AU: Daniel decides to have a little fun with Richard Woolsey when Jacob decides to visit.
Chapter 12: Those are Red Chevrons
Saturday, 19th June 2004 – Stargate Command – Daniel Jackson
Looking down on the dormant Gate room filled me with a deep sadness. It was funny how a ring of naquadah that spun around and lit up could mean so much to so many people. The intermittent sighs and mumbles of the bureaucratic ass sitting at the table behind me while he scratched notes with a too noisy pen broke into my quiet solitude, each and every pen stroke grating on my ears. I had underestimated him, thinking he was above reproach and impartial, but his insistence that we retrieve the ZPM and then Kinsey's little show proved otherwise.
Suddenly the Gate hissed, and the first clunk of an incoming wormhole sounded moments before the alarms started and Walter announced an unauthorised incoming wormhole. It brought a smile to my face to see the Gate doing what it had not been allowed to do for three months.
"Who is it?" The weed behind me asked without looking up from his page of writing. We were only three chevrons in, so I had no idea. Elizabeth was already in the control room and since SG-1 were SG nothing right now, I didn't bother following her.
"A hoard of angry Jaffa." I replied with a sly smile.
"WHAT!" His frenzied cry echoed mere parsecs before the frantic squeak of his chair wheeling backwards and harried footsteps thumping before he appeared beside me. "How can you tell?" He asked as the fourth chevron was announced. Walter would have an ID by now, which is why the room down below was not flooded with armed soldiers. So I decided to wring this for all I could. Jack would be proud.
"See how the chevrons are red?" I pointed to each one.
"They look orange to me." He replied with crossed arms as the fifth chevron lit up.
"Oh, no. When they are orange, they are really orange… like flames. That's red." I said even though an idiot could see that they were in fact orange. "Means the wormhole is coming from…" I faltered on the name of a planet that he wouldn't have read in any of the mission reports. "P3C0-D2R2. Ettamogah." I said quickly using the two Star Wars droids for my butchered planet designation and the strange name of an Australian town in New South Wales famous for its unique public bar. It's not like he would know any different.
Clunk. Sixth chevron. I looked at him.
"Why are you so calm?" He shrieked and ran down the stairs. I smirked and followed him at a relatively sedate distance. I had to see this. He clattered down the metal steps like a man possessed, taking two steps at a time, and his hands catching rather than gliding on the railings to make his descent jerky and uncoordinated.
"Seventh chevron locked." Walter announced then placed his hand on the palm reader to open the thin shield that kept us safe.
"Close the iris! Close it!" Woolsey shrieked. Walter turned to look at Elizabeth just as I made it to the bottom wearing a broad grin. They both saw me, one rolling her eyes and the other grinning like an idiot. "Can't you see that those chevrons are red!" He screeched as the wormhole whooshed into existence. When the single man walked through the puddle, Woolsey ducked and covered his head with a strangled cry.
"Hello." Jacob greeted. Walter greeted him back and Woolsey uncovered his head making me laugh heartily. I then turned and jogged down the couple of stairs and around through the already open blast door with Elizabeth and the butt of my joke on my heels just as the control room erupted into laughter.
"Hey, Jacob." I greeted and shook his hand.
"Daniel. Where is everyone?" He asked.
Sucking my breath in through my teeth, I smiled awkwardly. "There's been some changes."
"Oh." He replied. I grimaced at his terse response.
"Major General Carter and Sel'mak of the Tok'ra High Council, allow me to introduce Doctor Elizabeth Weir, our new civilian commander." I replied making sure to use both of his titles.
"It's good to finally meet you, General." Elizabeth said, extending her hand. Jacob returned the gesture but did not look happy. He turned back to me and raised his eyebrow. Woolsey muscled his way to the front and extended a hand as well.
"Doctor Richard Woolsey, Member of the International Committee and overseer to the SGC." He announced with a smug grin that I could sense rather than see Jacob sneer at.
"So, no George." He clarified as he pulled his hand away and made no disguise of wiping it on his leathers. I had to bite my lips to stop from barking out a laugh. Jacob was nothing if blunt in his actions and facial expressions, though he could hide things if he chose.
"No, Sir." I replied because I didn't really know what else to say.
"What about Jack?" He asked.
"Perhaps we had better take this upstairs." Elizabeth tried to take control of the situation. Rather than respond, Jacob crossed his arms and gave her the same look he gave everyone who tried to pull one over him. Then he looked at me.
"Daniel, where is Jack?" He asked again.
"In stasis in Antarctica." I replied as succinctly as possible. He raised his eyebrows.
"That is classified information, Doctor Jackson." Woolsey barked. Jacob ignored him and kept his focus on me waiting for more of the story. I swallowed heavily. I never had been able to withstand a Jacob Carter stare.
"Ancient Repository." I stated with a heavy sigh and dropped my head. "We couldn't… I mean…" I faltered and drew in a breath, then just looked at the man before me trying to convey everything that I wanted to say without words.
"I see. Samantha and Grace?" He continued asking in short, clipped phrases.
"Home. I'll take you." I gestured with my hand not wanting to explain that Grace was not at home while standing here with two people who frankly didn't need to know about the trouble that we went through keeping her safe and why.
"He can't leave this base! He's an…" Woolsey started to demand.
"Ally. He's an ally, and friend to the members of this command that aren't trying to shut it down." I barked as a response, heartily sick and tired of this little man doing his level best to assert his authority. I looked at Elizabeth, who was the only person I actually had to listen to as far as I was concerned. At least she had her own mind and didn't appear to have an agenda beyond keeping the lights on.
"Of course. Does he need to go to the infirmary?" She asked me for direction. He didn't really because anything he did manage to pick up would be neutralised by Sel'mak.
"Yeah." I replied since it was SOP for all visitors, even if all Janet did was take his temperature, blood pressure and heart rate just so she had the appearance of checking him over. "Janet's on today."
"Good." Jacob replied shortly, then turned back to the others. "Doctor." He nodded to Elizabeth, "Doctor." He added for Woolsey.
"Doctor!" I stuck my finger in the air. Jacob snorted and I smiled, then we both walked out towards the elevators heading to the infirmary. We remained silent until the doors closed.
"What the hell is going on here, Jackson?" He groused the second the doors were closed. Shoving my hands in my pockets and rocking on my toes, I drew in a deep breath and pushed it out through pursed lips.
"Jack stuck his head in the device, Kinsey rolled in and convinced the President to relieve Hammond of duty. We defeated Anubis, well Jack did…"
"Yeah, heard about that. You've ah… kicked a hornets nest with that one. The System Lords are all in a tizzy." He replied with a smile.
"A tizzy?" I queried his use a word that was more British than American.
"Sel'mak picked it up somewhere along the line. She likes the word." He replied, giving me a look much like the time he had walked into the briefing room eating some red ball chocolate candies called Jaffa's just so Sel'mak could see Teal'c's expression.
"Unfortunately, it's cost us Jack." I muttered and furrowed my brow to stop from thinking about the odds of getting him back.
It had been three months. Thor had not answered our messages, the Lieutenant Colonel and John were still out of touch, and as much as I wanted Samantha to replace the sister I had lost in Sam, she hadn't really. We were close, but not as close as Sam and I had been. Samantha still gravitated to Charlie when she needed emotional support, and I found I missed the Lieutenant Colonel despite our monumental clash of wills. We may not have gelled together at first, but that mission to save Grace changed everything. As much as I had railed against her, she was the closest thing to my Sam, and I missed her. I found myself deeply ashamed of my behaviour and hoped she would forgive me for my callousness.
Jacob's hand clamped on my shoulder as the doors opened on 21. "We'll get him back. Samantha will think of something." He replied and it occurred to me that he didn't know about our other Sam. He hadn't been here since just after Samantha arrived. She had already been in Cascade by the time that all happened, having shut us all out except for the kid who had managed to become just as much Jack as our Jack had ever been. Hell, I couldn't even recall if Jacob knew about him.
Damn! That was going to be a story and a half, and I had absolutely no clue how to even begin telling him. We walked up to the infirmary and were greeted by Janet who smiled, filling my heart with joy.
"Jacob. Good to see you. Here for a while?" She asked.
"A few days. I'm going to see my girls and then fly out to see Mark on Monday." He announced. Janet smiled, not giving away the fact that Grace was not here at the moment. I figured that was a conversation to be had in the car on the way.
"Sounds like fun. Open up." She asked, then stuck a thermometer under his tongue, and busied herself with the blood pressure cuff. Once she had hit the button, her fingers landed on his wrist while she tracked time with her little upside-down nurses watch she had artfully pinned to the inside of her white lab coat. After a minute, she dropped his wrist, undid the cuff and removed the thermometer.
"All good, Doc?" Jacob asked with a smile.
She snorted out a laugh, then bundled the blood pressure cuff up and tucked it away. "Get out of here, General." She replied.
"Yes, Ma'am." He replied and jumped off the bed.
"See ya tonight?" I asked Janet and reached for her hand. She smiled and raised her eyebrow as her hand squeezed around mine.
"I'm off at 1500." She replied and turned to tend her other patients. Checking my watch, I noted that that gave me a few hours to take Jacob back to Samantha's, explain the situation and then get to Janet's.
Jacob and I immediately made our way to the elevators. He pressed the button for 11 and I didn't dare remind him that the others were probably expecting us in the briefing room. Oh well, he was a General. We made our way to the surface, avoiding all conversation until we were outside the final set of gates and heading down the mountain.
"OK, Daniel. Spill it. I know there is something going on." Jacob said and crossed his arms. Wow. Where to start. I wasn't sure I could explain what happened with Sam and the time explosion thing, so I moved onto the part I could explain.
"Grace was kidnapped."
"WHAT!" He yelled, fire in his eyes.
"Relax. We got her back, but then the SGC was – well you know – and we were told she wasn't safe. So, John and Sam took her to Minnesota." I said and waited for the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot I knew would be coming.
"John… and Sam. You mean Samantha and the kid?" He sought to clarify. So, he did know about him. I hadn't been sure.
"Yes, and No. Kind of…" I could see him losing patience by the second. Sam never had a short fuse like this, so I guessed it was a male-Carter thing. I took a deep breath. "OK. We had a situation, I can't hope to explain it, but basically, we have two Sam's." I really didn't want to have to explain her age, so I left that part out. If we were lucky, Jacob would go to Mark's then back to wherever the Tok'ra were holed up before they got home, and we wouldn't have to even go there.
"Sam. As in my daughter who died?" He asked incredulously. Shit! I was way out of my element here.
"Well, no. Another one. It's a… a-umm… there's a whole alternate time thing that I have no chance of explaining." I replied, making a popping sound with my lips. "Anyway, her and ah… John…"
"The kid?" He narrowed his eyes.
"Right, yeah, him. Well, they became friends…" I almost choked on the last word because they were so much more than friends.
"Friends?" Jacob interrupted with a sharp scrutinising look in his eyes. It probably was not the best description of their relationship to the father of the woman who was 30 years older than him. Man, that was a serious mind melter that one.
"Yep. Anyway, they took Grace to live off the grid with them for three months while the shenanigans at the SGC died down." I really couldn't describe the takeover and program review to be anything other than shenanigans. While Kinsey had been fired, it was clear that he was still in the background pulling strings. That fact that Woolsey was still hanging around asking about the ZPM attested to that.
"Let me see if I have this straight. My granddaughter has been taken by an alternate version of her mother and the clone of her father to live in some backwater because of shenanigans." He somehow managed to cobble together what I had said to make it sound so ridiculously science fiction that George Lucas would have a field day and write a trilogy about it.
"After she was kidnapped." I added with a nervous smile, because that really was the start of the whole off the grid idea.
"Doctor Jackson. If I didn't have a 2000-year-old symbiote living in my head, I would think this whole situation was whacked out and crazy." He replied with a chuckle. "Never a dull day with you lot, is it?"
"No, Sir." I replied with my own laugh. "It is a little bit nuts." I agreed.
"A little? Son, even Sel'mak is wondering what she got involved in when she blended with me, and that is saying something." I chuckled. "Isn't that right old girl?" He added out loud for her benefit. Of course, I couldn't hear her response, but since Jacob laughed raucously out loud, I could only imagine what she was saying.
At length, we pulled up outside of Jack's house. His truck was there which meant Charlie was probably also home, and most likely Bree. While I hadn't spent a lot of time with her, I knew from Samantha that she was almost joined at Charlie's hip. Aside from one team night where they spent the majority of the movie making out, every time the team came around, if she was there, they would disappear to his room. Samantha smiled whenever they did that, so I figured she was alright with it. I knocked twice and then called out. When Samantha answered back, I opened the door.
"Hey! Look who I found." I said, then walked in with Jacob behind me.
"Oh my God, Dad!" Samantha cried and rushed into his arms, tears erupting almost immediately.
"Hey, Sammie. Sorry it's been so long." He replied and hugged her tightly. I had to smile seeing two people who had lost the other embracing like old times. She eventually let him go and stood back. "Whoa!" He said, "You have a…" He pointed to her stomach.
"Whoa! Where did that come from?" I asked since I was certain last time I saw her it was mostly flat. She giggled with a massive smile and worried her bottom lip.
"Yeah. It kinda popped out overnight." She confessed and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.
"How far along are you?" Jacob asked.
"15 weeks." She replied.
"And is it…?" He asked, finishing the question with a raised set of eyebrows which I assumed meant that they did the IVF thing I had heard Jack talk about. I must admit that it surprised me to find out that Samantha would have her alternates child until Jack explained why.
"It is." She replied with a massive smile. "I found the letter, and we started the process. Then he…" Her face turned circumspect, she blinked and scrunched up her face to try and stop her tears. It didn't work and she let go. "God, damn hormones." She complained, but I knew it was more than that. She had been taking it hard ever since he told her what was likely to happen.
"Oh, Sammie." Jacob soothed and drew her back into his arms, placing a kiss on her head. "Have you sent a message to Thor?" He asked making me wince just in case Bree was here.
She nodded, then looked at me. "It's OK, Charlie's taken Bree car shopping, amongst other things." She answered my unasked question.
"Oh, good." I said then turned to Jacob. We've sent two, actually. No response." I replied on Samantha's behalf.
"Cimmeria?" He suggested with worried frown while still comforting his daughter.
"Yeah, problem with that is the Gate is locked down by that snivelling bureaucrat. Until the President officially reinstates the Program, our hands are tied." I explained. Unfortunately, Jacob, nor any other Tok'ra could go to Cimmeria unless it was by ship, and I doubted he would get away with that.
SG-1 – the expanded version – knew that Sam would be here, the problem was, we didn't know when. Rumour through the SGC grapevine – that meant Walter – was that Colonel Dixon flew to San Antonio for a training F16, but that was all we knew. Walter said the betting squares were alive with speculation on why he was sent. Unfortunately, Sam's highly classified status meant that I couldn't weigh in on the rumours. Some said he was flying to Antarctica to retrieve Jack – who was already awake – others said that he was picking up a new unknown General and some were convinced that Hammond was coming back.
"C'mon Samantha, I'll get you some tea." Jacob murmured, receiving a tearful sniff and a nod of her head in response. We walked through to the dining room. Samantha sat down while Jacob made his way to the cupboard for the stove top kettle.
"Dad, the coffee machine is now a tea machine." She said, pointing to the corner where a carafe of tea sat under the spout of Jack's very nice, filtered coffee machine.
"Ah… Sam, don't you have two rampant coffee drinkers staying here at the moment?" I asked of Charlie and Bree who I knew were like me when it came to coffee. Charlie's preferred beans were top quality and Bree, well she was a convert from the pre-ground powdered coffee. She smiled but didn't say anything and unlike my Sam, I couldn't easily read what she was thinking.
The slamming of one car door and then another meant we had a visitor.
"Here, Sam." Jacob said as he slid the mug across the table.
"Thanks, Dad. Reckon you could pour another one of those?" She asked. He gave her a strange look but nodded and went back to pour a second mug just as the door opened.
"Hi, Sammie!" Charlie called out as he came through the door. "Bree bought a… oh! Hi, Daniel, and…" He paused and stared at Jacob, as if he were staring at a ghost. "Shit…" He juggled the multiple bags in his hands comically to free one hand. "General Carter, Sir." He said and half saluted when one of the bags fell, spilling out its contents of jumpsuits, swaddle wraps and… suddenly the extra mug of ginger tea made sense. I looked at Samantha who was smiling, blue eyes sparkling as she stared back.
"You've got to be kidding me!" I groaned, suddenly realising what those 'other things' were.