Category: Sam and Jack romance/angst, Team/family angst
Spoilers: Directly for 6.19 Changeling
Content Warnings: None.
Summary: With Teal'c and Bra'tac seriously ill, SG-1 needs to call for Jacob's help. The only problem with that is, Jacob does not yet know that Jack is Daniella's father.
Episode – 6.19 Changeling
"Carter?" Sam turned around at the call of her name and saw Colonel O'Neill standing in the slightly open doorway, peering into the changing rooms.
"Colonel?" she questioned, blushing as he entered the room and closed the door behind him. SG-1 had just returned from their mission where they had rescued the near-dead Teal'c and Bra'tac and Sam had taken the opportunity to grab a quick shower before trying to check in with Janet. Repositioning herself, Sam attempted to hide her bare legs behind her open locker door, but she knew that it probably did not hide them much. Thankful that she was wearing a decent sized towel, she continued looking at him questioningly. "Sir, I'm just in the middle of getting dressed."
"Yeah, sorry, Carter." She could have sworn that she could see a very slight smirk forming on his lips and it made her angry in the way that she wanted to playfully slap him for being so childlike. Reminding herself that there had been many occasions where the two of them had seen the other in the process of getting changed whilst on a mission, or similarly dressed only in a towel at home, Sam knew that he had seen her bare legs and shoulders many times before. "It won't take long."
"What won't take long?" Trying not to notice the slight chill in the air, Sam was eager to finish getting dressed so that she could find out how Teal'c and Bra'tac were going to be. They had both been so close to death and the radical notion of sharing the symbiote may have been genius, but no one knew if it would have any long lasting repercussions.
"So, we called the Tok'ra to come help out the T and Bra'tac thingy, right?"
"Right."
"And they said they're sending Jacob."
"Yep." If she had her wristwatch on, Sam would look at it impatiently to try and hint to the colonel to speed up. "Sir, we're in a bit of a life or death situation here. Can't this wait?" Not that she had any idea what *this* was.
"I know, and they're both my first priority, it's just that, well." He paused and she looked at him impatiently as she could feel the goose bumps starting on her shoulders. "You haven't told your dad yet. About Dani and me."
Her jaw dropped in the shock that it had actually slipped her mind. In the past six months since she and Jack had moved in together to raise their daughter, she had not even seen her father. Whenever the Tok'ra had bumped into SG-1 or been called in to help, she had never been on the team and he had not been home to visit since before that point. Then Sam felt a school-girl panic flood her body and her sweat glands went into overdrive. Her father was on his way and she was going to have to tell him the truth. Clenching her hand around the top of her towel in a move to stop it from shaking, Sam's mouth went bone dry.
"Carter?"
"Yeah." Looking up at him, the colonel was still standing near the door probably in an attempt to prevent anyone entering because they were alone in the locker room and she was essentially naked. That did not look good. She shook her head sharply, knocking her brain awake. "Okay, look, Teal'c and Bra'tac are the important ones here and Dad'll probably be on a flying visit. I say this isn't the time to tell him."
O'Neill let out a breath and Sam saw him visibly relax slightly against the door. "Oh, thank God. I don't want to be on this planet when you do eventually tell him."
"Gee, thanks. May I get dressed now?"
"Just one more problem." She looked at him as if to say *yeah, what?* "What's stopping someone else from telling him?"
SG – SG - SG
With a heavy sigh, Jack shifted in his seat, wondering impatiently how long it would take for Teal'c to wake up so that he could do something other than sit and wait. It was no slight on his friend's health just simply that he hated having nothing to do. It was taking all of his willpower to not start fiddling with random things as Jack had no idea what damage he could cause accidentally. The downside to not having anything to do or fiddle with, meant that Jack's brain was left to simply process thoughts and come up with wonderful new thoughts no matter how random. Like the fact that he was glad that Jacob had gone home with no hiccups from any base staff and that Sam seemed no worse for her lying to him. Jacob's parting words in the 'gate room had been that he would try and get some time off to visit her and Daniella. Jack could not deny that it troubled him. He was incredibly anxious of the point in time where Jacob Carter learnt that his grand-daughter was in fact Jack O'Neill's child. That was not going to be a pleasant experience. Then, randomly, the woman from the park popped into Jack's mind and his brow furrowed. A week ago, he had contacted her about meeting up for a drink or a play-date in the park with Daniella and Karen's son. He had needed to cancel at the last minute due to the disappearance of Teal'c and Bra'tac during their Rebel Jaffa meeting, leaving Jack now with a new decision as to whether or not contact her again.
Part of him argued that he had only contacted her originally as friends, despite the element of only doing it after hearing that Sam was happily flirting with an alien named Corso. It had not been fully out of spite or the desire for female companionship. Far from it, Jack was used to having little if at all any female companionship, and at any rate, he still had to deal with living with two adult females and his daughter who would one day become a dreaded teenager. If he wanted a friend who understood the elements of being a single parent, Jack reasoned that he should be allowed one. Just because she was female should have no bearing on the matter whatsoever. There was also a part of him that considered discussing his whole non-relationship with Karen, because there was no way that he could speak with any of his current friends. The people with whom Jack normally socialised were either true friends who knew Sam, random acquaintances who he barely said anything more than "Hello" to, or people who also happened to work within the military which therefore ruled out everyone for him to discuss Samantha Carter with. They were all pretty much a no go area for Jack to attempt to figure out what on earth was best for his daughter and what was going on with Sam. He could not deny that their living together had both its own benefits and disadvantages.
On a daily basis, Jack would wonder if they were doing the best thing for their daughter, but then he would be brutally reminded of how their jobs or simple working patterns would make life far too difficult if they were to live separately. With his ex-wife and their son, Jack had missed out on so much simply because of his job and he was not about to let that happen again with the added complication of not living with his child. It was already evident with Jack-Junior that they would never have a strong enough relationship because they lived on different planets. At least with Daniella it was not quite that extreme.
There was no denying that it had rankled with him that Sam had been flirting with someone else. Jack was not the overtly jealous type, however, something about her moving on did not sit right with him. At the end of the day, though, they still had their careers in between them and the decisions to always do what was best for Daniella. With no concrete proof of a romantic relationship working between them, Jack was not yet willing to risk his daughter's happiness. It was true that Sam and he had a good working relationship whereby no matter what ever really happened, she always respected and followed his command decisions and he would always listen to her objections or concerns. It had not taken them long to become a co-operative pair at home, he had never once given her an order. Jack strongly believed that the day he did would be the day Samantha Carter first ever slapped a commanding officer. Smiling at the thought, Jack felt his thoughts becoming murkier and more tangled with confusion.
"O'Neill?" Jack looked across at his Jaffa friend and smiled reassuringly at him.
"T, you're awake."
"Indeed." At this, Jack grinned. Teal'c looked down slightly and allowed confusion to cloud his usually stoic face. "My symbiote?" Jack was unsure he had ever heard such levels of panic from Teal'c as he had the past few days with regards to Bra'tac and his own symbiote.
"It's okay, but, uh, Junior's gone."
"Without my symbiote, how is it 'okay', O'Neill?"
"We've got you and Bra'tac on a form of Tritonin."
"Bra," Teal'c whispered and it was Jack's turn to look confused as he had never heard Teal'c refer to the Jaffa Master as that before. "I suffered from hallucinations, O'Neill."
"Like what?"
"I was a Tau'ri fire-fighter and all of SG-1 were there. Shau'nauc..." Teal'c said nothing further and Jack knew that it must be greatly affecting his friend.
"Probably a coping mechanism."
"Indeed. The hallucinatory DanielJackson concurred."
"What were we all like?"
"There were not many differences."
"But, Shaun'auc."
Teal'c looked away. "She was my Tau'ri Wife and Master Bra'tac was my 'step-father'. You, O'Neill were the chief fire-fighter." He paused for a long moment and Jack chose not to break the silence. "O'Neill, it is not often that I find myself as close to death as I now have."
Nodding, Jack responded, "It's a scary thing."
"Indeed." He fixed Jack's eyes with a stare. "One battle and I am now forever different. My life must now be lived as less of a Jaffa Warrior." A hand moved towards his Symbiote pouch which would more than likely forever be empty. "Life is not for putting off, O'Neill. Your life can alter at any insignificant point."
Considering his friend's words, Jack felt as if his previous tangled thoughts had been read by the Jaffa and he had only one answer to give his friend: "Indeed."
Next Chapter – 6.20 Memento
I actually enjoyed this chapter. I know that probably sounds awful, but I've struggled with the past few! This one, I felt, propelled my plot along a bit more and didn't feel as forced into the episode. That's been the biggest challenge so far with these chapters – fitting in with episodes and sometimes having to shoe-horn my plot into the canon! Not sure yet about upcoming Memento!