Standard Disclaimer Invariably Applies
AN: Big thanks to WhiteWolf you taught me amongst other things how to spell Goa'uld. Thanks for all your hard work.
Chapter 8
Chasing the internally haunted Scar across the far reaches of the galaxy, standing alongside Teal'c as he fought to keep his family safe from the Goa'uld, even watching Danny's back and making sure his friend wasn't hurt off world, these were the ways that Jack had coped with learning to live without his son.
Today watching Sara shield a strange man with her body, Jack couldn't help but feel responsible because it was clear while he was working out his grief amongst the stars removing his guilt piece by piece by piece, Sara had been languishing in hers here.
Mike has lead him toward the house and Jack walks after him looking over his shoulder at where Sara still standing in front of Xander is glaring at Jack. Xander is watching him too, but if he couldn't read anything from the young man close up, he certainly can't decipher his intentions from a distance.
"He won't hurt her." Mike says suddenly still looking forward and Jack is caught off guard. He turns and jogs a little to catch up to the older man.
"Why aren't you putting a stop to this?" He demands and Mike glances back at him for a moment.
"You'll see," is all Mike says and heads into the house.
Jack frowns his disapproval but follows.
The front hallway has been upturned, a table lies on its side and broken porcelain pieces of a vase scatter the hallway. The flowers it once held broken on the carpet and the petals stepped into the ground. Jack and Mike pick their way through the mess carefully.
"What was Burstein looking for?" Jack asks as he follows Mike past the living room the papers still on the floor blowing in the breeze of the open door.
"It's a photograph." Mike explains as he reaches Sara's coat and collects the photo from the pocket, "Sara got it from Charlie's file yesterday afternoon, after she met Xander for the first time."
"She what?" Jack retorts in surprise and Mike nods.
"She met Xander yesterday morning and got it in her head that he was Charlie. Thought that she'd recognised him and wouldn't be persuaded otherwise."
"So he didn't start this?" Jack asks in surprise and Mike shakes his head.
"No, he didn't say anything. But after she met him she called the doctor at the base hospital and discovered that he didn't work there anymore and arranged a meeting with Doctor Burstein yesterday afternoon, she noticed this when the photograph fell onto the floor, it's a bit graphic Jack." Mike warns as he hands over the photo.
The colour drains from Jack's face and he closes his eyes after a moment. A career of seeing and inflicting death and he is still unprepared for the shocking image of his son lying exposed on a cold steel table.
"Why on earth would she take this?" He wonders out loud and Mike points at the photo.
"That's what I said, but look closely at the colour of the eye, it's blue." Mike shows Jack by pointing out the mistake with a weathered hand.
Jack forces himself to look at the photograph of his son's body again and his stomach flips inside as he sees what Mike is showing him. The boy in the photograph clearly had a blue eye. His stomach clenches in shock as he looks past Mike toward the front lawn where through the open door he can see Sara and Xander talking.
He pictures in his mind a little boy with a smile that lights up a room, he sees a little boy bouncing on him as he tries to sleep in Sunday mornings, he sees a little boy covered in blood motionless on the floor in his bedroom a gun lying less then a foot away. The soldier inside forces these feelings down, they are of no use now. He'll deal with them later.
"So they got the wrong photograph in the file that doesn't prove anything." Jack states flatly handing the photo back.
"I thought that myself, but why would the good doctor go to the length of attacking Sara and trashing this house to retrieve it, if this was just a clerical error?" Mike questions scanning the damage in the hallway where they stand and looking back up at Jack.
Jack is quiet and he frowns in thought as the analytical side of him works through what Mike is suggesting.
"My god!" Jack exclaims and then shakes his head, rubbing at his tired eyes with a single hand.
"What are we saying, that there is a chance that Charlie is alive?" He asks out loud, Mike looks at him and then shrugs and Jack sees the same confusion he is feeling in Mike.
"That's what I tried to tell Sara but she's convinced Alex is Charlie and ... try as I might I'm starting to see it myself." Jack looks at the older man willing him to go on.
"When I left this morning Sara was going to confront Alex. If she has then I don't know what his response was. I was talking to you in town Mike finishes and Jack wanders to the open doorway.
"So why were you coming to me, if you didn't know before?" Jack asks watching as Sara smiles in response to something Xander says and then she glances at the house nervously.
"She thinks that you knew, Jack."
"What?" Jack demands.
"She said that she saw you with Charlie some years ago at the hospital. She's got it into her head that you were keeping him to yourself." Mike explains gently and Jack turns.
"That's insane! I would never keep Charlie from Sara!"
"I tried to tell her and she wouldn't listen Jack. That's why I called you because she wasn't going to."
"She thinks that I'm responsible?" Jack states and takes off out the door.
"Jack wait!" Mike calls out, but Jack is already down the steps and moving across the lawn.
Xander's head snaps up as he sees Jack comes toward them and as he nears Mother and Son he slows down. Sara moves her body back to where it was when Jack left, blocking Charlie from his Father.
"You thought that I would keep Charlie from you?" Jack demands more upset then angry and Sara steps forward.
"Weren't you?" Sara demands and Jack shakes his head vigorously.
"No!"
"What about the hospital then Jack?" Sara demands angrily.
"I told you, that was a hallucination." Jack explains it is a lie but he has become so adapt at it over the years it is nearly impossible to tell.
"Does this look like a hallucination to you?" Sara demands in a shout gesturing to Xander, who stands by awkwardly watching his birth parents argue.
"You really think that this is Charlie?" Jack snaps shaking his head in disbelief.
"I think I might be." Xander replies and Jack looks at him angrily.
"Why?" He orders and Xander shakes his head not understanding the question, "Why do you think you're Charlie?" Jack demands.
"You have photographs of me as a little kid in the house and I remember the garden, the broken seat." Xander explains and Jack takes a sharp breath in due to a mixture of shock, anger and disbelief.
"Why didn't you come home sooner?" Sara asks suddenly from between the two men and her eyes have filled with tears and Xander looks at her in despair.
"I didn't remember." He starts and Sara begins to cry.
"Sara, be reasonable." Jack warns as he shakes his head.
"You still won't believe?" She asks in disbelief and Jack looks at Xander critically.
The hair is the same colour and the eyes, but Jack doesn't see the child he knew in this man, his son was a bundle of joy so filled with happiness, it seemed as if he never stopped smiling. Before him is a man and a man only a man he doesn't know. Jack looks away.
"I'm sorry if you think that you've found your parents, but my son is dead. He died a long time ago." Jack tells Xander and then with a heavy heart Jack walks away.
Feeling like his insides have been ripped from his chest, wrapped in barbed wire and stuffed back in. His throat feels tight and for a moment he is worried that he's about to have a heart attack. Most of all however under all of this he feels an intense anger that builds and builds. Walking away is the only thing he can think of doing that won't lead to him doing something rash.
Mike approaches, as life on the quiet street moves on, it's a Saturday afternoon and kids scream as they play in yards and a black SUV rolls slowly down the street the sun glinting off the side mirrors causing to Jack to stop and glance at it for a second as it accelerates around the corner and disappears.
"Jack!" Sara calls after him but Jack starts walking again, "Jack!"
He has seen the great pyramids of Egypt in their glory days, travelled further into dark recess of space than any man could imagine and played games of life and death with 'gods'. He has been regenerated to full health after suffering grave injuries and watched intelligent machines and aliens alike try and take over the world. After all that he has been through, all that he has done, all he has seen he won't believe in the impossible right here on earth. Because he knows there is no one on this planet that could have brought his son back to life and no one who could have kept it a secret from him.
As Jack climbs back into his truck silently and heads away Xander can only watch him go and mutter in a dead pan under his breath.
"Bye Dad."
End.
AN: Thanks for the reviews, keep it up. Let me know what you think, if you like where I'm taking this.