Chapter 23

Jack growled, why couldn't they just let them deal with it? This was the last time he was working with civvies! Well, except Daniel; but at least he listened to him.

Most of the time anyway.

"Look, I realize that you're all a little wary about dealing with the military," started Jack, he sighed inwardly. Just channel your inner Daniel, Jack. "But you should know by now that we aren't like the 'Initiative'-

Buffy scoffed, "How do we know that? You just think that the fact that you fight aliens would immediately have us all buddy-ing up with you people?"

Well, kinda-

"Don't think so, Skippy," finished the blonde contemptuously.

Skippy?!

Jack scowled, inner-Daniel fading out, "Oh for crying out loud! We're already up shit's creek here; Willow's off somewhere doing who-knows-what and we can't do anything about it. If you'd just let me contact General Hammond I could get a few SG teams to help out-

"And what will they bring?" interrupted Giles. "Guns perhaps? Aside from the fact that guns would do no good, the very sight of one would only serve to antagonize Willow further."

Well, guns weren't the only option!

"Fine! We'll bring a boatload of 'Zats' instead," snapped the colonel in frustration. "There's no way in HELL I'm letting my team walk into a dangerous situation with no way in which to defend themselves. That would be plain stupid."

Buffy scowled and that walked up to him until they were nose to…well, nose to chest; she poked his chest with her finger, "Do you really think we want you here? Believe me, we really don't. We can do this without you, so if you can't do this our way-

The blonde pointed to the door, "-there's your way out."

Are you kidding? Were these people TRYING to get themselves killed!? They going up against a teleporting, world-ending witch…who just happened to be their buddy; the kids needed all the help they could get.

"I want them to stay," said Chris pleadingly.

All eyes turned to the boy, who was still clinging to Daniel like a lifeline; it was the first time he'd spoken since he'd stopped screaming; which was about twenty minutes ago.

Daniel hitched the small child up into a more secure position as his son started to slip slightly and said, "I'm staying, Chris is my-

Jack looked at him, you really gonna tell Chris, Danny-boy?

Daniel stopped suddenly before glancing at Chris, who was looking up at him curiously, he cleared his throat, "What I meant to say was, I'm staying and I think that you'll need us; my friends won't leave if I'm here and I won't leave if Chris is here."

Damn right!

Buffy glared at him, she looked as if she was thinking rather hard about something, then she sighed, "Take Chris with you."

WHAT!?

"What?" Xander said in shock. "Buffy-

Buffy shook her head, "No! Chris isn't staying here; it's a damn war-zone, he could get hurt…and-

She looked at Chris sadly, "You've already seen too much for a little kid to handle."

She did have a point…but, wait just a cotton-pickin' minute! "We need Daniel here; ya know, the prophecy…ring any bells with you nice folk?"

Eyes wide, Daniel nodded, "J-Jack's right, I can't go anywhere…I won't."

Right, because of the dream-thing? Ya know, most people dream about work and unpaid bills; but nooo, Daniel has to dream about dead-people. Being normal was kinda over-rated, though.

One of the nurses cleared her throat loudly, "I know I'm kind of interrupting here, but would you mind telling us what the HELL is going on!?"

Another nurse nodded, "Sasha's right, what was that…that thing in the ceiling?"

Jack sighed, "Well, obviously it was a mutant fish." 'cause those were all the rage these days, with all the gadgets and springs…it was a new accessory for witches.

Daniel blinked at him blankly, "A-a mutant FISH!? Jack, that wasn't a-

"It was a hell monster," said Chris quietly. "Came from down there." He pointed a short index at the floor.

Uh, "It came from the floor?"

Chris blinked, "No, it came from hell," the kid glazed at him intently. "Are you Uncle Xander's daddy, you talk like Uncle Xander…kinda."

Jack blinked, speechlessly, "Uh, no…" he was sure Xander had a very nice 'daddy' but it definitely wasn't HIM.

"Of course he's my dad, the situation just wouldn't seem right without THAT problem being added to the list of very shocking revelations that seem to be bestowed upon us," Xander blathered.

"So, that was a demon?" asked Sasha nervously. "Great, aliens and now demons; anything else we need to know?"

Jack rumpled his hair warily, "Other than the fact that I'm missing the 'Simpsons', not really."

Daniel looked to the heavens as if to ask for strength, "You have the whole series on video, Jack. Can we PLEASE get back to what's important?"

Well, when he put it like that…

"Right, the joys of fightin' monsters," said Jack, his hand clench around his P90. "If I can bring in some teams-

"No! Look," snapped Buffy impatiently, she had dark circles under her eyes and looked pretty wiped out; which was an improvement next to the others. "We're not bringing in anymore teams, we can't risk anyone trying to take over what we're trying to do here. Either you stay, just you people, or you leave and don't bother us again."

Jack bristled inwardly, "'Bother you!?' We're 'bothering' you? Well, sooorry." He turned to his team. "We're leaving, kids."

Fury simmered within him.

"Jack!" exclaimed Daniel.

Sam gave him a stunned look, "Sir, with all due respect-

"Carter! Can it," he snapped. "We're outta here." He wasn't risking his kids' necks if they weren't even needed, or wanted, no way!

"You're leaving?" asked Dawn with faux calm. "Just like that?"

Uh, yeah! Was that not clear? "Why not? Not our problem."

"It'll be EVERYONE'S problem if we don't do this right!" said Xander angrily.

"I guess you're not alike to us as I first thought," said the former Key, tone and eyes cold. "I thought, maybe, you were like us; just, ya know, instead of fighting demons you're fighting aliens."

"Oh for crying out loud," muttered Jack irritably. "We WANT to help! If we didn't we wouldn't BE here!"

"I want them to help us," said Chris impatiently. "We hafta have help."

Giles sighed and took his glasses off his nose, "As Chris said, we do need your assistance. We don't want the military involved in this anymore than it already is; it would be dangerous to us and we simply do not have the time."

Jack sighed, "And what if we can't stop Willow?" If they failed to stop Willow the SGC would have the responsibility of stopping her.

"Angel," stated Buffy.

"Well, that's easy to understand," said Sam sarcastically. "Angels."

Say what? "Angels? Ya know, somehow, I don't think they'd be much help." Was Buffy cracked?

The blonde Slayer sighed in exasperation, "Not 'Angels'! Angel, he's-

Jack raised his eyebrows, "'HE'!?" he looked faintly amused. "He…he's a guy; a guy named 'Angel'?"

Xander nodded, smirking slightly, "Yup, he's sounds MIGHTY girlie, doesn't he?"

Sh'yeah! "Just a bit."

"Guys, focus!" snapped Buffy impatiently. "There's another group, like us, in LA, that also fight demons… if we can't stop Will, it'll be up to them."

"And if THEY can't stop her it'll be up to the SGC," said Jack nodding. "General Hammond already knows all this crazy shit, if we don't get this done right he'll get the other SGC personnel ready."

Buffy sighed, "Maybe that's not so bad, at least they'll be someone trying to bring her down."

They fell silent as they heard Chris talking quietly to Daniel, "….my fault, I was bad…"

Damn

Jack turned away from Chris and Daniel and said, "We shouldn't talk about this in front of the kid; he's already been through a lot."

Buffy nodded, "We're going to get Willow back, but we…" she grimaced in distaste. "We need Daniel; the prophecy might not be completely accurate but Daniel's a key part of it…so he should be here."

"So, you're not leavin'?" asked Chris, hopefully. His tear-soaked face turned away from Daniel and towards Jack.

A pained look crossed Jack's face, "No, we're not leaving. Neither is Daniel."

Chris grinned for the first time in what was probably a long time, "Yay!" he tightened his arms around the archaeologist's neck. "I really want you to stay!"

Daniel looked unbelievably happy at that announcement.

Then he looked around, "Where's Mr. Grey? I want Mr. Grey to stay too!"

Agent Grey smiled, blushing slightly, "'course I'm staying, kid, I'm not leaving 'til I know you and you're mom are okay."

Chris loosened his arms from around Daniel's neck and turned away, now hugging Grey, "That's good."

"Uhhh, people?" called a nurse, she sounded scared. "We have a little problem here."

Ah nuts! Now what?

Jack, and everyone else in the room, moved towards the rather tortured-looking door and looked outside into the halls; the colonel was pointing his gun in front of him cautiously and peered out as well…

"That's not possible," muttered Sam in shock.

"Where'd the rest of the building go?" asked Jack faintly. "And…whoa…"

"It appears that a substantial amount of this complex has disappeared," said Teal'c as he looked around. "I think it would be wise that we exit this building as soon as possible, as it is not safe."

No, really?

"Ya don't say," said Jack sarcastically. He shook his head as he surveyed his surroundings, most of the building at vanished which Jack found rather unnerving; but that wasn't a bad as the fact that the weather had changed….drastically.

"I don't like storms," mumbled Chris into Daniel's neck. "I don't like them at all." Daniel hugged the boy, obviously trying to make him feel as safe as possible.

Storms, huh? The kid wasn't even overstating; torrential rain was now pouring down from the black, cloudy skies. They watched silently as forks of bluish-white lightning slashed its way across the sky and a few seconds later a huge bang and a rumble of thunder washed over them.

"So, this is Willow," asked Jack, he wouldn't be surprised if it was. "Right?"

"Yup," Xander jammed his hands in his pockets, trying to look carefree. "That's Willow; she always has been an overachiever."

The colonel nodded, "Looks that way."

Suddenly a fork of lightning struck a part of the building they were in; the ground shook violently, knocking some people to the floor.

Jack looked around, "Okay, people! We're getting outta this place now!"

The only question was, how?

Daniel hugged his son tighter and looked down at the ground far beneath them, he looked away quickly; although he had gotten over his fear of heights a little, they still cropped up at certain times.

This would be one of those times.

He looked behind him at Dawn and Giles, the two people were sat on the floor holding hands; they had their eyes closed as they concentrated on finding a safe way of getting them all out.

Whatever they chose he hoped that they were quick; the more time they spent standing around the further away Willow got and he HAD to get to her somehow; he didn't…it wasn't even 'just his job' anymore; if he didn't want to do this he could have walked away.

He wanted to this, he'd already managed to help Chris, although that was actually Willow's doing, not his. She was part of his family now, both she and his son were; whether they knew it or not. And he was going to do everything in his power to help them.

Daniel saw that the faces of Dawn and Giles were contorting with pained-concentration; he looked back outside the room-

And his mouth dropped open.

"Holy Moly," muttered Jack in amazement.

The air outside the room, the building, had hardened and semi-translucent stairs were now running from the doorway all the way down to the ground…

"Sure beats using a rope," Jack quipped smirking slightly.

"Ya know what?" asked one of the nurses nervously. "I can't wait 'til we get back to the SGC, it's so much simpler there."

Daniel snorted, that was something he'd never expected to hear.

"You got that right," agreed Sam, eyes wide as she looked at the stairs.

No doubt she was thinking of how many laws of physics they were defying just by doing all of this.

Giles looked up at them, "Go, this can only last for so long."

Daniel nodded as Chris shifted in her arms, the boy lifted his head up and looked at the stairs, then he looked at him, "You'll carry me down, right?"

"Of course I will," replied Daniel smiling at the child. "It's what I'm here for, kinda." Other than trying to save his new family.

Chris looked at him silently, REALLY looked at him as they followed behind Sam, they walked down the steps in a cautious, but fast, pace, "You're my daddy, aren't you?"

What!?

Daniel almost fell off the steps in shock, he stopped for a second but was nudged forwards by someone behind him, he continued walking and was somewhat stunned, "What…..what makes you say that?"

Chris shook his head, the expression of exasperation on his face was amusing, "You did say that to mommy…when…when I was…w-well, I 'member."

Huh, Daniel had thought that Chris hadn't heard him reprimand Willow for attempting to kill Kinsey in front of their child…obviously he had.

"And, well, you kinda feel like my daddy," continued Chris as they walked down the stairs carefully.

God he HATED walking down these stairs! They were too high and had NO railings, no one had anything to hang onto! "H-how's that?"

Chris paused for a moment, looking at him with those piercing blue eyes- exactly like his own- and said, "Don't know. You'll get mommy back, right?"

Lightening and thunder crashed over their heads, making them wince; Chris clung on to him tighter.

He finally reached the bottom and sighed with relief, "I'll try to."

"So, you'll get her back?" his wide eyes stared into his with complete trust.

Daniel sighed, "I don't know, all I can say is that I'll try."

The torrential rain had soaked their hair to their heads, it was glancing off the lenses of their glasses; they'd never looked so alike. Daniel was relieved that it was raining, the shower was washing away the blood that had covered his son.

Chris looked upset, "You won't promise?"

"I can't," he couldn't make a promise that he might not be able to keep; he just couldn't.

"I want her back."

"So do I."

Daniel set the boy down onto the ground, he took off his coat and wrapped it around his son knowing that Chris had to be freezing and cursing himself for not covering him up before they'd walked out into the downpour.

What if he caught pneumonia!?

Chris smiled at him and snuggled into the coat tightly, "Thank you."

Daniel smiled back, wincing again as a huge crash of thunder almost deafened them, it sounded as though the world was breaking in two; which, he thought, could very well be happened at that moment.

Chris was still scared at the thunder so Daniel scooped the boy up into his arms and hugged him tightly; he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around to see Jack staring at him.

"Daniel," tension radiated from Jack as he looked at the archaeologist. He had a fleeting thought that they should have radioed into Hammond by now; they were in it deep.

He hoped that the general didn't decide to send out SG teams to go look for them, they'd just end up with more dead people.

Dawn and Giles were jerkily lowered to the ground and then they collapsed from exhaustion of using too much magic; Xander went to help them up but was brushed away, evidently they wanted to rest for a second.

"Dawn said Willow went over in that direction," he continued, pointing north-east of Daniel towards the road, thankfully there were no cars or other vehicles driving along them. It seemed deserted, which was a little disconcerting.

/Resourceful bunch, aren't you?/

Shocked, Daniel almost dropped his son as Willow's voice echoed in his head, the voice was frighteningly clear; he looked around expecting to catch a glimpse of her at least but he didn't. However, he did see that he wasn't the only one who'd heard her in their heads, "Did anybody else just here that?"

"Yeah, I heard it," replied Sam, she looked around and he knew that she was trying to spot Willow as well. "Glad to see I'm not the only one."

"Loud and clear," Jack remarked, angling his P90 in front of him as he checked their surroundings.

/That should make this all the more interesting./

Daniel frowned in confusion, his son turned his head from side to side to try and see if he was missing anything, "Why do I get the feeling we're NOT going to like what she meant?"

"I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer," remarked Xander, he prodded a bleeding cut on his forehead.

"So, this Willow person is telepathic?" asked Sasha looking anxious.

/Ding ding ding, we have a winner!/

The nurse looked around with mounting fear, obviously still expecting the redheaded witch to be in her line of sight.

/Ta ta for now/

Chris smiled at the line, obviously thinking of 'Tigger' and 'Winnie the Pooh'; the others, however, were not so innocent and tensed warily, waiting for an attack.

The ground rocked underneath them so hard that some of them were fighting to keep their balance; Teal'c of course was standing solidly on the ground almost at an ease as everyone else either stumbled or fell down.

"Daniel!?" cried Chris in panic as the ground started swelling with lumps, as this happened the ground around them all looked like it had grown dozens and dozens of little hillocks. Then, a second after they had seemingly stilled the hillocks bulged outwards until they were so big that the earth split and fell away along with the grass.

The grass, earth and dirt fell away to the ground to reveal was Daniel first thought to be a person, and it was. But as the 'person' staggered and stumbled around to face him, and the pale-faced people around him, Daniel and Chris saw something that USED to be human, though age and the worms underneath the soil had eaten away at the skin.

Daniel gagged involuntarily as the putrid smell of rotting flesh invaded his nostrils, he barely noticed Chris sobbing and pressing his face into his neck again.

"Holy. Fuck," muttered Jack, before he raised his P90 and let rip, spraying bullets at the creature.

Chris wailed into his shoulder at the noise of gunfire.

It let loose an unearthly scream of tortured rage as blood and bits of dead flesh sprayed outwards as the bullets ripped into it; the thing looked at Daniel, it's left eye socket was empty whilst the right eye was still partially visible, though completely bloodshot.

It seemed to grin at Daniel because its upper lip and right cheek had been ripped from its face revealing a row of blackened teeth and gums; it grinned still as it ran at them, the bullets still hitting its chest.

"Oh god," muttered Janet from behind him.

More of the swells in the ground started growing, falling away just like the first and producing another monstrosity; a sizable chunk of this dead-woman's face had been torn away, her remaining milky-white eye seemed to glare at them with lustful hatred.

Another seemed to pop up from the ground; and was as equally grotesque as the last.

Jack looked around in barely-concealed horror as he stopped shooting, he turned to Daniel and said, "Daniel, get to Willow. Stop her!"

"Jack?!" Daniel shouted back, he couldn't bring Chris along. "What about Chris?!"

Jack glared at him as he let loose with another round of bullets, "Are you nuts!? I'm thinking he'll be safer with you…" another horrifying scream of rage from another of the creatures made him almost cringe. "…I'm thinking…'the lesser of two evils' here, Daniel!"

He DID have a good point, Daniel watched as Buffy flew at one of the undead as it pinned a nurse to the ground, she kicked it- and its head whipped off its shoulders and sailed over their heads.

Daniel felt an insane laughter bubble up inside him as he watched the still-grinning head bounce to the ground two meters away from him, he shook his head fiercely and focused on getting to Willow. He turned on his heal and ran in the direction that Jack at pointed him in.

The sounds of fighting, yells and gunfire filled his ears as Chris tightened his death-grip around him; he ran as fast as he could as the exhaustion and the child he was carrying weighed him down; the hunger-pains in his stomach weren't helping.

How long had it been since he'd eaten? Since ANYONE had eaten? Daniel immediately pushed the useless, irrelevant thoughts out of his mind and pushed himself forward, dodging another fast-growing hillock.

His beyond-tired mind played the main title song to the film 'Resident Evil' over and over again as he left the carnage behind him; he shouldn't have let Jack make him listen to that damn CD a month back.

Stupid zombie films.