"Where is my Daughter?"
Jack hung his head as General Hammond tried to calm down Jacob Carter, Sam's dad. His eyes glared at each of them as if staring at them hard enough would make them supply the information he wanted, and that was the current location of his daughter.
"No, I wont calm down. Your telling me my daughter just woke up from a coma, said 'see you later', and now you have no *idea* where she is?"
"Sir-" Jack started knowing that he was dealing with death trying to even talk to him. But yelling at them all was not going to find her any quicker. Sam had disapeared from the hospital, not a sign from her. Her clothes and money had been cleared out of her house in a mad dash, and not even a note was found.
"Don't you *dare* 'Sir' me, Son." Jacob roared turning to him. "You where *supposed* to be looking out for Sam! You *promised* me you would!" Jack hung his head, discusted in himself for letting Jacob and Sam down. "Forgive me for inturupting." Jack looked up as he heard Selmac take over. "Jacob is rather distressed about Samantha and I feel that he will start saying things he does not mean." Jack nodded as Selmac looked directly at him as if appologising. "Tell me, have you contacted Samantha's brother."
"Yes." Daniel spoke up for the first time since the Tokra had sped out of the gate, a solem Martouf trailing behind him. "We rung his house and his work and they said he had gone away for 3 months, so she's not there."
Selmac paused for a moment, letting Jacob take control, but quickly stopped him as he opened his mouth to shout at Jack. "I am sorry." Selmac appologised again, making Jack feel rather unnerved. "Perhaps we should talk after Jacob has calmed down."
"Yes. I think that might be best. " General Hammond agreed looking at Jack as he hung his head and walked slowly out of the room.If Jack had of been a dog, his tail would be hanging between his legs. "Teal'c, could you please show Jacob to his room?"
Teal'c nodded and guided Jacob out of the room, Martouf stood still for a moment, watching each man in the room steadily and then following after them. Daniel released a breath that he hadn't realised he'd been holding and turned to Hammond.
"This is not good." Daniel mused.
Hammond nodded in agreement. "No, No it isn't."
***
"O'Neill."
Jack turned from the door of his quaters and turned to see the younger Tokra, Martouf walking towards him, his mouth set in grim determination. Jack stood still waiting for what ever Martouf choose to say so that he could go and hide in his quaters and forget about the world.
But nothing prepared Jack for the upper cut that he recieved in the jaw. He let out a cry and held his jaw, already moving back and preparing himself for another. But Martouf simply glared at him, standing tall and looking down at Jack.
"What the hell was that for?" Jack spluttered, anger evident in his voice.
"For Samantha." Martouf explained. "You Tauri might handle things differnently here, but you deserved that." Martouf's eyes flared and Jack felt as if he had already hit him again.
"Look-"
"No. *you* look." Martouf interupted. "I do not normally handle such matters with an act of voilence. But in your case, the only way you seem to listen is with violence."
Jack frowned. "And your more than happy to do everything you have to, huh Marty?" Jack sneered. "Listen, I don't have to take any crap from you-"
"Where as everyone has to take it from you?" Martouf spat. "You think your so high and mighty, the infamous Jack to the rescue. I am not one of you, I do not have to follow your flimsy Military rules. I am of Tokra and it is men like you that we dispise."
"Gee thanks, I feel a lot better." Jack muttered sarcasticly rubbing his jaw.
"I do not want you to feel better. Infact I would rather you suffer imerserable torture." Martouf spurrred. He egnored the look Jack sent him and continued to glare at the older man. "You think your the only one who cares for Samantha? You think no one can understand the ammount of pain you suffer becasue your the only one who loves Samantha?"
Jack looked away, cursing his damn throat for going dry and feeling tears of truth lick at his eyes. The rage in Martoufs eyes was enough to make a Goul'd run for miles and the fact that Jack's jaw was still hurting reminded him dearly how strong Martouf was.
"But let me tell you something Jack O'Neill." Martouf said stepping forward, causing Jack to back up and hit the door. "Your not! Everyone cares for Samantha. She has touched many lives, but you are the only one selfish enough to think that you own her feelings and that you own her pain. You don't own her!" Martouf paused gathering his thoughts and a small flicure of pain fluttered through his eyes. "Or maybe you do.Mabye your the reason why Samantha hides her feelings from everyone, maybe your the reason why she has never let anyone love her. Samantha gives her everything to you, she worships the ground you walk on, but you.....*you* don't even notice! Don't even give her a soft word or a thankyou or anything for that matter. Cause to you she's 'good old Carter' always there to save your sorry ass. I don't know why she bothers, you are nothing compared to many others who have loved her, you don't even deserve her attention!"
Martouf breathed deeply, he spluttered for a moment, a loss for words. "Yet..... she is so devoted to you, that it makes me sad. Sad becasue your the one who drove her to her own death. Becasue of you Samantha is dieing, becasue of you Samantha has run away from everything that is important to her...."
"I-" Jack started but Martouf waved his hand infront of him, silencing him.
"I am tierd of your excuses, I am tierd of *you*. Everything Samantha has done is for you....and now she has dug her own grave for *you*." And with that, he whirled on his heel and stormed away to the VIP area leaving Jack to stand stuned.
In Jack's mind all he could hear was Martoufs cruel words. Jack was frozen in his own black nightmare and Martouf words wounded him more than he could have known.
Jack turned and grabbed his keys, racing towards the elevator and towards the surface. He was gonna find her and he was going to bring her back and show everyone that he cared for her. More importantly he would show Sam a love that he never though possiable, and he was going to let nothing stand in his way.
***
Daniel
" You havn't seen her? No...Listen if you see her please contact me ASAP. Yes.....it's an emergancy. Thankyou."
Daniel sighed and hung up the phone. He had finally managed to get ahold of Sam's brother Mark, and to say he was rather annoyed was an understatment. But Sam's life was more important than someone being ticked off at him.
"Daniel!"
Daniel whirled around to see Janet running breathlessly down the corridor. In one hand she held a ripped piece of paper and the other she held her car keys.
"I think I know where she went." Janet gasped out stopping and thrusting the piece of paper into Daniels hand. He flipped it over and saw a bus company higlighted. Beside it was the times and destination for a Saturday. The same day Sam had gone missing.
"Why would Sam to Washignton?" Daniel wondered turning as Janet waved to him to follow her. Daniel thought hard, Sam had mentioned something about Stomping grounds in DC, and that she had lived there with Joanas when they where engaged, but surely she wouldn't of gone back there. Besides Joanas was dead.
"I've already notified General Hammond that we've gone to find her and apparently Jack left 2 hours ago in a furry." Janet said, gulping in oxygen as she leaned against the elevator as it climbed steadily to the surface. "I did some back round cheaking and alot of it is cluey, but Jacob told me that when Sam's mom had died they where living in DC at the time."
"You think that Sam has gone home?" Daniel wondered. As it begun to make sense he kicked himself, why hadn't he thought of that in the first place.
"Don't feel bad Daniel." Janet said as if reading his thoughts. "I only started thinking about it when I heard Jacob telling Martouf about Sam's mother and where they had their wedding and I knew how upset Sam was about her Moms death when you guys came back from Nettu, so I thought If I where Sam..."
Daniel nodded and he glanced at his watch. "Do you think we'll get a flight before tomorrow?"
Janet nodded. "Higher places." Janet said tapping her temple. "One good thing about working on a top secret project , we get our own plane. We have enough time to swing by our places and grab some clothes."
"What about Jack?" Daniel wondered, worridly climbing into Janet's jeep.
Janet smiled sadly at him. "No one can get a hold of him and from what one of my nurses told me, him and Martouf had a little heart to heart."
"Oh no." Daniel muttered shaking his head.
"Oh yes." Janet confirmed. "Martouf supposdly got a good swing on him."
"I can only imagine what the more than friendly Tokra had to say." Daniel said, fearing the worse and quite frankily wishing that they had never contacted the Tokra. He knew he should of waited till after, but Jack had insisted it was the right thing to do and that he would want to know.
"God, I hope we find Sam." Janet said sadly. Daniel flicked his eyes to her and patted her lightly on the shoulder for some comfort. Janet smiled at him and he could tell that even though she wore dark sunglasses she was crying.
"We will. You'll see, everything will be ok." Daniel said more to convince himself that Janet. "Everything will be fine."
***
Sam
"Lifes a bitch and then you die."
Sam turned around seeing a teenage boy standing beside a newly dug grave. She watched as he threw down the daisys in discust and folded his arms, his brown hair falling forward covering his face.
"Mark?"
A girl that was probably 3 years younger than him came tearing around the tomb stone and towards what was most likely her brother. She looked at the daisys on the floor that where covered in dirt and got down on her hands and knees and begun to sit them up nicely, planting them so they looked like they where growing.
"Save it. Nobody cares, she's dead. She left us, now get over it." He snapped and kicked another pile of dirt angrily at the tomb. He looked up as a tall man with shorter brown hair came towards him, with his arms open and tears in his eyes. "Stick it!" The boy shouted and pushed his father out of the way, storming past.
"Come on Sam, let's go."
The father said holding out his hand for the girl to take it. The girl pushed his hands away in a feeble attempt to stay. She got back down and cleaned up the dirt that her brother had kicked at the tomb, patting everything down and making it look pretty.
"Sweet Sam, always trying to make the best of every situation."
The father muttered kneeling down beside the girl and helping her decorate the flowers across the grave. When they finished they stood together, holding each others hands and giving each other a kiss, before walking off into the sunset........
Overhead another boom of lightning rung and another bout of pouring rain desended from the night sky, drowing the earth with its cold carress. Sam stood in the middle of the rain, her clothes soaked and sticking to her frail body, her eyes staring at the tomb stone. Of course the memory she had seen was not entirly real.
No, what had actually happened was that Mark had thrown down the daisys and kicked the tomb stone. Sam had bent down to fix it when there father came up to them. He berated Mark and told him to sit in the car and that he was a disrespecting no good son. As Sam went to fix the flowers her father had renched her from the grave telling her not to cry and that a Carter *never* cried. He had pushed her towards the car and told her to go make sure her brother didn't run off.
As Sam had run off, holding back tears and wishing her Mom was still alive, Her father had ripped out the daisys and thrown them away before looking to the sky and telling his wife that it was unfair to punish him like this and he wasn't born to raise 'her kids' by himself.
Sam shakily bent down and planted the flowers into the grave, egnoring the mud that slicked over her face as she grunted int effort. The rain contiued to poor and she sat there, her tears merging with the rain as she finally began to weep. Years of pent up rage and emotions, she finally broke free the military iron gates and wept like a new born.
A shiver coursed through her body and she stood up, feeling lost and unsure about her life. Could of things been differnet if her mother was still alive? would she be here if her mom was still there to give her cuddle and a kiss and tell her it was ok to cry?
She walked through the deserted street, walking through the rain and in the deep puddles until she came upon a small house at the end of a street. A wired fence hugged the house, it's windows bordard and a yellow sign that said it was going to be knocked down.
Sam slipped beyond the fence standing in the yard she had loved and used to play in with her pet dog. She moved to around the back standing now under a tall overgrown oak tree. A old rusted tree house still stood in the tree's welcoming brances and she sniffed and begun to climb it.
The little house moaned and creecked as she climbed inside, shaking the cold rain from her hair. She sat on the floor, listening to the rain as it howled outside and running her fingers over the carved writting that read, 'Sammys house'.
Suddenly she moved to the far corner of the tree house and begun to rip up the corner floor board. Her hands bled as she pried the wood free and a small hole began to appear. Inside was a small shoe box and she huffed and grunted as she pulled it out. It was bound by 10 rubber bands and Sam cried out into the cold wind as they snapped against her frozen fingers.
Tear begun to coarse down her face again as she opened the box and saw a tattered photo. The black and white photo showed her father and her mother smiling happily at one another. Mark sat on her fathers lap, while she was grinning at the camera as her mom hugged her tightly. Another photo showed her Mom and herself. Sam laying on her parents bed, giggling hysterically as her mother laughed while tickling her.
Sam smiled and felt her chin waver and she shut her eyes. Letting the cold shivers rack her body. Images and flashes of memorys flashed through her eyes as she lowered her head to the hard wooded floor and she cried herself to sleep. But one image remained constant in her mind. And that was of a certain CO, one that she had run away from, one that had infact ran away from her. He'd forgotten her and now after years of false hopes and false dreams and fantasys she realised, realised that he had never loved her. That all the jokes and hidden touches and smiles was just him feeling sorry for her. He was just being nice and trying to tell her that he didn't want her the way she wanted him.
Sam felt a old pang fill her body. The same pang of rejection and regret that he father had shown her that day in the cemetary. Neither of the men she respected and loved wanted her. She was alone and she might as well fade away like her mother had done.
***
The End.
Story Notes: Email: scc@theplanet.net.au
Sequel/reqired reading: Drunken Thoughts,The morning after, When you Wake
Archive: SJA, yes, Heliopolis Yes.
Notes: Sorry that I took so long to write a sequel but I got a bit of a writters block!
Sequel/reqired reading: Drunken Thoughts,The morning after, When you Wake
Archive: SJA, yes, Heliopolis Yes.
Notes: Sorry that I took so long to write a sequel but I got a bit of a writters block!
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 ]