Jack could tell Carter was stressed. The way she tucked a delicate blond strand behind the ear that the memory recall device was positioned behind. She didn't say anything, but Jack could tell. The memory recall device was supposed to bring the memories of Jolinar, or whatever her name was, that the Tok'Ra symbiont left in Carter's mind to the surface but the look on Carter's face told Jack that Sam wasn't experiencing Jolinar's memories, but her own and as much as Carter has told him, he knew there was some painful memories in Carter's past, especially surrounding her father and those memories have to be at the Surface of Carter's mind considering what they were doing and where they were heading.
Jack looked over to the cockpit of the cargo ship they were travelling in where Teal'c, Daniel and Martouf or Marty as Jack liked to hall him, were, talking about the particulars of the mission, especially the conditions on Natu. Jack shook his head; he didn't need that nonsense to get the job done. The fact of the matter was that if Carter's dad was in Hell, then Jack would do anything he could to get him out of there. He owed Carter that.
Jack watched as Carter curled into a ball on the floor of the cargo ship and he sighed. Daniel would notice if he went to comfort Carter. He always had an annoying tendency to notice whenever Jack and Carter were close. He never said anything to General Hammond, but he was sure Hammond knew anyways, but it never got back to the pentagon.
Marty might say something, however, that was what caused Jack to hesitate to comfort Carter. Jack looked over at Carter again, he watched a tear fall from her eye and sighed. He pushed himself up from leaning on the crate and walked over to Carter. Marty be damned, he needed to help Carter get through this if she was going to be any use on the mission to Natu.
Jack wasn't sure how to do that without letting the others know what they were doing. He knew he couldn't say anything because it would alert Daniel and Marty to their closeness to each other. Marty was sometimes possessive of Carter because of the memories she holds of his former mate, Jolinar. Jack had a jealous streak himself, or so Daniel kept pointing out.
Jack sat down next to Carter and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. She turned and looked up at him before smiling weakly. An unspoken moment occurred between them. Jack smiled back at her before putting his hand in her hair, trying to comfort her as the memory recall device activated in her again and she shivered as she closed her eyes against the memories once more.
From what Marty had said, Natu was like the Christian depiction of hell, not that Jack believed in such nonsense. All he knew was the snake head in charge of the place pretended to be Satan and used Unas to do his bidding. If there was more than one of those giant lizard-like monsters down, there Jack didn't know how successful their mission would be.
Jack let Carter put her head on his lap, it was more comfortable than the floor anyways, as he thought about their mission. Jacob Carter/ Selmak had been taken by the snakehead Sokar and sent to this hell like place while he was on a mission infiltrating Sokar's inner circle. Somehow Jacob and his own personal snake head had been found out and sent to this god forsaken place and somehow Carter's previous snakehead, Jolinar, or whatever her name was, had escaped from this Hell place alive but never told Marty, her mate, how she did it. Now it was up to Carter to dredge up some obviously painful memories from deep within her subconscious to see how Jolin-whatshername, did it.
If Carter couldn't figure out how Jolin-whatshername escaped then this would be a one-way mission, which is why Jack decided that Teal'c would stay in orbit in the cargo ship in case something went wrong down there so he could get help. Not that Jack expected the Tok'Ra to help him. He hoped Teal'c had the good sense to go to the Alpha Site or Earth for help. Jack didn't trust the Tok'ra as far as he could throw Teal'c which isn't far at all. To Jack, all snakeheads were alike. Arrogant, Condescending bastards.
Jack liked Carter's dad. Selmak on the other hand, could do without. Jacob was in the Air Force, Jacob was in the military, he understood the risks he was taking every day. He also on the other hand knew why Jack and Carter couldn't be together. Damned Air Force regulations about fraternization.
The Tok'Ra on the other hand acted like they were the only ones out there fighting the "evil" snakes.
Jack shook his head; this aggression wouldn't do Carter any good. He needed to be calm, he needed to be there for her as she worried about her dad. She needed a rock and Air Force regulations be damned, he was going to be there for her when she needed it.
Jack caught Daniel glancing at him frowned at the knowing smile on his friend's face. An unspoken moment went between the two friends and Daniel nodded. Daniel would keep Marty occupied while Jack sat there with Carter. Hopefully Daniel could keep Marty at bay until they reached Natu. Just before he moved over to Carter's side, he had had to pull Marty aside because he was putting too much pressure on Carter to find out how Joli-whatshername escaped. Carter was frustrated because she had said that she was stuck in her own memories. Memories Jack knew she would rather not relive.
Jack felt the jolt of the cargo ship leaving hyperspace sighed they had probably arrived at Natu. Now time for the question of how they were getting down there. Jack hated surprises, especially Tok'Ra surprises, they had a tendency to go wrong.
Jack nudged Carter's shoulder gently and she opened her eyes to look at him before looking up at the cockpit. She nodded her head, sat up and looked at him. Her eyes saying thank you as she smiled weakly and pushed herself to her feet. Jack took a deep breath before getting to his own feet. He knew he was going to catch hell from Daniel once they were back at the SGC about what he just did, but at the moment he didn't care. Carter seemed better…
