The Best-Laid Plans – Chapter 14

Author's Notes – Refer to Chapter 1 for all the thank yous. I've really appreciated everyone that has read this so far. Reviews are always appreciated.

Disclaimer – Refer to Chapter 1

During the night, the children woke up twice, and Everett got up each time helping to change them and then take them to Melissa for their feeding. He was thankful that his wife seemed coherent both times, but was still concerned about her extreme fatigue. When he got up the next morning, he dressed and then leaned over and gently kissed her forehead. When her eyes opened part way, he said, "I'm sorry, baby. I didn't mean to wake you up."

Missy tenderly smiled at her husband. "That's okay. More negotiations?"

"Yes, and we're going on the tour of the Caprea. Listen, I want you to rest. I'll be back later."

"All right." She stroked his cheek. "Love you."

"Love you too." He kissed her once more and then went over to where Mac was talking with Dr. Giovanni. "Good morning. Are we all set?"

"Yes, Sir," replied Mac. "I'm going to stay close to the infirmary door until I see Dr. Somers come in. Then I'm going to come in and visit with TJ and Melissa."

Stacia spoke up. "And I've got several things he can help me with. We'll keep an eye on your mate, Colonel. And hopefully, we'll be able to figure out what's going on."

"Very good," said Ev. "I'll come back and check on things once the tour is done, but you call me on the radio, Mac, if anything happens. Okay?"

Mac nodded briskly. "You got it, Sir."

"Thank you." He left the infirmary to head for the Mess where Airman Becker gave him a ration. Seeing General O'Neill and Daniel Jackson sitting at a table, he walked over to join them. "Good morning, Sir. Good morning, Dr. Jackson."

Jack looked up and smiled. "Morning, Everett. How are Missy and the babies?"

Everett thought for a moment before he decided to keep the previous day's events to himself since he didn't know who knew what and since he didn't have any proof. "Doing okay. We're still getting used to getting up every few hours."

"Oh, I remember those days. Listen, now that your group is getting back to Earth, do you think Missy will want to go back to work at the SGC—after a suitable maternity leave, of course?

It took Ev a minute to process the question since he hadn't even thought about going back to Earth himself. "Don't know, Sir. I do know though that whatever either of us does, we're not gonna want to go through the gate anymore. Actually, I've been thinking about retirement."

The older man's eyes lit up. "Really?"

Everett shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah. I've almost got 21 years in, and I've almost died so many times, I've lost count. I want to be there for my family. I know we didn't start off in the best way, but Missy and the children are my reason for living."

Nodding approvingly, Jack replied, "You have the right attitude. And I might be able to help you." The three men began eating.

When they finished eating a few minutes later, they headed for the air lock connecting the Destiny and the Caprea where they met the members of the IOA and the security team who were going on the tour. A tight expression came over Edward Strom's face when he saw Colonel Young. He then glanced at General O'Neill. "Are we ready to do this, General?"

The general nodded. "We are." Looking over at Ev, he said, "Go ahead and tell them we're ready."

Pulling out his walkie, the other man spoke into it. "Caprea, this is Colonel Young. We're at the air lock and ready to come over."

A voice was heard over the walkie, "Understood, Colonel. Opening the air lock now."

It opened, and the group walked through to the other side where they were greeted by Commander Aurelius and members of his crew. Gaius nodded at Everett and the general. "Good morning, Colonel. Good morning, General."

"Good morning, Commander," said Ev.

Aurelius glanced at O'Neill. "We are pleased to welcome the first group from another galaxy onto the Caprea. Let us begin our tour." The men and women from Earth followed the Alterans into the ship gaping at all the different kinds of technology they saw—some of which they were familiar with and some of which they were not.

Meanwhile, back in the infirmary, Melissa and the children had all woke up. When Dr. Giovanni noticed that she was awake, she walked over and smiled at her warmly. "Good morning, Melissa. How are you feeling?

Missy smiled wanly. "Still tired, but not quite as bad." She propped herself up on the pillow. "Are the children awake yet?"

"They're just starting to stir. Let me help you get the carrier on and then I'll go get them for you."

"Thank you."

The doctor helped her slip on the carrier and then brought the babies to her one by one. Once Missy had settled Katie and Matthew inside the carrier, Stacia asked her, "Are you hungry? I've got some more of those caro sandwiches you liked."

"Oh yes. I'm starving."

"Great!"

She got her the food, and the new mom ate while her babies were feeding. As Melissa ate, she saw TJ sitting up and greeted her. "Morning TJ. How are you feeling?"

Gazing at her friend, TJ grinned and said, "Hi Melissa. I'm feeling pretty good. In fact, Dr. Giovanni said I could do some light work later if I behaved myself."

Chuckling, Missy said, "Those would be the operative words, wouldn't they? A wistful expression came over her face. "I wish I felt better. Sometimes I don't think I'll ever get my energy back."

"How are you feeling?"

"Still very tired, and I wish…Well, I wish Everett wasn't having to be gone now. I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed too."

TJ cautiously stood up and walked over to Melissa's bed. She patted her on the shoulder and told her, "You'll feel better soon. And I don't think what the Colonel's doing is gonna take too long."

The other woman nodded sheepishly. "Yeah, you're right. I think I'm just gonna rest this morning and not do any translating."

"That sounds like a good idea."

TJ sat back on her bed, and the two women continued to eat their breakfasts. As they were finishing a few minutes later, Patti walked in carrying a tray. She came up to Melissa's bed. "Good morning, Missy. I got you some breakfast."

Missy smiled at her sister. "Morning, Patti. Dr. Giovanni beat you to it. I've already finished."

Turning as she heard Stacia approach, Patti gave her a venomous stare before turning back to her sister. "You do need lots of calories now. You could eat this too."

Melissa shook her head. "Naah. I'm not hungry now. Maybe later."

Holding out her hands, Dr. Giovanni said to Patti, "Go ahead and give me that, and I'll put it up for her."

The other doctor looked at her for a long moment. "All right." She handed her the tray and then sat down to visit with her sister.

As Stacia walked over to the desk she was using, she passed Mac. Leaning over to him, she whispered, "Pretend to trip me so I'll drop this."

He nodded and stuck out his foot. She pretended to trip and dropped the tray letting out a little scream as the food scattered everywhere. Mac steadied her and said, "Oh my goodness, ma'am. I am so sorry. Let me clean that up for you." Both of them looked around and saw that they had attracted the attention of everyone in the infirmary including Dr. Somers who gave them a stare of pure hatred before disguising the look on her face and turning back to her sister. Dr. Giovanni got some cleaning supplies out, and she and Mac began to clean up the mess. While they were cleaning, Mac whispered, "You do know we've made ourselves targets now, right?"

"Yes I know, and there's one other thing we didn't consider."

Mac gazed at her curiously. "What's that?"

"We don't know who else we can trust besides Lieutenant Johansen."

"You're right. Do you want me to get Sergeant Greer and some of the other Destiny marines in here?"

"Not yet. Let's see what she does."

Mac nodded, and the two of them finished cleaning up the mess. They then walked back over to Missy and TJ's beds with Mac saying, when they got over there, "Good morning, ladies." He gave TJ a kiss and touched Missy's shoulder. "How is everyone this morning?"

"We're doing okay, Mac," replied TJ.

"Yes, we are," said Melissa with a warm smile. She pointed to the carrier. "The babies are almost done." Looking inside, she saw that they had fallen asleep. "Well, I guess they are done. Anyone want to hold a baby?"

"Sure," said Mac.

Mac and Patti each took a baby and laid it back on the bed while Stacia helped Melissa take off the carrier. After they were finished, everyone stood around and visited with the two patients. A few minutes later, Stacia noticed some of the doctors from Earth and the Destiny crew coming into the infirmary. She asked Patricia, "So, how many exams got done yesterday?"

The other doctor replied, "About 25. The people back home want these exams to be as detailed as possible, or we could have done more yesterday."

"I understand." She indicated Mac with her hand. "I recruited Lieutenant McDonald to help your orderly today. Should make things go faster."

A haughty look came over Dr. Somers' face. "Don't you mean it will go faster if he can stay on his feet?"

Mac chuckled sardonically. "Oh, that was just me being clumsy, ma'am. Won't happen again."

"Well, see that it doesn't." She gazed at Missy. "I'll come and check on you later, Missy." She walked off to talk with one of her colleagues.

When she left, Melissa looked at the other three who were still there and asked, with a quizzical expression on her face, "What's going on?"

"Oh, she's just upset that I made Dr. Giovanni drop the tray," said Mac. "She'll get over it."

"Oh okay." Missy lay back down on the bed. "I think I'm going to rest some more."

"I think that's a good idea," said Stacia. "We'll let you know when the babies wake back up." Missy nodded and closed her eyes.

That began a very busy morning for everyone in the infirmary. Stacia and TJ assisted the other doctors with the physicals as needed while Mac helped with whatever he was asked to do. They all kept an eye on Melissa though and stayed in the same general vicinity so they could see if anyone tried to approach her. Finally, TJ got tired, and Mac walked with her back to her bed. "Okay, time for you to rest now."

TJ accepted his help gratefully. "Thank Mac." She got back in the bed and propped herself up with the pillows. Pointing to Missy, she told him, "I'm glad she's able to sleep. She would probably rest better in her quarters if someone was there to help her."

"You're probably right. I'm sure the Colonel would like this to be done and over with."

A voice came from behind them. It was the orderly whose name was Sergeant Jones. "Excuse me, Lieutenant. Can I get your help to move some equipment?"

"Sure."

They rolled a piece of equipment out of the infirmary and down the hallway with the sergeant saying, "Dr. Ziegler and Dr. Brightmann wanted to see if we could open up another room for exams."

"That sounds like a good idea."

After they took the equipment into a room which was down a deserted side corridor, they went back out into the hallway. Jones, who had let Mac get ahead of him, said, "Of course, there was another reason I wanted to get you out here."

Mac slowly turned around, suddenly realizing he had made a mistake. "What's that?"

He saw Jones holding a gun on him. "To get you out of the way." The man pulled the trigger, and Mac felt a sudden pain in his chest as the bullet struck him. He fell to the floor—the world starting to go back. Jones pulled him to a place where he was partially concealed from the main hallway and then leaned down to his face and said, "Nothing will interfere with our mission. Before the end of the day, Melissa Young and her children will be dead." The sergeant saw Mac's eyes shut and nodded with satisfaction. He then walked back to the infirmary.

In the meantime, Stacia had come over to examine Melissa and saw that she had opened her eyes. "Hi Doctor. How am I doing?"

Stacia smiled at her patient. "You tell me. How are you feeling?"

"About the same. Why am I so exhausted?"

"Well, a lot of it is because you just gave birth, and there's also the…"

A voice interrupted her. It was Dr. Ziegler who said, "I apologize for interrupting, Dr. Giovanni. I was wondering if you could help me with a patient."

Nodding pleasantly, Stacia replied, "Of course, Doctor. Melissa, I'll be right back." She walked over to the other side of the infirmary.

While she was gone, Missy gazed around the infirmary and noticed TJ asleep in the next bed and Dr. Rush and Linda Wilson at a bed three beds down from hers. She was about to call out to them when she saw her sister and an orderly approach her bed. "Hi Patti. What's going on?"

Patti sneered at the new mom. "I am so glad I do not have to pretend to like you or your brats anymore."

Melissa's eyes opened wide in astonishment. "Patti?"

Motioning for the orderly to hold her arms down, Patti got a syringe out of her pocket. "You see, the plan was to make everyone think you'd gone crazy and that you needed to be institutionalized. Of course, that would have distracted the Colonel, and we could do what we really came here to do which was to steal the Destiny. But, you have too many people watching you so now you and your children are going to be neutralized."

Her sister struggled against Jones' hold. "No, no, don't hurt my babies. Help! Help!"

A voice was heard from the next bed. It was TJ who sat up and started to get out of the bed. "What are you doing? Leave her alone. Looking over the orderly's shoulder, Patricia, motioning to TJ, told Jones, "Get her quiet. I don't want anything interfering with this."

Jones nodded and backhanded the other woman who hit the bed railing and crumpled to the floor. The doctor then turned back to Missy and saw where she was trying to reach a button on the other side of the bed. "Dammit, Jones. She's trying to call for help. Take care of it." He slapped her hard, and her body fell back on the bed with the side of her head hitting the railing. When she saw blood pouring from the wound, Patti nodded with satisfaction. "That will be just as good as anything else. Now, we need to take care of the children." She walked over to the baby bed and started to inject the syringe's contents into Matthew. "Time for you to die."

At that moment, she was tackled by someone from behind. It was Nicholas Rush who said, "You leave those babies alone!" Both of them fell to the ground struggling with one another.

The orderly, seeing that they had attracted unwanted attention, pulled out a P-90 and started shooting it indiscriminately around the infirmary. Medical personnel and crew members dived for cover trying to avoid being shot. Finally, two things happened that brought the carnage to a halt. First, Dr. Somers, who had been fighting Dr. Rush ferociously, knocked him to the ground and ran over to where Dr. Ziegler was concealed. She said, "Things have gone sour. Let's get out of here.

The other doctor nodded, and the two of them ran to the infirmary entrance where they managed to sidestep Sergeant Greer and Eli and ran out into the hallway. "What the hell!" exclaimed Greer. Seeing the other man who was still firing, he told Eli, "Stay here! I've got to disarm him."

After he saw Eli indicate he had heard him, Greer made his way to where Jones was still shooting and tackled him to the ground. The gun clattered harmlessly to the wall, and he and Lieutenant Peterson cuffed Jones' arms behind his back. Dazed people started coming out of concealment as Greer asked, "What happened?"

Stacia came out of hiding. "That man just started shooting. I think Dr. Young and her children were the targets. You need to catch the people who just left here."

"Understood." He motioned to Sergeant Reynolds and Sergeant Carter who had just hurried into the infirmary carrying Mac's body. "We found him in the hallway." Dr. Giovanni motioned for them to put him on a bed as Greer continued, "Who are we looking for?"

"Dr. Somers and Dr. Ziegler."

Greer's eyes widened in shock. He pointed to Missy. "Dr. Young's sister?"

"Yes." She looked around at the other doctors. "Come on. We need to triage the patients." They started to hurry around to the people lying on the floor and assessing their injuries.

While she was doing this, Greer had the military personnel and Eli gather around him. He told Reynolds and Carter, "Get a squad after those dirt bags, and let Lieutenant Scott know. I'll keep in touch with what I find out."

"Yes, Sir." They hurried out of the infirmary.

Eli then saw Nicholas slumped against a wall. "Dr. Rush." The two men hurried over to him. "What happened?" They helped him sit up.

The older man spoke through swollen lips. "Those people tried to inject something into the lass, but she fought them hard. The man slapped her and made her hit her head on the railing. We saw it at the last minute. I told Linda to hide, and I snuck up behind Dr. Somers while she was injecting the baby. Help me up."

They helped him up, and the men walked over to the bed Missy was sprawled on. Noticing the blood coming out of her head, Greer hastily went to get a cloth and started applying pressure. Rush sat on the other side of the bed and took her hands in his, noticing how pale she was. "Lass, lass, are you okay?"

Melissa opened her eyes part way and saw dim figures above her. She struggled to speak. "Ni…ck."

"Yes, lass, it's me. What happened?"

"Patti….and the…..other….man …..hurt me. My…head….hurts."

"I know. You're gonna be okay."

Her eyes widened with alarm as she remembered the last thing she had heard Patti say. "My…babies. Are….they….okay?"

Eli spoke up. "The doctors are checking everyone over."

Feeling her world start to go black, Missy said the one word she most wanted to say. "Everett?"

Rush spoke up once more with tears in his eyes. "We're gonna get him, lass."

"Tell…..him…..love…..him…..always." Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and she started having a seizure.

"No, lass, you tell him yourself."

Two of the doctors ran over, one of them taking the cloth from Greer. "We need to look at her. Back up please."

The men backed up and went over to where Peterson and another airman were holding Jones. Greer addressed him furiously, "Who's responsible for this?"

Jones sneered. "I don't have to tell you nothing, jarhead."

Getting in his face, Greer spoke slowly and sinisterly. "So, you know what I am. Do you know what happens when someone hurts a Marine's sister? I will do that to you, and then I will let these four mop up what's left if you don't tell me." He addressed the other men. "You interested in helping me tear him apart?"

Nicholas glanced over and saw Linda's still form being examined on a table and then looked at Missy who was on another table. An expression of raw hatred and anguish came over his face. "Sergeant, I will do whatever you need me to do."

"Good." He gazed back at Jones. "So?"

Jones looked around at the five men who wore identical expressions for a long moment and then decided, as he was truly a coward, to start talking. "All right. I'm not going to take the sole fall for this." He started telling them the information they needed to know.

A few moments later, Greer walked over to Stacia who had started operating on Mac. "Ma'am, I found out who's responsible for this. It's much bigger than Dr. Somers. There are several people on the Caprea who need to be detained."

Dr. Giovanni nodded grimly. "I thought that might be the case. Get me my radio. I need to get more medical personnel and supplies over here anyway." Greer walked to the desk and brought back a small handset. "Turn it on and hold it up so I can keep working on Lieutenant McDonald." He did so, and she spoke into it. "Dr. Giovanni to Commander Aurelius."

The commander's voice was heard. "Aurelius here. What can I do for you, Doctor?"

Stacia's voice caught in her throat. "There's been a mass shooting in the infirmary, Sir. I need more medical personnel, supplies, and an Elite Squad to stand guard."

"What! Who's responsible?"

"Someone from Earth. We have one in custody, two on the loose, and several people on the Caprea who need to be detained."

"Understood. Help is coming. How many injured?"

Gazing around and quickly counting, she said, "We have twelve being worked on, two casualties, and several minor injuries. I'm working on someone myself. Listen, I'm going to let Sergeant Greer tell you who you need to detain."

"Understood."

Stacia indicated for Greer to speak, and he started speaking. "Sir, I believe all of these people are there. You need to detain: Edward Strom, Bryan Wells, Chao Li, Lieutenant Stephenson, Captain Nelson, and Miss Wray."

"Done. Colonel Young wants to speak with you and get a list of the injured."

"All right."

Ev's voice was the next that was heard. "Who's been hurt, Sergeant?"

"Sir, it looks like a war zone over here." He motioned to Eli to look at the different tables. "One moment." He then started naming names as Eli whispered them to him. "Dr. Volker, Dr. Park, Mr. Brody, Sergeant Harper, Lieutenant Colson, Ms. Wilson, Lieutenant James, Lieutenant McDonald, two members of the Lucian Alliance, your wife, and…" He hesitated as he looked over at the baby bed. When he saw Dr. Brightmann put her thumb up and mimic a scratch, he continued, "That's it. They tried to hurt Matthew, but Dr. Rush prevented it. There are also several minor injuries and two casualties—Airman Schulz and Sergeant Baker."

"Oh God!" Everett's voice cracked. "What about Katie?"

Greer looked back at the baby bed and saw where Chloe had picked her up. "She's fine, Sir." He smiled briefly as he watched Chloe and Eli attempt to comfort the crying children.

"Good. Is Missy conscious?"

"She was for a minute, but not anymore."

Rush grabbed the radio and spoke into it. "Colonel, your name was the last one the lass spoke. Said she loved you."

The next time they heard Ev's voice it was strangled. "Hold the radio next to her ear, please."

Walking to the opposite side of Missy's bed from where the doctor was working, Rush held the radio next to her ear. "I'm here, Colonel."

Everett began speaking. "Missy, its Everett. I'm coming, baby. You hold on, okay? I love you too." He then spoke to Greer and Rush again. "We're coming right now."

"Yes, Sir," said Greer. He shut the radio off and put it back on the infirmary desk. The men stood quietly and watched the doctors work on their patients while they waited for the others to come.