Hi there, thanks as always for those wonderful reviews. Glad you all seem to be intrigued by this. Here's the next chapter for you to enjoy.
"If At First You Don't Succeed..."
by Lingren.
Previously:-
His arm was now hurting like the very devil, and he could feel the blood running down inside his jacket sleeve which was already soaked through. Despite his makeshift bandage, his leg was bleeding steadily too, soaking through his pant leg onto the seat beneath him. Ignoring it all, he started up and pulled out onto the deserted road, heading back towards Cheyenne Mountain. Hoping to God, that he would be able to last long enough to make it there before he passed out through loss of blood.
Chapter 3 – AWOL
Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c met up in the briefing room with just a half hour to go before the planned mission was due to start. The had all been summoned by General Hammond, and the speculation about Jack being AWOL had fuelled many rumours. Now as they sat round the table, they were wondering what the General was going to say about the up and coming mission. On entering the briefing room, the General was all brusque and business like and didn't look particularly happy to Sam's way of thinking. She moved to rise to her feet, but Hammond was quick to indicated that they stay where they were.
"I'm sure by now you have learned that Colonel O'Neill is AWOL, and I have to say that for whatever reason behind his absence that you won't believe everything you may have heard. Therefore, I have to tell you that seeing as the Colonel will not be joining you for the mission to P8Z 494, I'm putting Major Carter in charge." The tension he felt made his voice sound more brisk than he meant it to be, but, damn the man, he was actually worried about his often wilful 2IC. "Are there any questions or problems with this decision?"
Sam grimaced, torn between being flattered that the General trusted her with this important mission – despite the fact that it was her father that was missing - and worried because of the Colonel's unexplained and unexpected absence. She couldn't help but wonder just what could have happened to make him go AWOL, and why the General seemed so disturbed by it. There was something 'fishy' about the whole thing. It smacked of covert ops again.
"Major Carter?" Hammond's voice brought her out of her ruminations.
"Ah, no Sir. No problem," Sam answered quickly.
"Good. Your mission is due so I suggest you finish getting geared up. Dismissed."
The three members of SG-1, looked at each other, deeply worried about Jack, and Daniel took it upon himself as spokesperson to face the General. Sam and Teal'c dutifully followed him as he entered the General's office to confront him.
"Doctor Jackson. Is there something else?" Hammond then noted that the other two had entered the room too and instantly knew why.
"Ah...actually yes, General, there is. Could you explain exactly why it is that Jack won't be coming on the mission?"
"I'm sorry son, but he was called away urgently."
"Sir..." Sam interrupted at this point. "Is this another sting operation that no-one's telling us about?"
Hammond knew what she wasn't saying but in all honesty he really couldn't explain Jack's absence without consulting with him first. If it was something that Jack had undertaken without his knowledge then there would have to be a damn good reason for him to be excluded from those in the know.
"Not precisely Major. No."
"Please explain the meaning of...'Not precisely', General Hammond?" Teal'c asked, unsure why they were being treated this way, especially after the previous NID fiasco.
The General sighed, and sitting back heavily in his chair, he looked up into three very worried faces. He knew he wouldn't be able to keep Jack's supposedly 'indiscretion' a secret from his team, he also knew they wouldn't be able to accomplish their mission successfully if they were constantly worrying about Jack all the time.
"You all know that Colonel O'Neill went missing from this facility about two hours before this mission was due to begin, well, it now appears he went off on a little mercy mission of his own, and without my prior knowledge. He is on his way back here right now, but probably won't return until after you have left. It's a very delicate subject and is on a 'need to know' basis only, so I'm not at liberty to divulge anything else at this moment."
"And he didn't think he could trust us enough to tell us...again!"
"Doctor Jackson, Major Carter, Teal'c... I don't think this time it was a matter of not trusting you, but this was one mission where Colonel O'Neill was completely on his own. I'm as much in the dark on this one as you people are."
"How could that be, Sir?"
"I only found out about it myself, just a short while ago, when the Colonel phoned and informed me he wouldn't be back in time to lead the mission. I don't know any details other than he was bringing an 'undercover agent', shall we say, back with him who is in need of medical care." Hammond deliberately kept quiet about the nagging fact that Jack was probably injured too.
"Well at least we know that he is okay, and that he'll be back here soon. Thank you for confiding in us General. At least we'll be able to go through to P8Z 494, without worrying about him so much now."
"That's what I figured too, son. Major are you sure you're up to taking on this mission?"
"Yes Sir. I'm fine with it."
"Good. I have every confidence in you. It's time you should all get yourselves ready to go. And God speed out there. I'm sure Jacob will be relieved to see you all."
"Yes sir. Thank you Sir."
OoOoOoOoO
Janet, and her team had been waiting nervously for the last 30 minutes now. It wasn't a particularly warm evening, and the young nurses with her were shivering slightly. Janet didn't know if it was because they were cold or because they were nervously awaiting their VIP patient. She hated this waiting too, never quite knowing what to expect. She had prepared as much as she could without giving away who they were about to receive for treatment, and any minute now she expected to see Jack's truck come through the gates at the entrance to the mountain complex.
OoOoOoOoO
In the meantime, Jack was struggling to stay compos mentis as he drove along the tricky mountain road. He'd already opened the window wide to get plenty of chilly air blowing on him to try keeping himself alert but it was getting harder to concentrate now. The only problem with the open window was that he was shivering quite violently, and knew that he was most likely going onto shock due to his untreated wounds.
Strangely, he quite hoped that Harry was still with them, but he couldn't the time to keep stopping just to check on him. His driving was getting more and more erratic, as he grew weaker. So far it had been sheer luck that he hadn't met any cops out here; 'cos boy, would they have a field day. Soon the lights of the compound came into view and he whispered a silent thank you as he slowed down to the approach the - open gates? He found he didn't even have to stop, they'd waved him straight through on what could only be the General's orders.
OoOoOoOoO
General Hammond was by now deeply worried about his missing man. He'd long been expecting a call from the gate to say that Jack had arrived, but here he was nearly an hour after his phone conversation with the Colonel and there was still no sign of him. He'd been in the control room to see SG-1 depart on their mission some time ago. The suspense of not knowing what was happening was getting too much and he was about to ring the gate when he received that long awaited call.
OoOoOoOoO
Jack parked his truck as close to the mountain entrance as he could and took a deep but pain-filled breath, glad that the nightmare drive was finally over, and that now he could relax and let Doc. Fraiser take over. He saw her approach with her team in tow, but jumped slightly when she appeared at his open window, wondering if he'd let his consciousness slip for a brief moment.
Janet found him with his head resting in his left hand, elbow propped on the steering wheel. When he suddenly realised she was there, he flinched and pointed over his shoulder to the back of the truck.
"He's in the back Doc., under the tarp. That's if he's still with us."
"Don't worry Colonel we'll take it from here. Are you okay, sir?"
"I can wait. See to him first, he was in a bad way."
She patted his upper arm and walked quickly to the back of the truck, and set her team to work.
The lighting around the compound had failed to penetrate the interior of the truck, casting deep shadows in the darkness of the cab which hidden Jack's ashen face and disguised his blood soaked jacket and pants.
It was at this point that General Hammond arrived and stood by for a moment to watch as they lifted a deathly pale Maybourne onto the gurney. Janet quickly assessed his condition and updated the General as she sent her team scurrying back to the base infirmary.
Hammond then made his way round to the driver's door so that he could talk to Jack. He was going to have to have one very serious conversation with him about his untimely absence without leave, and he didn't give a damn on whose orders Jack had been acting under.
Looking in at the window, he saw Jack now leaning back against his seat; his head back and slightly tilted upwards, and his eyes closed. Hammond thought looked really tired, and in a reluctant way, he actually felt sorry for the Colonel. The General lightly shook Jack's shoulder, but there was no response to the touch.
"Colonel!" he called softly, but still there was no reaction. "Jack!" he called and shook him a little harder. Jack's head lolled to one side then forward, and the General fought down a sudden urge to panic, as he spotted the blood covering the front of his 2IC's Jacket. "Doctor Fraiser!" he called, knowing that Jack was also in need of urgent medical assistance.
Giving last minute instructions to her most senior nurse, telling her that Dr. Warner would have to operate a.s.a.p., she quickly hurried back to the front of the truck, at the General's urgent call.
Seeing the General standing at the side of the truck and holding Jack's shoulder steady to stop him falling forwards, she realised that Jack must have been more injured than he'd obviously let on.
"Doctor, I believe the Colonel needs your immediate attention. He's unconscious. I understood that he'd been hurt too, but not this badly." he said pointing to the blood he had spotted down the front of Jack's jacket.
Janet ran round to the other side and opened the passenger door to climb up onto the seat next to Jack. Switching on the interior light, she got her first glimpse of the damage and gasped at the desperate sight.
"General, sir, I need another gurney and team here, fast."
Jack was pale and a fine sheen of sweat covered his top lip and brow. She felt for a pulse and found it to be weak and thready, his skin felt cool and clammy. "He's going into shock, and we need to act now."
Without another word the General barked instructions to the nearest guard, who radioed the duty desk to call the infirmary back up here urgently.
There was blood soaking Jack's pants leg, and blood had completely soaked his sleeve, and was now trickling down his right arm below his jacket cuff to drip onto the floor of the cab. The General watched nervously, as Janet quickly pulled open the blood soaked jacket as carefully as she could. They then saw he was actually wearing a kevlar vest which had stopped him from being killed outright. They both let out the breaths which they had unconsciously been holding.
"So, what is your diagnosis Doctor?"
Janet had gone over him as much as she could reach at least, but she didn't think there had been any other bullet wounds than those she had seen.
"He has one, no two bullet wounds to his upper right arm and shoulder, and from what I can see he has another one to his left thigh. He's lost a great deal of blood which is why he's going into shock, and he's slightly warm so I suspect he has a fever too." Janet paused for a moment in amazement. "I don't know how he managed to stay awake for so long sir, let alone drive all the way back here, from wherever he was."
Yet again General Hammond was astounded by the sheer determination of the man at hearing this news. He'd read about it in reports, and had heard SG-1 talk of Jack's strength of mind to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles on a mission, but now he was witnessing it at first hand. Jack had gotten Maybourne back to the base before giving in to his own wounds.
"Colonel O'Neill led me to believe that he was only slightly wounded. I was going to have a team sent out to fetch them both back here, but he refused any help, saying it was far too risky."
"And he told me to see to Maybourne first, and that he could wait."
Janet's admiration, already deeply ingrained, for the Colonel went up several more notches. He had conquered his own pain and suffering in order to get help for a person, who, practically everyone in the SGC knew he just did not like. It was so very typical of him to put others needs before his own, no matter who they were or what the circumstances.
TBC