Time and Motion by Eilidh17

Category: Gen, Kidfic

Warnings: Nothing more than Jack's mouth

Disclaimer: Not mine but I enjoy playing with them.

Time and Motion

Chapter 5

"Much farther, Sam?" Janet yelled, her hair slapping around her face as the wind buffeted her along the densely wooded path.

"I can't be sure." Sam's reply was muffled as she fought to hold onto a nearby tree, her breath heavy from the energy she was expending to keep upright. "I think we're about halfway there but I can't get a magnetic bearing. The storm is interfering with my attempts to get a reading." Holding her gloved hand out, she reached out and grasped onto Janet as the smaller woman stumbled past her, propelled along by the fierce wind. "I've got you!" Sam yelled, pulling Janet closer to the tree and pushing her down towards the ground by the shoulder.

"We need to rest, get our bearings." Wriggling on her butt, Sam moved herself around the sheltered side of the big tree, sighing in relief as the immense trunk cut out a fair degree of the numbing wind. Watching Janet slide around to join her, Sam pulled her radio up to her mouth and pressed the transmit switch. "SG1-niner, this is Carter." Releasing the switch, she leaned back against the barky wall and waited for a reply.

"Nothing?"

"Not unless you like the sound of static." Running a hand through her windswept hair she shook her head and closed her eyes wearily. "I really wasn't expecting an answer. We haven't had a lot of luck with the radios since we got here. The atmospheric activity is playing havoc with just about every piece of technology we've used."

"Do you think they're okay?" Janet asked, biting into the MRE and screwing her face up in distaste at the flavor.

"I honestly don't know." Sam looked at the MRE in her hand and tossed it back into her pack. "That's not our only problem. I can't be sure that the Lhavanian's aren't still hiding around here. Considering they only saw one of us passing through the gate, it's a fair bet they're still looking for the others."

Sam looked across at Janet, noting how the other woman just sat there, eyes wide and mouth agape.

"You do this all the time?" Janet asked incredulously.

Shrugging, Sam allowed herself a small smile. "Some days it even gets exciting!"

~oOo~

Daniel rolled his dry tongue around the roof of his mouth, wincing as bile rose, making him gag. Groaning, he flexed his hand, wondering why his muscles ached and his head throbbed. Forcing his eyes wide open, he blinked with confusion, black stars dancing in front of his face. Swallowing deeply to force back the rising bile, he was suddenly aware of another presence. "Huh? Who's there?"

Panic over rode Daniel's sense of reason, and blindly, he kicked at the blanket cocooning him. Jumping to his feet, the boy looked around wildly for an escape. "Wha—?"

"Daniel!" A gruff voice shouted out near his ear.

Eyes rounding with fear, Daniel felt his arm held firmly. "Hey! No! Lemme go! Lemmee goooo!" Determined to break the hold, he eyed the hand restraining him and hissed, "You'll be sorry, mister!" Grunting, he bit as hard as he could. Pleased with the cry of pain he heard, Daniel snapped, "Told you! I said… lemme go!"

"Holy crap! Did you bite me? Crap!"

Paying no attention to his captor's yelp, Daniel kicked out even harder, frantically trying to free his arm. "Ouch! Let me go!"

"Nope, behave yourself!" The man glowered, and wrapping his arm tight around Daniel's ribcage growled softly into his ear, "That wasn't nice. I know you're scared and confused but that's no excuse for that type of behavior. Now, I'm going to let go, and I don't want you to move. Think you can do that for me?"

Daniel nodded his head slowly. His options were limited and he knew it. Feeling himself released, he grimaced, his arm throbbing from being held.

"Ouch! You hurt me!" Daniel couldn't help the whine that slipped into his voice.

"No I didn't. So, you little hellcat, you okay now?" Daniel watched in confusion as the man grinned at him then sucked at his bitten hand. "I'm the one who should be whining!"

Daniel wrapped his arms around his body and shivered, then immediately felt the softness of a blanket being draped around his shoulders. He tensed momentarily then gripped the edges of the blanket and hugged it tightly.

"Fine! Not sorry though! I warned you to leave me alone!" Daniel muttered sourly under his breath. "Bully!" Flicking his eyes up, Daniel took a quick breath. "Jack?" Confused, he wondered why the man smiling back at him seemed oddly familiar.

"Hallelujah! Yeah, Danny?"

"Jack? Is that you?" Daniel stared at the lean frame of the man before him. "It is, isn't it?" Images flashed into his mind, pictures of places he was sure he'd never been. People he'd never met, and yet in these images Jack was always with him. The memories were so vivid, yet the more he tried to hold onto them, the more they flitted away. Grief and confusion threatened to overwhelm him and he felt an all-consuming tiredness sweep through his body.

"Come on, Daniel, let's get you warmed up."

Allowing himself to be guided by Jack, Daniel fell into the sleeping bag and shivered.

~oOo~

With a backward glance at Daniel softly snoring in Teal'c's arms, Jack sighed and took point, gripping the P90 even tighter in his hands as he took the first step. Leaving the confines of the relatively safe cave hadn't been an easy decision but the slight break in the turbulent weather made it necessary.

Getting Daniel to sleep had been a chore in itself. His young team-mate had been exhausted, and watching him stir, Jack wondered what kind of nightmares he would suffer. Standing by helplessly as his friend writhed on the ground in the throes of repeated seizures had left Jack feeling angry and useless. Nothing he tried soothed Daniel as pain from growing and stretching limbs wracked his body, leaving him weak and incoherent. Comforting the distraught child had made his memories of Charlie resurface. Cradling Daniel in his arms, he refused to remember another deathly still child.

Turning his attention to the path ahead, Jack let out a cleansing breath of air and whispered, "You can do this, O'Neill," and paying no attention to the far off bolts of lightning illuminating even more distant hills, he urged his tired feet forward.

"S…nine…C..ter," The hiss and static mixed with the welcoming voice of his 2IC broke Jack from his dark daydreams and he quickly reached for the radio on his vest, fumbling with the 'on' switch and dragging it up to his mouth.

"Carter?" He called, grateful that the din of the wind had quietened down to a dull roar. "Carter, this is SG1-niner, can you read, over?" Pressing the earpiece further into his ear he closed his eyes, praying to pick up her voice amongst the background noise.

Getting nothing in reply, Jack hefted his P90 back up into his arms and set off down the track again, keeping ever vigilant for the Lhavanian patrol.

~oOo~

Ancient trees lined the outer edge of the forest, bending and creaking in the violent storm. Shoulders to the wind, Sam and Janet pressed on, the wind and rain battering and drenching them. Ducking as debris flew through the air, they knew they were in real danger of being hit.

"I don't know how much more of this we can take!" Janet yelled, pulling her boonie down over her ears.

"We have to!" Hugging her weapon close to her chest, Sam tried not to be thankful for the lightning illuminating the night sky. Thankful the light was helping them find their way but worried what it might be doing to Daniel. Slowing down to match Janet's pace, Sam scanned the tree-line to her left and the small bluff to her right. This was the ideal place for an ambush and she hoped the Lhavanian's hated the weather even more than she did. "We can only hope the Colonel and Teal'c have Daniel somewhere safe. The last set of scans I ran showed a steep increase in the wind speed."

Feeling her energy levels begin to wane, Sam snagged Janet's jacket, motioning for her to sit. Panting, her face red and blotchy, she said, "Rest, we need to rest."

"Amen to that." Janet ran her hands wearily over her face, taking a moment to push a stray bang back under her hat, "I can't believe anyone would be out in weather like this."

Taking a sip from her canteen, Sam nodded her head in agreement, "Well, I certainly wouldn't be here if I didn't have to be but Lhavanian's are used to living this way, despite having their village inside a bio dome. This is probably a calm day for them so we can't discount the fact that they're still out here somewhere." Returning the canteen to her pack, she pulled her radio over and thumbed the press-to-talk button. "SG1-niner this is Carter, do you read me, over?" Releasing the button, she closed her eyes, concentrating of the static that was filling her ear-piece.

"SG1-niner, this is Carter. Colonel, Teal'c do you read me?"

"Cart.. this is O'N…., ..at is y..r posit…, over?"

"Colonel!" Sam sat bolt upright, her eyes locking on to Janet and a broad smile crossing her face. "We can barely hear you, sir. I have Doctor Fraiser with me. What is your location?"

Hissing and reflexively bringing her hand up to her ear, Sam winced as the spine-chilling static blasted out from the earpiece mixed with the rough tone of Jack's voice.

"Left th...ve, hea..ng north to th. s... One mi.. out. What is yo.. posi…n, over?"

"I think he wants to know our position, Sam," Janet offered, her finger pressed to her ear as she listened in through her own headset.

"I got that. They're one mile from the cave heading north towards the gate." Bunching her brow in thought, she brought her finger to her lip and tapped it lightly. "We've travelled at least one and a half miles and the cave was roughly half a mile from the cave so we should only be a mile or so apart."

"They've got Daniel out in this weather?" Janet looked astonished, her eyebrows drawn high.

"I don't think they'd be out in this if they didn't have to be. The weather is localized in some areas so it might not be so rough where they are," Thumbing the radio back on, Sam spoke slowly. "Colonel, we estimate that we are approximately one and a half miles from your location. We've just come up on a forest to our left that stretches all the way to the bluff. Moving in a southerly direction to your location."

Waiting breathlessly, Sam closed a hand over her other ear, straining to hear Jack's voice over the wind and static.

"Check.. ..ery ten mi..tes, .arter. O'Nei.. out."

"Nothing about Daniel?"

Sam shook her head. "I'm sure if he was any worse the colonel would have said something." Craning her neck around the broad trunk of the tree, Sam took a good look at conditions away from the tree-line, "Talking of getting worse, the wind has really picked up now." Pulling her diagnostic tool from her vest pocket, Sam quickly scanned the area and frowned at the readout on the small screen. "Electromagnetic activity has intensified and the ground speed is approaching 110 miles per hour."

"Windy?" Janet piped up, shrugging her pack higher on her shoulders and tugging her boonie back on.

"Think Mary Poppins."

"That bad?"

"Uh-huh."

To be continued…