"Have I mentioned that this was a bad idea?"
There's a pause for a second as we crouch under the outcrop of rock, and everyone steadfastly refuses to look at the Colonel. Sighing I shake my head, and shift my feet on the gravel so I don't feel every tiny little stone through the sole of my boot.
"Yes sir" I answer him, and I see him wriggle out of the corner of my eye, trying to find a comfier place for his back against the stone wall.
"Then in that case...I told you so" He adds without the slightest hint of mirth. I sigh again and Daniel joins me, and we go back to concentrating on the far wall of the cave where it curves around and out of sight around the corner. The corner where the noises came from.
This was meant to be a simple mission. The planet itself held no surprises, the natives were kind welcoming people who greeted friendly gate travellers as a common and natural part of everyday life. SG-6 had already been here twice, and this was supposed to be a quick Friday afternoon trip, then back home for a well-earned weekend break. Doing laundry. Eating a microwave meal for one. Washing my hair. That sort of thing.
We were simply having a look around the area, trying to reassure the locals about some strange groaning they'd heard, and shaking they swore they'd felt. They had local legends of how the God's could make the ground shriek and tremble, and they all believed the Gods had returned. We were sceptical, but cautious, as all too often a safe planet had taken it's time to reveal it's dark secret. From what SG-6 had told us, there were extensive cave systems that riddled the hills below the settlement, used for storage and religious purposes by the natives, and it was from here the sounds had originated. At first the Colonel thought maybe some kids had been having a joke, but as we descended into the torch lined tunnels, we heard a far-off rumble that was anything but human.
Our guides had disappeared at the first sound, and as we felt a slight rumble beneath our feet, we readied our weapons and headed down, down to where we are now, crouching on the edge of the circular prayer chamber, listening to the groans of some hideous beast...or...or...or something else...
"Theories, ideas, anything?" Three heads turned as one and the Colonel glanced between sets of confused eyes.
"I do not believe it was an attack O'Neill"
"Why not Teal'c?" Asks the Colonel. As we'd entered this chamber, pursuing the sounds, rocks had fallen from the roof, barely missing us. We'd instantly gone on the defensive, but something was bugging me, and I knew this wasn't what it seemed.
"Well...it hasn't happened again..."
"Well thanks Daniel, I did notice. Carter?" The Colonel's eyes turn to me, and as I open my mouth to give voice to a growing suspicion, the ground suddenly starts to shake beneath us, and a deep booming rumble fills our ears.
"Sir!" I shout, as the others stumble, trying to keep their footing.
"Goa'ulds?" Asks the Colonel, looking upwards, perhaps imagining a Goa'uld ship landing above us. It's not that though, I know it's not, the shaking and sound, it's just not right, it's something else. I lived in California for a few years when Dad was stationed there, and I know what this is, and it's nothing to do with God's.
"It's an earthquake sir!" I yell, trying to be heard, and the Colonel's eyes grow wide. Small rocks start to tumble down on us from above, and the Colonel's head jerks upward. Daniel and Teal'c realise just as quickly, that underground is not where you want to be in an earthquake.
"Out! Out now!" barks the Colonel, and Daniel and Teal'c turn on their heels from their positions a few metres behind us, and stumble towards the exit. The Colonel swings his gun over his shoulder and gestures at me to move. I pull myself to my feet and start to move along the wall, but as I approach the Colonel the shaking increases so much that he stumbles and falls back into me, knocking me flying. Swaying, the Colonel is now tipped forward, and he stumbles across the room and clutches at the wall, sliding to his knees. I push off the wall behind me, back onto my feet, and try to walk to the far entrance, where Teal'c is manhandling an unsteady Daniel through the doorway.
"Sir?" I ask, but the Colonel quickly regains his footing, and edges around the room to a large stone outcrop, which he ducks underneath, out of the constant shower of dust and pebbles.
"This way Carter!" He yells, beckoning me, but I don't get a chance to move. The ceiling shudders and cracks, and makes noises I never thought could come from stone. Where the crude walls arch to form the roof, the rock cracks and large flakes fall, showing the stratified stone underneath. The lateral shaking increases, and I find myself rhythmically flung against the wall behind me, my teeth chattering as my jaw bounces and I drop to my knees. Suddenly the roof sags in the middle and just disintegrates, boulders of various sizes coming loose. Some fall and crumble where they land, but others roll, and I see Daniel's boot disappear around the corner as Teal'c drags him away from the worst fall.
"Jack! Sam!" He calls, and my answer is smothered by a shower of pebbles and dust falling on me, making me choke and gasp. I drop forward onto my knees and cover my head, my gun clattering to the floor beside me.
"Go Daniel! Get out!" Yells the Colonel from somewhere behind me, and his last word hovers in the sudden silence as all the terrible groaning and shearing suddenly stops. The only sound is our harsh breathing and the trickle of pebbles falling to rest. A scuffle behind me makes me turn, and the Colonel is a good ten feet away, wedged under a particularly strong looking outcrop of rock He cautiously edges out on hands and knees, and blinks up at me from through a cloud of hazy dust.
"Woah... looks like we were lucky huh? Daniel, Teal'c? You guys okay?"
Daniel's muffled assent sounds from somewhere far off, and the Colonel starts to edge further out, and that's when I feel it. From somewhere far below me a rumble sounds, and I can feel it in my chest and voice box and bones. The Colonel looks down at the rough stone floor beneath him, confusion pulling his brows together as the stone beneath his fingers starts to move, pebbles dancing on its juddering surface. I feel a sudden tightening of my stomach, and something in my brain screams at me to move...move!
"Carter?..." queries the Colonel, sensing something very wrong, and I pull myself back against the wall and blink as a new shower of dust breaks from the roof ahead and catches in my eyelashes.
"Sir...I think what we just went through wasn't..."
"What, wasn't the main feature huh?" He asks, and I struggle to see his mirthless grin through the murk.
"Yes sir..."
"Sam? Jack?" Daniel's voice sounds so very far away, and muted, and the Colonel turns towards the clouded entrance to yell.
"Daniel! Get out Daniel! Get to the surface!" The Colonel gets to his feet, hands on the outcrop above, but as he takes one step forward the ground in front of him splits, and bucks, and he is flung backwards, connecting hard with wall as the ground continues to rear, part of the roof seeming to rush down to meet it, and the carved doorway crumbles together like a stone mouth closing, Trapped. We're trapped.
The roof above me splits with a tremendous moan, and I look up, seeing a spiders web of deep lines cut their way into the stone. The torches on the wall near me slip from the twisted holders and go out. Only one spluttering torch remains, hanging on the wall somewhere near the Colonel, casting a yellowish glow through the haze of dust. I gather my knees beneath me, and look desperately around for somewhere, anywhere safer. I sweep a hand through the dustfall but I can't see more than a metre in front. I try and orient myself, turn towards the Colonel and his overhang, but the light is too diffuse and I can't see him, I can't see him and I don't know where he is!
"Carter!" Comes a yell to my left, and I turn reflexively to face him.
"Carter, where are you?"
"Here sir!" I answer the rising panic in his voice, and he coughs on dust.
"This way...it's safer! Carter!" He has to shout louder as the rumbling builds, and I get to my knees and strike out blindly in his direction, shuffling along, one hand questing in front for rocks
I crawl excruciatingly slowly over pebbles and cracked floor in the direction of his voice, and I nearly topple a few times as the ground shifts alarmingly. I hear something moving ahead, something shuffling, and I pause, afraid. Suddenly something warm and firm connects with my head, then moves down and takes a fierce fistful of my collar.
"Sir!" I gasp as relief washes over me, clutching at the Colonel's forearm, feeling comfort in its presence, feeling the muscles tighten. The rumbles subside a little, and the dust clears, and something emerges in front of me, the Colonel's head.
He looks absurd. His white teeth and eyes luminous in his grey, dusty face. His hair is plastered with dust and rock flakes, his mouth hanging open, his jaw moving, but no sound coming out as his eyes search me for injuries as I do the same. Suddenly, a sound like nothing I've ever heard before, a deep terrible shearing and rumbling starts from directly above our heads, and we look up to see the rock split, and a huge crack crawls along the precipice above us, a horrible keening screech marking every inch it crawls. The last torch falls from the wall then, extinguished, are we are plunged into blackness.
****************************************
In the dark the growing rumble seems far more ominous, and the Colonel's fingers twist in the shoulders of my jacket, and he tugs me towards him. I gather my knees beneath me as an ear-splitting creaking fills the air, finding myself pitched backwards as the ground beneath me breaks and arches into the air. I slip onto my side as I try and dig my heels into the floor and push upwards, but the floor keeps tilting, and only the Colonel's hand on my uniform holds me where I am. In the dark I can't see below me, for all I know a shaft miles deep could have opened up beneath my feet.
"Carter!" yells the Colonel, panic evident as he struggles to keep a hold of me, not knowing what's happening in the dark. I twist round onto my front to try and find some purchase on the angled floor, and he grunts as his arm is twisted with me. I try and make my legs move, try and crawl towards him but the ground suddenly bucks again, and sets up a tremble so intense and massive my teeth feel like they're about to rattle free. Instead I reach up with my arms and find the jagged edge of cracked rock, and hang on. The Colonel's other arm joins his first, and takes a hold of my upper arm.
Being pulled and also pushing with my now tired legs I finally pull myself up the incline and lean folded over it, both the Colonel and I gasping for breath, though his hands refuse to let go. Unwilling to pause where we are he hauls on me again, and I force myself to my knees.
"Watch your head!" He yells at me, and I raise one hand and find the edge of the precipice he was sheltering under earlier, and weary now I lower my head and shuffle under it with him, our backs to the wall behind. Once there I practically collapse against the trembling stone, but the Colonel takes a firmer hold of me and hauls me against the wall beside him, his hands keeping me upright as he shifts sideways and gathers me into his arms as the rumbling intensifies again.
"Oh God" I say, my teeth still chattering and aching, my muscles bunching body-wide to try and keep myself under control, and he manoeuvres me into more of a sitting position, and we gather our limbs and try to press further into the small alcove. His hands move from my shoulders to my back, and mine instinctively seek him out, finding his shoulder. He pulls me against his chest and presses his cheek against mine, his fingers digging into my back. We huddle under the outcrop as rocks continue to shower past, shattering on the ground, and I squeeze my eyes closed as dust and small stones cover us both.
I know we're not safe here, not entirely, and sure enough the section of overhanging roof above us finally cracks with the pressure, and a large boulder craters the ground beside me. I jump further into the Colonel's arms as chunks roll into my legs. He squeezes me tight, one hand pulling my legs further towards him until they're looped over his own, and we take up even less space under what must be the one remaining piece of protective rock.
I tuck my chin in and rest my head on the Colonel's chest, but at the hammering of his heart I jerk my head away. I don't want to be reminded of the danger we're in, the likelihood that we won't get out, I just want to...God, in this most unlikely of situations I'm in his arms and I just want to experience...to remember. To feel him, to feel his arms around me, his hot skin against my cheek, and pretend that his rushed breaths and thundering heart are because of me, not the earthquake. Me, someone who...loves him.
He can sense my distress, and his hands leave my back and move up my shoulders, to frame my face. His fingers are trembling, but their very warm, physical presence steadies me, calms me.
"It's okay...it's okay" He tells me softly, but I know he's not telling me that we'll get out, that we'll walk away this time. Instead he's telling he's here, here with me. His forehead leans against mine, his surprisingly cold breath washes over me. We feel the cracks appear in the floor beneath us, and hear the rock above start to shear, a new layer of dust floating down. The whole room starts to shimmy from side to side, the rock wall behind our backs moving in ways it was never meant to.
A sound like the world falling down deafens me, and I clutch the Colonel, needing him closer, needing him with me, and he replies to my request for comfort by quickly covering my dry, parched lips with his own, surprising me. His lips mash on mine, fierce, demanding and needy, and I quickly adjust to this strange new thing and grasp his collar, pulling him closer. He jerks me against his chest, his arms wrapping around me, holding me, claiming me. His fingers snake into my hair, cup the back of my head, and hold me fast, as our tongues meet for the very first time, tangling with abandon. I screw my eyes shut as I know he must be, and focus on the kiss, shutting out the horrible roaring, the dust, the falling rocks, the way the ground is starting to tip beneath us. All there is now is this kiss.
All I have, is this kiss. All I need, is this kiss.
And then...and then...suddenly...suddenly it's over.
Everything stops moving, and our lips softly pop apart in the deafening, disorienting silence. I look about uselessly in the dark, and the Colonel leans his nose against my cheek, his hands joined in the small of my back as he pants, and not from fear. I tighten my fingers on his back and rub my cheek against him, waiting for the next quake, or even an afterquake, but it never appears.
After a minute or two we lean apart, start to calm down, and even start to make out dim shapes around us, our eyes adjusting to the dark. The only sound is our matched breathing, then all of a sudden a rumble sounds from behind us, and fingers clutch again, hot breaths come faster, but the sound is different, rhythmical.
Our breaths held we listen, not knowing whether to be afraid or hopeful, and then there's a rush of something heavy tumbling, and another sound, a sound I never thought I'd hear again.
"Jack! Sam!" The voice sounds far away, but unmistakable, and the Colonel moves out of my arms and gets to his knees trying to find out where Daniel's voice is coming from, one hand still gripping my shoulder. Thank God Daniel is okay! We leap and crawl away when the rock behind is starts to tumble outward, but only a small hole is revealed, and bright light seeps through as it is urgently made wider by curved tools. A shaft of light arcs across my eyes, and the Colonel's hand squeezes me as he squints. The hole starts to widen, and suddenly the face of Daniel fills it, blocking out the light.
"Guys? Guys! Are you okay?!"
The Colonel splutters a little beside me, then shades his eyes from the ray of sharp light.
"Daniel, get us out of here!" He barks, voice strangely croaky and thick, as eager to leave this place as I am.
The Colonel grins, shaking me, and Teal'c moves Daniel out of the way and extends a strong arm. The Colonel grasps his forearm and my shoulder with his other, and staggers to his feet. The light seems so bright after even a short time without it, and the Colonel squeezes quickly out of the hole and turns to help me out. We make our way to surface, and only when we emerge into the sunlight, into the crowd of anxious natives does he finally release my shoulder. We made it, SG-1 survives again.
We've...survived.
**************************************
The aftermath is such an anticlimax, and like a rollercoaster, you are terrified before and during, but as time passes after you start to believe that it was easy, no trouble at all, that you were never really in danger, never really scared, never really...kissed.
I busy myself with reassuring the people, trying my best to push through the crowd and make for the gate. I can understand their panic, and Daniel and I do our best to calm them, explain what Earthquakes, or rather Mannonquakes are, but they are too upset and afraid to do much more than clutch at my uniform and beg for protection, and I'm too...distracted to make much sense. The people here cannot remember any such quake happening before, and I try to explain that in that case it's unlikely there will be another anytime soon.
Eventually I push through and stand on the other side of the throng and wait for the others. While I wait, my trembling finally abating, my breathing returning to normal, I let the memories of what the Colonel's mouth feels like on mine slip to the fore, and my fingers travel unconsciously to my face, tracing my lips, remembering. Behind me Daniel calms people. His voice carrying over their heads, trying to be soothing, but with too much of an edge of anxiety himself that he's not quite managing it. I can't blame him, I feel...the same.
Eventually Daniel and Teal'c push their way through the crowd and walk towards me, and I turn in search of the Colonel, waiting for orders to dial, and when I see him I freeze. He stands by a small group of natives across the stretch of straggly grass, nodding absently as they gesture and point, babbling among themselves and thanking him for his help in solving the mystery of the sounds. The Colonel seems almost unaware of them, and as he drifts around to face the gate I gasp. His face is slack, his eyes faraway, unseeing, as his fingertips trail back and forth across his lips, his tongue tracing them as well. I jerk my own hands away from my mouth just as the Colonel's eyes come to a focus on me, and his hand drops slowly back to his side.
His eyebrows leap skyward, mouth open for second before he composes himself and turns smiling to a native tugging on his sleeve. I too turn away, and head for the DHD. I punch in the symbols for Earth slowly and carefully, and look up as the wormhole fills the gate with the familiar iridescent blue. Daniel and Teal'c look over my shoulder as I approach and nod, doubtless at the Colonel, and step through for home. I slow as I reach the steps, but I find I'm too afraid to look behind for the Colonel, though I know it's my duty to check he's there.
I climb the last few steps and pause on the threshold. I look back over my right shoulder, and as I do he steps up to my side, eyes focused on the gate, and I take a deep breath and move. I climb the steps slowly, and he follows at my shoulder, slightly behind. Well let's just forget it Sam, forget what happened. Funny, In the light of day and going home it already feels like it never happened, if it wasn't for the dust all over my BDU's and that tingle and taste on my lips, I could almost believe it was another straight forward mission. Straight forward...huh...when do we ever have straight forward missions?
I shake my head briefly to get myself back on track, and look up into the wormhole in front of me. Only two steps to go and as I take in a last breath, ready to expel before I step over that event horizon, I feel the Colonel's hand bump clumsily against mine, once, twice, three times, then his fingers curl quickly around my own.
My breath catches in my throat but I don't stop and turn, and he squeezes my hand briefly, then his fingers slip from my grasp, and then we are gone. Within a second we step down the ramp in the SGC, and glad though I am to be home safe and sound, I feel the slightest twinge in my chest before I force it down, and surrender myself to the oncoming medical staff. As I am bustled away, the General asking questions, Janet fussing, all I can focus on is my still burning lips, and newly burning palm.
As we arrive in the infirmary and are ushered to separate cubicles I see the Colonel sitting on his bed, before the curtain is drawn, tracing his palm with a finger, then touching his lips almost absently. Burning lips and burning hand. Then the curtains are drawn and I'm alone, but I can't help but feel connected, connected to the man complaining loudly to my right about how many injections he has to receive just for being in a lousy earthquake.
I know we'll never mention the kiss, the touch, not in the light of day, but sometimes the sun isn't enough, or isn't what's needed to make things grow from seed.
Sometimes...sometimes things grow in the dark.
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THE END
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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 ]