Higher Echelon: Part 3
Higher Echelon: Part 3
by Gater101
Summary: Set pre-Heroes post Evolution. Earth comes under threat from Anubis as he searches for the Higher Echelon spoken of in the Ancient's 'Prophecy'
Category: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, Romance, Series
Season: Season 7
Pairing: Jack/Sam
Rating: 13+
Warnings: character death, minor language
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. I 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 author(s).
Archived on: 2005-01-08
Part 3
Sam slid further into the covers in her darkened bedroom. It was early morning, she could tell because the horizon was only beginning to lighten. She hadn't slept at all. Not a wink: her night eyes filled with images of Jack on their night on the planet. She still couldn't escape it, even after everything that had happened to her.
She could remember facing the Secretary of Defence as he told her that she was not being discharged from the military, that her expertise was too valuable to the Air Force, but that she was being reassigned to Area 51 where she could work on anything that the offworld teams discovered.
Her heart had dropped from her body then. She knew that her clearance would be lessened, she would not know where the scientific doohikcey's came from, only that they were. She knew that she would no longer be a part of SG-1. No longer a part of the SGC. She couldn't imagine her life like that. But she had accepted the terms, not allowing herself to take the cowards way out, like O'Neill had done.
She was thinking about the absurdity of her being pregnant with, what was obviously, Jack's child. She had taken every precaution to avoid it. Every precaution so that she could eradicate that night from her memory. But it seemed like that was unable to happen. She would never consider abortion, that was not an option. And neither was adoption.
She needed Janet: her opinion and advice was what Sam had lived on for the past few years. And now that was torn from her. She knew her friends - especially Daniel and Janet - were exceptionally angry at her. Daniel had accused her of being selfish and not thinking about her actions. She didn't know how to respond to that, she had expected him to understand her position. But then, he must have realised the implications of her actions. He must have realised that SG-1 would not remain; no matter how hard everyone tried they would be torn apart. Fraternization was strictly forbidden, for everyone, including those who work within the Stargate Programme. She had regretted her actions everyday since then. She knew that it was wrong. But at the time it hadn't been.
At the time, she had been truly besotted with the man. She still was in a sense, but it wasn't how she expected it to be. Maybe it was because they were under the influence of an alien virus, but it hadn't been as magical or spectacular as she thought it was going to be. It was `nice' and in a sense that was worse than it being terrible. There was no passion. No indication of what they're feelings were. They barely kissed each others lips, apart from the first overly passionate kiss which seemed to spend all their fire for that night.
She looked out again and noticed that the Sun was beginning to peek over the pink-ish bungalow across the street from her and she realised she had been thinking for longer than she thought. She was about to roll over onto her other side when the telephone next to her bed started buzzing in her ear.
She groaned and threw her arm in the general direction of the device and picked at it with tired hands. She held it to her ear and pressed ANSWER.
"Carter," she said and noted that her voice was croaky from lack of sleep.
"Sam?" The gentle voice asked from the other side of the line.
"Janet, hey it's me," Sam managed after a short stunned silence. Janet had been abrupt with Sam the previous day and Sam did not expect this phone call.
There was a long silence where neither knew what to say and Sam was about to ask how Janet was when the woman spoke.
"Sam, listen, I'm sorry about yesterday... I was rude and it was uncalled for. What I'm calling for - other than to apologise, of course - is to see if you're free tonight so we can have dinner and catch up?"
Sam thought for a moment. Catch up clearly meant `talk about what you're gonna do'. Sam sighed and remembered she had an experiment to run on an artefact recovered by SG-15 to see if it had any strategic advantage that Air Force could use.
"Not tonight, I have work to do on the artefact SG-15 brought back from... wherever they were. But I'm free tomorrow if you're still free?" Sam said, with a slight hint of regret.
There was a pause where Janet thought about the offer then answered:
"Sounds great, I'll come round at about 7.30 and we can see what we want from there?" There was a loud wail in the background and Sam knew that Janet had to go then. "Listen, I have to go, I've just been called to the gat-"
"It's okay, go." Sam hung up before Janet did and flopped back down onto her bed.
That could be SG-1 that Janet was being called for. Daniel and Teal'c were still on SG-1 but Sam didn't know who had taken command, and she doubted she would find out until she received something discovered by SG-1 - team leaders had to sign all reports, one of the many tasks in paper work the Colonel hated.
Sam paused at her thought and forced herself not to rub her hand over her stomach - she hated how clichd it looked. Instead, she rose from her lying position and trundled across her room and into the en-suite shower room and turned the hot water on.
It was going to be a long day.
TBC
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