Truth Will Set You Free, The

TITLE: The truth will set you free.
AUTHOR: Atalya Shields
EMAIL: Sailor_Nemesis@sailormoon.com
CATEGORY: Romance. What else?
SPOILERS: Jack's past (I made it up, it's not in canon with the story, OK?)
SEASON / SEQUEL: 5
RATING: PG-13
CONTENT WARNINGS: Maybourne whumping. Yay!
SUMMARY: The truth will set you free... It's a clich, and O'Neill hates clichs, but it is the only way to free the members of SG-1...
STATUS: Completed
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: Total impossibility. O'Neill speaking French? OK, the French is bad, look I've only been doing french for four years, how are you meant to translate 'stargate' and 'forcefield' into French? And I know my grammar sucks, but this time it IS deliberate. O'Neill hasn't spoken it for a while, and the aliens miraculously have the same grammar system, OK?

O'Neill walked into the de-briefing room, apologising hurriedly for being late. Then he stopped in surprise to see his team sat down whispering together, and General Hammond talking with Colonel Maybourne.

"When the hell did they release you?" O'Neill spluttered, and walked over to Colonel Maybourne. Colonel Maybourne grins sardonically at him Colonel O'Neill just scowls back.

"They had no real proof that I was involved in that situation. Just your words."

"And my word doesn't mean anything? Great. Just great, Maybourne. What about your people? Didn't they tell the government that Maybourne was behind it all?"

"Colonel O'Neill!" General Hammond stares at O'Neill as he frowns sullenly. "Sit down and shut up."

Colonel Maybourne grins in delight, as O'Neill slumps in the nearest chair next to Daniel.

"As General Hammond said before, there was no proof, however much there is, it doesn't lead directly to me."

"That's bullshit and we all know it," O'Neill growled. "What about the bugged conversation at my house?"

"Interference," Hammond sighed. "I'm sorry, Jack, but we can't get him for anything."

Colonel Maybourne sat there smugly. "As much as you don't like this, I do still have some jurisdiction here."

"General Hammond?"

"Yes, Colonel O'Neill?" O'Neill stood up, and walked over to Colonel Hammond. "Permission to wipe his smarmy ass all over the iris, sir!"

"Permission denied, Jack. You'd be court martialled instantly for striking a fellow officer. However much he deserves it."

"General Hammond?"

"Yes, Daniel?"

"Remember when the Tollans were here?" The young archaeologist got up slowly. General Hammond smiled suddenly.

"Permission granted, Doctor Jackson."

"What's going on?" Colonel Maybourne looked worriedly at Colonel O'Neill while he smirked up at him. Daniel grinned.

"Colonel O'Neill might be court-martialled if he hits you, but I won't!" Daniel swung his fist, and landed a graceful right hook on Maybourne's jaw, flooring him. O'Neill cheered, and Daniel massaged his fist gently.

"Owwwww... That hurt..." Daniel sat down in the chair swiftly. O'Neill just sat there with a huge grin on his face. Even General Hammond smirked quietly. Colonel Maybourne sat up savagely.

"The president will hear of this!" He stood up unsteadily and started to walk off to the infirmary. "He will definitely hear of this!"

General Hammond just laughed. "And the president will hear of you as well, we do have a slightly illegal conversation recorded of you, recorded between you and Colonel O'Neill later on, when you were trying to convince him to join your little scheme. You tell the president, we'll give him the tape."

Colonel Maybourne's eyes widened, he spluttered, then stalked off muttering muffled oaths. O'Neill, Carter, Teal'c, Hammond and Daniel stood up and whooped. It wasn't every day they got one over on Colonel Maybourne.

"SG-1, you are ready to depart!" Colonel O'Neill grinned as Sgt. Harriman's voice came over the PA.

"All right, campers. Let's move out." Major Carter grinned, and followed him up the ramp. Teal'c and Daniel were chatting behind them. O'Neill could kinda hear they were talking about Racing Cars.

"OK, Carter, where are we?"

"P5X-199, no signs of civilisation, Naquida deposits detected."

"Sweet," deadpanned O'Neill as he stepped through the event horizon.

On the other side, he stood there for a moment, then suddenly realised there were a whole lot of human-looking aliens standing in a ring around the Stargate.

"Woah," O'Neill muttered, and began to slowly lift up his Zat. The tallest alien in the middle of the group waved his arm, and the Zat disappeared, along with his MP5, side arm and knife. Major Carter, Teal'c and Daniel all stumbled through and reeled backwards at the sight of the aliens.

"Sir?" gasped Major Carter as her weapons disappeared as well. O'Neill turned to Daniel. "So much for no signs of civilisation. Daniel, try and talk with them."

The young archaeologist cleared his throat uncertainly. "Urm, hello, my name is Daniel Jackson, and I'm from the planet Earth. We are a peaceful people." The aliens look nervously at each other.

"Comment t'appelles tu?" The tallest one nervously asked.

"Sounds like french," Daniel said, sounding a bit ashamed. O'Neill rolled his eyes.

"Please tell me you took french."

Daniel looked at his CO sheepishly. "I took twenty-three languages, and none of them French."

"Why me?" O'Neill muttered. "Carter? Teal'c?"

Carter shook her head in response. "I do not know this language," Teal'c said quietly. O'Neill sighed.

"Look like it's up to me."

"Jack?" A very baffled Daniel asked.

"Just stay silent." O'Neill walked forwards, desparately hoping he hadn't forgotten anything. "Bonjour, je m'appelle Jack. Mes amis et moi, nous sommes de la plante Earth. Nous arrivons en paix travers le portail d'etoiles. Comment t'appellent vous?" (Means rough translation - the French isn't perfect, but it is aliens speaking it. Trans: Hello, my name is Jack. My friends and me, we are from the planet Earth. We arrive in peace through the gate of stars. What are your names?)

Daniel raised his eyebrows, and Sam just gaped at him open-mouthed. The tallest alien stepped forwards and held out his hands.

"Je m'appelle Harukan, et nous sommes de la plante Ajak. Tu est humain?" (Trans: My name is Harukan, and we are of the planet Ajak. You are human?)

O'Neill thought for a second. "Oui, nous sommes humain. Ou sont nos armes? Je ne dsir faire du mal vous."( Trans: Yes, we are human. Where are our weapons? I do not wish to harm you.)

The alien stared at him confused, then walked back to talk with his friends. Daniel smiled hesitantly at O'Neill. "You speak French?"

"Yeah. My grammar's not all that good, it's been a while."

"Any other languages we should know about?" Daniel looked like he was joking, but O'Neill figured he would feel less valuable if he told him the truth - as well as French, he knew German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Indian, Portuguese and Scandanavian pretty fluently. Russian - he knew some of.

O'Neill just shrugged. "That would spoil it, wouldn't it. Lets just keep it that I'm the dumb one, OK?"

Carter grinned suddenly. "Next you'll be saying you did a doctorate in astrophysics in university." O'Neill flinched slightly, and didn't answer. Carter looked at him. "You... did?"

"I'm not saying anything." O'Neill said, and quoted one of his favourite sci-fi films, In The Beginning. "I did not say anything then, and I am not saying anything now."

"Unbelieveable. What else haven't you told us?"

"Shush," Daniel hissed, as a shorter alien approached.

"Tu peux rcepteur ton arme, et aller chez toi, si tu peux vasion le domaine de force." ( Trans: You can receive your weapons, and go to your home, if you escape the force field.)

SG-1 jumped simultaneously as a bright blue energy field surrounded them. O'Neill leapt backwards as it almost singed his hair. The aliens started to walk away.

"Attente! Attente! Comment peut-on vasion le domain de force?" (Trans: Wait! Wait! How can one escape the force field?) The tallest alien looked at him and smiled. "Vouz, Jack, serez parler plus de quatre vrits. Puis, tes amis et tu peuvont retourner travers le portail d'etoiles." (Trans: You, Jack, will say more than four secrets. Then your friends and you can return through the gate of stars.)

O'Neill stared at them in disbelief, as they walked backwards, and disappeared.

Daniel swore. "I don't even understand what he said! Jack, how do we get out?"

"Roughly translated, it means I have to tell more than four truths so that we can return through the gate of stars, which was what I called it earlier."

"What does it mean by truths?" Sam asked, testing the forcefield with her hand. Blue energy lanced up her arms and she swore vehemently. "Dammit!"

Jack shook his head as Daniel bandaged her arm quickly.

"I guess they mean things I've never told anyone else." He looked thoughtful. Sam smiled suddenly. "Why don't you start with what subjects you actually did do at school, you know, what languages you can speak, why you hide your obvious brilliance from us?"

Sam smiled at O'Neill who turned away, and stared out at the landscape, which now had no sign that the aliens were ever there. He bit his lip thoughtfully.

"Urm... I did well at languages."

Daniel did start to look interested. "So which languages did you actually do?"

"French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Indian, Portuguese and Scandanavian. And Russia for two months, but I had to quit it to... do that doctorate in astrophysics."

Daniel whistled, and Carter stared at him open mouthed. "You mean you... But you joined the military when you were eighteen didn't you?"

O'Neill suddenly grinned. "Child prodigy. Don't be so surprised."

Sam looked at him thoughtfully. "Then why did you join up with the airforce? You could have had a great career with those qualifications at that young."

O'Neill's face clouded over. "My parents."

"Your parents forced you to join the air force?" Teal'c asked, his eyes widening slightly.

"No. They... died. I had no where to go, nothing to do, so I didn't have a hell of a lot of options, OK?" O'Neill sighed, and crouched down. Suddenly, a rush of energy hit Teal'c, and he was knocked outside the energy field. O'Neill quickly got up, and tested the field again, but it was still secure.

"What the...?" Gasped Carter, and Teal'c got up slowly. His mouth seemed to be moving but they couldn't hear anything. O'Neill gestured to Teal'c - a stay there till we figure out what the hell is going on gesture. Teal'c complied, and moved to pick up his staff weapon, which was lying on the pile. He fired an experimental shot at the field, which didn't do anything.

Inside the force field, a hollow voice chanted something.

"Vrit une!" (Trans: Truth One.)

"Truth one. I guess this seems to be working. They're sick." O'Neill quickly translated, his face turning ashen. "Daniel, I think you're going to have to totally forgive me for this one. All of you are. Promise?"

"I promise..." Sam said slowly, as Daniel nodded assent. "What is it?"

O'Neill ducked his head. "I have a brother."

"Well, that's no sin," Sam joked quietly. "I have a brother too. Mark. What's his name? Do we know him?"

O'Neill nodded, his eyes narrowing to slits. "He's taken a different surname. I took my mother's name, since I wanted nothing to do with him. He was always jealous of me, and joined the airforce when I was nine. I guess that was what got me to join the air force, to prove I could still beat him. And look at me, the same rank as him, and nine years younger." Jack's face clouded over suddenly. Daniel choked suddenly.

"No way. No way. What was your father's name?"

O'Neill coughed suddenly. "Jonathan Maybourne," he said quietly.

Daniel spluttered and Sam stared at him open mouthed.

"No WAY!!!!" Daniel stared at O'Neill. "Now I feel really sorry for you...." Sam grinned.

"Well, I guess I have no complaint about Mark, now. My condolences sir."

Daniel squealed suddenly, and landed upside down next to Teal'c.

"Vrit deux," (Trans: Truth Two,) the voice softly said, and then the force field began to darken, until no-one could see out or in. O'Neill tested the field again. A bolt of energy hit him, and he withdrew his hand. "OK. Maybe they think that the other two shouldn't see what you do to me with the next truth."

"What, am I going to kill you, or something?"

O'Neill shrugged. "Maybe. This is stupid. Why are they doing this, huh? Why me?"

Sam copied his gesture. "I don't know. Maybe they want to know that we are a truthful race before they make relations with our world. They chose you because you seem to be the strongest."

"Or the weakest..." he whisered. "I might be one of the strongest physically, apart from Teal'c, OK and sometimes you, but mentally... I'm weaker than Danny."

"Just be glad he didn't hear you. Jack, what is it? What is your secret?"

Sam unconsciously used his first name, something she had hardly ever done before. Jack swallowed. "You just used my first name."

"Sorry, sir," Sam blushed.

"No. I guess I kinda like it. Gives me a mind inside of this body I guess."

Sam nodded. "You might as well call me Sam while you're at it. Body's a tiger, brain's a dragon. Feed one to keep the other."

"OK... Sam." Jack stared into her baby blue eys softly. "You'll probably hit me. Remember when you and Narim were an item?"

Sam's cheeks flamed up. "We weren't. I knew how *he* felt, but I didn't know how *I* felt."

Jack just carried on, appearing to ignore her. "And when Martouf kept thinking of you as Jolinar, since you had Jolinar's Memories?"

Sam nodded dumbly, not seeing where he was leading. She looked up at him, and his hands were shaking.

"Jack, what is it?"

"I was jealous," he said quietly. Sam looked at him, as he laughed quietly, nervously.

"What are you saying? Anyone can be jealous. I mean, I don't know if this is the right thing to tell you, but if it helps, fine. When you were trapped on Edora, I missed you. I worked night and day to fix that particle generator, and when we got through, and I saw you ask Lara to come back with you, I was jealous too. And you know what? I don't care if everyone knew I missed you, and I don't care that I was jealous about her."

"Vrit trois," (Trans: Truth Three,) came the voice again. But no-one was forced out of the field, and nothing changed. Jack whistled softly.

"Guess it doesn't have to be all my truths either." Sam shook her head.

"Appears not. Well, what was so bad about being jealous?"

"I was jealous because... because..."

Jack couldn't release his gaze from her sapphire, blue eyes. Equally entranced, Sam stared into his chocolate - brown eyes, reading the truth there, and smiling sadly.

Jack's hands started shaking again, and he cursed himself mentally.

"Because..." he whispered, and Sam took his hands in hers to steady them.

"Jack, you're shaking. Because why?"

"Because I love you." There. The words were there, spoken. Sam reared back and whalloped him over the head, smacking him to the floor.

"Dammit! I love you too, why didn't you say something sooner?" Sam bent down, and helped him sit up.

"Sam, why did you do that?"

"Because I've loved you for so long and you've put me through hell when you felt exactly the same thing!" Sam yelled, and kissed him quickly on the mouth before Jack had time to respond. He held her tightly for a few seconds.

"Ah, for crying out loud! It's not like I've been going through hell for the past four years either!" Jack yelled right back at Sam, but before he could get any more out, she swiftly covered his mouth with hers, and they were both sent to another plane, trapped in the moment.

"Vrits quatre et plus," (Trans: Truths four and more,) the voice quietly said, and the force field dissolved, but Jack and Sam didn't notice. Daniel coughed politely.

"Uh, Jack? Sam?" Neither responded, and both firmly kept their lips glued to each others.

"HELLO!" Daniel yelled, and Sam pulled away from Jack quickly, and squirmed upwards, flushing madly. Jack lifted one arm, and scratched his neck slowly.

"Urm, I guess there's my five secrets." He grinned sheepishly at Sam, then gasped. "What about the regs?"

Sam stiffened, and looked out into the distance. "I don't know. We'll just have to press gang Daniel and Teal'c to make them NOT tell anyone."

"Not necessary," Daniel giggled. "I guess I owe you two a secret after that. 'Specially since Sam'll be related to Maybourne soon."

Sam raised her eyebrows, then blushed. Teal'c raised an eyebrow, but also seemed to be grinning at his two friends slightly.

"My secret is that General Hammond, Doctor Fraiser, Sgt. Harriman, Liuetenant Simmons and Teal'c all owe me fifty bucks each."

"What?" Jack looked at Daniel, bemused, then squirmed again as he saw the look Daniel had on his face. Daniel grinned evilly, enjoying the years of torture he had lined up for his CO and 2CO.

"We had a bet. There's no rule at the SGC, because you do know we have special rules, that inter-marrying between SGC personnel is not allowed. In fact, General Hammond has had a breach regulation for you two ever since the day you met, just in case."

Sam looked at Jack sheepishly. "Well, I guess it was obvious to everyone else."

"Ah huh. For crying out loud, Danny. If General Hammond has a breach regualtion for us, then why does he owe you fifty bucks?"

Daniel grinned. "I bet that it would happen within the fourth year. Bingo."

Jack smiled and stood up. For no apparant reason, Daniel turned and hugged Jack. "Congratulations."

"Thanks," Jack said quietly. "There's one thing I have to do first." He walked over to Sam, held her hands, and bent down on one knee. Sam swallowed, then blushed. "Sam, I've been wanting to ask you for ages now. Will you marry me?"

Sam gave a little squeal, and flung her arms around his neck.

"Are you serious?"

Jack nodded.

"What, no sarcastic remark?"

"Why would there be? I'm deadly serious. I love you Sam."

"I love you too, Jack. Yes. I'd love to be your wife. Although are you sure I'd be related to Maybourne?"

Jack pulled a face, then kissed her on the nose. "Sorry."

Sam shook her head. "Oh well. I got the best one of the O'Neill brothers, anyway," she grinned, and bringing him into her arms kissed him again, and he responded passionately, crushing her slight body next to his powerful one.

Jack disengaged long enough to yell to Daniel "Dial us home, Danny boy. I'd say this planet is off limits" before returning to kiss Sam, for what he was sure was definately not the last time.

J'ai fini.