AU: Jack's download takes over unexpectedly, John experiences something he never thought he'd ever see again and Pete gets more than he bargained for... again.
Chapter 19: I Dream of Genie
Monday, 15th March 2004 – O'Neill Residence – John O'Neill
Walking down the hallway, I could hear Sam and Samantha talking. I was happy that they were getting along though at first, I knew that Samantha found our relationship off putting. I understood why and tried not to be too hands on with Sam in front of her and Grace. That was until the early hours of this morning when things drastically changed, though I was still mindful that Grace was most definitely not aware of that encounter and curbed my attentions towards both Sam's, regardless of how hard – pun intended – that was. Despite Samantha's aversion at the start, it was short lived, and we curled up in each other's embrace for a couple of hours before having to start the day.
"Morning ladies." I greeted as I walked into the dining room, giving Sam, and then Samantha pecks on their respective cheeks as I headed towards the kitchen, earning myself dual giggles and a sneaky pat on my backside from one of them.
"Thanks." Jack complained as he emerged from the kitchen looking as awful as I remembered feeling, though his look could have been due to last night's fun. Both Sam's giggled again at his gruff reply, though I resisted kissing him on his cheek because – you know – that would just be way too weird. At that thought, I chuckled, because we were already way past weird and firmly in… something else that I couldn't think of a word or phrase to describe other than 'Ay, Caramba!'. The four of us had transcended the societal barrier of impropriety eliminating concerns about age and partner sharing. Sam's physical exhaustion meant that Samantha enjoyed the same encounter when Jack and I woke up in a certain state, only this time without glow bug entities and endless orgasms. I could barely stand let alone walk, and that was completely OK.
Helping myself to a coffee and a piece of toast from the plate already in the kitchen, I had just walked out when Jack's face went stony and he abruptly stood from the table and marched up the hallway, a look of determination and vacancy smoothing out his tired features.
"Jack!" Samantha called out and looked at us desperately.
"Here we go." Sam said with a deep breath while looking at me. I merely nodded because what could I say that she hadn't already covered with those three words. She looked at her watch. "0717 hours – he's a whole day ahead." She confirmed. "Last time, he spent today on a crossword waiting for the archive to give him a clue. This time he has all the information."
"What? What do you mean?" Samantha asked as she stood up and made her way toward Jack. Before she even got out of the dining room, he was walking back out dressed and ready to go. He grabbed his keys and a jacket. "Jack!" Samantha tried to get his attention, but he didn't seem to hear her.
"Go with him." Sam ordered her sternly.
"But Grace… I…"
"Go – with – him." She repeated. "I'll watch Grace."
"Sam?" I tried to interject, not wanting her to over-exert herself, earning myself an angry glare for my trouble. I was concerned that she couldn't keep up with the demands of a nearly 4-year-old. I should have known better. Holding my hands up, I signaled my defeat and promptly shut up.
"Thank you!" Samantha said, then ran out the door. By the sounds of it, she barely made it to the truck before Jack was reversing out of the driveway.
Coming to her feet, Sam noisily gathered the empty plates off the table into a stack, then picked up Jack and Samantha's still full coffee mugs in the other hand and marched into the kitchen. Her behaviour screamed 'apologise John!' so I hauled myself up and followed her.
"I'm sorry. That was…"
"An arse move, John. What, do you think that I am completely incapable of looking after a child?" She growled with her back still facing me. I could see the colour of anger flooding her neck making the few age spots she retained darken and stand out more. After last night, most of them had disappeared when Jack had restored some of her lifeforce with his erotic light show.
"No, of course not – " I hesitated, which was the worst thing I could have done because she managed to hear what I had not said just like she always managed to hear things I had never said whilst casually ignoring those words that were about how much I cared for her. Loved her.
"Need I remind you – Sir – that I commanded SG-1, a science department, and then a spaceship for the last 15 years inside that godforsaken bubble, all of it without you hanging over my shoulder!" She barked. I knew better than to highlight the fact that it most certainly was not me because Loki made her version of me long before any of that happened in her timeline.
"Sam, please. I really didn't mean to disparage your abilities in any way." I said in a groveling manner that sounded as pathetic as it was supposed to sound. Taking three giant strides around the counter, I took my life into my own hands by wrapping my arms around her waist and leaning my chin on her shoulder. "It's just that, I worry about you." I confessed, taking a deep breath.
"I can take care of myself, John. I'm a big girl." She replied drily, if not a little harsh.
"I know. But –" I hesitated again and felt her tense up, so I hugged her tighter and laid my head on the back of her shoulder. "I'm scared. I am so damn scared of waking up one morning and finding you – " I didn't want to say the word 'dead'. It was so final, so I swallowed it down with the tears that I didn't want to let fall. "Please Sam. Whatever Jack did, it's not forever. Let me take care of you and worry about you while I can." I pleaded. "Please." I said again in an even more desperate sounding voice. After what felt like hours, but were only minutes, she wrapped her hand around mine and brought it to her lips. The relief that flooded my system was profound and audible.
"Mummy. Daddy!" A small happy voice yelled accompanied by the slapping of small bare feet on wooden floorboards. With the willpower of a certain Colonel when it came to his Major, I released her and stepped away determined to keep the familiarity to a minimum around Grace. I then walked out of the kitchen ahead of Sam to greet the girl who had taken the mantle of smallest O'Neill away from me.
"Morning Munchkin! Mummy and Daddy had to go to work." I announced as I picked her up then followed it with raspberry on her cheek making her giggle and wipe her face.
"Yukky Daddy!" She laughed then wrapped her tiny arms around my neck just as Sam walked into the room with a bowl of Froot Loops. Breakfast of champions.
"Sweetheart. You can't call me that." I reminded her. She just looked at me with all the adorable innocence of a child.
"But you are my mini-Daddy. Just like Aunt Sam is my older Mummy." She explained with wide open eyes and an indignation that I couldn't really argue with. "I have your smile…" She pointed to Sam, "…and I have your hair and eyes. Look!" She held out a piece of her golden-brown hair with two fingers while pointing at her chocolate brown eyeball with another.
"I have an idea. Since I am 'sooo' old, Gracie. How about we say I am your grandmother." Sam suggested with air quotes and a long oo sound which made Gracie giggle with her hand over her mouth. "Though I think I'd prefer Old Mum to GrandMummy." She added earning herself an eager OK from Grace. Our young charge then turned to me and asked probably the worst thing she could have.
"Can you be my big brother like Charlie?" I wasn't sure whose sharp intake of breath was louder, mine or Sam's. Either way, the cheerful reminder from Grace that my son was no longer here stung, and I felt the need to escape. Instead of doing what came naturally when faced with memories of my dead son, I hugged my daughter as tight as I dared and buried my face into her sweet-smelling hair. The feeling of Sam's arms going around us both triggered tears instead of calm. "Shhh… it's OK, Daddy." Grace whispered. "Charlie misses you too." Her words had both Sam and I pulling back and looking at her.
She smiled sweetly and placed her little hand over my heart then closed her eyes. In a flash, I was standing in a golden field with a nascent breeze that smelled of home baked cookies and springtime. The sounds of children's laughter echoed around the open space. Looking down, I could see that I was in a simple outfit of jeans, a shirt, and boots.
"Hey Grace, chuck it here!" Charlie yelled happily. I looked up and spun around on the spot until I saw my son laughing, then running to pick up a ball that Grace had thrown too short. "You ready little sis?"
"Yes!" Grace replied and jiggled, waiting for Charlie to posture and pretend to be a pitcher before he underarm threw the ball so gently that Grace caught it on the full. "I did it! I did it!" She jumped for joy and ran full tilt at Charlie then jumped knocking him over in the tall grass. Instantly worried that he was hurt, I ran over to find Charlie and Grace play-wrestling, him letting his little sister win.
"Charlie?" I said, but he didn't acknowledge that I had made a sound.
"Grace, honey. It's time to wake up." The muffled voice of Samantha echoed around the dreamscape.
"That's Mummy. I have to go now. Love you, Charlie." Grace said happily and gave him a big kiss.
"Love you too, Graciekins. Catch ya next time." Charlie replied wearing a huge smile. My smile. When the vision cleared, I was sitting on a chair with Grace on my lap just staring into nothing. Eventually, I turned to look at her and found one set of worried blue eyes staring from the chair beside me and a set of sparkling brown eyes bearing the remnants of golden lights.
"How…"
"It's the genie. It helps us see people we love even if they are lost." She then produced my old pilots' wings from a pocket on her dressing gown. "Daddy gave me these so that I could find him when he goes away." Clearly Jack's desire to keep Gracie in the dark about his condition had not worked. She already knew. "I showed you my memory of a dream play date with Charlie."
"Wow." I was speechless, well almost. "Thank you." Seeing my boy seemingly alive and so happy was more than I could have hoped for. The fact that my daughter and my son were able to play despite him being long gone made the chasm caused by his death that little bit smaller. Suddenly Grace jumped off my lap and ran – dressing gown flapping behind her – down the hall. Sam took the opportunity of her absence to pull me close for a kiss. As usual my immediate reaction was to take things to the next level.
"John. Later." She admonished just as the sound of Grace running back echoed down the hallway.
"Here you go!" Grace proudly offered, handing me a small red firetruck made from metal with half the paint missing and one set of the wheels crushed into the underside of the toy. I recognised it from all the times that I had reattached wheels and ladders. I had even painstakingly repainted it after the first coat of red paint flaked away due to perpetually living in the small hand of a little boy who never put it down.
"Where did you get this?" I asked. I didn't remember having it in any of the boxes of things that had belonged to Charlie. In fact, I hadn't seen it since before he had died.
"Charlie said I could have it, but if I found someone who needed it more, I had to give it to them. He gave it to me in a dream. When I woke up, it was on my dresser." She said with a smile. "If you practice, your genie can help you talk to him with it."
The sound of an alarm shook me out of my stupor. "Damn, I'm gonna be late again." I complained. How was it already 0745 hours. Damn, I wasn't even showered or dressed. Although I had a shower last night, I really needed another one before I could get dressed. Lifting her down off my lap, I grabbed a piece of toast to scoff down quickly so that I could brush my teeth in the shower. I'd grab a coffee from the van that parked out the front of the school.
"C'mon Gracie, let's get dressed and take John to school. Then we'll go somewhere fun." Sam said. We moved as almost a single unit down the hallway. I darted to the bathroom while Sam helped Gracie get ready. Minutes later, she cracked the door open and placed a haphazard pile of freshly laundered clothing on the vanity. Since the vintage Volvo already had Grace's car seat in it and Samantha had gone with Jack, Sam figured she could take that instead of ours rather than swap the seat over.
It took us less than 10 minutes before we were walking out the door, though I made a point of grabbing the fire truck and shoving in my jeans pocket. As we opened the door of the car, Sam stopped suddenly and I couldn't help but notice the rigidity of her body, as if she had spotted a hostile and was preparing to take them out.
"What is it?" I asked because I knew something was amiss. When I scanned the area, I saw a familiar brown car sporting Denver plates. Digging my phone out, I scrolled through the messages I had sent to the old man and found the plate number. It matched. He never did get back to me about it, so I had assumed it was nothing, but Sam's reaction to seeing that vehicle was definitely not nothing. "I saw that car outside our place on Thursday." My added information seemed to strengthen her resolve and ramp up her anger.
"Put Grace in the car and pass me the jacket." She instructed, motioned to the heavy black coat on the back seat. Doing as she asked, I watched Sam don the jacket and a set of gloves she found in its pocket while I buckled Grace into her seat.
"Grace, sweetie. Can I have your banana?" She asked. Grace smiled and opened her unicorn bag, passing her the yellow fruit. She then grabbed a handful of tissues from the box beside Grace and shoved them along with the banana in the pocket of the jacket and slipped into the backyard following the line of trees to the end where Jack had a gate installed in the event that he needed an escape point into the state forest. He actually had three of those and even a tunnel from the basement that exited a hundred yards deep into the forest. I remembered digging it out over a two-week period of leave not long after Apophis' invasion attempt in case I had to disappear. Incidentally that had been the same time that Samantha Joanne Carter along with new identities for me, Daniel and Teal'c been created.
I could just see the outline of a man sitting in the driver's seat of the car out of my peripheral vision. He alternated between blatantly looking and pretending to change radio stations. I figured she was going to jam the tissues and banana in his exhaust; however, when I saw her signal to me from the back of the car, then move around to the passenger's side, I knew she had formulated a Plan B.
"Crap. Dammit Carter." I muttered, jumping into the driver's seat, and gunning the engine, thankful that Samantha had reversed her car into the driveway last night. Pulling up beside his car and shimmying over to the passenger side, I noted just as Sam jumped in the car that the man was slumped in his seat reminiscent of someone who had been knocked out. She flashed a look of pure mischievousness which had me smiling back at her as we drove off down the street.
"Samantha Joanne Carter. What did you do?" I asked with a huge grin full of pride knowing full well already. She smiled brightly, light dancing in her eyes. She was so alive now. Gracie giggled at my use of her full name. Sam merely smiled and communicated which of her exceptional hand-to-hand skills she used to render him in dreamland without alerting Gracie. "Who is he?" I asked. She tensed and took a deep breath, then relaxed and glanced at me.
"My ex-fiancé from before." She confessed. Scratching my chin, I gave her a side long look before answering, assuming she was talking about Jonas Hanson. Though my memory was rusty, I didn't recall any other fiancé's.
"Pretty sure I chucked him through the Stargate without inputting an IDC." I replied. She blew out a breath and checked the review mirror even though we both knew he wouldn't be there.
"He's a police officer from Denver. Pete Shanahan. I don't get it; I didn't think Sam met him this time around." She said without expecting an answer. Truthfully, I had no idea if Sam had ever met him because I had still been living in the doldrums of my high school student life without any links to my old team. Though the fact that this Sam had met him and gone that far was more proof that we had never made a go of things in her timeline. Probably not a good idea to bring up her love lost days even if I silently thanked the cosmos for bringing her back to this time.
As we pulled up outside the front of Mountain Springs five minutes after the bell, I reached over discreetly and squeezed her thigh then said my goodbyes to my two favourite girls and jumped out of the car ready to face whatever punishment my teachers deemed necessary.