STANDARD DISCLAIMER APPLYS.
AN: Thanks to the Wolf and those who review. You rock.
Jack remembered a time, where if he didn't want to tell someone what the hell was going on, he just plain didn't tell them. Remembered that a timed scowl and a few tight words were enough to dissuade someone from meddling in affairs better left alone. Remembered distantly a time in his life where he'd never had to hide the truth.
They were waiting for him in the briefing room as he came back from having a Father, Son chat. He felt like shit. Sara was missing, which terrified him. And Alex, what the hell was he supposed to think about Alex? He'd pulled a gun on a member of Jack's team and had no explanation as to why he'd done it. He'd stood perfectly calm while a man shoved a gun into the side of his head and had wanted to run from the cops. He was wanted for bombing a high school. For killing his classmates yet he'd shown little remorse.
Danny looks up as Jack walks into the room, and Teal'c turns away from the window, where he has been observing the gate room.
" How's the prisoner?" Mitchell asks looking up from a file he has been reading. An old case file.
" Fine. " Jack replies tersely.
" What's going on Jack?" Daniel asks softly and Jack pulls a chair away from the table and sinks into it. He doesn't answer the question he knows Daniel is looking for.
" Sara's missing." He says instead, knowing that the distraction will keep the conversation away from his Son for now.
" Missing?" Sam asks searching as always for more detail.
" Missing, as in her whereabouts are unknown." Jack snaps and Sam raises an eyebrow at the uncharacteristic outburst.
" What can you tell us?" Mitchell asks breaking an awkward moment between Jack and Sam.
" I went around to Sara's tonight. When I got there the front door was open so I went in, there was no sign of Sara, the dead guy surprised me at the back door, that's when he got dead. "
" Did you observe any signs of a disturbance?"
Jack shakes his head at Teal'c.
" No signs that anything was up, and if it weren't for the fact someone tried to blow a hole in my head. I would probably have thought nothing of it."
" Ok, so who would take Sara?" Daniel spoke up, thinking out loud, puzzled.
" I think it might be the NSA." Four heads turn to Jack obviously surprised.
" Why would the NSA, kidnap your ex-wife?" Sam bluntly asks and Jack pushes his chair away from the table and stands.
" That's classified." He states and ignores the shocked looks he receives from his team.
Nothing. He usually keeps nothing from his team. No topic is too top secret, no topic has a security clearance too high. These people are trusted with the biggest secret in the world and therefore, conceivably could be trusted with any secret told to them.
" Who's the kid?" Mitchell asks but Jack doesn't answer, because he can't say the lie.
" You know, the one that tried to put a bullet through Teal'c?" Mitchell prompts but again there is no reply from his commanding officer.
Silence falls on the briefing room, then the only sound is the noise Daniel's chair makes as it is pushed away from the desk.
" He was with you at the house, looking for Sara?" Daniel asks Jack who turns and nods.
" Any chance he could be involved in her disappearance?" Mitchell wonders.
" No." Jack states emphatically.
" You know for sure?" Sam wonders and Jack looks around the room.
" He's not involved. And he's not to be involved." Jack explains in a strong tone.
" Even if he is?" Daniel ponders and Jack shakes his head.
" Just leave him out of it." Jack says tiredly. Why wouldn't the world just leave his son the hell alone?
The Silence falls again before it is broken by Sam.
" I'll set up a tap on Sara's phone and see if there's any unusual chatter on a radio frequency in the area. You should call General Hammond, see if he has a contact at the NSA that we can trust."
" Teal'c and I will go back to Sara's, see if any of her neighbours saw what went down. See if we can find something in the house that the cops missed." Mitchell offers and Teal'c nods to confirm the plan.
" Perhaps we should check any traffic surveillance camera's in the area. Maybe we will be able to obtain a picture of whoever took Sara." He amends and Mitchell looks surprised at the suggestion from the alien, but nods in agreement.
Danny looks around the table and then up at Jack,
" I have no idea what I can do to help, but when you tell me what I can do, then I'll do that."
Jack smiles and sighs,
" Thankyou." He says sincerely as an alarm starts to sound.
Water drips on Xander's head as he lies on the bed and he shifts slightly to get away from the trickle. Moving a foot to his left and away from the dripping sprinkler system he is only settled for a moment, when the sprinkler goes off.
" Hey!" He yells jumping on the bed and trying to cover the sprinkler nozzle with his hand as the door swings open and two guards look into the room.
" There's a fire!" Xander yells and the taller of the two guards shakes his head laughing.
" No, there's a fault in the sprinkler. "
He blocks the door leaving Xander standing in the "rain" as he makes the request to transfer a prisoner on his radio. The term prisoner doesn't escape Xander.
" Copy that." The guard finishes and he looks at Xander.
" Move." He orders stepping away from the door frame to allow Xander space to move through after him.
Xander blinks water out of his eyes and splutters slightly as he grins.
" Thanks, as much as I was looking forward to a shower…" He trails off as he jumps down from the bed and trots towards the door.
The two guards watch him coming, water dripping from his hair, clothes sodden and see no threat. Until he is a foot away and still not slowing. Then there is a vicious right hook, a kick that come up from nowhere catching one guard under the chin and an elbow to the side of the head. Then there is blackness.
The other guard turns to spin away, his hand reaching for his weapon but Xander counters, sweeping the guards legs out from under him and pouncing on him as he crashes to the ground. Driving his heel hard into the guard's nose.
Grabbing the guards pass card, he leaves them lying where they fell and walks up the hallway. There is an access shaft before the elevator and popping the door open is easy. Xander climbs the fire ladder in confusion, the metal rungs continue higher and higher until his arms and legs are burning. Finally he pops the hatch at the top and looks around in amazement at the fact that he has emerged outside at ground level. He'd never considered that he'd been so far under the ground.
" Bloody underground military installations." He mutters to himself as he takes his bearings and turns and runs.
" What the hell do you mean gone!" Jack yells at the airman before him.
" There was a malfunction with the sprinklers in his room, the leaking water knocked out the video surveillance and when we moved him to another room. He knocked out the guards and took off. Video's still down so we don't know where he went."
" Let me get this straight. There is a civilian roaming around the most top secret military base in the world!" Mitchell shouts and the guard looks down.
" He's not on the base." Jack sighs, moving towards the elevator and the team moves after him.
" We can't take that chance General. We should lock the base down, search every level. Cancel any off world activity, until we locate him."
" There's no need, he's not here." Jack confirms and Sam shakes her head.
" How can you know that?" She demands " He could be trying to access the stargate, we've certainly seen that before."
Jack shakes his head as he steps into the elevator and looks around at his team.
" He's not going to try and access the Stargate. He doesn't know the Stargate exists."
" Can you be sure of that Sir?"
He tried to hide the truth for as long as he could, but now his team needed to know what was going on. His Son was out there somewhere, his wife and if his team didn't understand then his family could get hurt.
"He's gone to find Sara." Jack explains.
" Why would he do that?" Daniel ponders.
" Because she's his mom." Jack explains and then sighs. " You see the thing about Alex, is that he's my Son too."
TBC