One day back and Sam still, thankfully, hadn't seen her father. She was still in the infirmary, despite the fact that she was uninjured. Janet simply insisted that Sam remain in the infirmary and, in order to stick with her plan, she played the good little patient and obeyed without quesiton. The colonel hadn't come by since their little fight and she wasn't sorry in the least about him staying away. Teal'c, out of respect for her wishes, also avoided the infirmary. Earlier that morning, General Hammond had stopped by and informed her that, against everyone's better judgement, he was giving her the benefit of a doubt and not having her restrained. She had thanked him and he left with a fatherly pat on the shoulder. It took most of her will power not to pull away.
Daniel had dropped in to say hi just after the general had left and promised he'd be by later.
In the meantime, Sam was waiting for Janet to come back with some decent food. Glancing over, she saw her only roommate. It turned out that the patient next to her was Colonel Reynolds. He had awoken briefly yesterday and it appeared that he was about to wake up again.
"Doc?" he whispered hoarsely.
Unsure of what to do, and knowing that Janet was in a briefing with SG-1, she got up and walked over to his bed. She scolded herself when her legs were shaky at first but, in the few steps it took to get to Reynolds's bed, she felt them get stronger. She scowled when she didn't see any nurses around; it was their job, not hers to look after patients. Even though she knew they hadn't really done that to her, it still felt like it.
"Sorry, Colonel," she said dryly. "Looks like we're alone."
He hesitated, as if unsure to believe his ears. "Major?" he asked.
"Sadly," she replied. "Is there--oh geez," she groaned as a wave of nausea hit her. What had her friends put in that damn gas? she wondered. I didn't think it supposed to be this effective against me
"Major Carter?" he said in alarm, sitting up and wincing in pain in the process.
The feeling passed after about a minute. "I'm fine," she hissed. "Is there anything I can get you since it looks like the nurses've gone off duty?" She had no clue why she was trying to help him when he was just going to jump to his own conclusions about her being a traitor when he heard the rumors.
He didn't appear too thrilled to have her acting as nurse to him but said anyway, "Water."
She handed him the ice water sitting on his table. His hand shook slightly as he accepted it.
"What this we here at the SGC have been hearing about you being a Goa'uld, now?" he asked, sounding stonger, his voice less raspy.
"The grapevine's been saying I'm a Goa'uld?" she smirked. Only been back for a day and everything was blown out of proportion. Apparently out she didn't have to worry about him hearing rumors later after all.
"I've been keeping my ears open. The nurses say—excuse me—that you were a Goa'uld's sex slave and been impregnated. The scientists in your department think that you were forced to work for him—it was a him, right?—because of sarcophagus addiction. The achaeologists agree, except they think you willingly became addicted. Senator Kinsey thinks that you were angry with you team and joined up with the Goa'uld to get revenge against them and the entire planet, becoming a host in the process. And most of the officers here have pretty much dispersed into all those groups, even Kinsey's."
"Wow" was the only response Sam could think of. None of those were right. It was rather funny in her opinion but she didn't laugh.
"So?"
"You want the truth or the lie?"
He thought for a minute. "The lie."
"SG-1 saved me. I was literally trapped in a living hell for the past seven months. Zeus—the Goa'uld—completely violated me and tortured me for information. I'm glad he's dead and I'm grateful to Dad, and SG-1 for bringing me home." It was pretty humorous to see startled confusion cross his face.
"I thought I asked for the lie," he said finally.
"Here's the truth," Sam said bitterly. "As you probably know, we were caught in firefight on our way back to the 'gate. Daniel was hit. I thought he had been killed which distracted me and ended up getting me killed instead. The next thing I know, I wake up inside a sarcophagus. After some details I won't go into, Zeus gets me to 'dinner' and basically says, 'Be my queen willingly or I'll make you a host.' As everyone well knows, I'm less than likely to become a host against my own will again, so I said I'd do it willingly. Then I tried to blow up the ship. Zeus caught me but, you know what the strange thing was? He didn't do anything, except point out a few very interesting details about what my team didn't do while I was dead. I stayed willingly. I was happy there. Zeus respected me and respected that, even though I was on his side, I wouldn't do anything to betray the Tau'ri.
"Rumors got a little stretched, didn't they?"
Reynolds didn't have a chance to answer because Janet strode in. "What are you doing out of bed?" she demanded to Sam.
Sam glared at her and, satisfied at seeing her wince slightly, obediently got back into bed. "Colonel Reynolds woke up and, since none of your nurses were around to help him, I thought I'd do it myself," she snapped. "Sorry I was trying to do something nice and non-Goa'uldish."
"Sam, that isn't what I meant and you know it. Yesterday you had a bad reaction to the gas and you need to rest. I don't want to take the chance that it hasn't worn off yet."
Sam didn't respond.
"Colonel, how are you feeling?" Janet asked, ignoring Sam's silence.
"Better than a week ago," he admitted.
"Glad to hear it. I may be able to let you go tonight or tomorrow."
"Thanks, Doc," he said.
Janet nodded. "And, Sam," she said as she walked away, "since you're in good enough condition, Daniel offered to walk with you around the SGC. And you can't go alone."
"Becuase you think I'll try to destroy the mountain?" Sam snarled. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Reynolds flinch in surprise.
"Because I don't want you to be by yourself if something happens," the doctor said firmly.
"Bull," Sam muttered in Goa'uldish.
She closed her eyes and folded her arms. Another, less potent wave of nausea hit her. She breathed deeply until it passed.
Footsteps and the sound of a plastic bag neared her bed. Sam opened her eyes. Daniel stood holding a shopping back with what looked like clothes.
"I, ah, didn't think you'd want to walk around in that," he murmured handing her that bag.
"Thanks," she muttered, still vexed. She stood up, declining Daniel's help when he reached out an arm to steady her. At the end of the infirmary was an open cubicle. She went into it and closed the curtains.
After she changed, she tossed the infirmary gown onto her bed. Together they exited the infirmary, quietly so as not to wake the colonel.
She ignored the suspicious stares of new and old airmen and assessed how tight the security was. It would be crucial to her escape plan.
"Did you want to talk?" Daniel asked gently.
She jumped. "About what?"
"I know what it's like to loose someone close to me, Sam. It's happened more than once." When she didn't say anything, he continued, "I trust your judgement. Something of the host always remains, maybe you saw that part of him. I don't know."
"What's there to talk about?"
"You tell me." There was genuine concern in his eyes. She knew that if she said anything to him, he wouldn't tell a soul.
"Where's Dad?"
"Something came up with the Tok'ra. Understandable since they've had to relocate. He wanted to say goodbye but you were asleep and he didn't want to bother you."
"He probably can't stand to look at me."
Daniel winced. "What?" Sam persisted. "He is ashamed, isn't he?"
"Yeah...but not for the reason you're thinking. Look, I shouldn't have brought the subject up. And, anyway, General Hammond called your brother. He's arriving tonight, ah...in a few hours."
"What?!" She stopped. "What did you call Mark for?"
Daniel gave her a reproachful glance. "He is your brother. The general assumed that Mark might like to know his sister isn't dead."
"Right." They stepped onto the elevator.
"Nineteen," Daniel said to the SF.
"So what did General Hammond say to Mark?" Sam questioned uneasily.
"Jack only said that Mark knows you've been found and that you're alright. The rest is up to you. I think General Hammond just didn't know how to say everything without risking security." Thelevator stopped and they headed in the direction of Sam's old lab.
"I see. How's Cassie? Did she have a good sixteenth birthday?"
"She's fine but I wouldn't say she had a sweet sixteen."
"Why, what happened?"
"Oh, Niirti's experiment came back to bite us in the ass."
"Speaking of Niirti, I'm surprised she didn't recognize you at the summit. How did you get to be Yu's lo'taur anyway?"
Daniel smiled unpleasantly. "I was the only human here completely fluent in Goa'uld."
"Fun."
"Oh yeah, it was."
They located her lab and entered. A heavy-set man with grey streaked hair and a white lab coat greeted them. "Doctor Jackson, you never come to this floor anymore. Wh-who's this?"
Sam stepped forward. "Major Samantha Carter." Instinctively, she held out her hand.
"Doctor Bill Lee. Major Carter? I hope you're over your sarcophagus addiction. Seven months in one of those things is an awful long time." Daniel coughed, obviously trying to mask a chortle. "I'm sorry, you probably want to get reaquainted with your lab. I'll be in the commissary getting some coffee."
After he left, Sam commented, "So Reynolds really wasn't kidding when he told me about the rumors."
"Nope."
Sam glanced around. Her lab hadn't changed much. Even her coffee maker was still there. "Lee's not the brightest person here, is he?" she intoned rhetorically.
"Well, he's smart but...no, he's not the brightest. Now that we're here, is there anything else you wanted to see?"
"Your lab...unless it hasn't changed much either."
"Sorry."
"It's okay." After a small hesitation, she asked, "How 'bout we follow Lee to the commissary."
"If you want to."
When they arrived, it commissary was fairly empty since it was later in the evening. Sam didn't notice Lee there and figured he took a longer route back to her—his?—lab. They got a couple of trays and got into line. The room had gotten noticibly quieter after the two had moved into line.
Ignoring this, they got their "food" and retreated to the far corner. Sam fiddled with a piece of droopy lettuce while Daniel spooned something the menu called soup.
"Another thing that hasn't changed," she observed.
"What?"
"The stuff the commissary staff serve."
He pulled a face. "I don't think that the food would change even if you put it in a box and locked it in a pyramid for another millenia. I can just see an archaeologist reopening the pyramid at Giza and finding a loosely tied box of perfectly preserved food from here."
"Not quite what I meant."
"That was still the mental image I got."
"So what time was Mark's flight going to arrive?"
"Eight thirty, if I remember right. Did you want me to take you home so you could change?"
Sam glanced down at the BDUs Daniel had given her and nodded.
"And General Hammond already gave me permission to take you to the airport—so, yes, he is flying—if you wanted me to. And...I'm sure Cassie would want to see you again. We could get rid of this stuff and take her out for some real food."
Sam wrinkled her brow distastefully as she considered her choices: stay here, eat the science experiment the base called food, wait in the infirmary, and then pick her brother up; versus the alternative: she, Daniel, and Cassie all go and eat something half-way decent, go back to her house and change, hang out, and possibly all three of them pick her brother up. To her, the second one sounded so much better, but she had another idea.
"What if we picked up Cassie and then got Mark. That way we can all eat" she said.
"That works, too."
Sam fidgited with the bottom of her t-shirt nervously. What would Cassie think? Would she hate Sam like Colonel O'Neill? Did she even know what Sam had done?
"Sam, don't worry," Daniel said consolingly without even looking over. "Cassie loves you no matter what. You're like a second mother to her."
"I hope she still sees me that way."
"Why wouldn't she? Wait, don't answer that. You shouldn't have to. You shouldn't even be worrying. The whole time you were gone, Cassie kept calling me up until I promised her she'd be one of the first to know you're back."
"With the excpetion of the hundred-something people at the base."
"Yeah, but I didn't add that part."
Daniel's SUV pulled up along the curb in front of Janet's house. The light in Cassie's room was on but that was it.
"Didn't you call?" Sam asked.
"I thought I'd surprise her."
They got out and approached the dark house. Rock music wafted softly down through the window upstairs. Daniel knocked on the door with no respose. Even after he knocked harder, no one answered the door. He took the key out as they heard a petrified cry. He jammed the key into the knob and, with Sam in the lead, they pelted up the stairs.
Cassie's door was locked and they could hear a deep voice and whimpering inside. Daniel held up a hand and counted to three. Together they hit the door which fell easily under their combined weight. The owner of the deep voice, a boy about Cassie's age, whirled around. Sam raced to Cassie who was huddled beneath the window.
The boy was still looking at Daniel. Slowly, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a pistol.
"Whoa, hey!" said Daniel. "Don't shoot, we don't want to hurt you."
Yes, we do, thought Sam, hugging Cassie to her. Daniel glanced briefly at Sam and she caught the message.
"Who the hell are you?" demanded the boy, waving the gun around.
"We're from the air force, along with Cassie's mother," said Daniel, lowering his voice. Sam stood up, quietly disengaging Cassie, and quickly knocked the boy out. Daniel had ducked down as soon as Sam's fist connected in case the boy was able to fire off a shot as a reaction.
Sam hurriedly picked Cassie up and put her on the bed. The girl's arms Sam waist tightly. Sam grunted; it hurt more than she would have expected.
"Here," said Daniel, moving between the two. Cassie clug to them both. "Guess we still work like a team, eh?"
"Luckily," snorted Sam, temper rising. "I should've done worse than knock him out."
"No," said Daniel firmly, "you shouldn't've. You did the right thing."
Cassie shakily moved away to observe her rescuers. Her eyes widened and a brilliant smile illuminated her tear-stained face. "Sam!" She looked like the same eleven-year-old Sam had grown attached to five years ago as she hugged Sam again.
"Are you alright?" Sam asked, worry making her words come out as a snap. She softened her tone. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, fine. Or, at least, I will when this guy's sent to juvie."
"I'll call the police," said Daniel, getting his cell out. He gestured out the door mouthing I'll just be there.
Sam nodded. "How are you really? What happened?" she asked when he had gone.
"I'm fine. He's an ex. Didn't want me with my new boyfriend. Bastard." Realizing what she said, she covered her mouth. "Sorry. It just slipped out."
"What did?" Sam said conspiatorally.
"Nothing. I'm so glad you're back. Is it true you were held captive by a Goa'uld?"
"Yeah, but..."
"But...?"
"He wasn't what I'd call a captor. He was different. It's hard to describe." She didn't think it'd be wise if she told Cassie everything she really thought and felt about Zeus.
Cassie sensed Sam didn't want to talk about the this subject much so she changed it. "So did you and Uncle Daniel come over just to say they found you?"
"We were going to take you and my brother out after his plane arrived. If your mother agreed."
"Did she?"
"We haven't asked yet."
"Actually," said Daniel from the door. "We have. She said to go ahead. It saves her from cooking tonight. Oh, and the operator said the police would be by in a few minutes. I haven't said anything to Janet about this yet."
"Why don't you get changed. Daniel and I can take him downstairs," suggested Sam.
Cassie nodded, her eyes upset again.
Sam and Daniel carried Cassie's ex-boyfriend down and set him on Janet's couch. "How hard did you hit him?" Daniel asked incredulously.
"Not hard enough" was the response.
Cassie came down a few seconds before the police knocked on the door. "I don't—can't answer anything tonight." She said nervously. "I want him out of here but...they can hold him for a day or two, can't they?"
"It's Friday," Daniel said.
"I thought the weekend thing was for adults," said Sam. "Does it count for minors?"
"It might."
Daniel opened the door.
Yes, I know. Evil cliffhanger. Luckily, though, the reason this chapter was so long is because my muse came by for a visit and left enough inspiration for another. Yay!
R&R
