Daughter
A/N: Thank you so much to everyone. There was a significant flurry of favoriting and following happening after the last chapter... which is my personal favorite, too. As promised, some of the pacing picks back up here... It's clean-up time.
Chapter 12 – Heroics
Sam waved enthusiastically over a video monitor set up in the briefing room. A three-year-old girl waved back. She was currently seated on Carolyn's lap at the head of the table. "Mommy," she whined. "When you come back?"
"I'll be back soon, Baby. I have to work first."
Carolyn leaned down to get Gracie to look at her. "See?"
"Okay, Mommy."
"Okay, sweetie. I'll see you soon. I love you!"
Carolyn pointed at the tablet. "You get to push the button," she whispered.
"Lub you." Gracie's finger reached out for the red X on the screen and pressed it easily. She frowned for a moment when only her reflection looked back at her on the screen. "When she come back?" she asked again, looking up at her caretaker.
"Maybe later, okay?" Carolyn then made a big show of pretending to look around for something she couldn't find. "Now where's Doctor Teddy?" she wondered aloud dramatically.
The little girl began to giggle. "He's right hewe!" Gracie held up the stuffed animal in question.
Carolyn feigned surprise. "Oh! Where'd he come from?" This only made the child laugh more, serving to distract her from the disappointment of both her parents being busy.
"Dr. Lam?"
She turned in surprise at the new entrant to the room. "Dr. Keller!"
"Hi." The blonde woman in an Atlantis expedition uniform approached them. "And who's this?" she said, addressing the little girl but looking at the stuffed bear.
"This Doctor Teddy!" she replied eagerly. "He's a doctor. Like Auntie Ca-o-wyn."
Jennifer Keller smiled widely at the child's pride. She leaned down to her eye level and whispered, "Wanna know a secret?" Gracie nodded. "I'm a doctor, too."
"Oooooooh." The girl's eyes were wide. "Wanna play?"
Jennifer could not help but giggle. She looked straight at Carolyn. "Oh my gosh, she is so cute."
Carolyn agreed, scrunching up her shoulders as she squeezed Gracie a little in her arms. "What brings you here?"
Jennifer stood up. "When General O'Neill said you were coming," she began, "I figured you might need a little help. He was so cryptic. I had a feeling it was one of those things he couldn't explain for national security reasons. Or whatever." Jennifer reached out to tuck an unruly lock of hair back behind Gracie's ear. She marveled at how big the girl had gotten since she'd last seen her. "I came by to see what's really going on."
The dark-haired doctor sighed loudly in relief. "It's like you read minds."
"Well I wish I did. Otherwise I wouldn't be here. But, eh, this is close enough, right?"
Carolyn chuckled. "I actually have to start with you, so this is perfect. I know this goes against the usual grain for us, but would you submit to some imaging?"
"You mean, get scanned but not be told what you're looking for?" Her head nodded side to side playfully as she said it.
Her counterpart grit her teeth, worried that it was too big of an ask, but hopeful just the same.
Jennifer shrugged. "Wouldn't be the first time," she said nonchalantly. Then she gestured at little Gracie. "What about her?"
"Well, seeing as how she's too young to understand what's going on, I don't think there'll be any harm in her hanging around. Besides, there's no one else to watch her… that O'Neill trusts."
"Where's everyone else?" Jennifer asked, eyes briefly flitting around at the empty briefing room.
"They're out on an op."
"Ahh. Got it. So you're pulling double duty."
Carolyn sighed, thankful that the other doctor so easily understood.
A few hours later, Gracie had fallen asleep. Carolyn let her rest on the couch of her office. She was holding on tightly to her stuffed bear, with its toy stethoscope hanging precariously off the side of the couch. A basic hospital sheet underneath her served as a barrier from the dirt and grime that had accumulated on the furniture, courtesy of all the personnel who visited the doctor's private office.
Nearby, Jennifer was in Carolyn's chair marveling at the computer monitor. It was displaying an x-ray of Jack's neck. "You're saying these are the same things that got Rodney and Jeannie into all that trouble? With the kidnapping? And the desperate father? And then… Todd?"
"Todd?" Carolyn wondered, standing and hovering behind her.
"Todd the Wraith."
"Oh my goodness, I forgot about him."
"I don't blame you. Easier to sleep at night that way."
Carolyn shook her head as she shivered. She gestured back at the screen. "It pinged back the same signature. So yes, we think it's the same or similar technology."
"How the hell does it even get in there?"
"I don't know. But we're worried more people will be tagged like this. Or already are. The goal is to make sure Atlantis is clean and stays that way."
"Oh my God, this is the last thing we need over there," Jennifer complained as she leaned back into the chair. She looked over at the little girl asleep on the couch. Something seemed to click in Jennifer's mind. "You want her to come to Atlantis, don't you?" She looked up at Carolyn.
"If the op that SG-1 is on right now fails, we might not have any choice."
"What are their odds?"
Carolyn shrugged. "I can't even say." She brought a hand up to massage her temple as she spoke. "General O'Neill thinks Atlantis might be a safe haven for anyone who's under threat right now."
"Do I even want to know?"
The dark-haired woman stared at her friend grimly. "No." Jennifer was hardly surprised.
You could hear Vala coming from a mile away. From around the corner of the office suite, one could pick up the tell-tale sign of high heels walking on the marble floor. When a few of the low-level staffers turned to look, they spied yet another sharply-dressed woman passing through after having met with their Senator. It was just another day at the office for them. And they didn't much care who she was.
She glided by them easily, flanked by a set of bodyguards and one assistant. Anyone bothering to watch her would note that she barely spared the staffers a glance. Soon she was gone, loud clacking heels with her.
The group of visitors disappeared behind a set of closing elevator doors. Vala looked up briefly at the camera watching them from the corner. She remained expressionless, even when Mitchell sounded off through the ear piece discreetly hidden in her hair. "You know, when the General said incognito, don't think this is what he meant," her CO nagged.
Vala's mouth quirked, but she did not answer. The doors opened onto the ground level. Vala and her escorts filed out of the building and hopped into a waiting limousine. When the door shut, Vala grinned delightfully as Mitchell scowled at her. She was completely unsurprised that he was sitting there.
"How do you like the car?" she asked.
He narrowed his eyes at her. "How'd you get this without me knowing about it first?"
"Darling, do you really want to know?"
"Nevermind. What's your assessment?"
"They're clean."
"Alright, moving on to the next target." He reached down to click at the radio on his vest. "Jackson? Status?"
Across town, Jackson was leaning over monitors in a surveillance van. The vehicle was decidedly less lavish than Vala's. He was busy watching Teal'c's body cam as he casually walked down the hall of another office building. "So far, we have four hits here. You?"
"Seven. But this last one was a dud. We're moving on here."
"Seven?" Daniel asked incredulously. When one did the math, then nearly a dozen Goa'uld were roaming the Earth. And they still weren't done with their sweep.
"Yep."
Back in the SGC, Gracie and Jack could hear all of their radio chatter. Her eyes remained glued to the feed that Teal'c was transmitting from Washington, D.C. Behind her, Jack stood, sipping from a mug of coffee. They were set up with surveillance equipment in one of the smaller private rooms of the facility. No techs were about to help them, though. Jack made it a point to keep the entire operation very close to the vest.
Gracie sat up straighter and pointed at a suit walking past. "There. Him." Her face was serious and worried.
Jack set down his mug and fiddled with the controls. It wasn't typically within his wheel house to manage this equipment, so it took him longer than he wanted to copy a screen shot of a man's face over to another computer. The program proceeded to run a facial recognition query.
"Hit," Teal'c could be heard muttering quietly into his mic from across the country. The live feed showed him exiting the building now into bright sunlight, which caused a glare on the lens.
The query on the other monitor spit back a result. Soon a driver's license photo and various demographic information popped up, stating it was the closest match to the sample it had been given. Jack hit the button for it to print onto a physical sheet of paper. He brought the sheet over to Gracie. "This the same guy?"
She carefully accepted the paper and stared at it, comparing it to the static screen shot they had saved from the surveillance video. With both Teal'c and Vala en route to their next targets, she could afford to look away from the feeds. A memory flashed in her mind.
A man with a face just like that of the paper was pointing a weapon at her. She was clutching her bear tightly, backing up. At the time, Gracie didn't know much about what was going on. She only knew bad people were chasing them. She'd gotten separated from Vala a little while earlier.
Her heart was beating wildly in her chest.
She screamed as she fell back, tripping on something unseen on the ground. People were yelling all around her. They were on a space station. She was near one of the docking bays. Her elbow suddenly felt like it was on fire.
The man drew closer, weapon still raised. His eyes seemed to glow briefly.
A shot rang out.
Gracie whimpered, clutching her bear as hard as she could. When she looked, blood was now pouring out of his chest. The man collapsed.
"Gracie!" Vala's voice called.
"Gracie," Jack said again.
The adult woman jumped in her seat, letting go of the paper. It sailed harmlessly to the floor. She took in ragged breaths as the memory left her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw motion as her father bent down to retrieve the sheet. But her vision was hazy and she struggled to clear her mind.
Jack studied her terrified expression. He bit the inside of his cheeks, guilt evident on his face. He looked down at the paper now in his hands. She didn't have to say anything. He could tell this was a positive ID. He stared menacingly at the eyes of the man in the photo, hating him instantly for whatever he'd done to his daughter in her past.
Quietly, he placed a large red mark next to his name on Old Man Daniel's list. The marker's ink bled from the pressure, spreading out further than intended on the otherwise clean white background.
Gracie felt a warm, comforting hand on her shoulder. She closed her eyes briefly, then reopened them, staring at nothing on the floor.
"How about a break?"
Her mouth opened as she thought about it. "How many more?" Her voice was quiet and strained.
Jack looked at the list. "Just a handful," he replied. He watched her petrified face with worry in his eyes.
Gracie now turned to look up at him. "I should finish this."
Jack debated with himself on whether to argue, but he also appreciated her willingness to finish a job she started. A twinge of pride ached in his chest. He nodded in agreement at her and she turned back to the screen.
"All teams, report in," Mitchell ordered over the radio.
"Bravo, go."
"Charlie, go."
"Delta, go."
The radio chatter blended into a cacophony that Gracie's tired brain could not understand. She'd been struggling for the past hour not to succumb to the banging in her chest that made her feel lightheaded. She focused on controlling her breathing. She had no idea how many Goa'uld SG-1 had tagged. But it was a great many. They needed every single team they brought for support, it would seem.
She had recognized a few of them, each bringing forth a memory from her past she'd long thought buried. It was all she could do to keep herself from vomiting. Of those people she remembered, every single one was already hosting a symbiote in this time.
Her father leaned down into a microphone sitting on the table. "Colonel, you have a go. Godspeed."
"Thank you, sir. All teams, move in!"
Gracie counted her breaths. When the yelling started, she closed her eyes. One, two…
Zat fire could be heard. She idly remembered that everyone had orders not to use lethal weaponry on this op. Not unless someone's life was in danger. Five, six…
"This is Hammond. We are receiving positive contacts." It was Sam's voice. Gracie's mouth twitched but her eyes remained closed.
"November contact, clear." Nine…
"Echo contact, clear," Daniel announced.
Most of the teams continued to report in, with the ship in orbit responding back that they'd retrieved the packages successfully.
Jack leaned into the microphone again. "Alpha, status?"
Silence.
Gracie opened her eyes and took in a long, slow breath. She let it back out just as slowly. The effort was helping.
"General," Vala sounded off on the radio, "I'm approaching Alpha's position to obtain visual contact. Standby."
The eyes of the young blonde went wide. Her fingers instantly reached out to grab her father's sleeve. He looked down at her in surprise, seeing nothing but renewed fear and worry on her face. He squeezed her shoulder but said nothing, waiting for Vala to report back in.
More time passed. It felt like hours, but it was only seconds.
"Bravo, get over here now!" Vala yelled, gunfire sounding off in the background.
"Bravo copies. ETA 2 minutes," a male voice responded.
"Too much time! Hammond!" she demanded.
Sam answered, "Echo, prepare for transport."
"Echo copies," Daniel replied.
"What's happening?" Gracie asked worriedly.
Jack's face was like stone as he stared at the snowy feeds on the monitors. "I don't know yet. It's a lot harder to sit on the sidelines, waiting for everyone else to do their jobs… then seeing who's left standing when it's done."
She pursed her lips and nodded. A quip about the man died on her tongue. She was too anxious to make jokes at this moment.
One of the monitors suddenly sprang to life. It was Vala's feed. Her body cam activated in the middle of a fire fight inside of an office building. Both of them instantly turned to it, hearts clenching.
She kept popping up to fire with a zat. It pinged loudly into the mic. "Alpha is down!"
"Vala! We're pinned down. Echo can't get to you!" Daniel yelled.
" Hammond, this is Teal'c. Beam me directly to Alpha's position."
"Copy."
Gunfire erupted over the live comms.
Then silence.
Vala's feed showed her tentatively standing up and encountering no further resistance. She maneuvered around toppled desks and office chairs. The floor was littered with paper. As she moved, the sight of bodies on the ground could be seen on the corners of the screen. Her raised zat immediately lowered when she caught sight of Alpha Team on the ground.
"Cameron," she whispered hurriedly.
Her hands moved into view, with a Goa'uld healing device strapped to one of them. Gracie couldn't see the wounds on Mitchell. And she was glad for it. The glow of the device caused a glare on the lens. The live comms had since gone silent. She saw movement underneath the glow, presuming that he was twitching under the power of the device.
" Hammond, Alpha contact is negative."
"Copy, Teal'c. What's the status of our people down there?" Sam asked. She'd been listening in, too. She had asked the question before Jack could.
"We have injured. ColonelMitchell is among them. ValaMalDoran is attempting to stabilize him now with a healing device."
"Sam, this is Daniel. Requesting immediate evac for Alpha Team. We need them beamed straight to the base infirmary."
"General?" Sam addressed Jack.
"Standby." Jack quickly pulled the landline receiver from its hook on the wall and dialed. "Control Room, this is O'Neill. Prepare to disengage the transport jammers on Colonel Carter's mark. Tell the infirmary to prepare for casualties." Gracie watched as he waited for someone on the other end to confirm. Jack leaned back over the microphone. "Carter, on your mark."
"Control Room, disengage jammers now."
Silence once again reigned. Vala paused in her efforts and the feed cut off.
"General, they are home. Permission to engage dilation."
"You have all the contacts?"
"16 out of 17, sir. 1 reported dead."
"Alright, good luck. Proceed."
"Acknowledged."
Jack ran a hand down his face and groaned. He looked straight at Gracie. "It's over."
She stared back at her father wordlessly. And then she collapsed.
"Gracie!" Vala called.
"Mommy!" she screamed, eyes searching the panicked crowd. Blaster fire kept the ebb and flow of the people unpredictable.
She suddenly felt a pair of arms scoop her up. She shrieked again, but soon, her mother's voice could be heard telling her she was there.
People were everywhere. Another explosion. More screams. Vala and Gracie were knocked down. The little girl lost a hold of her bear. Vala struggled to get up and run.
"Teddy!" the girl screeched, reaching behind them. The crowd stampeded over her beloved friend, obscuring it from view.
Vala hesitated and looked back. But she was so alarmed by what she saw coming that she ran harder and faster away. Tears streamed down her face.
"Elda?" another voice called. This one was calm. Soothing. Familiar.
Her mind rose up out of its prolonged slumber. It focused on the steady rhythm of Hak'tyl drum beats. A slow, marching sound.
No. Those weren't drums.
"Elda."
Her mouth parted. Her eyes fluttered open, squinting against a bright light. Gracie felt a hand squeeze hers. She realized she was listening to the beeps of Carolyn's medical equipment.
Her eyes focused now on the source of the voice. She expected to see dark locks, artfully decorated with gray. But instead the hair was golden.
"Mom?" Gracie croaked out.
Sam let out an audible breath of relief. "Shhh, it's okay," she whispered. "Remember, I'm just Sam here."
Gracie's eyes went wide. She sat up and looked around. But something about that sudden movement made her dizzy.
"Whoa, whoa, easy there," Sam now said in a regular volume.
Gracie brought a hand to her head as she leaned back against the pillows. The nausea passed after a time. She locked eyes with her birth mother. "What am I doing here?"
"You passed out." Sam fussed over her, helping her sit up slowly and fluffing an extra pillow behind her back. "Scared the shit out of your…" Sam caught herself. "The General."
"Oh no," Gracie breathed out. "I can't let myself do that. We'll be compromised," she whispered hoarsely, obviously chiding herself.
"Honey, you're safe. You're not on the run anymore. No one's after you." Her mother's voice wavered toward the end, betraying the confidence she had been attempting to convey. Sam swallowed a lump and bit her lip, struggling not to let her hurt and anger over Gracie's past get the best of her now. She needed to be strong for her. And in front of everyone else.
Years of command experience. Yet once her kid had even the slightest scratch, she would crumple into a pitiful ball of anxiety. Sam closed her eyes briefly to recollect her resolve.
This motherhood thing was no joke, she decided.
"Here," Sam said, offering her a sip of ice water via a straw. "Moisten your throat. You've been out for a little while."
Gracie accepted the drink, feeling the cold drip down her throat. It helped her wake up and regain her bearings even better now. They were surrounded by a privacy curtain. It wasn't any much different than the space Teal'c had occupied when she first visited him here.
She looked down at her hands, finding one left finger being pinched gently by some sort of device. Sam easily pulled it off, determining it was no longer needed. She reached over to shut off a machine. Some of the pinging that was bothering Gracie's ears stopped. Now less distracted, Gracie noticed her clothes were different. She pulled at the cloth material and looked at Sam questioningly.
"It's customary for the medical staff to change patients into these gowns. Makes it easier for them to do their work."
"Do I have to stay in this from now on?"
"No, not forever. Just until they let you out of here. Which they should, soon. I have a uniform waiting for you on the chair here."
"I don't understand why I'm here."
"When you collapsed, the General was very worried. They brought you here to make sure you were alright."
"I'm fine."
"Yes, you are. For now. They didn't find anything on the tests." Sam sighed. She stared at her grown daughter, searching for words. "Jack says… you probably have PTSD."
"What is that?"
"Post-traumatic stress disorder. It's a mental condition. Pretty common among members of the military who've seen combat. But you don't have to be military to develop it. People who go through extreme trauma have it, too." Sam felt herself shivering. She ordered her body to cooperate.
"What's the cure?"
Sam looked at her again for a prolonged amount of time. Gracie was beginning to squirm under her intense gaze. Sam reached out to grab her hand again. "There is no instant cure. But there are doctors who specialize in treating these sorts of conditions."
"How long does it take?"
"Depends on the person. Depends on what they went through. Like I said, it takes time."
Gracie broke eye contact to stare down at their hands. She frowned, then looked back up. "Tell me what happened while I was unconscious."
"The General rated the op as a success. We captured 16 Goa'uld symbiotes and freed their hosts. Some of them had only been hosts for a few months."
"Being a host is traumatic. Do they get that condition, too?"
Sam grimaced. "Probably."
"What happened to that last one? The one that was killed?"
Her mother let out a long sigh. "He put up one hell of a fight. We've got a team busy cleaning up that mess right now. There's going to be lots of paperwork. A cover story. And a grieving family."
"The host's family won't be told the truth, will they," Gracie assumed.
Sam shook her head sadly.
"What about Colonel Mitchell?"
"He's gonna make it," her mother answered with relief. "Vala got there in time."
"She always told me that was probably the one good thing about being a host."
Sam raised an eyebrow.
"The naquedah left behind in her blood. To power the healing device." Sam nodded in understanding. "That, and some of the knowledge." Gracie closed her eyes. "Doesn't make up for all the nightmares, though," she added.
Sam grit her teeth.
Daniel sat quietly at a table in the mess, absentmindedly munching on his meatloaf. He had been staring off into space when movement caught his eye.
Gracie took the seat across from him heavily.
"Hey!" he said with surprise. "You're out of the infirmary." His face grew concerned and he leaned forward, abandoning his fork on the plate. "You okay?"
"I feel okay. Physically."
He nodded eagerly. "Good. That's good." Then he looked at her through a different lens. Maybe she wasn't okay after all. "They tell you what happened?"
"With me? Or the mission?"
"Both. But I meant you."
She answered slowly. "Some sort of thing with trauma. All guesses I think."
Daniel breathed out, having a feeling he knew what she meant. He picked up his fork and picked at his food. "They'll probably ask you to see a shrink."
"What's that?"
"Just a colloquial term to refer to a doctor who focuses on mental health."
"Hmm. That's what Sam said." Gracie was now clearheaded enough to remember her surroundings and maintain her cover.
"So she was there when you woke up?" Gracie tilted her head to affirm his assumption. "That's good. She was waiting for you."
Gracie looked a bit surprised. "She was?"
"We do that for each other here. Take turns sitting with injured teammates until they wake up."
"Did my… sister… wait for me, too?"
"Yeah, she did. Until Sam got there to take over. Vala's sitting with Mitchell right now."
Gracie nodded in acceptance. That seemed perfectly reasonable. She could tell that she and Cameron were great friends. The pure joy the older Cameron showed her after 17 years of missing her was the first sign. It was hard to believe that for Gracie, and Daniel, too, such a reunion had only been a few days ago. The memory was beginning to fade, though. It worried her.
But she wasn't going to say anything about that aloud. She'd gotten enough looks of concern from her birth mother. Gracie didn't need more disconcerting stares from any other people right now.
"Are you hungry?" Daniel asked.
"Not really. Not yet."
"What did Sam tell you about the op?"
"She mentioned the 16 freed hosts. Gave me an idea of the problems caused by losing the 17th."
"Yeah. That's a mess."
"Daniel." Gracie locked eyes with him, anxiety swirling in her own.
"Yes?"
"Did we win?"
"They're still interviewing the hosts. Finding out through them if we missed any snakes. Hard to say it's a win when someone lost their life," he admitted. "But we sure didn't lose."
"How'd they extract the symbiotes out of that many hosts so fast? I asked how long I was out. It wasn't that long."
"No, it wasn't."
"So then?"
"From what I understood in the debriefing, the process of freeing all those hosts took days for the Tok'ra up on the ship." Gracie squinted her eyes, showing just how little sense that made to her. Daniel gestured with his hands on the table as he explained further. "Your… Sam developed technology that can alter the flow rate of time. After they beamed up all the Goa'uld to the ship, she activated a time dilation device. She and the crew were up there for more than a week." Gracie's face contorted into confusion. "But to us, mere minutes passed."
The blonde sat back in her chair, processing his report. She thought for a while then refocused on Daniel. "Is that what happened to Teal'c?"
Daniel smiled at her, once again impressed with her ability to connect the dots. "That's exactly it."
"Isn't anyone noticing that those people have disappeared?"
"Maybe not yet. Sam exited the time dilation field to come down and make a report. Once the Hammond comes back into normal time on its own, all the hosts will have been fully interviewed and allowed to go back to where they came from. If anyone notices that they've been out of contact for this short amount of time, it'll be easy to chalk it up to a cell phone outage. Homeworld Command has its crafty ways of making up stories to fool the public."
Gracie only half-understood him. But she didn't want to dwell on it, presuming that everyone else seemed confident in the plan and was executing it perfectly. Or close to it. "So, when will they come back?"
A voice sounded off over the public address system. "SG-1 report to the briefing room. SG-1."
Daniel looked up. "Maybe right now."
Jack looked visibly relieved when Gracie and Daniel walked in. He stood up immediately to greet them. "Kid, you're alright." Daniel let them be and went to find a seat.
Gracie half-rolled her eyes at Jack's pet name for her. She would have liked to correct him again, but everyone else was filing in, including people she didn't recognize. "Yeah, I'm okay." They stared at each other for a while. He seemed to be sending her an apology through his eyes. Gracie nodded at him in acceptance.
"General," Hank called from behind him. "Everyone's here."
Jack turned around to see that he was right. Gracie noted that her birth mother was missing. But she quickly found Vala and pulled her into a strong hug. No one thought to comment. They were supposed to be 'sisters' after all.
Vala pulled back to smile gently at Gracie, arms still wrapped around her. "I'm glad you're okay," she said softly.
Gracie's lips quivered. "You, too."
The lot of them took their seats. Jack made it a point to introduce the Tok'ra to Elda Mal Doran, younger sister of Vala. The five Tok'ra bowed their heads at her in respectful greeting, then proceeded to completely ignore her as the meeting got started. That suited Gracie just fine. Like her adoptive mother and presumably her own father, she had no love for them in return. They were a means to an end. A way to free hosts in the least traumatic way possible. Freedom without death.
Gracie was content to simply be present as all the others who better understood what was going on had their discussion.
Jack looked at Teal'c, Daniel, and Vala. "Hell of a job, SG-1. Hell of a job." They each bowed or nodded their heads at his compliment, but said nothing more.
Landry chimed in. "Agreed. We wish Colonel Mitchell a speedy recovery."
"What is Colonel Mitchell's prognosis?" one of the Tok'ra asked with a flat tone. "We understood him to be gravely injured."
Jack glanced at Landry, telling him to answer. "He's a fighter. Our doctors think he'll be back on his feet in a couple of days."
"We can thank Vala for that," Jack said, making sure to extend credit where it was due.
"He pre-paid me with ice cream. We're even," Vala remarked lightly. Gracie bit her lip and stifled a smile. She had the opportunity to taste that treat before they stuffed it into a freezer in the commissary. She looked directly at Daniel, who surreptitiously shook his head at Vala's comment.
"Remind me to buy you ice cream so you can save my life, too," Landry jested.
The Tok'ra let out polite but disturbing chuckles. Both Jack's and Gracie's left eyes crinkled in exactly the same manner. Daniel noticed this and ducked his head to keep himself from laughing.
"How are the hosts? Please tell me you have encouraging news," Jack asked of the Tok'ra.
"We have conducted several days worth of interviews in tandem with your crew." The Tok'ra closest to Jack handed him a report. "We have come to the conclusion that all Goa'uld are accounted for, that these hosts were aware of."
Jack briefly flipped through the report. It was lengthy. And wordy. He slid it aside toward Landry, silently ordering him to read it on his behalf.
"That they were aware of?" Daniel asked rhetorically. His paranoia kept him from feeling like this business was truly done.
"What has become of the symbiotes you extracted?" Teal'c asked.
One of the Tok'ra answered, "Only some survived the extraction process. Of those eight that did, we have placed them in stasis and will bring them back with us for interrogation."
"What happened to the others?" Daniel asked aloud for the benefit of Gracie, who might not know how these things worked.
"They tried to pre-empt the extraction process by poisoning their hosts. We were prepared for these acts of desperation. Those symbiotes merely sacrificed themselves. All hosts survived without long-lasting complications from the procedure."
"Long-lasting," Vala muttered to herself sarcastically. Daniel glanced at her in agreement.
"There's no chance that those symbiotes could escape and come back here… is there?" Gracie asked timidly.
Landry decided to answer her. "We may have come up with something to make it easier to find them if they do."
A Tok'ra also added, "We can assure you, Elda Mal Doran, that we have strict security precautions in place to prevent the release of these symbiotes back into the wider galaxy. When interrogations are complete, they will be terminated."
Another one offered, "You will be welcome to witness the executions when they occur."
Gracie shook her head immediately. "Oh, no, thank you. But just… no." She looked down.
Jack watched her, worry lines evident on his face as he frowned. He tried to steer the attention away from her. "On behalf of Earth, thank you for your help and cooperation," he said as diplomatically as possible. Secretly, his insides were crawling.
"Thank you, as well, General, for allowing us the opportunity to participate. We stand to learn a great deal from the symbiotes that were captured," a Tok'ra graciously responded.
"We will keep you abreast of our findings," another promised.
"If there is nothing further, General, we will take our leave."
Gracie sat on the bed of her assigned quarters staring at nothing on the wall. Her knees were tucked up close to her body, with arms resting on top. It had been hours since the Tok'ra left. She'd been dismissed from the briefing like all the others and allowed to roam wherever she pleased. But she had no real interest in exploring right now.
A knock on the door made her jump. Her hand reached for a weapon that was not there.
She pushed out a quick breath of frustration, chiding herself once again for overreacting.
When the door opened, it revealed Hank Landry standing there patiently. "May I come in?" he said with a kind tone.
Gracie opened the door wider and gestured to him in welcome.
"I came to see how you were doing."
"I'm fine," she said quietly.
He turned to look at her dubiously, but his friendly smile never left his face. "I've heard that before. From Vala, in fact, when I would check on her from time to time after particularly hard days." He tilted his head as he chuckled. "She would lie straight to my face."
"And then what would you do?"
"Offer my support and sometimes an opportunity to distract herself with a new task."
"Did such tasks involve ice cream?"
Landry laughed aloud. "Sometimes."
"Are you close with my mother?" Gracie asked curiously.
He'd been briefed on the young blonde's strong connection to Vala, and thus, didn't find her question all that surprising. "I'd like to think we get along well. She's proven herself to be an invaluable member of my staff. And a pretty decent comedian."
She smiled. "I think plenty of people find her entertaining." She refrained from naming Daniel, specifically.
Landry did it for her. "None more than Dr. Jackson."
Gracie looked at him with a slight look of surprise. Then she huffed amusedly as the last of her awkward discomfort dissipated. She decided that she liked this General Landry. He was just as personable as his daughter. Maybe that's where Carolyn got it from.
"I wasn't sure if I should say anything," Gracie admitted.
"That's alright. No one really understands those two anyway." His eyes sparkled at her as if they were sharing a secret.
Gracie quirked a smile. Then she gestured around at her base quarters. "I should probably say thank you, for letting me have this space to myself. I don't think I'd ever had a chance to tell you before."
He waved a dismissive hand at her good-naturedly. "Nah, it's nothing. This is the least we can do for you!"
The young blonde bowed her head, Jaffa-style, in deep gratitude.
"I thought I'd also take the time to elaborate a little more on what I mentioned earlier. About a way to detect the Goa'uld if they ever come back. Maybe offer a little reassurance to you that we're working on the problem."
"Oh?"
"My daughter had a visitor while you all were busy. The head doctor from Atlantis. Together, they came up with the idea of a filter. An electronic screen for anyone coming or going."
"Is that possible?"
"We've heard rumors of innovations like that being used in other ways. It seems that this is a case of: necessity being the mother of invention."
Gracie thought on his words. "I can't say I've heard that before. But I like it."
Hank leaned in. "I won't take credit for that profound saying. But I like it, too. Seems awfully fitting for a place as crazy as this," he concluded, hand waving around at the SGC in general.
Gracie tilted her head as she studied him. "Have you been base commander long?"
"It's been several years now."
"Hmm."
Hank raised an eyebrow, encouraging her to elaborate.
"You don't have much white hair."
"Is that a problem?" He seemed perplexed by her observation.
"I was under the impression that this role you inhabit is the sort that causes one's hair to go white. My dad seemed to make a big deal out of it when he met the Daniel from my time."
The General chuckled. "I'll tear my hair out before it gets that far, I think." His eyes sparkled again at her. "But I'll take your observation as a compliment."