Colour of Roses
Colour of Roses
by Spyro
TITLE: Colour of Roses
AUTHOR: Spyro
EMAIL: mezzy34@hotmail.com
CATEGORY: mild angst, Humor, Romance
PAIRING: Sam/Jack
SPOILERS: Fire and Water (Season 1) Need (Season 2) Legacy (Season 3)
SEASON / SEQUEL: future
RATING: PG
CONTENT WARNINGS: minor character death
SUMMARY: A beautiful day with a terrible outcome or is it?
STATUS: Complete
ARCHIVE: Heliopolis, Jackfic. All others ask first.
DISCLAIMER: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. We have written this story for entertainment purposes only and no money whatsoever has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the authors. Not to be archived without permission of the authors.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: This fic is a mixture of ideas from various locations, dont even ask where, and I dont know if it will be normal¬hing I write is usually normal&so if its just stupid, there you go. Hope you all like it, please let me know what you think about it. The e-mail is up there next to the thing that reads, e-mail, so it shouldnt be too hard to find. No flames thanks though folks, thats appreciated a lot. Thanks muchly.
It was early one Monday morning, a beautiful spring day. The grass was green as emeralds and the birds were happily twittering within the confines of the tall, healthy trees. Everything was wonderful. The sky gleamed baby blue and the clouds powder white. The sun shone brightly down to the ground evenly and made the day clear.
Unfortunately, Major Samantha Carter saw none of this. Within her labs, she saw nothing but endless piles of paper and desks full of experiments and trials. Their mission from the previous day was giving her a headache, even now, a day later. They'd found incredible amounts of Naquadah in the soil and water samples she had taken, and now she almost wished she hadn't found them at all. Being cooped up in a lab doing something she enjoyed for the amount of time she enjoyed was one thing, but being cooped up in a lab doing something she enjoyed, indefinitely, was another entirely. General George Hammond had instructed her to test her findings until she knew for certain it was pure Naquadah and that it could prove useful to them. Initially she had been excited about the venture, but now, she was so tired and so sick of experiments she thought she would just about scream at anyone who came near her. And as the thought formed in her mind, that first anyone came.
"How's it going Sam?" Dr. Daniel Jackson asked cheerfully as he skipped into the lab, and that was the final straw for Carter. She'd really had it. He hadn't meant to make her crack, but he had.
"It's not going anywhere Daniel," she snapped irritably. "Do you see it going anywhere? In fact it's going nowhere so quickly, I wish we'd never gone to P4C 772!" Jackson was slightly taken aback by this sudden outburst from his friend. She was usually very calm and rarely anyone heard her raise her voice, but this clearly presented aggravation told Jackson that this was really bad.
"Oh," he mumbled, unsure what to say to her.
"Where's Jack?" she asked sharply. Her and Colonel Jack O'Neill had been seeing each other for months now, outside of the base, with only Jackson, the Jaffa Teal'c, Dr. Janet Fraiser and General Hammond knowing. Apparently he had known for some time that they shared deep affections for one another, and the announcement that they wished to start a relationship came as no surprise to him. This had delighted the pair and naturally they were still now, months later, very happy together.
"He just left," Daniel replied. "Went on a mission with SG-5."
"Why? Why didn't he even tell me?"
"I don't know. The General just asked him to go straight away and he left."
"Why him though? SG-5 aren't short are they?"
"Apparently Levins was injured on their last mission and is still in the Infirmary with a broken leg. That's just what I heard, but..."
"So why did Jack have to go? He's never gone with them before...he could have at least told me he was going...damn these stupid experiments, I'm sick of them," Sam rambled on slightly. Daniel watched the frustration in her face as she unbuttoned her white lab coat and it dropped to the floor. "I'm going to see General Hammond to tell him," she told Jackson as she brushed past him with large strides and left. Daniel shook his head slightly and followed his friend.
"General I've found nothing in all those samples and I've been testing them all night," Sam explained as the General nodded.
"Yes Major," he agreed, "I understand your frustration, but we really need to be sure that they are safe before we run off taking it all. We've tried to do it the easy way before and come unstuck, I'd really like for that not to happen again if possible. Now I know that you are tired, so I suggest you get a good deal of sleep before you even consider looking at a lab again."
"Yes sir," she acquiesced. "Sir, why did Colonel O'Neill go with SG-5?"
"Major Levins is still bound to an Infirmary bed by the orders of Dr. Fraiser, so I asked Colonel O'Neill to take over command."
"Couldn't someone else have..."
"Major I assure you it is a short mission," Hammond intervened, "and he will be back within a few hours." Sam nodded and got up.
"Thankyou sir," she said and then left, Daniel close behind.
Sam turned her head to him as they walked down a corridor.
"He didn't really answer my question you know?" she said.
"He didn't?" queried Daniel in confusion.
"No. I asked why Jack went."
"He told you why, because Levins is..."
"He didn't tell me why he chose him to go though, did he?"
"Maybe just because...he was there?"
"Yeah...maybe."
Over twelve hours later, SG-5 returned. General Hammond watched them from the Control Room as they stepped slowly through the Event Horizon, their faces laden with sadness. There were only three of them and Hammond then knew why their expressions were so glum.
"SG-5," he said, "where is Colonel O'Neill?" They all looked up to him and then took the stairs up to the briefing room for they knew he would need to be sitting down before he heard about what had happened.
"General," Captain Eagan began, "the planet was overtaken by the Goa'uld. When we got there it all seemed ok, everything looked safe. A few miles from the Stargate we found a Jaffa contingent. We took cover as quickly as we could, but they'd already seen us. Colonel O'Neill and the rest of us began to return fire, but there were dozens of them. He ordered us to start heading back to the gate while he laid down cover fire for us, but the Jaffa were advancing on him. When we looked back, they had completely surrounded him. We heard their Staff Weapons fire, and...and we saw him go down. Not a chance, sir."
Sam went to her quarters after debating on whether or not to go home. On her pillow sat a single rose and a note next to it. She smiled. Jack had keys to her quarters – on base they were not allowed to share rooms because it would create too much of a stir. She picked up the rose. Its' petals were ruby red and it hadn't fully opened. Smelling it, she placed it lightly back on her pillow and the sat down to read the note.
Dear Sam,
Sorry about not telling you about the mission, it just came up suddenly and Hammond asked me to go. I'll tell you all about it when I get back. Don't work too hard,
Love Jack
She smiled as a knock sounded at her door. She opened it to see an Airman standing before her, his statement less than pleasant.
"Yes?" she asked, taking no notice of his grim face.
"Major," he said, "General Hammond has requested you go to his office immediately."
"Thankyou," Sam replied and then left for Hammond's office. She hoped he wasn't going to ask her to get back to the experiments – she hadn't even got around to having some sleep yet.
"Please, sit down Major," the General said as Sam stepped into his office. She noticed that Daniel and Teal'c were there already.
"General if this is about those samples I'm testing..." she began, but he raised his hand for silence and she stopped.
"SG-1, I have some very depressing news," Hammond said, how was he going to say this? He was certain that he himself was in denial about the whole thing. It didn't seem real enough. How could it actually be true? He looked through the glass of his office and saw SG-5 sitting in the briefing room. They'd opted to stay, but he didn't know why. They had all been equally as shocked as he when presenting the news.
"What is it General Hammond?" Teal'c queried, sensing that it was not something that was a usual kind of bad, otherwise it wouldn't have been this hard to say.
"Today, Colonel O'Neill went on a routine mission with SG-5 because their commander, Major Levins, was unable to join them. I regret to inform you that Colonel O'Neill did not return with them a half hour ago and they have explained to me that he was killed in action. I'm very sorry."
"NO!" Sam cried desperately and got to her feet, her eyes filled with tears. "NO! Oh God no!" Horrified, her legs gave way and she collapsed, Daniel grasping her just before she found the floor. She cried into his arms as he looked up to General Hammond for some form of confirmation – could this possibly be true? Hammond nodded sadly to the Archaeologist. "Oh no...no, no, no...oh God no, not Jack," Sam sobbed into her friend as he found it hard to contain his emotions and tears streaked down his cheeks also. How could it be true? It just couldn't be. Jack, dead? Never. He'd been through everything with them, there was just no way he could be dead. He just couldn't be.
Teal'c watched his friends by his feet as he too found it difficult to comprehend what they were being told. O'Neill, a warrior and a friend, dead? It just didn't seem to make sense to any of them. It was surely a mistake. It seemed so surreal. None of them could begin to believe it.
"I'm so sorry Sam," Hammond said softly. He knew how deeply they cared for each other – how much they loved one another. He'd seen them together when they thought they were alone, that no one was watching. He'd seen the way the felt just by seeing them kissing, and he now found himself feeling an incredible ache in his stomach, knowing she had lost him. Knowing she no longer had him to love and to love her.
Sam couldn't find reason. She'd just been told that the one she loved so deeply, was dead. Gone. Never coming back. She would never see him again. All that time she'd spent in those stupid labs testing those stupid samples, she could have spent with him. He'd been alone, and she'd been alone, when they could have been together. Why had they gone to that stupid planet?! Why had she spent all that time doing experiments when she could have been with him? The last thing she'd said to him hadn't been 'I love you', but it had been 'I'll see you later.' They were the last words she'd spoken to him! And now she was never going to see him again.
Daniel stroked a soft hand on his friends' back and tried to calm her, although he knew he couldn't possibly help. She was so distraught. Neither he, nor Teal'c, had ever seen her this way before. She sat shakily in Jackson's arms, crying endlessly and mumbling half sentences like 'oh God no, he couldn't...' and 'I'll never see him and say...he'll never...we never...oh no, God no, not Jack.'
"Perhaps you could take Major Carter to her quarters for some rest Dr. Jackson?" Hammond suggested and Daniel nodded. Teal'c helped him lift her to her feet and they walked her slowly and shakily to her quarters.
SG-5 knew why Major Carter was so upset, the cause, but even if they hadn't, her face would have given away enough information. They had no idea she loved her CO the way she did, but knowing that he was dead was enough, they thought, to create the reaction they saw as Hammond delivered the message to them. They'd seen her fall to her knees and they'd heard her cries. Without knowing what Hammond was telling them, they could easily have guessed it to be something horrible simply by SG-1's response. Colonel O'Neill was deeply respected about the SGC, whether or not he was a pain in the ass at times, and the knowledge of his death would spread quickly. Soon enough the entire mountain would know, and it would be clear as crystal that they were all upset by the news.
The SGC held a funeral service in the Gate Room for O'Neill two days later – just as they had done when they thought Daniel had been killed off world one time, many years before. All in dress uniform, sadness keeping the room quiet, they sent a wreath through the Stargate to the planet he had been killed on and all three remaining SG-1 members stood before the Event Horizon and saluted their Colonel, their friend and, in Sam's case, her love. She'd cried endlessly – so much that everyone was sure she would run out of tears all together.
They'd all said a few words, Sam very few, and then General Hammond had duly informed SG-1 that they were off duty for as long as they needed. Sam packed up a few things and went straight home. Daniel offered to drive her, in case she cried so much that she couldn't see the road, but she declined. Her tears seemed to have dried up and now she was just depressed and silently sad.
At home, Sam found a medium sized bottle of brandy and drank it so that, by midnight, it was all gone. Lying on her long sofa, she sobbed into the cushions.
"Oh Jack," she sighed, looking at the picture of him she held. It was from a few months before. They had gone to a party – Cassandra's birthday party. They'd had so much fun, and Cassie had insisted on taking pictures of them hugging each other. They'd laughed and smiled and Cassie had taken nearly a whole roll of film just with pictures of them in it, but they hadn't minded. A week or so later, Janet had brought in the photos to show Jack and Sam and Sam had chosen this one to keep. Jack had taken one too, but now Sam didn't remember what it had looked like. Hers was of them holding each other, looking at the camera Cassie held with big, joyous grins on their faces. Jack didn't know, but Sam had actually taken two photos. The other was of him by himself, sitting on the porch with a happy smile. This was the photo Sam now held. He looked so happy, but now he was gone.
Where would she ever find someone else like him? The answer was simple, she never would. And she never wanted to.
"Oh Jack, why? Why you? Why did they take you away from me?" Sam said aloud, tears finding her eyes once more and trailing wet lines down her cheeks. She sniffed and fell asleep where she was, Jack's photo resting in her hand.
The days after that were quiet. They were sad and they were depressing for Sam. She didn't seem to understand what had happened for a little while and she also didn't seem to comprehend that it had actually happened at all and that Jack was gone but she soon realized it was all true. She stayed home from the SGC for some weeks, just looking at pictures of him and asking herself why it had happened to him. Naturally no answers arrived, but she didn't seem to notice. Daniel and Teal'c visited her a few times, but they found that she was distant. She acted normally toward them, spoke normally, but they knew she was somewhere else, not where they were. They too found it difficult to understand that their friend was dead, but Sam's situation was slightly different to theirs and so she reacted differently. When they were there with her, she offered them coffee and asked them how the base was doing. She talked to them about the weather and about what was on TV, but she was not the same Sam they knew. Not anymore. They went back to Cheyenne Mountain without her and somewhere inside, they both knew she wouldn't be coming back.
FOUR MONTHS LATER
"Incoming wormhole," Lieutenant Graham Simmons announced.
"Who is it Lieutenant?" General Hammond asked. Simmons waited for a signal to appear on the computer screen to indicate if it was an SG team or an unauthorized incoming traveller. When the signal came through and the computer screen showed him the SG team, he was speechless. "Lieutenant?"
"General, it's SG-1."
Sam slumped into an armchair and sighed. She was sick and tired of being at home with nothing to do, but she was unwilling to return to the SGC with the thought of the emptiness she knew she would feel there. She looked out of her lounge room window and saw the beautiful day outside. She sighed again. What could she do here? She'd been around the house a million and one times, cleaning everything, washing things and vacuuming floors. There was nothing more she could do in the way of cleaning and she was worried if she continued to clean compulsively it would turn into something serious, so she really wasn't interested in anymore cleaning. Talking to her plants didn't seem to have helped her at all either, or the plants. Normally talking to her plants would have helped her and the plants, but not this time. Now she seemed to feel worse and the plants all seemed to be dying. She wondered if it was her that was killing them or just that they needed to die. Why shouldn't they? Everything else around her seemed to...
There was a knock at the door.
"Great," Sam muttered, "visitors." She'd been in a terrible mood this week, and the thought of more people coming in to speak to her wasn't making her cheer up. She'd been feeling horribly depressed lately. She looked a shadow of her former self. Her eyes were tired and sore, and she was sad. She didn't seem to have any purpose anymore...or so it felt. Slowly she made herself get up and go to the door. "Yes?" she almost finished saying as she pulled the door back toward her. But when she saw the person standing but a few feet from her, the word died coming out of her mouth. She gasped – shocked – and stepped backwards, her hand over her mouth. She tried to speak, but her voice didn't seem to know how anymore. Opening and closing her mouth over and over underneath the cover of her hand, she stared at the person standing in front of her. "No," she said finally, in disbelief, shaking her head. "You're not real." Her whisper quiet voice quivered as she gaped at him and blinked, trying to make this hallucination go away. It was scaring her.
He looked different. His face. He looked injured. Tired. Worse than her. She felt terrible, but he looked terrible. His face was gaunt, his hands shaky. He didn't seem to be able to talk either, his voice lost somewhere inside him. Sam took a brave step forward so she could throw her hands through her mirage. She knew he wasn't real, but she just wanted to make sure. In dreams, she'd always been able to put her hands through her illusions, which only proved that they were. Now she needed to do that.
She lifted an unsteady hand and rested it on his chest, but it didn't fall through him like it would normally have. He was real; her hand rested on him and felt his heart beating softly. Sam looked up with incredulity in her eyes. How could he be real? Her mouth hung slightly open as she looked at him with tears welling in her eyes. She shook her head, a frown forming. "No," she said again, "you can't be. You...they...you were dead." He just looked at her with sad eyes and suddenly she knew. "Oh Jack," she sighed and fell against him, her arms wrapping around him. His arms too, wound around her but they were stiff and sore. Sam's head rested on his chest and she could hear his heart beating, she could feel it. "You're alive," she said, still shocked. "I thought about you every day. Come inside." They released each other and Sam closed the door behind them.
They both sat down on the sofa beside each other and Sam's eyes looked over him.
"Oh Jack," she said. "What happened?"
"I don't know," he replied, his voice soft. "They were everywhere. I didn't have a chance. I...felt them all shoot me, and then...then I woke up. These people, they...I don't know what they did but I was alive again. It seemed to be only a few minutes later. What day is it?"
"Jack you've been gone nearly five months."
"Months?"
"Yes. Months."
"I...I didn't know."
"It doesn't matter. You're back now. I'm sorry to say this, but you look terrible."
"I feel worse," he admitted and Sam could see he did. He looked weak and in poor health. His hands were shaky and his skin was cold.
"Do you feel cold?" Sam asked, feeling the coldness of his trembling hands. He nodded. "Didn't they make you stay at the SGC? How long have you been back here?"
"A few hours I guess. I don't know. I told them I had to come and see you first." Sam managed a small smile.
"I'll take you back to the SGC so Janet can have a look at you – you really don't look well," she said and Jack nodded again.
"Colonel O'Neill." Was said so many times by so many surprised people as Jack and Sam walked through the SGC toward the Infirmary that it was like meeting everyone again for the first time. They all smiled, surprised but happily, and watched him walk past them as though he might be a ghost or a figment of their imaginations. Once at the Infirmary, Sam went to Janet's office to see if she was there.
"Janet?" she said, throwing her head into the doorway.
"Sam," the doctor stated, more than a little shocked to see her, "hi, how have..."
"Can you check over Jack please?" At this request, Fraiser was certain her friend had lost it. Jack? But he was dead. Everyone knew that. Sam had lost her marbles...
"Uhh...sure..." Fraiser played along, not wanting to upset her friend the moment she arrived. She followed her out and over to a bed and when she saw who was sitting on it she stopped dead in her tracks. "C-Colonel O'Neill?" she asked in shock. Surely she was imagining him sitting there...surely.
"Yes Janet," Sam said shortly, she was sick of everyone acting as though he were a three-headed monster, "he's real. Now can you just..."
"I uhh...I thought they said you...well, that you..."
"Yeah, I know," Jack agreed with her quietly and she nodded. He could talk. He looked real enough. Sam could see him too. Maybe she wasn't going insane. Maybe Sam hadn't lost her marbles after all. This relieved the doctor.
"Oh, I see. Ok, well then what seems to be the problem?" Sam looked at her friend bluntly. What was the problem? You could see it just by looking at him.
"Janet, he looks terrible! Sorry," Sam added. She hated saying that, but it was true, he did look awful. The doctor seemed to be shaken back to reality with this statement and she blinked fervently then looked at him again.
"Oh my," she said, "you're right. Oh, I'm very sorry Colonel but Sam is quite right, you look awful." He nodded. He was used to hearing them say it by now. And they were indeed right. He looked horrible, but he felt equally bad. His eyes stung like a thousand bees, and his throat ached with each breath he took. He didn't seem to be able to make his hands steady and his head throbbed with pain. His vision wasn't terribly clear either and he felt very light-headed. Now that he was inside the SGC and the Infirmary, the feelings all seemed to be enhanced immensely and suddenly he felt very sick. He was incredibly tired although he didn't know why, and as his eyes slowly closed, he knew he was falling unconscious.
Sam cried out his name thinking something terrible was happening, but after Janet set him up in an Infirmary bed with an IV line she told her that everything was ok. He was overtired and his body was craving rest. She also said that he was slightly malnourished but otherwise all right. She explained that whatever process those people had used to effectively 'bring him back to life' had seriously drained him of energy. Janet said that he seemed very weak.
"He's exhausted from whatever and whoever revived him," she explained, "so don't be surprised if his body decides he doesn't need to wake up for a little while yet. It's all right though – he's only unconscious. The IV line will help his body recover. I'm not sure what they actually did, but whatever it was must have taken a lot from his body to do it. I'm surprised it worked, considering what it's actually done to him, but he'll be all right. Just give him a while to rest up in here and he should be fine within a few days." Sam nodded uncertainly and took one last look at him before going up to see General Hammond.
"Major Carter, it's good to see you," he said as she sat down.
"It's actually nice to be back General," she replied truthfully.
"So what brings you to see me then?"
"Actually General, I wanted to ask you about the planet SG-5 went to on that mission wh...well, I just wanted to ask about it."
"I trust Jack has been to see you then?"
"Yes sir, he has."
"How is he? I'm sorry to say he looked terrible when he first arrived."
"Yes sir, and he still does. Dr. Fraiser is keeping him in the Infirmary for a few days. He's unconscious at the moment, but she says he will slowly get better."
"That's good to hear. I'll pay him a visit tomorrow. Now, you were wondering what exactly about SG-5's mission?"
"Well sir, I was wondering what the people of that planet were like before the Goa'uld took over. I spoke to Captain Eagan sir, he told me how Ja...Colonel O'Neill was killed."
"I see. Well I'm afraid we never actually made contact with the people of P5X 656. There were signs of life according to the MALP transmission but we never made contact with them. That was actually the purpose of the mission, but as you well know, it didn't exactly turn out the way it was planned." Hammond managed a small grin from Sam at the joke, but that was all.
"Oh, I see," she commented quietly. "Thankyou sir." Getting up to leave, her title called her back.
"Major." She turned around.
"Yes sir?"
"You can call him by his name you know? I don't mind." Sam smiled.
"Thankyou sir."
The next day, Sam went straight down to the Infirmary in the morning to talk to Janet. She walked by Jack's bed but didn't stop. He was still unconscious.
"Janet," Sam said as she walked into her office without even checking to see if she was indeed in it.
"Morning," the doctor replied, sensing that Sam came on business.
"Can you do some kind of test to find out how those people revived Jack?" she asked, stopping in front of the doctor's desk.
"Possibly," Fraiser mused, "but why do you need to know?"
"I don't need to know. I want to know."
"Well I suppose I can, but I doubt very much I will find anything that will indicate how he was revived. It will be some form of alien technology whichever way you look at it, and that is always difficult to detect, let alone understand. I really don't think there will be any signs on his insides that will show how. There aren't any obvious signs excepting of course that he is alive, but otherwise there is nothing. It's like the Sarcophagus Sam. When someone is addicted to it there are no internal signs apart from the blatant ones on the outside. Daniel, I'm sure, will vouch for that. Excluding some extraordinary readings and brain activity, there are no signs. However these people did this and whatever they used is not likely to have anything left over inside Jack to tell me what it was." Sam sighed. She had thought that would be the response she would get. She didn't actually expect Janet to find anything, but she had thought maybe there would be something to give some kind of indication as to what it was. She didn't really have to know...it wasn't important. Jack was alive again, he was home, and that was all that really mattered now. That was really all she cared about, but there was something inside her that screamed out to her, telling her to find out what had done this to him. Who had done it? But when she thought about it logically, it really didn't matter. It wasn't important who did it at all. "Sam?" Fraiser queried as her friend stared into, seemingly, space.
"Hmm?" she muttered, shaking herself back to reality. "Sorry. I was just thinking – that's all."
"I'm sorry I can't..."
"No, no it doesn't matter. It's all right. I thought about it just then, and you're right. And it really isn't important anyway. Jack is alive and he's here. That's all I care about now. I don't care how he's here, I just know he's here and that makes me happy." Janet smiled.
"I'm glad."
"When do you think he will wake up?"
"I really have no way of knowing. When he's ready I'd imagine."
"Oh, ok. Can you let me know when he does? I want to go and finish something I started a long time ago." With that, Sam turned on her heal and left without hearing the doctor's reply. She knew what it would be anyway. Janet nodded as she left and frowned slightly. Something she started a long time ago? She shrugged at the thought and went back to work.
Sam, however, found herself back in her lab. She looked around. She hadn't been back here for months. All of her things – her experiments – had been moved, but she went and found them. Putting her white lab coat back on, she smiled and returned to work on testing the samples from P4C 772.
Later on in the same day, Daniel walked past the lab and noticed the person inside it.
"Sam?" he asked incredulously.
"Daniel," she stated lightly, as though he shouldn't be surprised to see her there at all. "Hi. How are you?" She asked and then went straight back to her microscope.
"I'm – er – all right," he replied, rather startled by the fact she seemed so happy. "How about you?"
"Good, thanks."
"Oh, oh that's good." Jackson was more than a little shocked to see his friend even at the SGC at all, let alone as happy as she seemed. What was wrong with her? Had Dr. Fraiser given her some kind of drugs to make her get over her depression? Perhaps she'd gone insane. Yes, that made sense. She'd never get over losing Jack, so she must have lost it. Daniel nodded to himself from behind Sam as she worked away. Yes. She'd definitely lost her marbles. "Are you – er – are you staying?"
"Staying? What, in the lab you mean?" Sam asked, not looking up from her work.
"No, no, at the SGC," Daniel replied, still confused as to why she seemed so...so...fine.
"Yes. Why do you ask that?"
"Oh. Oh I was just wondering. You – er – well...you haven't exactly been back here in a while so I thought that...oh...well, I was just curious." Sam nodded absently, not really paying a great deal of attention to the Archaeologist's stutters.
"Hmm, ok..." she mumbled to herself. "Have you been to see Jack? Don't think he's had any visitors – although General Hammond did say he would see him today."
At this, Jackson frowned. Jack? She must have really gone off her rocker, bad. Jack? Everyone knew he was dead. It'd been months now; he'd have thought she'd have gotten it into her head by now. She'd had long enough to come to terms with it. What was she playing at? Was she trying to pretend he was alive or something to make herself feel better? Yes, that explained why she was so happy. She'd just lost it, gone and convinced herself that he was still alive, and decided that life wasn't so bad after all. She'd come back to the SGC with her little illusions and gone right back on with life almost as though she'd never met Jack at all. That was what she'd done, Daniel decided. He now felt sorry for his friend. If she'd gone to see General Hammond, surely he'd seen how delusional she was? Why had he let her continue work when she was clearly a few marbles too short? He placed a concerned hand on her shoulder.
"Sam," he said softly, "I know it's hard, but you have accept that Jack is dead." Now Sam looked up from her work and turned around. She had a small grin on her face.
"No he isn't Daniel," she said very matter-of-factly, "he's unconscious down in the Infirmary." Jackson still had a concerned statement on his face, his poor friend. She'd lost it. Of all people, he'd least expected her to go loopy.
"I know you might want to believe that Sam, but..."
"No, Daniel. Jack is down in the Infirmary," Sam interrupted him sternly and he frowned. She seemed fairly serious. "Don't you know anything that goes on around here? He came back yesterday. Go down there if you don't believe me – he's there."
Jackson took Carter's advice and went straight down to the Infirmary, where he found exactly what she'd said he would. There, in the first bed he saw, was Jack. Looking slightly less healthy than usual, but there nonetheless and alive. He had to blink several times, and pinch himself very hard, before he actually believed it though. Then, Dr. Fraiser emerged and smiled at him.
"Afternoon Dr. Jackson," she greeted him. He looked up at her with a frown.
"Why's he here?" he asked accusingly, as though she had poisoned him or something.
"Because he is unconscious Daniel," Janet replied dismissively, "Where is he supposed to be? The moon?"
"He's supposed to be dead."
"Well I'm sure he'll be pleased to hear that when he wakes up. Perhaps you'd like to kill him again just so he's what he's supposed to be?"
"Where did he come from?"
"His parents, I daresay."
"How did he get here?"
"Well from what I gather, the Stargate. Would you prefer him to have come by bus?"
"How come he's alive?"
"Well that much I don't know. The people on the planet he was killed must have revived him somehow. Would it be better if he wasn't alive?"
"What people? Why did they revive him?"
"I don't know Daniel, why don't you go and ask them? Now if you're quite finished playing 20 questions, I have some work to do?"
Jackson narrowed his eyes at the unconscious man, and then at the doctor. Perhaps Sam wasn't the one who was going insane after all, maybe he was. He was surely losing it. Jack couldn't be alive. He was dead...well he was supposed to be. He'd thought about what had happened to him a lot since finding out he was dead, but now seeing him again didn't seem right. He was not supposed to be alive. They'd said he died. That they'd seen him die. How had he come back to life if he had supposedly died? No, that didn't make sense. Great! Sam had passed it on! Now he was losing it too. It was all her fault. That's it, he thought, I'm going to tell Sam she's going crazy and now because of her, I am too!
"Sam, you're nuts!" Daniel shouted as he stalked into the lab. Sam swiveled around on her stool to see him standing before her.
"Thankyou Daniel, I love you too," she replied sarcastically.
"I'm serious!" Jackson exclaimed. "You made me go down there to see him, and he's there!" Now Sam was utterly perplexed. She'd told him to go and see him and he was there...? Wasn't he supposed to be?
"Daniel that doesn't make sense," she said plainly.
"Of course it doesn't! I caught it off you! You're crazy and now so am I! It's your fault!" Carter eyed her friend...she knew she wasn't crazy, but she wasn't so sure that Daniel wasn't. He didn't seem to be making a lot of sense. She'd told him to go and see someone that was there? She'd told him something he said didn't make sense and he'd agreed and said it was her fault?
"Daniel, I think I should take you to the Infirmary and..."
"I'm nuts Sam and its your fault! Don't you get it? Jack is supposed to be dead, but there he is in the Infirmary, alive. Doesn't that tell you something? You can see him, I can see him, and even Fraiser can see him. See! She's nuts too!"
"Daniel have you been anywhere near a Lindris chamber lately?" He'd been effected by one of Machello's (an old man SG-1 met many years before from the planet P9R-427) Goa'uld killing inventions in a Lindris chamber a couple of years before, which had made him appear Schizophrenic.
"No, now see you're acting all normal. It's your fault this has happened...oh yes. Yes, I know. I know what you're doing. You're sending us all insane...I know." It now appeared as though the same invention had inhabited him again for this was very similar to the way he had acted.
"Daniel, I think I'm going to call Janet up here to take a look at you," Sam said concernedly. He was acting really weird now and she was quite unnerved by him.
"No, you don't need to do that. I'll go back down there myself to see the dead man...cos he's not real." Sam needed to take drastic action to stop Daniel acting this way. This time they weren't telling him he was insane, he was telling them.
"Daniel, has Teal'c seen him? Has Teal'c seen Jack?" she asked him slowly.
"No, of course he hasn't. He's not crazy!" Jackson shouted, scowling at her. Sam nodded.
"Ok then. You go down and see Janet and I'll just – er – be there in a minute." The Archaeologist nodded stupidly and headed off in the direction of the Infirmary while Sam left for Teal'c's quarters.
"Teal'c! Can you see it?" Daniel yelled as Teal'c and Sam came into the Infirmary and he flung his arms around in front of him where Jack lay. The Jaffa raised an incredulous eyebrow and looked to where Daniel was gesturing, however wildly.
"I do not believe O'Neill is an 'it' Daniel Jackson," Teal'c responded logically and Daniel proceeded to drop his shoulders and arms.
"You're kidding," he said flatly. "You can see it too?" Sam rolled her eyes.
"He's not an IT Daniel!" she exclaimed – she didn't like Jack being referred to as an 'it', as though he were a chair or an ornament.
"Well he's not real either!" Jackson said equally as loud and Dr. Fraiser frowned as she came out from her office.
"What is all the yelling about?" she queried.
"Oh Daniel's lost it," Sam groaned, giving in. If he wanted to think Jack wasn't real and that he was insane, then he could go right ahead as far as she was concerned.
"Is that so?" Janet asked wryly, not looking for an answer. "Well I'm afraid the Infirmary is the wrong place for you to be then. The Psychiatric ward would seemingly be a better place."
"Daniel Jackson, do you not see O'Neill?" Teal'c asked his friend.
"Oh yeah, I see him, but he isn't real," Jackson replied, folding his arms stubbornly, like a child.
"Well then explain this!" Sam exclaimed as she lifted one of Jack's hands in her own. "If he isn't real then how came I can touch him? Huh? How come I can take his pulse? HUH!"
"That's enough!" Janet called over them both as they both began shouting at each other at the same time, causing more noise than an atomic bomb. They both stopped and looked at her; Sam dropping the hand she held. "This is not a boxing ring! If you want to fight, go to the Mess Hall where people will bet on which one of you is going to win, but don't fight here!"
At all the racket around him, Jack's body decided it was time he woke up for a while, so he did. His eyes slowly flickered open and he saw the mass of people around him, each with their own either frustrated or stoic (in Teal'c's case) statement.
"All right then," Jackson agreed, "we will. But I'm telling you she's doing something to us all so we can see it. It's not really there."
"Oh so now I'm a witch am I?" Carter shouted angrily, also folding her arms in front of her indignantly.
"You been reading Harry Potter again Danny?" A croaky, quiet voice entered the row and they turned to look at who it had come from.
"Jack," Sam breathed.
"Look, now she's even hearing it talk!" Daniel exclaimed, rolling his eyes disbelievingly even although he'd heard Jack's voice just the same.
"Gone a few months and I'm already an 'it'? Gee, thanks Daniel." At this, Jackson turned to face his friend with a frown.
"You are real?" he asked incredulously.
"Think so," Jack replied and Sam looked up with a triumphant statement.
"See!" she said shrilly.
"No, but – er – no...that can't be right."
"Why not Daniel?" Janet chipped in. "After all, you of all people should know about being literally brought back to life better than any of us." Sam smiled at the doctor's comment and then looked back to the man in front of her. "How are you feeling Colonel?" Dr. Fraiser continued.
"All right," he answered croakily.
"Hmm," Fraiser mused, "you're sounding it too. You can stay here a few more days yet. I want to be sure you've recovered properly before I let you go running off to other planets again. You can all stay here to visit for a little while but then I want you out of here. He might have been unconscious for a long while, but that doesn't constitute as rest as far as I'm concerned and while you're all here, he won't rest either. I've no doubt even when you're gone he won't, but there'll be a bit more chance of it. Fifteen minutes, that's it, ok?"
With a nod from each of them, Janet nodded as well and left for her office knowing fully well that they hadn't listened to a word of what she'd said.
"So," Daniel said, clearing his throat and feeling rather embarrassed, "how's it going?"
"Well from here, I don't think I'm going anywhere," Jack replied and Sam smiled while Teal'c and Daniel both got themselves chairs. "How're you?" he asked Sam softly and she smiled.
"I'm alright now," she said, just contented with looking at him, "I wasn't, but now I am."
"Good,"
"O'Neill," Teal'c said, "how is it you were revived?"
"I actually don't know Teal'c. I wish I did."
"It could have been a Sarcophagus couldn't it?" Daniel suggested.
"Possibly," Teal'c mused in response.
"Oh good, you are all here." Another voice came and they all turned to see General Hammond approaching them. Sam stood up but he shook his head at her with a smile and she sat back down again. "Good to see you Jack," Hammond said kindly and tilted his head forward.
"Thankyou sir," Jack replied.
"Has Dr. Fraiser given you any idea how long you'll be off duty?"
"At least a week or so I'm afraid General," she answered, appearing from her office and walking to stand beside him.
"I would have assumed longer," he admitted, a little surprised.
"Well he will be here for a least a few days. From there it will all depend on his health. I'll be checking him a lot to see how he's doing and once I think he's healthy enough he can return to normal duty sir," Fraiser explained and Hammond nodded.
"Alright then. That sounds fair. Just came down to see how you were," he said and then bid them all farewell and left back for his office and the papers he knew were awaiting him there.
"Alright you lot, out of here now," Janet told them all sternly and heard a slight chorus of moaning in complaint. "I did tell you fifteen minutes. You've been here long enough now. He'll still be here tomorrow. You're all like little children, go on, out," she continued, chivvying them all out of the Infirmary.
Sam turned back to her as Daniel and Teal'c left down the corridor. Janet knew what she was going to say before she even opened her mouth. "Yes, you can stay a bit longer, but not too long." Sam smiled.
"Thankyou Janet," she said and went to sit back down.
"Yeah, yeah. Just because I'm a big softy," she muttered to herself as she went back into her office.
"I missed you so much," Sam said to Jack, placing her hand on his.
"I would have missed you too if I'd been alive," he replied and Sam smiled.
"I know."
"Go home Sam. You look beat." She nodded. She did feel tired.
"In a little while," she said, placing a kiss on his forehead. "I just want to stay with you."
Soon, nearly a half hour had passed.
"Sam!" Was shouted from the general direction of Janet's office. "Get your butt out of here, now!" Sam chuckled and rubbed her eyes. She was trying not to feel tired, but it wasn't working. It was getting late after all.
"Go on," Jack said, "she's right."
"Ok," Sam nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow, ok?"
"Yeah. I'll be here." With a smile and one last kiss, Sam left and went home to get a good night's sleep. For once she could dream and dream freely. She knew he was alive now; she didn't have to cry herself to sleep anymore.
Each day, Sam went into the Infirmary until three days down the track. That day she went in, Jack wasn't where he would normally have been. Janet was off giving him a physical examination and when they returned, she told them both that the next day he was free to leave the Infirmary but only if he promised not to go back to normal duties until the next week and only after she'd given him another check over. With his instructions given, Sam stayed with him for the majority of the day and then went home late.
After she'd gone, Jack hounded Janet until she finally decided that he could go home that night and surprise Sam. He'd thanked her a million times and then went to his quarters to get changed and get his spare car keys, which also had a key to Sam's place. He could go there and surprise her. But when he got to her place, just as he put the key in the back door and unlocked it, the power went out and he was left standing in darkness, the back door to Sam's house open in front of him.
Sam decided to cook herself up a nice meal when she got home that night – a chicken stir-fry. She was about to put some oil in the frying pan when the lights all flickered and went out, leaving her in darkness and without electricity to cook her meal.
"Damn," she mumbled to herself. "I was looking forward to that." As she finished saying the words, she heard noises at her back door and with one hand still on the handle of the frying pan, she lifted it, flat side out, to be level with her shoulder and slowly walked through the darkness towards the sounds, the frying pan as her weapon. She wasn't game enough to say anything to the intruder, so she slowly approached the shadow of the person by her back door. She was, luckily, hidden in the shadows of the room so her intruder wouldn't see her approaching with the fry-pan. Raising it higher and leaning backwards slightly to come in with a strong blow, she swung the pan back and then forward again, coming in and hitting the fry-pan hard onto the side of the intruder's head. She saw them fall to the floor and hit it with a thud. She'd hit them so hard she was sure they'd be unconscious for a while.
Taking deep breaths, she went to find some kind of light to find out who her intruder was. She knew she would be safe without tying the person up, there was no way they'd regain consciousness for a while with a blow to the head that strong. She found a torch in her bedroom as she fumbled about her cupboards and walked back to see the trespasser, frying pan still in her right hand, just in case. When she lowered the torches' light down and saw the face of her prowler she dropped the fry-pan to the floor with a clatter and gasped.
"Jack!" Falling to the floor beside him, she saw the blood seeping from the side of his head where she'd hit him and where a nice dark maroon bruise was appearing. "Oh...oh God," she said in a panicky voice. She'd hit him over the head with a frying pan without even knowing it was him! He'd just come out from the Infirmary...it looked like he'd be back there sooner than either of them thought. "Oh hell...oh...oh wake up Jack. Oh I'm so sorry...holy Hannah, why didn't I look before hitting him?" Sam said aloud. She went and got a small first-aid box she had in her bathroom and put a little patch over the bleeding spot where the frying pan had made rough contact with his head.
After a moment, she noticed something lying by his hand and shined the torch on it. A rose. A beautiful, half-opened red rose. She smiled and frowned happily. "Oh he's so sweet," she said to herself, picking up the rose and smelling its beautiful scent. She closed her eyes and took in its perfume and then heard a quiet groan from beside her as Jack moved a hand to his head.
"Man, what happened?" he asked, sitting up.
"Jack," Sam stated quickly, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Are you ok? I'm so sorry, I didn't know it was you. If I'd known...well, I wouldn't have hit you of course. Oh I feel terrible, here, stand up." Supporting his arm slightly with her hand, she stood up and helped him join her. He swayed fleetingly for a moment and then put his hand on the table to support himself.
"God...what'd you hit me?" Jack asked, gingerly touching the side of his head.
"Oh...er...the frying pan," Sam replied, looking at him with a small frown of apology. He blinked a lot to try and clear up his vision and to steady himself on his feet but it didn't really seem to help.
"Oh the frying pan," he commented. "Better to be safe I guess." Sam nodded.
"Yeah, well that's what I thought. Come and sit down," she said and took his arm. A bit shakily, they walked to the sofa and sat down together.
"Eugh. I think I'm gonna throw up..." Jack mumbled and then raced off to the bathroom to do so.
By the time he got back, the power had returned and Sam could see the lack of colour in his face.
"Oh Jack, you look awful," she told him honestly as he flopped into the sofa beside her and leant his head back against it.
"Thanks. I feel it too," he replied groggily and closed his eyes.
"I'm so sorry, I feel terrible."
"Not half as bad as I do I bet."
"No, probably not. Do you want something to put on your head? Some ice?"
"No, it'll be ok. Thanks."
"Ok. How come you came here anyway? I thought Janet said you couldn't go home until tomorrow?"
"I hounded her to let me go tonight, so she did."
"Oh." They then sat in silence. Jack got up twice to go and throw up some more, but Sam stayed where she was, feeling absolutely terrible. "Umm, do you...do you uhh, want something to eat?" she stammered when he came back the second time. "I...well I – er – I was about to cook dinner before you...well, that's why I had the...uhh, do you want something to eat?" Jack thought about it for a moment, his head still spinning uncomfortably.
"Uhh...no thanks," he said slowly. "I think I'd just throw it up anyway."
"Oh. Yes, fair enough," Sam agreed, feeling the urge to apologise again. "I'm so sorry Jack, I feel horrible for doing that to you. I mean...well I know I hit you hard, I took a good, hard swing."
"Yeah, I can vouch for that. It's alright Sam, I know you didn't mean it. And I'll be f...right back," his sentence changed at the last minute as the urge to throw up again took a strong hold on his stomach and he quickly left. Sam sighed. He'd just been brought back to life for God's sake and now she'd hit him over the head with a frying pan?! Anyone would think she wanted him dead.
Once he got back, Sam shuffled closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder although Jack thought this might not be such a good idea considering the urge to throw could grab him again at any minute and he really didn't fancy being sick all over Sam and her lounge room.
"Uhh, Sam," he was about to tell her this belief when she lifted her head and placed a finger over his mouth.
"Shh," she hushed.
"But..." She shooshed him again and then kissed him softly.
"I don't care," she whispered and then looked deeply into his eyes. "Thankyou for the rose."
"Oh, I almost forgot about that. I didn't know which to get, there were so..." Sam stopped him talking by kissing him again, "many different ones."
"Different what?"
"Colours."
"The colour of roses doesn't matter," Sam said through a breath.
"But, I only bought one," Jack reminded her.
"Yes I know. Neither does the...quantity."
"Oh...well, that's good then, isn't it?" he asked.
"Mmm, that is very good," she replied, referring to something entirely different that had nothing to do with the rose but rather what the barer of the rose was doing. They were talking between kisses and through gasped breaths, but the conversation soon ended and they continued the task at hand without any further interruptions, power-breaks or frying pans.
The End
If you enjoyed this story, please send feedback to Spyro
Heliopolis Main Archive
A Stargate: SG-1 Fanfiction Site
Colour of Roses
by SpyroSite Navigation
Support Heliopolis