Sam woke up, looked at her alarm clock and groaned. She'd only been asleep four hours and she knew that it would be next to impossible to go back to sleep. Especially after the events of the last few days, and she hadn't been sleeping well before it.
Every time she closed her eyes, she could see the doctors just as they were giving her the euthanasia drug. But in her dreams, or should she say nightmares, Colonel O'Neill didn't make it in time to stop them from killing her.
The first night she awoke screaming. She was only able to go back to sleep after a phone call to him to assure her that he made it and they would never hurt her again if he had anything to say about it.
Sighing, she got out of bed and went to the kitchen to make some coffee. She might as well start her day off with a little caffeine and toast. She couldn't wait to get back to work; she hated sitting around and doing nothing. And her orders were to stay away from the mountain for the next seven days or face the consequences.
Sam poured her coffee and buttered her toast before moving into the living room and turning the news on. She wondered what the guys were doing today. Picking the phone up as she look at her clock and seeing that it was only 0650, she knew that Daniel would be in his office, since he had that artifact to decipher.
She was just dialing the last number when the news announced breaking news from New York. The T.V. showed a smoking New York City skyline and a reporter stating that it appeared that a plane had just hit one of the Twin Towers and the building was on fire.
Sam just stared at her T.V. and couldn't believe it. She heard Daniel, who had picked up his phone, his voice jarring her out of her trance. "Daniel? Turn your television on now. Something is going on in New York."
She waited for him to comply and watched in horror as the news unfolded over the next few minutes. "How could a plane hit the World Trade Center? I mean it's not like it was cloudy or foggy."
Sam heard some commotion over the phone and Daniel telling her that the Mountain was going on lockdown and something about highjacked planes before he had to hang up. She just sat there staring at her phone wondering what was going on.
She almost jumped when her phone rang. "Hello?"
"Carter, it's me." She heard the familiar voice of Colonel O'Neill.
"Hello, sir. Have you been watching the T.V. this morning?" She asked him as she stared at hers.
"Yeah, I was going in late today so I was getting caught up on current events when I heard what was going on. The Mountain is lockdown until everything is cleared up. That means we're locked out until further notice. So don't even try and get in there right now. I hear NORAD is going crazy right now trying to make sure that this isn't a terrorist attack." He ordered.
"Oh my, God, sir. Did you see that?" She asked him as she watched the news, tears filling her eyes at the events unfolding right in front of her.
"No, I'm in my truck what happened?" He asked her.
"A second plane just hit the other tower. This has to be deliberate, sir. There is no way that this could be an accident." Sam told him.
"Shit! We're under attack and there's nothing we can do about it." He said as he parked and shut his engine off.
Sam couldn't hold the grief inside any longer as she replied. "There has to be something that we can do, sir. There are innocent people dying right in front of us." She sniffed and heard someone knock on her front door.
Jack stood there for a minute and could hear the despair in her voice. He knew that the events of the last few days had almost taken their toll on her. "Open the door, Carter. It's cold out here." He said and hung up the phone.
Sam looked at the phone and then the door before getting up and walking over and opening the door. "Sir, what are you doing here?"
He stepped in and shut the door behind him and opened his arms to her. "C'mere," He said as she went into his arms. "I knew you'd need me as soon as I heard what was going on." He whispered as he turned her, keeping his arm around her and moved her to the sofa.
They sat there in silence watching the news for a bit before the announcement of the Pentagon being hit also came across the news wires. Sam gasped and Jack held her tighter as her tears fell and her heart broke for the innocent people of the world.
Sam cried harder now than she had cried after the earlier news report. She was crying so hard that she couldn't talk yet. Jack was so patient as he held her and waited for her to tell him why she was reacting this way.
Sam finally pulled back and looked at him. "Jack, I knew people in the offices from that section of the Pentagon. I worked with most of them for years before coming to the SGC. Kelly, my Air Force Academy roommate, worked on the ground floor in the section that is on fire. I need to find out if she is one of the missing people." She said as he pulled her back into his arms.
"Shh, everything will be alright. I'll call Hammond and have him make a call. I need her full name so I can make sure we find her, okay?" He asked her and kissed the top of her head as she could only nod. As soon as she could, she gave him Kelly's full name and her office number as he pulled his cell phone out and made the call to Hammond for her.
"I know that we deal with death all the time, especially since we've been fighting the Goa'uld, but this is humans killing humans. Sometimes humanity sucks. With all of our allies and the technology we have gained, we couldn't, and can't, stop something like this from happening." Sam said as she laid her head on his shoulder as they sat together on the sofa.
The thing only Jack could do was to hold her and run his fingers through her hair. He knew that she wasn't acting like herself right now, but considering what the doctors and Adrian Conrad had done to her he understood. "I wish there was something we could do, but this time it's all out of our hands, Carter."
She silently cried herself to sleep in his arms. Jack watched her sleep, wishing he could slay all of her dragons. This was a foreign feeling for him cause if he knew anything, it was that Samantha Carter didn't ever need a knight in shining armor and she was no damsel in distress. But if she ever decided to need a knight, he'd gladly apply for the position.
Jack watched the news for most of the day with her in his arms. Through most of the newscasts through the last few hours, Sam drifted in and out of consciousness, her emotions becoming physically draining. To Jack it didn't matter if she was asleep or awake; it was a nice feeling to just hold her with all of their walls down. It was just Sam and Jack, not Carter and Colonel. There was no Air Force or ranks here, not while they watched terrorist attacking their home.
It was during one of the times when Sam was awake that it was announced that a fourth plane went down in Pennsylvania, killing all aboard including the terrorists, Jack comforted her as she once again broke down in his arms.
Sam jumped when the phone rang but could only stare at it. Jack moved away from her and over to the dining room to answer it for her. "Hello?"
"Jack? Hammond asked me to call Sam and let her know that her friend Kelly Baker is listed as missing." Daniel reported over the phone.
"Thanks, Daniel. I'll tell her." Jack replied not really wanting to pass this information onto her. She was upset as it was right now.
"Should Teal'c and I stop by when they let us out of here? Maybe we could all keep her mind off of things." He asked Jack.
"Sure, Daniel, that'd be great. Bring some beer with you and we'll order take out when you get here." He then lowered his voice and continued. "She's going to need all of us right now, Daniel."
After he hung up, he walked back into the living room and sat back down next to her. "Sam?" He called out to her as she moved closer to him and back into his arms.
She didn't even look at him; she just closed her eyes and sighed. "She dead, isn't she? Kelly's gone." Her voice was so low that he had to strain to hear her. She sounded like a little child instead of the soldier he knew and respected.
"She listed as missing, but that doesn't mean that she's dead, so don't give up hope yet." He told her. "Daniel and Teal'c will be coming over as soon as the lockdown is over. They'll bring food and beer." He said as he tried to lighten her mood.
She tried to smile but it didn't look much like a smile. "I'd like to have them here, too." She told him as she sat up a bit and turned her body to face him, bringing her eyes up to looked at him.
"Why don't you tell me about Kelly. It might make you feel better." He suggested and took her hands in his to keep the contact with her.
They sat there for a long time as Sam told him about the all the times she almost got her and Kelly in trouble because of her practical jokes at the Academy. As she talked, he got a glimpse of the Samantha he didn't know before. And he fell a little more in love with her than he already was.
Jack's presence there meant a lot to her as she talked to him about herself; and it felt good to open up to him. And in return, he told her things about his past that she never knew about. He talked to her about Charlie and why his marriage didn't work. And Sam fell more in love with him also.
Finally, Sam couldn't take it anymore. They'd kept the T.V. on all day, even as they talked, but she could watch the buildings coming down one more time. She'd cringe every time they showed the burning Pentagon and she grabbed the remote to turn the T.V. off.
"You okay, Sam?" He asked her as he moved a finger to her chin and lifted her gaze to his.
Blue eyes met brown eyes and a shiver went through her body. "No, I'm not. I keep getting this image in my mind every time they show the Pentagon." She finally said.
"What image?" He asked her, concerned.
She wouldn't meet his eyes this time. "I see you sitting in an office as the plane hits the building. You're in what I can picture as your office and you have no warning as the plane hits and…" Unable to finish, she closes her eyes and leans into him again.
He holds her and wonders if she might have seen his future, then shakes his head. He would never have an office in the Pentagon; he could never take a desk job, too boring. "It's alright, Sam, I'm here and we're going to be okay. Besides, can you see me sitting behind a desk? I'd go crazy inside of a week." He chuckled and then he moved her back so she could look at him.
They finally heard a knock at the door and Jack got up to answer it. Letting Daniel and Teal'c in, he took the beer and food from them and went into the dining room while the guys went and hugged Sam.
"Sam, we finally got word from the Pentagon, your friend Kelly is okay. She was running late this morning cause her daughter didn't want to go to school today. She showed up ten minutes after the plane hit. She's going to be calling you later, okay?" Daniel informed her.
She cried and hugged Daniel, but this time they were happy tears. She looked over Daniel's shoulder at Jack and mouthed, "Thank you" to him.
He smiled at her and handed her a beer. The rest of the night was spent differently than normal team nights. This one was spent with the telling of childhood stories and they all got to know each other just a little bit better than they already did.
The End
Story Notes: Content Warning: Reminders from that horrible day on September 11, 2001 Oh and Jack says Shit.
Beta by: Gen Jack O'Neill (Tiffany Flowers)
Authors notes: Thanks to Tiff for reading this and making sure I didn't screw it up. I started this on 9/11/2006 as my tribute to the fifth anniversary to that horrible day. I will never forget where I was when I heard about what was going on. Do you remember where you were when it happened?
Beta by: Gen Jack O'Neill (Tiffany Flowers)
Authors notes: Thanks to Tiff for reading this and making sure I didn't screw it up. I started this on 9/11/2006 as my tribute to the fifth anniversary to that horrible day. I will never forget where I was when I heard about what was going on. Do you remember where you were when it happened?
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc, are the property of their respective owners. Any original characters and plots are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended. ... [ read more ]