Chapter 8

Cover Stories and Missing Coats

"Carter," Jack called into the phone, "Carter! Damn it" He heard a dial tone and slowly he hung up the phone. Then he pulled himself up from where he had been crouching behind a receptionist's desk and slipped casually down the hall. He made his way back to the waiting room at a sedate pace. He hated that room.

He hated that it was a stiff, cold, unfamiliar room without Janet's reassuring presence and the way all of the doctors and nurses here seemed to avoid giving him any news. He had told the truth when he told Sam that Daniel would live. He was almost sure of it, but he couldn't get rid of that gnawing, sharp fear that it was even worse than it had looked, that something was broken that couldn't be fixed, and he knew that fear wouldn't leave until he heard it from an official source and saw Daniel again for himself.

He also hated the way that he was himself but not himself. Adult Jack could have made some calls and fixed things. Adult Jack wouldn't have had to lie about being the nephew to a complete bastard, and he wouldn't have had to lie and make up some story about burglars to justify two grown men with broken necks. He also suspected that adult Jack wouldn't have lost control so completely and broken their necks, but somehow he couldn't bring himself to regret that. Besides, he wasn't completely certain that Jack at any age wouldn't have lost it upon entering that house. But adult Jack might at least have gone about it in a more discreet way; a way that couldn't so easily be traced back to him, and now the police were looking into the murders and it wouldn't take them long to realize that Jack's cover as the nephew didn't fit.

And now, Carter, Teal'c, and, apparently, Carter's brother were all coming to help in what amounted to Teal'c kidnapping two children in a stolen vehicle. And knowing the father of those two children, Jack just didn't think that would go very well. Yep, everything was just perfect. Jack stood a moment longer in the hallway, not really wanting to go back into the waiting room. He leaned against the wall, his eyes closed tiredly. He just wanted all of his team together, alive and unhurt. Finally, knowing he had delayed long enough, he went back to his bony chair and waited.

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Daniel woke up slowly and found himself in a familiar position. The sounds that floated around him, the feel of the bed beneath him, and finally the smell all added up to the infirmary. Cracking an eye open, he managed to make out the vague form of Jack sitting nearby. Daniel closed his eye again, not yet ready to face being awake. He tried to remember what might have sent him there, and slowly the last mission came back to him. Malikai had turned a gun on him, Jack had knocked him down and…actually that was about all he remembered.

Suddenly alarmed, both from not really remembering how he got there and, even more importantly, not knowing if anyone else was hurt, he opened his eyes. And that was when everything became very strange.

"Danny?" Jack said, sitting up and leaning closer to him. The form that Daniel had instantly taken to be Jack, though, wasn't the Jack he knew. Even without his glasses, Daniel could tell the difference in his hair color and his voice.

"Jack?" Daniel asked, confused. It was Jack, wasn't it? But the moment he spoke, and heard his own high, frightened voice, all thought of this stranger Jack left him. His eyes widening further, he tried to sit up only to find he couldn't. Something was strapping him down.

"Whoa, Danny, easy," stranger Jack said, reaching out a hand to steady him, but Daniel wasn't listening. Everything was strange, and wrong, and when he tried again to swing his legs around, pulling at the restraint, he was hit by a sudden, agonizing pain that left him breathless. As the pain jolted through him, memories connected once again, and everything came back. He was a kid again, the giant, the doctor, the bookcase falling for him, he tried to scramble away but it was too late. As he remembered, people came flooding into the room and there were too many people, all towering over him, mixed in with memories, but finally, as the scene played to its end, the bookcase falling, there was Jack's face.

"Come on, Daniel, just breathe," he heard Jack say, his voice calm and steady, and Daniel began to relax. Jack was here, not the giant, and not the doctor. He was safe.

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

"If he's an alien, why do we have to take the car? Why can't we fly in his space ship?" Mark demanded. They had gotten Mark to go in the car with little difficulty; in fact once Sam was in the car he wasn't about to let some stranger drive her off without him, but after the first hour of driving, most of which was Sam trying to tell Teal'c which way to go when she didn't really know herself, he had come out of his confused daze and started asking questions.

"Duh," Sam said in reply, "It's broken."

"Well how did you meet him then?" Mark asked, "How do you know all this? Wouldn't that be in the news if a space ship crashed?"

"It's top secret," Sam explained, "Dad would know, I'll bet. But they wouldn't tell us. And I found him." Mark shook his head, frustrated. He knew that something wasn't adding up, but he wasn't sure exactly what.

"You know what Dad's going to do when he finds out what we did?" he asked. Sam frowned. She knew that her brother was talking about what he would do to them when he caught them, for running away in their mom's car with an alien. But the part of Sam that was still able to hold onto her adult thoughts immediately started to see how her dad would think. He wouldn't see it as running away, it would be like Jack had said; Teal'c stole the car and kidnapped them. And he wouldn't be happy, particularly with Teal'c.

"We have to disguise the car," she announced, "And us. We're too easy to trace like this."

"I believe you are correct, Samantha Carter," Teal'c announced. He startled both of them, after keeping quiet for so long while he drove.

"Can't you just cloak us or something?" Mark demanded.

"I cannot," Teal'c answered, "I am without my coat." This got a giggle from Sam, which in turn got a raised eyebrow from Teal'c. When no further comments were made, aside from Mark muttering under his breath, Teal'c spoke again. "Perhaps we should acquire a new vehicle,"

"We don't have to do that, we just need to change things a little," Sam answered, not willing to give up her mother's car just yet, "Like the license plate. Hey, we should switch plates with someone!"

"Isn't that illegal?" Mark asked.

"More illegal than stealing an entire car?" Sam asked.

"I didn't say we shouldn't do it," Mark answered, "But it won't work. When dad finds out, he'll have everyone hunting for us, not just the car."

"So we change us too," Sam insisted, "We'll dye our hair. I could cut mine off and say I'm a boy."

"Samantha Carter," Teal'c said, interrupting whatever comment Mark was about to make, "What are our plans once we have reached O'Neill and Daniel Jackson?"

"Well…we get them and bring them back," Sam answered.

"Have you discussed this plan with O'Neill?" Teal'c asked.

"Sort of. I told him we were coming," Sam said, squirming slightly in her seat, "He can't come to us, he's looking after Daniel. I told you what Jack said."

"That someone hurt Daniel Jackson," Teal'c answered, his voice grim. The steering wheel squeaked beneath his grip.

"Ah…And who are these people again?" Mark asked. Sam sighed, leaning back in her chair. Teal'c resumed his silence.