Thank you so much for the great reviews! Especially thanks to those people I can't email directly. I really appreciate that you all took time to read and to comment.
This chapter contains spoilers for 'The Serpent's Venom' season 4, although I have tweaked some of the details of that episode.
Thank you so much for reading!
32
It is still dark when Jack is jolted awake by a sound that he knows all too well—the particularly obnoxious ring which he has set on his cell phone to announce calls from the SGC's official line. He is bolt upright almost before his eyes are open. Beside him, Sam groans and rolls over. Sleeping more soundly, she is still struggling toward wakefulness after Jack has left the bed and headed for the kitchen, where his phone is on the charger. She tries to shut out the sound, which seems to go on and on long after Jack should have answered. She is just beginning to realize that she is hearing something else, when Jack returns, his phone to his ear, and holding out her ringing one with the other hand. When she doesn't respond immediately, he sets hers on the bed beside her, and retreats back into the hallway. It is another full ring before she manages to pick it up, glance at the caller's name and press the talk button.
"Daniel," she says blearily. "What's up?"
"Not you, I guess," comes the answer.
"Ha. It's still dark. What time is it?"
"Five-forty-five," Daniel replies. "Sorry to wake you like this, but we've got a situation here."
Her eyes snap open, and her brain clicks into gear as she sits up. "What's happening?"
"Jacob arrived back here last night."
"My Dad's there? He said he had Tok'ra business to attend to a zillion lightyears away."
"Apparently he got sidetracked by intel that came in from operatives in Apophis' camp. Pretty important stuff. General Hammond is trying to get hold of Jack right now."
"He got him," Sam murmurs.
"What?"
"Nothing. What's the intel?"
"A meeting between Apophis and Heru'ur. The Tok'ra think Heru'ur is making overtures for an alliance."
"That does not sound good."
"Not at all," he replies. "I know you're on leave, but we need you back here."
"Uh...yeah." She glances up as Jack reenters the bedroom, his expression grim. "The thing is, Daniel, I'm not at home." Jack raises his hand in a 'hold on' gesture. "Just a sec, Daniel." She puts her finger over the tiny mike hole and lifts an eyebrow at Jack.
"Hammond is sending a plane for us," Jack says.
"Daniel," she says into the phone again. "It looks like we can be there in a few hours."
"We..?" Daniel starts to say, then interrupts himself. "Never mind that. There's more."
"What?"
"Teal'c went to Chulak to meet with some of the rebel Jaffa three days ago. He promised to check in every twenty-four hours. We haven't heard from him."
"Not at all?" Sam asks.
"No."
"Okay. We'll talk when we get home." She looks a question at Jack. 'Noon' he mouths. "Probably be there by noon."
"Good. See you then."
"Bye, Daniel."
"Hammond's arranging for an air force jet out of Minneapolis for us," Jack says, as soon as she hangs up. "We're to be at the airfield by nine."
"Did he tell you Teal'c is out of touch on Chulak?" she asks as she is gathering things to shove into her bag.
He nods grimly. "Yeah."
They are dressed, packed and climbing into the truck in twenty minutes. "We left food in the fridge, and a mess in the kitchen," Sam says, as Jack heads down the drive.
"I have neighbors who will take care of it," Jack says. "They've done it before when I had to leave on short notice. I'll call them later."
Jack drives fast once he gets onto the paved roads. Sam watches the forest give way to open farmland. Merging onto the interstate, Jack increases his speed another 10 miles per hour. They are at the airfield with fifteen minutes to spare, and Jack drives directly to the Air Force Reserve hanger. Evidently this kind of thing has happened before, because Jack tosses his keys to a smiling young woman in mechanic's coveralls, who calls him 'Uncle Jack' and promises to take care of the truck until he returns.
The plane is sitting outside the hanger, waiting for them, a C-21A Learjet, USAF passenger transport. They go into the hanger office, where they show their IDs and sign authorization papers. The co-pilot is waiting at attention for them at the plane's door; an Air Force Captain, whose name tag reads L. Harris. He secures the door behind them and directs them toward the seats.
There are two seats facing forward, with a narrow aisle between, and behind them two couches, along the sides of the cabin. Beyond those are two more forward-facing seats.
They sit in the first two seats.
"We're scheduled for take-off in ten minutes, sirs," Captain Harris tells them. "Flying time to Peterson should be two hours and eleven minutes. Your pilot is Major Todd Evans. I'm Captain Lee Harris, your co-pilot."
Jack introduces himself and Carter. "Can we use cell phones?" he asks.
"Once we're in the air, yes, sir. I'll notify you."
"Thanks, Captain."
"You're welcome, sir," Harris salutes and heads into the cockpit.
"This is nice!" Sam says, looking around the cabin. The plane is apparently one used for VIPs; the seats are roomy and comfortable, there is a mini-galley with coffeemaker and microwave up front. "I betcha a general was the last person to sit here."
"I think we're gonna get 'sirred' to death," Jack grouches. He considers setups like this ostentatious, and that makes him uncomfortable. "I shoulda called the mountain again before we got on." He and Carter have spoken to the SGC three times since they left his cabin, Jack's main concern being whether they have had any word from Teal'c. It is worrisome for the Jaffa to be out of touch when he promised to check in regularly.
"It's only been half an hour since you talked to them the last time," Sam points out soothingly. "We'll be there soon."
"I'm surprised Jacob hasn't called you."
"Selmak doesn't like cell phones." She grins.
"What?"
"Apparently there's a subsonic vibration in most of them that sets her teeth on edge."
He laughs. "Seriously?"
"Yep."
That bit of information gives him a few moments of amusement. He leans toward her over the arm of his seat. "These seats aren't close enough together."
"Probably just as well." She gives a half smile and nods toward the cockpit, where the door is open.
"We can move back to the side seats."
"Maybe..." she begins and is interrupted when Captain Harris appears in the cockpit doorway.
"We're going to be moving onto the runway shortly, sirs," Harris says. "Please fasten your seat belts, and keep them on until the red light goes off."
"Thank you, Captain," Sam says, reaching down for her belt buckles. She hears Jack's faint sigh and then the click as he fastens his own belt.
Jack waits until Harris returns to the cockpit, closing the door behind him, then looks over at her again. "There's still time to move back there before the plane gets moving."
She hesitates a moment, then unsnaps her belt and slips quickly onto the couch behind Jack. He grins as he follows her. Once more they fasten themselves in. He leans back and puts his arm along the seat back behind her, his hand on the back of her neck, massaging gently.
"Mmm... That feels good," she murmurs. "Is this really a good idea?"
"It's gonna be our last chance of any sort of privacy for who knows how long, Sam," he says. "But it's your call."
She looks up into his eyes, and after a breath, relaxes back into the curve of his shoulder. He starts to say something, but the whine of the engine suddenly increases, and she cannot hear him. "It's okay," he mouths, and leans over and kisses her, wrapping his other arm around her and drawing her in against his body. They hold each other close as the plane waits its turn for take-off and climbs to cruising altitude, and then they move reluctantly apart.
The flight is uneventful. Jack and Sam return to their original seats and do not talk very much. Best to get used to the military relationship once again. Calls to the SGC still bring no word from Teal'c, and Sam sees Jack's expression grow more worried over the next two hours.
Daniel and a driver meet them at Peterson, and they head directly back to the mountain. If Daniel has questions, he restrains himself, and they are mostly silent on the drive.
Sam and Jack go directly to their quarters and change into BDUs, then head for the conference room, where they are joined shortly by General Hammond, Jacob and Daniel. Jacob gives Sam a questioning look, but there is no time for side conversation; Sam can almost see Selmak directing Jacob to stay on track. They all sit down at the table and listen as Selmak fills them in on the Tok'ra information.
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33
An alliance between Apophis and Heru'ur would be disastrous for the galaxy—and that's why, less than twenty hours later they find themselves aboard Jacob's tel'tak, flying through a minefield, with one of the explosive devices looming inside the ring transporter bay. Jack's gut is in knots as he watches Carter and Daniel crawl underneath the blasted thing in an attempt to reprogram it to attack Apophis' mothership. As his two resident geniuses try to figure out the differences between one and two, and orange and blue, Jack is doing his best to find in himself that ability he's always had to set aside danger and just deal with what's in front of them—an ability which has saved his sanity, not to mention his life, so many times. But now somehow it's different, and this alarms him—he has to link his fingers tightly behind his head to keep from yanking Sam out from under the deadly thing.
"Dad!" Sam cries out suddenly, and Jack's attention is instantly refocused as the accursed bomb starts to sink slowly toward her head.
"Doing my best, Sam," Jacob calls back, altering his course slightly. "There's a minefield out there." On the forward viewscreen yet another of the devices is headed in their direction.
The bomb in the bay continues to sink. Daniel slides out from under. Carter seems frozen for a second, and Jack grabs for her legs and hauls her toward him, pulling her to her feet and instinctively putting himself between her and the threat. Not that his body will shield her if the monster explodes. His arm around her shoulders, they back away as the thing floats inexorably toward the wall. He turns to gaze at her face; she is staring at him. I love you, their eyes say.
"Got it!" Jacob cries triumphantly, and the bomb eases back into the center of the bay.
Breathing again, Jack gives Sam's shoulder a squeeze and reluctantly lets her go, watches her slip back under the death star with Daniel.
"I'm intercepting a transmission between Heru'ur and Apophis," Jacob calls, and Jack drags his attention away from the drama in the bay, and crosses to stand behind Jacob.
"Heru'ur is offering Apophis a gift to seal their bargain," Jacob says. He listens some more, and "Damn!" he hisses.
"What?" Jack demands.
"He has Teal'c."
The knots in Jack's gut pull tighter.
Sam's exclamation of triumph comes at just that moment. "Yeah!" She rolls out from under, grinning. "It's done! Get it out of here, Dad!" She and Daniel move clear and watch with supreme relief as the rings engage and the bomb disappears. When she sees Jack's face, however, her relief turns to alarm. "What is it, sir?" she says.
It is Jacob who answers. "Heru'ur has Teal'c. He's offering to turn him over to Apophis." He pauses, listening again. "Apophis accepts. They're gonna ring him over shortly."
"Can we intercept the matter stream?" Sam asks. "Like Teal'c did when he rescued us from Sokar?"
"We'd have to uncloak to do it," Jacob replies. "We'd never get away."
"Jacob!" Jack growls.
Jacob looks around at the grim faces of Teal'c's teammates, and sighs. "All right. I'll give it a try."
But they are too late; they miss the transportation stream by a few seconds. And if the reprogrammed mine had not exploded against Apophis' ship a few seconds later, causing a distraction but relatively little damage, they undoubtedly would have been targeted by the Goa'uld's weapons. Instead, Jacob recloaks the tel'tak, just as the communicator erupts with the enraged voice of Apophis: "You dare mock me, and now you attack me!" Jacob translates. Apophis shouts another order, and six ships uncloak, surrounding Heru'ur. They all open fire and, within minutes, Heru'ur's ship explodes and breaks apart.
The mines begin to target Apophis' fleet, and Jacob moves the tel'tak to a safe distance. Apophis' ship also withdraws from the immediate area, his fleet protecting him from the thousands of explosions.
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34
The mission can hardly be called a success. Its purpose was to incite a war between the two system lords, depleting their resources and making both of them less of a threat. The actual outcome, however, leaves Apophis in total control of the field; now he will simply assimilate Heru'ur's armies and become even more dangerous.
The only positive result is Teal'c managed to escape from Heru'ur's ship in a glider with the help of one of the rebel Jaffa.
Jack is uncharacteristically silent during the mission debriefing. Instead of playing with his pen or doodling, as he usually does at meetings, he has his elbows on the table and his fingers interlaced tightly. Jacob's frustration dominates the debriefing, and there is nothing useful to be gained by going over and over the details. By the end of the meeting Jack's head is pounding.
Jacob corrals Sam as they are leaving, and walks her out. She casts a glance toward Jack as they head for the exit; he is still sitting at the table, and Daniel is saying something to him as Sam goes down the stairs.
"You okay, Jack?" Daniel is asking. "You were awfully quiet in the meeting."
"What? Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing to add. Jacob said it all." Jack gets to his feet. "I'm going up to the infirmary to see Teal'c."
"Tell him I'll be in to see him a little later," Daniel says.
Jack nods and walks away slowly.
Teal'c is sitting up in bed, and looking ten times better than he did when they picked him up after his escape. For just a instant, Jack envies him the healing power of the larval Goa'uld that he carries, but brushes the feeling away at once—not even perfect health is worth having one of those snakeheads in his body!
"How you doing, T?" he asks, leaning against the foot of the bed. "You look much better."
"I am well. My symbiote has healed my injuries, but Dr. Fraiser insists that I remain here for a few hours so she can assure herself of my recovery." Teal'c's tone is somewhere between indulgence and mild irritation. "You, however, look tired, O'Neill."
"That I am," he admits. "I think I'm going home shortly. As soon as I finish my mission report."
Janet catches him before he gets away; he skipped out on the post-mission checkup earlier, and now she spends fifteen minutes putting him through the routine. He doesn't tell her about the headache, and after he leaves the infirmary, he finds some pain pills in his quarters and takes three of them. He also decides that the mission report can wait until tomorrow; he's going home now. He swings by Sam's lab, but from out in the hall he hears her talking with Jacob, so he turns around and heads for the elevator. Almost at the surface he remembers that his truck is in Minnesota, so he calls a cab, and waits at the entrance until it arrives to take him home.
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35
At his house Jack grabs a beer from fridge, downs half of it and then goes to get a shower. The combination is relaxing, and some of the tension slowly ebbs from his body, easing the headache. As he lets the warm water run over him, his mind runs back through the past three days.
What a miserable mission! The whole thing was a failure—the worst possible outcome, as Selmak said—since Apophis has eliminated his greatest rival, and is now stronger than ever. Jack feels that he was damn near useless—with Jacob in charge, he had nothing to do except watch. And watching Sam work underneath that mine scared him half to death. It should not have been any different than dozens of other missions—and yet it was. He should have been able to put aside his feelings, and focus on what needed to be done. There was nothing he could do—that was the problem. He could only watch, and think about how much danger they were in—how much danger she was in. Truthfully, though, this situation was no more dangerous or frightening than most of their missions have been; his concern for her—for all of his team—has always been the same. And he's always been able to handle it. Up until now.
After the shower he shaves, and dresses in PT pants and t-shirt. The beer is warm, so he dumps it down the sink and gets another from the kitchen. He goes into the living room, digs the remote out of the couch and pulls up one of the old Simpsons episode from his recorder. Stretching out on the couch, he half watches the TV and drinks his beer. One of his favorite scenes comes up, and he focuses, for a few minutes, chuckling, until the scene is over. Getting up to go get another beer, he is suddenly dizzy, and it occurs to him that he has no idea when he ate last. He's been gone from his house for days, so it takes a few minutes to find something edible—he finally unearths a can of ravioli, which he dumps in a bowl and warms in the microwave. He carries it back to the sofa, along with another beer, and eats while he watches more of the Simpsons. His mind wanders, and he is thinking about Sam, and misses most of the episode. That's okay, he decides. It's late and he's tired, so he shuts off the TV, and stretches out on the couch again.
When he closes his eyes, Sam's face is there in his mind. He loves her, but that's not new; whether he admitted it or not, he has loved her for years. And loving her did not interfere with his judgment or leadership capacity in the past. So why now? he thinks. For he is well aware that his judgment was compromised on this mission. Why now and not before? The question seems to circle around in his head as he slides toward sleep.
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