CHAPTER 23 – ANOTHER CONNECTION IS MADE
"You're crazy Sheppard! Why do you need to get in to see him? And why the hell didn't you leave yesterday if you're not going to take her back with you? You need to get out of her life now and let her move on. For the little time that she has left, at least."
OK, so the General was pissed. He got that. And pissed on many levels. John dragged a hand through his hair as he attempted an explanation, drawn in spite of himself, to the bleak look that was hovering over the General's face, one that could not be fully eradicated by the somewhat forbidding one that he had chosen to wear today.
"I know what he did to her General and with all due respect, sir – that man, for all his faults is destined to do a more worthy task. I don't know why he did what he did to Gina, without appearing to defend him I can only assume that something in his childhood opened up this whole bad ass can of worms. I can't fix that and I can't fix what happened to Gina, but I've got to make sure he's turned around. Because he has a younger brother. A younger brother who will turn ten later this year, about the same time that Gina is supposed to be killed and in that same accident, their father will also be killed – by running into the traffic to try and save Gina. This will leave a ten year old boy fatherless, and unless his older brother steps up to the plate and assumes guardianship of him, he'll become a casualty to the social welfare system. A what should become a great man, will take to a life of crime. And once again it comes down to one thing... the stargate programme. All roads lead back to that..."
The General's face had lost it's hard lines a little as this additional burden rested uncomfortably on his broad shoulders. "Captain Terrence O'Neill – he is supposed to assume guardianship of his younger brother? If he does, who does this boy become? Why is he so important to your stargate programme?"
"The connections are staggering General and everytime I find a new thread I feel like I'm becoming entangled in one of those damn giant balls of wool. One that I can never get out of."
John had taken to pacing again. His hair stood up in spikey disarray and he knew that he looked dangerous and dishevelled and needed desperately to shave. "This boy was born on 20th October 1952 and he was named Jonathon Jack O'Neill. If he follows his true path, he will become Brigadier General Jack O'Neill, the first man to command a stargate team – the flagship team SG1 and the first human from earth in our day, to step through the stargate as soon as it's full implications were known. So you see General, he's an important part of my present. He needs his brother to give him the stability of a home life. No mother, she died some time ago and we cannot let him become a part of the system."
He waited for the General to interupt, but the man was uncannily silent, eyes dark and a little dangerous as they tracked John's restless pacing around the room. The predator watching the prey?
John tried to appreciate the irony, but failed to see even the smallest amount of amusement. This man's world had come crashing down around him in the last two days and all because one man had stepped through a time portal to deliver blow after blow of brutal news. You can kill me now General, but it won't go away. They'll send someone else back. I am the messenger, a player – I don't make the rules, hell, most of the time I don't even follow them. I wish I could take your pain away – and I think before my time here is done, I'll have more to give you... but I think too, there is some good news heading your way. Soon general...soon.
"Something that may sway this in your favour General. This man, Jack O'Neill – he marries your niece, Colonel Samantha Carter. How's that for the kicker? Hmmm?"
If John had not felt sympathy for the man before, then it was here in spades now. The General's face however, rather that show emotion – hardened and the bad ass general was back, just as his daughter remembered and bringing a whole new cloak of respect from John. He was tough, no doubt about it. John just hoped that he was tough enough.
"So where does that leave things Sheppard? I can't just bust the man out of there! He's still got two years of his sentence to serve and no more military for him." The General reached out a hand as though to steady himself for a moment.
"If I had not put a stop to O'Neill's relationship with my daughter, would she have given birth to a child who would have become your Jack's adopted brother or sister? If Terrence were to legally adopt his brother?"
John huffed a small laugh. "Don't get me started on relationships General. I have enough trouble with the basic ones. If he were to legally adopt him, then yes – that would be accurate. Guardianship is a different matter. Jack would have become Gina's brother in law and Sam Carter, who is also her cousin removed, would still be her cousin... aaah crap... so not going there."
Damn you Callandra. I'm dizzy! I can't keep the ripples, the effects straight! Who matters to who? Who needs to be with who? What pairing makes what relationship? You have a lot to answer for, with your ancient meddling and your predestined pairings. I am not a damn matchmaker. Do your own dirty work!
"Likely I'm missing a link or six here General, and quite frankly the whole thing is making me damn dizzy. Ripples and paradoxes. The implications are mind boggling. Me – I'm a flyboy – give me an aircraft, a space ship – any kind! I'll fly it and it'll be the best damn feeling in the world. Give me this crap? I'm lost sir, the same as you are. You and I, with all due respect sir – are not so dissimilar. Men of action. We do – we receive clear instruction that complements our training and we – do! This ancient crap – I hate it and I hate what it is doing to you, to Gina to your whole family. And I hate what it is doing to me..."
His voice broke a little on these last words and General Mitchell's eyes shot sharply to John. Something in the younger man touched him. John was right. They were two of a kind, he was like his own son Frank – they shared the same subtle humour and slight disregard for the rules. He felt a lot of respect for the younger man and knew what it must cost him to be here now.
"Sheppard... I know what you're asking me to do here. This man – one whom I may add I encouraged her to become involved in – and you can imagine how well that knowledge sits with me... he beat her damn it – and if you want proof – here..." He reached into his desk drawer after unlocking the small top one and after drawing out an envelope from the very back he threw a handful of pictures across the desk. "This is what he did to her. Look at these pictures Sheppard, then tell me just how the hell I am supposed to let this guy loose...!"
A punch hit John in the gut like a fist as he looked at the pictures fanned out untidily across the General's desk. It was brutality. No other word for it really. The bruising on her ribs was significant, marring the perfect smoothness he himself had been witness to and he had to contain his own hands which had fisted at his sides. He wanted nothing more than to slam that bastard over and over.
How could this man be the brother of General Jack O'Neill, a man who had more bravery, more integrity and more humanity in his little finger than most humans that I have met?
Hell, more than once John had wished that he had had a father like Jack O'Neill and was proud to call him his commanding officer.
"So you see Sheppard, why I struggle to find it in myself to let this son of a bitch go. Regardless of the case you have set out pleading his defence. I don't know this kid Jack – and I can only take your word on what he will become and the relationships after that, hell – way too confusing to even begin to understand. But I do know this man. And I trusted him once. He was under my command and a fine young man – brilliant almost. Alcohol I suspect, played a part in his decline and his mood swings that Gina spoke of. But the violence? Violence is not learned. It is born. And I have to believe that violence was in him from the moment he was born waiting to manifest itself. And you know yourself son, we can't have people like that in military – they fight for the wrong reasons."
General Mitchell had composed himself somewhat, gathering the pictures now to lock them back in his desk drawer. "I won't be the one to authorise his release, no matter what the implications of this in your present. I have my own principals, son and I won't compromise them for anybody."
'Son'... the word spoken lightly no doubt, brought a stab of pain to John. General O'Neill often slipped that one in too. Too bad his own father was such a jerk. Before him now stood another good man, one he would have been proud to call Dad, and he hated to see the man's anger directed at him.
"I won't ask you to do that General, but perhaps there is another who can convince you. If Gina were to tell you that she had forgiven him for what he did, perhaps then you would consider my request?"
The general become suddenly still. "Gina has spoken to you of it then? I assumed it was something that she was so ashamed of that she kept it buried away."
"I won't lie and tell you that she is over it, but I think she has moved on – and I'd like to think I played a not too small role in that one. Perhaps another reason I came back when I did. She needed me and it was a small thing I could give her. When she talked to me about him, there was pain yes, but I think she was disappointed in herself. If I explained to her, that if he was given another chance, then he had the opportunity to set the wrongs right, but doing something good. In raising his brother to be the man he is supposed to be."
"It would be all so easy Sheppard, if we were given the opportunity to go back and erase our mistakes. You task seems to be to erase many – are any of them your own per chance?" A small amount of humour had drifted into the man's voice, and John's thoughts wandered again. He wished he could have known this man in his own time line.
"Everything in the open from now on Sheppard... with my daughter. I won't have her last moments on this heart tainted by lies and distrust."
John left him then, rolling the general's words around in his head. Distrust and lies. Not if he could help it...