Within This Room - Part One
Within This Room - Part One
by Marie S
TITLE: Within This Room - Part One
AUTHOR: Marie S
EMAIL: Smark74656@yahoo.com
CATEGORY: Drama, hint of S/J (ahem)
SPOILERS: 100 Days, Torment of Tantalus (sort of)
SEASON / SEQUEL: 4th
RATING: PG - 13?
CONTENT WARNINGS:
SUMMARY: What got left in the room after Divide and Conquer
STATUS: Part one of six (I think)
ARCHIVE: Heliopolis
DISCLAIMER: : The usual, only borrowing the characters, didn't hurt them etc.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is only my third attempt at writing a story, and I never intended to do a S/J story but I couldn't help it! Thanks to Katie for looking at it - any mistakes are mine.
An old man walked on legs that seemed unable to bear his weight, causing him to sway from side to side as he made his way to a bed in a corner of a room. The room was very basic, it had an unfeeling look about it, as if it cared little for the person living there and the person cared little for the room. The room served a purpose and that to provide shelter, but that was all it did. A table was in another corner of the room; it held the remnants of a solitary meal. Little care had been taken in its preparation or in clearing it away.
The man lowered himself onto the bed, sighing as he did so. He no longer thought about his actions, they were merely a repeat of the previous day, the previous week, year, decade even. He completed them because he had to. Someone had told him that he had to, that he had to hold on, but he could no longer remember why, or who had told him that.
He lay on the bed looking at the ceiling, staring at small marks that were there. The marks had a pattern, but what he did not know. He thought he might have once, but not any more. His eyes began to close, and his breathing slowed as he fell asleep.
Around him the room began to fade, fading in time with his sudden shallow breathing, until eventually as the man's breathing and heart stopped, the room faded to nothing - along with the man.
Present……
Colonel Jack O'Neill found himself in the exam room that had been used for the interrogations of the members of the SGC when under threat from the goa'uld brainwashing. He could not remember arriving there, or how long he had been there. He turned to look around the rest of the room; the rest of SG1 was there. Daniel looked a bit upset, whilst Teal'c looked more stoic than usual. He lastly looked at Carter; she had taken one step towards him, and held her arm outstretched.
"You have to hold on Sir, we're nearly there. It's just going to take a little more time, you have to live and hold on."
"Carter?" Jack asked, confused. "What are you talking about? I'm here, now"
"I know Sir, but not for long. We're working on a way to bring you back in phase with us, it's just taking longer than we anticipated."
He stared at her. He didn't understand what she was trying to say to him, which wouldn't be the first time, or the last he admitted to himself, but the look on her face told him that this was important, and that he had to trust her.
"Okay Major, what's happened?"
"We think it has something to do with the R…….."
Jack was unable to hear the rest of her words; his ears were filled a whooshing noise, the type that you hear before going under a general anaesthetic. All around his peripheral vision, blackness was closing in until all he could see was Sam's face being circled within the black, and then nothing……
Slowly the blackness faded, in its place he could see a barren landscape.
"What the..?" He exclaimed, his own voice startling him in the silence.
A pale blue sky was overhead, with a pale yellow sun that seemed smaller than the one he was used to. Under his feet the earth was a pale yellow, scattered throughout small plants struggled to grow, apart from that there was almost nothing for as far as the eye could see. However, on the horizon there appeared to be a dark shape. He looked around, hoping to see a Stargate to travel back to earth through, even though he did not have a GDO, but there was nothing.
What was it that Carter had said? Back in phase, something to do with bringing him back in phase with the rest of them? He shook his head, he had to start thinking military, stay with what he knew.
'Okay, what have I got with me? He looked down at himself; he was wearing his fatigues, but none of his recon gear. He was wearing what he would when he was on base, attempting to do the administration thing. He felt in his pockets, a notebook and pencil, a pocket knife, and a stick of gum.
"Cool" he said out loud. He looked around again, trying to decide whether to remain in his present location, or head out to what he hoped was a town or village in the distance. He lifted up his hand to rub the back of his neck; Carter always managed to give him a headache, even when she wasn't around.
He decided to head towards the horizon, taking the pacifist option wasn't really an option in any of O'Neill's books. He scribbled a note on a sheet of paper from the notepad, giving the date, time and direction in which he was headed. He placed a small rock on top of the note to keep it from moving where he placed it on the ground, grinning to himself as he wondered what Daniel would make of it.
After several hours of walking, Jack was approaching the outline he had seen on the horizon. As he had drawn closer, he was able to make out that it was a hut or shack of some description. It appeared to be deserted, no fire was giving off smoke, and there appeared no signs of any other habitation.
He approached the hut slowly, his eyes darting from side to side incase anything should jump out at him. He reached the open doorway.
"Hello? Lucy, I'm home!" he called out.
There was nobody there, or signs that anybody recently had.
"Sweet"
Three months later……
Jack was bored. He had never spent so long in his life in such inactivity. The first few days that he had been there he had been filled with an expectation of an immediate rescue from Sam, but that had dimmed as the days went past. He had kept himself from getting depressed when he thought of how it had taken them around 100 days to rescue him from Edora, so he wasn't giving up hope. He kept a record of the days that past by marking them on the doorway of the hut that was his so called home, which he had re-named the Ritz. He had just placed the 100th mark in the wood.
He turned and looked out of the door, the landscape had not changed, neither had the weather. He had spent some time wondering how long the planets' rotation was from this systems star. The planet had only one sun, but had a binary moon system. He had decided that the rotation must be greater than that of earth as the season and daylight hours had yet to change. He spent a lot of time wondering on things like that to try and pass the time.
When he was on Edora he had been able to keep himself busy, working in the fields, and rebuilding homes, but here there was nothing to do. He had discovered a garden that had been planted at he back of the hut, so he did not worry about going hungry. The variety left a little to be desired though, the garden consisted of vegetables that seemed to be a cross between potatoes and swedes. Although he was able to sometimes catch some of the creatures that came to feed in the garden, they appeared from beneath the ground, similar to rabbits. There was also be an underground water supply, which he had found conveniently next to the garden.
He returned to where he had left his note every other day, at first he had returned there twice a day, but as time had gone on he had started to go there only once a day, and now every other say. He made a note of the date, and time that he had been there. He was reluctant to go too far from where he had first appeared on this planet, incase he needed to be there when Sam finished her phase shifting thing. She had told him to hang on and that was what he was doing. The living thing was a little harder; he felt that he was just existing in some sort of limbo. In more fanciful moments he had even thought of this place as some sort of purgatory, and wondered who would pray for him if that is where he was, he figured he was going to be here a long time if that was the case.
Jack had at first tried talking out loud to himself, just to hear a voice, but that had become old fast. He had even started writing a diary, but when all he had to enter was got up, then retired, he had got bored with that. He spent a lot of his time thinking. Thinking of the things that he was missing, like everyone back at the SGC. He wondered what Cassie was doing, how she was enjoying Junior High, how Daniel was getting on with his rocks, how Teal'c was doing in his earth studies. He didn't think much about Carter at first, that had been easy to do, he'd had plenty of practise putting her out of his thoughts, but as time went on she kept invading his everyday thoughts. 'What would Carter make of this?' or 'Carter would have laughed at that', especially at night times when he was trying to catch one of the rabbit things.
He felt as if he was going mad.
One Year Later……
Jack was on his way back to the Ritz. He had spent the last four months investigating the planet he was on, and had basically found nothing. The planet appeared to have only one dwelling place, and that was the one he lived in. He could detect no other occupiers of the planet, either now or previously. He had taken to talking to the members of his team as if they were there. Asking Daniel what he thought this would mean when he came across a strange looking rock, which turned out to be just that - a rock. He talked to Teal'c when he thought he saw movement in the distance, asking him about the threat they might pose if they turned out to be goa'uld. He talked the most with Carter, or should that be argued with Carter. She would never let him have the last word on anything. He was vaguely aware that this was what Ernest had done when he had spent time on the planet by himself, but he reassured himself that he was not going mad as he knew he was doing it, besides, Carter would tell him if he went too far.
Ten Years Later……
Jack sat outside of his house, looking up at the stars; he had named the constellations that he could see. He could not see any of the ones that he knew from earth, but he had marked them on the ceiling above his bed. He liked to lie there before he went to sleep and gaze at them, telling Sam what they were called, sometimes he forgot some of them, but she reminded him, she was smart that way. Daniel and Teal'c were not talking to him at the moment, he had laughed at then when they had fell over when digging up the pot-swedes, but he knew they would start talking to him soon, they always did in the end.
He called out goodnight to them, and went indoors to sleep. He had eaten earlier and straightened up the place, Sam didn't like going to bed with an untidy room, said she couldn't sleep properly if they didn't clear their things away.
Decades later……
Jack walked on legs that seemed unable to bear his weight, causing him to sway from side to side as he made his way to a bed in a corner of a room. He had just left the table; the remnants of a solitary meal were left discarded.
He lowered himself onto the bed, sighing as he did so. Someone had told him that he had to hold on, that he had to live, but he could no longer remember why, or who had told him that.
His eyes began to close, and his breathing slowed as he fell asleep.
Around him the room began to fade, fading in time with his sudden shallow breathing, until eventually Jack's breathing and heart stopped, the room faded to nothing - along with Jack.
If you enjoyed this story, please send feedback to Marie S
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