.
She sighed again heavily. The guilt of that would never go away. The only thing she could do was take care of Major Carter the best she could, and hope that one day, Jack would return for her.
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"YOU LEFT HER BEHIND!" Jack screamed at the group of men in the briefing room.
"Jack, settle down," Hammond ordered, but Jack was seeing red, and didn't even register his former CO's words.
Jack's eyes locked on Teal'c, the one warrior who he had trusted the most. "How could you?" he cried.
Several men in the room were shocked when they saw the normally stoic jaffa falter slightly and his face flash with undeniable sorrow. "I witnessed Colonel Carter fall in battle. She was struck several times with staff weapons. We were under fire, and I was unable to retrieve her body. Daniel Jackson was also injured and I chose to get him through the gate before coming back for Colonel Carter. I have failed you, O'Neill, for this I cannot express the remorse I feel."
Jack's fury died slightly at Teal'c's words, but he was still too upset to forgive anyone. "She could have survived. No one confirmed her death."
"I sent men back to retrieve the bodies, but Colonel Carter's was not among them, Jack. The staff blasts caused numerous fires and the area Carter was struck had been burnt beyond recognition. It was assumed that her body burned in the fire."
Jack took in this information with a grave look. "I can't," he stopped and looked back up at Teal'c and Daniel, the looks of misery and regret on their faces too much for him to handle. "I can't be here right now," Jack choked out and then quickly fled the room and subsequently the mountain.
He managed to get back to Carter's house on autopilot, and found himself in her room, the photo of Sam and Jake clutched in his hand as he curled up into a ball on her bed. Holding the photo to his chest, Jack finally succumbed to the grief that had blackened his heart the moment Daniel said, "It's Sam," and tears poured down his face as he cried for the love he had lost.
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"Here, try this," Laira said, handing Sam a bowl of what looked like porridge.
Sam eyed the gooey mess in the bowl and then sniffed it.
Laira laughed. "I assure you, it's edible. You must eat to help you recover."
Sam looked up at Laira somberly. "I need to get home."
"You will, someday," Laira told her, handing her a wooden spoon to eat her 'porridge' with.
Sam took the spoon and scooped up a glop of the goo. She slipped it into her mouth and reveled in the taste of something other than water. "Do you have something I can write with?"
Laira looked at Sam bemused.
"Paper, uh, parchment, ink, something I can write coordinates down with?"
Laira's face brightened up in recognition. "Yes, yes, we have parchment. I will go and find some for you. Please, finish your supper while I am away."
Sam smiled warmly and nodded at the maternal woman before scooping up another spoonful of her 'supper.'
A few minutes later and Laira returned with a yellow piece of thin cloth-like paper and chalk. Sam set the empty bowl on the table next to the bed and took the items from Laira. Carefully, Sam wrote down seven coordinates, the chalk chipping and causing a small mess on the parchment as she did so.
When she was finished, she handed the parchment to Laira. "Can you send someone to these coordinates to tell them I am here?"
"Where is this?" Laira asked.
"It's our Alpha Site. There is no iris like the gate on earth, so anyone can get to it without a GDO. There will be armed men waiting on the other side, but if they are told who you are, and that I am here, they will send people to get me and take me home."
Laira nodded. "I will send some of our men here right away."
"Thank you," Sam replied.
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"Um, dad?" Jake's small voice rang out, waking Jack from his light state of slumber on the couch.
"Yeah?" Jack replied groggily, stretching his worn muscles and looking at Jake and Julie standing next to the couch with not-so-angelic looks on their faces.
"Will you be our soccer coach?" Jake asked suddenly.
"What?" Jack asked in surprise.
"Our new soccer coach. We need one or we can't play."
"What happened to your old soccer coach?"
"Er, well, we kind of left that team?"
Jack glared down at his son and Julie and noticed how they both avoided his eyes. "Why?"
Both kindergartners started talking at once, and Jack grabbed his throbbing head and shushed them. "One at a time!" he ordered when they finally fell silent.
Julie huffed indignantly and then looked at Jake with a raised eyebrow, her little hands propped on her hips in a look of contempt that made Jack cringe slightly.
"It's not our fault!" Jake announced, and Jack sighed. This was going to be one of those conversations again.
Jack ran a hand over his face, brushing away the remaining fragments of sleep from his body. "Alright, let's hear it," he sighed.
"Well, we were at practice, and Julie missed a shot and…"
"I was far away, and anyone could've missed it!" Julie shriekingly cut in.
"But Chase told her that she only missed it 'cuz she's a girl. And that's not true, 'cuz Jules is right, anyone could've missed it, and Chase is stupid, and I told him so, and he told me that I'm a girl-lover, and I told him he was an idiot who ate his own buggers and this girl, Sidney, laughed, and he pushed her, and Julie came up and pushed him back and told him he was a bully, and then he tried to push her, but I couldn't let him push Julie, so I punched him in the stomach, and told him he was a sucky soccer player anyways, and we didn't want to play with him anymore. But, Chase's dad is our soccer coach, so we couldn't just get him kicked off the team, so me and Julie quit, and then a bunch of other kids quit too, and then Chase said we would be the worst team ever, so now we just HAVE to beat him, but we need a coach for our team or we won't be allowed to play. So, will you?"
Jack looked at his son in astonishment. Then, a movement out the window caught his eye and he looked up only to see a group of children standing on the front lawn, patiently waiting for his answer through the open window. Jack sighed. "Jake, I don't know the first thing about soccer."
"It's just like hockey, and you love hockey!" Jake cried. "Except instead of sticks and a puck, it's feet and a ball. You can do it! Please!" Jake pleaded, accompanied by Julie only seconds later.
"Please, Colonel O'Neill!"
Jack stood up and looked at the group of children wearily. "Who do I have to talk to?" he asked in a tired voice.
Jake jumped up and down and grinned widely at his father. "Mrs, Tompkins. Her numbers on the refrigerator with the rest of the school numbers. Thank you, dad!" Jake squealed, and then wrapped his small arms around his dad's legs.
Jack patted him on the back. "Yes, well, I can't guarantee I'm going to be any good at this."
Jake and Julie ran out to tell the rest of the kids the good news and Jack walked over to pick up the phone that just started ringing.
It had been two days since he left the SGC, and he hadn't heard from any of them, except for Cassie, since. He had been pissed, and he knew they were giving him time to cool down, but as he picked up the receiver, he couldn't help but notice the number to the SGC displayed on the caller ID.
"O'Neill," he said just as the phone reached his ear.
"Jack, I need you at the mountain, ASAP," General Hammond's voice announced.
"What's going on, sir?"
"I'll fill you in when you get here. It's about Colonel Carter, Jack."
Jack felt his stomach tighten and his blood run cold at the general's words. Without another thought, Jack ran out the door to get Jake to Julie's house so he could get to the mountain as fast as possible.
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Q and A:
Q: Why didn't Jack just go to a planet with a GDO to get home?
A: As far as I know, the only people the SGC gave GDO's to were the tok'ra and Bra'tac. It's unlikely, and unmilitary-wise that they would give GDO's out to the more primitive people they met through the gate. And, the more advanced races didn't need GDO's (ie. Asgaard and Tollan) And, Jack couldn't very well go strolling to Chu'lak to get the GDO from Bra'tac, and the tok'ra were constantly moving their base, so Jack finding them was even more unlikely.
Q: Why didn't Jack find a planet with technology that could get him home?
A: He left in season three, and most of the planets they had been to at that time were more primitive. The Nox were an exception, but they buried their gate, Jack didn't know where the Tollan's were, and the Asgaard weren't that much in the picture in season three yet. Also, there are billions of planets, and even though quite a few more than likely had technology that could help Jack get home (ie. A radio so he could get in contact with the SGC) so far, he hadn't found any of those planets.
Q: Why don't they just dial the gate and the SGC will know where the coordinates came from?
A: I'm not in the belief that the SGC has a star 69 feature. Though, it would be cool, and quite helpful. The few episodes that had people dialing the earth gate showed that the SGC didn't know the coordinates until they were sent. Some examples are: "Thor's Chariot," they only knew it was Cimmeria when the mineral signature was analyzed and they realized it was the same mineral signature of the box they gave Kendra. Also, the Eurondons sent coordinates, as well as the Replicator Carter in season eight.
Q: Why didn't Jack go to the Alpha Site and go home?
A: Because the Alpha Site was constantly getting discovered or destroyed by the Goa'uld and moved to new locations. By the time Jack decided to return to earth, the Alpha Site location he knew was long gone.
I hope this answers some of your questions. Next chapter will have the Sam/Jack reunion.