Ding
Daniel glanced at the back of his computer at the sound of an incoming email. Ignoring the distraction, he continued with the task at hand, shoving his brown leather notebook into the large zippered opening of his gear bag.
His eyes shifted to the book shelves lining the wall beside him as he considered what else he might need to pack before he met Teal'c in the Gateroom.
Deciding against weighing himself down any more than necessary, he returned to his workbench and zipped up the black bag. The rolled-up artwork was already stowed away into a cylinder for easy transport, and he slipped one of the bag's straps over his shoulder before grabbing it.
He was two steps away from the workbench when he remembered a part of Jack's message. Walking back quickly, he dug into his pocket and took out his phone, slipping it into the top drawer before closing it. The light from the monitor reminded him to shut down the computer and he took hold of the mouse, moving the cursor over the start button. After clicking, the options came up to restart or shut down. He tapped 'shut down' as his eyes fell on the subject line of the unopened email still bolded on his screen.
"Wait!" His panicked voice echoed in the empty room as he clicked the cancel button twice. When his email inbox reappeared, his eyes squinted as he adjusted his glasses and leaned in to read it again…this time out loud.
"Dr. Nicholas Ballard-Translation request," he mumbled. "What?"
Dropping the cylinder back onto the workbench, he sat down on the stool and clicked open the email.
There was a short paragraph from the good doctor, asking for assistance with an unfamiliar dialect of Farsi found in an early recording. The problem of course, was that the name of the doctor was also the name of Daniel's grandfather who he knew was now off-world learning from an alien culture.
His eyes widened as it occurred to him.
It had to be them.
He pulled the gear bag from around his shoulder and dug out his notebook before dropping the bag onto the floor. Opening the journal up to a clear page, he grabbed his pen from the chest pocket of his green BDU top and hovered the cursor over the play button.
"Are you prepared to embark Daniel Jackson?"
Daniel's heart skipped a beat as he started. Breathing a sigh of relief at the sight of his friend in the doorway, he motioned him over. "Teal'c, come here for a second." With a nod of his head, Teal'c followed the silent instruction and moved to block the view of his notebook without a word. "I just have to translate this really quick and then we can head out."
Teal'c nodded as Daniel hunched over the keyboard and clicked play.
It took two gates to get to the Tok'ra base and Jacob was standing by as Daniel and Teal'c walked through the blue horizon and down the stone steps.
Jacob motioned them over quickly, "We don't have a lot of time. The High Council is in the dark on this and I want to keep it that way. Come on, the Tel'tak's over here."
"Jacob, we know where they are." Daniel said excitedly as they fell into the hurried pace beside him.
"What? How?"
"They sent a recording in an email; I'm almost positive it was Jack's voice. I tried to download it onto a flash drive but it deleted itself as soon as I tried. Sam must've set something up so it would do that in case someone tried..."
"Where Daniel?" Jacob interrupted curtly, "Where are they?"
Daniel frowned, "Oh, right…well, they didn't say where they were exactly, but where to find a list of names; apparently Knight has spies in the SGC and other government agencies and they want me to get it to General Hammond."
Jacob stopped and glared at him.
Daniel's eyes widened, "Sacramento." he said quickly.
Jacob harrumphed grumpily, taking his eyes off of Daniel to uncloak the Tel'tak hidden in the small clearing ahead before opening the door.
Once inside, Jacob slid in behind the red control device while Daniel took a seat in the co-pilot chair next to him. Teal'c stood behind them quietly, a pillar of strength and determination that gave Daniel a little more hope that they would be able to track down their friends. He held his tongue until Jacob had piloted away from the planet and they entered into hyperspace.
"Where in Sacramento?" Jacob didn't bother looking his way.
"Um, the Amtrak train station. He said they would get the list there by eight o'clock and hide it in the first stall of the men's restroom. So, I'm guessing that's when they'll be there. He said to make sure we weren't followed, that our lives depended on it. Of course, I imagine he thought we'd be making the trip by car which would be getting us there much later than that."
"Even at full power, we'll barely get there in time," Jacob muttered.
Daniel waited, sensing he wasn't finished.
"Did he say anything about Sam?" Jacob's voice cracked slightly and he cleared his throat quickly to cover it.
Daniel glanced sideways at him, only now realizing that he wasn't angry as much as he was worried for his daughter's safety. His heart went out to him. "Well, no, not exactly. I'm pretty sure he said 'we' though, so I'm guessing she's okay."
Jacob's tense eyes met his for a moment before he looked back out of the window in front of them. Daniel eyed Teal'c with concern before turning back to Jacob, wishing there was a way to ease his mind. "I'm sure they're fine Jacob."
Jacob's tightened jaw shifted, "They didn't ask for you to pick them up Daniel. Didn't tell you where they'd be. And that tells me that they know this Knight guy is a real threat. Someone that has managed to destroy their lives and frame them for murder in a matter of days. Tell me something…have you ever known Jack to run from anything?"
Daniel straightened as he thought about it and frowned. "Well, no actually."
Jacob stared him down. "Exactly. So you'll excuse me Daniel if I'm not comforted by the fact that they managed to send you a message about some list." He shook his head incredulously, "Don't you realize that if Sam had still been with Pete at the time, those goons would've tortured and killed her too?"
Daniel's mouth gaped as he thought about it. "No, I didn't…."
Silence hung in the air.
"We will find them Jacob Carter." Teal'c said determinedly.
Jacob exhaled forcibly, "I sure as hell hope so Teal'c."
He looked over at Daniel and his features softened when he noticed the creases on the young man's forehead as he stared out the window; his words seeming to sink in. "Daniel."
Daniel turned his head to him silently as Jacob's voice gentled. "Tell me about Knight. I want to know everything."
As Sam worked, Jack packed up their stuff.
The train would be at the Sacramento station for thirty minutes; enough time for some passengers to get off and new ones to get on before they headed to the next stop in Portland. Thirty minutes. Jack swore under his breath just thinking about it. Thirty minutes was a long time to be hunted.
The air was heavy in the room, weighing them down; and as much as he tried to ignore it, Jack had a distinct 'calm before the storm' feeling that he couldn't seem to shake. Sam's uneasiness was palpable and he tried his best to offset it by suggesting that they come up with an escape route.
Sam hesitated, seemingly ready to voice that it was a moot point. But then she surprised him by pulling up the area surrounding the station, as though she needed something to cling to as well. A little hope that they would find a way to survive this.
They noticed a strip mall two blocks down with a covered garage. And when Sam mentioned nicking a car with the same ease as plucking a grape off a vine, it made him wonder if her adolescence entailed more than just study hall and slumber parties. It certainly would explain her clever sleight of hand and lock-picking abilities she'd displayed in the past. Once they had a car in hand, they would try to catch up with the train in Portland or the stop after in Seattle.
"Plan B right?" He gave her his best hopeful smile and when she tried to smile back, he noticed it waver as she looked away.
Hours later:
"He got it." Sam's soft voice broke the silence as she finally shut down the laptop.
"Good…that's good." Jack muttered, letting out a pent-up sigh of relief as he stood and walked behind her. After years of watching her work diligently on tasks for hours on end, her relentless determination shouldn't have bothered him. But it did.
It felt different now. As her CO, he could only sense the point of exhaustion. But as her lover he could sense everything, keenly aware of every indication of discomfort. The slight deterioration of her posture, the tired narrowing of her eyes as she strained to focus on the screen, the subtle chewing of the inside of her cheek as the mounting stress took its toll. His fingers itched, struggling against the temptation to comfort her, against the urge to pull her into her arms and shield her from the weight of it all.
But she refused to take a break until she was finished, not until she had devised a couple of fail safes for "extra protection" as she called it.
The first involved setting up an email to her old FBI buddy Agent Barrett with all of Knight's illegal activities and a copy of the list, in case Daniel was intercepted and they were taken out or captured by Knight's men. The email was to be delivered from the fake Ballard account at nine o'clock and she was the only one who had the ability stop it.
Second, she set up a wire transfer that would wipe out Knight's biggest offshore account with the push of a button, sending hundreds of millions to an untraceable account she set up in the Caymans for safekeeping. For a man who liked money, she hoped it would be a big enough bargaining chip.
She mentioned to him that as much as Harry had pissed her off by setting everything in motion, albeit without realizing it, the encryption program he allowed her to copy was beyond anything the FBI had to offer…truly state of the art software that had been perfect for hiding their tracks.
Even if everything went tits up and Knight's men got to them, there was a good chance that all of their improprieties would go unnoticed and none of it would be able to be traced back to them. Not that reputation mattered much if they were dead, but it was something.
Grateful she was finally done, his hands drifted over her shoulders and squeezed. Her head lolled forward as she relaxed, melting into him. "Come on, let's get you into bed."
Sam was quiet, and when she didn't move, he kept his hands on her, kneading away at the small knots as he waited for her to speak. His blood ran cold when she didn't.
"You're tight," he mumbled softly, as he pressed his thumbs into the base of her neck and slid them up slowly. Waiting.
When she did speak, her voice was strained, as if the exhaustion had worked its way through her muscles and embedded itself into every fiber of her being. "Well at least now we have a couple of things set up, just in case."
His hands stilled, "Just in case?"
It was an empty question of course; one he already knew the answer to. They had been avoiding saying it out loud all night, skirting around the words like a hair pinned trigger. Because saying it out loud would give it life, make it too real and he ached to hold onto the denial just a while longer.
"In case we get captured or…" Her whispered words faded, left hanging in the air as if she didn't have the strength to finish.
Inky darkness invaded his senses, threatening to pull him under as he white-knuckled the back of her chair. The thought of anything happening to her absolutely gutted him.
With a sharp exhale he was pulling her into his arms, his biceps straining as he crushed her against his chest. "Goddamn it." He whispered frustratingly.
It wasn't fair. He finally had her, and what they had together was better than anything he ever could have imagined. No, he wouldn't let them destroy this. Wouldn't let them tear them apart. He would fight with everything he had. He would die first.
Forcing himself to loosen his grip, he leaned back to look at her, unable to suppress the tremor in his voice. "I won't let anything happen to you."
When she looked up at him and her mouth opened, the saddened look made his stomach lurch as he waited for the inevitable. For her to start throwing facts and figures at him; hitting him with the impossible odds of being outmanned and outgunned. For her to tell him how unrealistic it was to think he could stop an army.
He begged her silently not to, and when her mouth closed as she held his gaze, it made him wonder if he hadn't spoken the words out loud.
Instead she lifted a hand to his cheek and he closed his eyes tight, exhaling shakily as he leaned into her touch. Her thumb caressed the slight stubble and instinctively, he covered her hand with his and turned her palm, kissing it tenderly. It reminded him of that fateful night when he crossed the line while dressing her hand. The night when the desire to feel and taste her became too much.
And when he opened his eyes, he saw the same recognition staring back at him as her face twisted with regret. "All of the years and moments I let pass by, pushing the idea of us away…"
He shook his head, gripping her hands in his and pressing them against his chest. "Sam, you can't blame yourself. We decided to leave it alone together for the sake of the team."
Her eyes watered as she looked down between them. "No Jack, I remember now…I was the one that decided. The one that wanted to leave it in that stupid room. But I was wrong…" She lifted her head. "It would have been worth the risk. And we could've made it work somehow; I know we could have…" Her eyes darted and a tear escaped as her gaze wandered over his shoulder. "We could've met somewhere, maybe a hotel. Or even rented an apartment under a different name on the other side of town. Made sure we weren't followed, paid in cash…"
"Sam." His tight voice pulled her eyes back to him as he cradled her face and swept away the moisture.
"I couldn't have…" His jaw tightened as he shook his head slowly, "I couldn't have stayed impartial out there, off-world. I know that now."
"Jack that's not true, you've always been able to…"
"No Sam." He interrupted sternly. "I would've done whatever it took to keep you safe."
He swallowed, the realization hitting him hard as he admitted it out loud. "Just like now." His face pinched painfully, "I would say or do anything." He leaned his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. "Anything Sam," he whispered roughly.
He couldn't stop his body from trembling, and when he opened his eyes and saw the guilt on her face, he panicked; shaking his head emphatically and pressing his lips hard against hers before she could say anything.
"Don't...please don't. It's not your fault and it's not mine," his words came out raspy and uneven as he struggled to hold it together. "It just is."
Tangling his fingers in her hair, he kissed and nibbled her lips, breathing her name in between like promises.
...
Sam got lost in the soothing mantra; his warmth and tenderness guiding her slowly into her subconscious, where his husky voice echoed. Anything.
A small sob escaped as she cradled his face and kissed him back.
Her lips carried her confession, quivering and gliding desperately over his, admitting what she couldn't put into words just yet. That she would do anything for him too.
That she was just as compromised, just as vulnerable, just as in love.