AU: Welcome to my next instalment from my Lost and Found universe. This story takes place a few weeks after the end of the original Lost and Found (before the Star Wars-esque bouncing around with prequels and pre-prequels that my muse insisted that I write).
Chapter 1 begins one week before Lost City Part 1. The story references multiple episodes throughout the series. As previously advised, I am using Air Dates for this series rather than the Arduino timeline. This story has been marked as Mature. There is sexual content in later chapters which will be clearly delineated for those readers who prefer not to read that kind of thing. I promise you will not lose any story direction with these chapters. I will be posting daily unless a meteor hits and the world ends... just kidding.
Disclaimer: As always, I do not own these characters (Amazon/MGM own the rights... blah, blah, blah, yada-yada). If I did, then I'd be retired and living in Malibu as well.
Chapter 1: The goats are on the roof!
Friday, 5th March 2004 – Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Complex – Colonel Jack O'Neill
Seeing Grace skip down the pavement filled me with a joy I didn't expect to ever experience again after losing Charlie. Her blonde-brown curls reflecting the cool sunlight as they bounced around her shoulders and eyes flashing with all the excitement of a child visiting the zoo. This was the first time in what felt like forever that I had been to a zoo and my first visit to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo despite living within a 10-minute drive of the place for eight years.
"Daddy! Daddy! The goats are on the roof!" She screamed jovially, "Come see. Quick!" She cried out waving her hands frantically trying to get me to walk in her direction.
Samantha had just gone to the bathroom feeling a little off colour after the obscenely large butterscotch ice cream she had eaten. At least I hoped it was that. Though she had started her estrogen pills in preparation for carrying Sam's child, that first week before the pills would have had time to work, we had a condom break. Knowing how very fertile we were together; I couldn't help but be worried. She had been monitoring herself ever since looking for any of her known symptoms. She had been on and off nauseous all morning but had no other symptoms. We had a plan, but if nature determined that she became pregnant with a child from her body instead of Sam's, well I was perfectly OK with that. Just then, she walked out and smiled at me.
"All good?"
"Yeah. All good, just a little too much creamy goodness I think." She replied with a massive smile. "I'll check again in a few days." She added. I could see she was completely fine which made my concern disappear. The waiting for her to be ready was quite frankly killing me since I was so looking forward to seeing her carry my child, I just wanted to tell her to scrap the pill so we could do it the old-fashioned way.
Whenever I suggested that, she gave me the look, a small smile, and a shake of her head. She wanted to do this for Sam, and I wondered briefly if the other Sam would ever want to meet her. I hadn't spoken to John since that day at the café when I gave him the key. I often wondered if I should pick up the phone and call her, but something always stopped me. Despite it being her that drove me to break the rules with my Sam, I could not shake the idea that she wanted nothing to do with me.
"Apparently, the goats are on the roof." I informed my wife as we linked arms and walked towards the goat playground. She barked out a laugh.
"The goats are always on the roof. If you tell her the kangaroo joey is awake, the goats will be forgotten." Samantha replied with a smile.
"We have a kangaroo?" I asked in wonder. I had been all over the world including Sydney, but never managed to see a kangaroo. Apparently, they did not bounce down the middle of the road in the major Australian cities, not that I ever believed that story told to me by some eager SAS operatives in the Gulf. Drop Bears however, well I wasn't planning on testing that theory considering I'd heard stories about man-eating crocodiles, sharks and nine of the top ten poisonous snakes living down under. It wouldn't be a stretch to believe the stories about koalas who went savage when they weren't high on eucalyptus leaves.
She scoffed, "Yeah, several in fact. Gracie loves watching them hop around the enclosure. Then she pretends to be one." She replied, bumping her shoulder with mine as we walked, still heading towards the goat playground.
We arrived just in time to see several goats bound from the ground up to an elevated platform, then bounce along three upright logs and onto the ramp that led to the roof before bounding up to stand proudly for everyone to see.
"See! See!" Gracie yelled excited, skipping from foot to foot before jumping with her feet together the several metres over to where we were standing. "Austraya!" She announced, then put her 'paws' up and continued to jump with her feet together. Her pronunciation wasn't exactly proper, but I supposed that if Steve Irwin could say it like that while wrangling a saltwater crocodile, then so could the rest of the world.
"See, kangaroos." Samantha said with a sideways smile at me before her eyes furrowed as she looked over my shoulder.
"What is it?" I asked, purposefully not turning to look in the direction she was frowning towards. She looked at me and bit her lip then back to Grace who was still bounding away.
"It's probably nothing, it's just… I keep seeing this guy. Everywhere. I don't think he's looking at the animals, and whenever I see him, he looks away from me." She said worriedly before casting her eyes around the zoo.
"Guy?" My hackles went up instantly, not because I was worried about Samantha. I knew she could take care of herself. Her combat level was not the same as Sam's had been, but she could hold her own in a fight, of that, I was sure. "Gracie!" I called out to our daughter who looked up and skipped back to us. Samantha looked at me suddenly. "You're right, it's probably nothing, but let's keep her close, hey?" While no one knew about Gracie's gift and special abilities other than those who needed to know, I still felt the need to keep her close and protected.
"OK." She said with a sharp nod of her head, then turned her attention to Grace. "Let's stay together. Kangaroos are this way." Samantha pointed up the long winding path that would take us almost to the other side of the zoo complex.
"OK, Mummy." Grace replied, then took her place between us holding both our hands. Within moments, she encouraged us to start swinging her on every third step and my concern faded to the background, though I maintained my wits about me.
The walk / swing to the Australian exhibit took fifteen minutes since we had to detour past the chicken feeding and the toilet on the way. Both times, I saw Samantha's face harden and her eyes flick in a direction that told me she could see the same guy.
So, this man was following us.
"What does he look like?" I asked her as we walked away from the toilets. We were approaching the open wallaby enclosure with Gracie still ensconced between us.
"Blondish hair, short but not military short, taller than me, but not taller than you. Caucasian. Sports jacket, jeans. I think he's armed." She described loosely.
"How do you know?" I asked as I pulled all the information together in my mind trying to form a rough picture in my mind of what he looked like in case I had to confront him.
"His right arm, the way he holds it over his jacket. It's like he's trying the keep the jacket covering a shoulder holstered piece." She explained in a level of detail I had not quite expected, though it should not have surprised me. "There's something shiny hanging from his belt." I looked at her when she imparted this piece of information.
"A badge. Police?" I queried, my mind instantly recalling the image of the man I threatened under the mountain after he crashed our Osiris operation.
She shrugged, "Could be? Did Sam know any police officers?" She asked. Gritting my teeth, I looked straight ahead searching for somewhere to sequester myself so that I could get eyes on the man that I strongly suspected was Pete Shanahan.
"Unfortunately, yes. This way, I motioned. Grace. Let's go." My voice stern, falling back into the comfort of ordering rather than asking.
"But Daddy?" She whined as we walked past the wallabies towards the budgerigars. Turning towards her, I crouched down and looked into her eyes. As I did so, I let my peripheral vision take in as much of the surroundings as I could. Sure enough, the man I suspected it was popped into view only to dart out of it again when he saw me facing his direction. I knew I should call the General first, but the fire travelling through my veins demanded a more direct approach to the situation.
"Gracie. Do you trust me?"
"Yes, Daddy." She answered, her little head nodding furiously.
"Good. Can I borrow this?" I asked, pointing to her brightly coloured scarf. She nodded and unravelled it then handed it to me wearing a massive smile. She really was astoundingly beautiful.
Standing back up and guiding them both inside, through one door and then the other, I grabbed Samantha's attention. "Buy her a seed stick from over there. Try and face that way." I ordered then looked behind me to find that the side of the entrance to the aviary had the perfect spot for my ambush.
"What are you going to do?" She asked nervously as I wrapped the red silken scarf around my hand in a pattern similar to the binding I wore before donning boxing gloves. Rather than answer, I motioned with my chin towards the stand at the other end of the enclosure. She stood still and looked at me, then over my shoulder as her hand dove into her bag. "Take this." She said placing a small trapezoid shaped stone into my hand that lit up when it made contact with my skin.
"What can it do?" I asked because I knew what it was. An Ancient device that should not have been removed from the base, but that Samantha wanted to use to test Grace's abilities.
"Whatever you want it to do. It works via mental instruction. Gracie used it to turn on and off the lights. You could use it to disable the camera feeds." She stated, nodding at something over my shoulder. Turning slightly, I saw the blinking red light out of the corner of my eye.
"Right." I agreed and silently instructed her to continue with our plan, then took my place in the corner by the second door.
The first people through were a group of teenagers, the second, another young family pushing a stroller. Soon enough a single solitary man walked through the door. That was my queue to think the cameras 'Off'. It worked making me smile at the back of his head as I took a silent step forward. When he saw Samantha and Grace without me, he turned to look behind him and came eye to eye with me then started to draw his piece.
Too late.
Quickly and silently, I spun him around, placed him in a paralysing headlock and dragged him back into the spot I had found all while digging my scarf covered thumb and fingers into the pressure points on the sides of his neck. He would have deep bruising, but no finger prints he could use to identify me. The technique I used would put him to sleep in roughly eight seconds. The pain before that happened would be intense and the pressure from my arm on his larynx while I had him head locked stopped him from making a noise.
Leaning my mouth to his ear just before he passed out, I murmured, "I told you to leave Samantha Carter alone." He didn't get to respond before he passed out, so I propped him up in the corner hidden from view, unwrapped my hand and shoved the scarf into my pocket, then stepped out and walked towards my family just as Grace finished her turn feeding the multitude of coloured birds. Samantha nodded to me as I walked up and looked behind me. She would not be able to see him from where she was. I smiled stiffly at her as I approached, then bent my head to her ear.
"We should go. He won't be out for long." I informed her. She looked at me with worried blue eyes and nodded, then turned to Gracie who was having too much fun to notice the apprehension from her parents.
"Gracie. Daddy has to go and talk to Grandpa George." She said to our daughter. It was the best way to get her to agree to leaving her most favourite place in the world.
"Grandpa George. Yay!" She grinned and raised her arms up toward me. I smiled and lifted her, gently placing her on my hip. "Daddy. You feel cold." She stated, giving me a studious look.
"I'm not cold." I replied as we walked out the other end of the aviary, away from the man I had just knocked out, and towards the exit maintaining my desire for the cameras to not detect us on our way out of the zoo.
"No. You feel cold." She said, placing her hand over my heart making it glow slightly.
"Gracie. You can't do that in public." I gently chided, placing my hand over hers to hide the light it was putting off. I then took her hand away from my chest and kissed the palm making her giggle. As to why he was following us, I didn't know but it concerned me. With the death of Sam, the NDA that I made him sign was technically dead in the water. Samantha was officially Doctor Carter-O'Neill, though she rarely used her father's name because Gracie was just O'Neill and she found it easier particularly when dealing with the on-base childminding service.
The walk back to the entrance was faster than I expected. When we made it to the carpark, I noticed four bays away from ours the familiar brown sedan with Denver plates that had followed Sam to her house after the coffee shop. The same car that Hammond had towed from nearby Daniel's house.
Bastard.
Once we were in the car and heading down the winding road away from the zoo, I finally relaxed and reached out for Samantha's hand, threading my fingers through hers and holding on tight.
"Jack?" I looked into the worried eyes of my wife. "Who is he?"
"He's Sam's stalker. A cop from Denver her brother tried to set her up with on a blind date." I confessed. She scowled and I figured it was at the mention of her brother.
"Huh! At least Mark is consistent no matter which universe he's from." She scoffed angrily, her fingers squeezing my hand unnaturally hard.
"She didn't go." I replied with a heavy swallow, my eyes flicking to the rearview mirror out of habit even though I knew he wouldn't be there. I found myself wondering if the other Sam had taken her brother up on the offer. She never said anything. Shaking my head clear of that thought, I focused back on the road.
"Jack, you're not making sense." Samantha piped up, "She either didn't go, or she took her brother up on his offer." She replied with a look of consternation. Crap! I had said that last part out loud. I had a bad habit of doing that. Looking at her again, I decided that I should probably tell her about the other Sam in case they ever crossed paths.
"I'm not quite sure how to say this, but we have another Samantha Carter here. She's living in Cascade. With my clone." I admitted, adding the last bit because I knew from the building supervisor than John was rarely home on the weekend.
"Your clone?" She repeated which made me look at her again. "Another Jack O'Neill, here." I could see her eyes glazing over and had to wonder what she was thinking, or perhaps imagining. "And another me." I nodded while focusing on the road.
"How is that even possible, the time-space continuum would never allow two of the same people to exist in the same space at the same. The entropic cascade failure would kill one of them…" She started breathing frantically. "Jack, why didn't you… Oh God… I can't go through that again. I can't… and Grace… I don't want her to see…"
"Sam… honey, it's OK. There won't be any cassidy failure." I reassured her, making certain to use the wrong word. Though she didn't laugh, I did get an eye roll.
"Cascade failure, Jack."
"Whatever, it's not a problem. Lieutenant Colonel Sam has been here for almost two months and didn't affect Major Sam, and my clone is well… let's say materially different." I assured her using their ranks because talking to one Sam about two other Sam's ran the risk of confusing everyone.
Hell, I was confused.
I didn't want to get into the whole story with her because as it was, I was breaking some serious rules just telling her. She may be Samantha Carter… well O'Neill, but she did not have the clearance to know about herself and I just realised how ridiculously stupid that sounded in my head.
Suddenly she laughed out loud.
"How do you keep up with us all, Jack?" She asked with an amused smile. I had to smile back but couldn't answer truthfully without revealing the number of times I had woken up hot and bothered after dreaming of having multiple Carter's in my bed.
If only.
After a few minutes of comfortable silence, we arrived home. Samantha looked at me with a smile and motioned with her head at the sleeping child in the back seat. Seeing Grace sleeping like a little angel made my heart soar. My daughter. Looking back at Samantha, she smiled and placed her finger on my collar.
"I'd like to meet them. If that's OK." She said as her finger traced the fold of my shirt.
"Ah, sure. I'll call John after the General." I replied and reached for my phone.
"Ah ah ah… later." She replied, taking my hand, and pulling it back from my pocket. "Right now, Mr. O'Neill… we have a sleeping daughter, and you know what that means." She added with a salacious smile and sparkling eyes.
I did. Samantha was as insatiable and just as kinky as my 2IC had been. It was borderline exhausting which made me wonder what she would be like when she did get pregnant. I must say, I set a new record in getting Grace out of the car and into her bed.
