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THAT LONG & WINDING ROAD…
by Bethany
“We’re too late!” Jacob fairly raged.
"We don’t know that yet…” Anise stated coolly.
“I hope we don’t…!” Jacob warned, “I should never have given the go-ahead for this mission!” Selmak continued.
“You are not the only one who gets to make decisions, Selmak.” Anise was business-like.
“He’s too young!” Jacob stated emphatically.
“He wasn’t the only one on this mission, Jacob…” Anise’s host, Freya, commented.
“But he’s still too young for all this…” Jacob stated again.
“He’s a Tok’ra.” Anise kept calm. “But you may be right…” Freya admitted. “When he has been recovered, we shall see…” Annice stated.
“If…” Jacob hated the injustice.
“It’s time to launch the pod…” Freya reminded them.
“Let’s go do some rescuing!” Jacob was calmed by Freya’s more gentle tones, but he was resolute.
“I hope so.” Freya sighed quietly.
“We are sure we can enter the craft?” Jacob asked, as they approached.
“Yes.” Anise affirmed.
“Let’s get this done…” Jacob added.
“We must also salvage their ship.” Annice reminded him.
“I’m not going to forget it!” Jacob let it be known. “We better go find these kids…”
“Kids..?” Anise was puzzled.
“You got a better name for that boy in there?” Jacob challenged.
“I’d hardly call a Tok’ra operative a child..!” Anise let minor agitation through her icy guard.
“Maybe you wouldn’t…” Jacob said, letting his words hang in the air.
“There are others with him, Jacob. This was his first mission, as an Observer. He had to begin his learning sometime…” Freya, once again, as ever, was the calming influence.
“Not this time.” Jacob told her certainly.
“Don’t worry, sir. No time now ‘til we can get you back home to a nice bowl of Oat Meal…” Sam Carter trudged behind, follow thy leader, with Colonel Jack O’Neill.
“I need it.” Jack agreed.
Daniel Jackson smiled, Jack glared at him. Daniel’s eyes glittered with untold mirth.
“I know, sir…” Sam Carter eyed him, too, and made the decision to stay sensible. She watched Jonas trying to figure them all out.
“Perhaps they can find you some Fruit Loops to go with your food, O’Neill…” Teal’c added.
“…Colonel, come in. SG1, are you there?…?” Major General George Hammond’s voice came over their radios.
“Yes, sir.” Jack affirmed, still walking to his destination.
“Colonel, you are needed back at the base, urgently.” Hammond’s voice was purposefully calm.
“What’s happened, General?” Notes of concern crept into Jack O’Neill’s military voice.
“The Tok’ra are here. Jacob and Annice. They want you to get back here ASAP, Jack.” Hammond maintained his calm.
“Me?” Jack uttered.
“Yes. You…” George Hammond patiently affirmed.
“Why me?” Jack couldn’t think why.
“It’s Charlie.” Hammond told him…I don’t want you panicking, Jack. That won’t help him.”
“Gimme a break, sir!” O’Neill picked up SG1’s pace.
“Just concentrate on getting yourself back home without breaking your neck…” Hammond instructed.
“We’ll make sure of that, sir…” Carter took over.
“We have to tell him!” Jacob commanded.
“That must not happen. I’m sure Selmak agrees…” Anise stated confidently.
“I do not.” Selmak disagreed. “This is a chance to show them that our alliance, and we ourselves, can be good to them also. Charlie needs blood, and we must give him the best chance available.” Selmak told his junior colleague.
“I hope you haven’t been whispering too many secrets, Jacob, old friend..!” Hammond boomed good-naturedly, but setting down the law, as he walked in to the Gateroom.
“I know better than that, George…” Jacob looked at Freya, host to Annice. “Anything on those tapes up there is free to be heard by your ears…” He grinned turned back, slowly and deliberately, knowing George had already broken the code.
Moments later, when the small party of military officers and Tok’ra had stepped back slightly from the gate, Jack O’Neill headlined SG1 as the gate was activated, and his group arrived. He dived down the ramp, “What’s going on, Jacob?”
“We have to get going, Jack…” Jacob was already in motion. “Get the co-ordinates dialled in ASAP, George.” He stopped, and impatiently waited.
“What is going on?” Jack asked, stalling the action. “Charlie got injured…” Jacob admitted.
Jack felt sick all over again, his head span, his body went numb, through fear, and through memory. “Where is he?” Jack asked. Knowing that it was the Tok’ra child Charlie of which they spoke, and not his biological son, Charlie Tyler O’Neill, did not ease his queasiness.
“We have him in Stasis. He needs some of your blood.” Jacob informed O’Neill.
“Sure.” Jack didn’t hesitate, at first. “Why my blood?”
“Because he is your blood type.” Annice stated.
“Wait. I have asked Doctor Frasier to accompany you…” Hammond interjected.
“Why?” Annice was agitated.
“For Jack’s sake.” Hammond retorted. He turned, noting Dr. Frasier as she entered the gateroom.
“We have to go now, George…” Jacob said, steering Jack back toward the gate.
“Good luck.” Sam Carter confusedly said.
“What’s going on?” Sam Carter paced the floor of the rec-room, after her colleague had gone back through the gate.
“Hammond won’t tell us.” Jonas stated the obvious.
“It’s a matter of honour with him…” Daniel began. “General Hammond would tell us, if he thought it his place to do so…”
“Daniel Jackson is correct.” Teal’c stated. “I believe the General is waiting for O’Neill to return and tell us himself.”
“Will this kid ever get well?” Jack looked down at the Tok’ra boy, Charlie, in stasis.
“The Tok’ra are going to do their best for him, with your help…” Janet Frasier said kindly.
“How come my blood is the only stuff compatible with his?” Jack looked bemused.
“I suppose it’s quite possible, Colonel. There aren’t that many Tok’ra here…” Frasier theorised.
“He’s your son, Colonel.” Selmak’s voice stated.
“What?” Immediately, O’Neill span on his feet to face Jacob, who had just entered the area, and had spoken to him in the Tok’ra’s tones.
“He’s yours, Jack.” Jacob reiterated.
“How can you know that?…” Jack was shell-shocked. “How come you know what my DNA looks like?” He asked, trying to make sudden sense of all the questions in his brain, trying to focus.
“Two years ago, I took blood samples during my experiments…” Freya had walked to Jacob Carter’s side, and now, her symbiote spoke.
“You have my blood on file???” Jack’s hackles were immediately up.
“We may have needed it, one day… Like today.” Anise regarded him unflinchingly.
“When we go out on missions, we are given health checks, so that our latest medical needs are on file, should anything occur.” Selmak added.
“And you let it occur to my son???” Jack never was one to naturally hide anger.
“He had to start learning sometime…” Anise stated, as if that would help matters.
“Pretty tough lesson to learn, huh?” Jack was deadly quiet as he squared up with Freya, and especially, Annice.
“He has to learn how to live as a Tok’ra, Colonel. His survival may depend upon it, someday…” Freya voiced reason.
“Or he might just end up dead!” Jack fumed. “The Tok’ra need your son, Colonel!” Annice had lost all pretences.
“You won’t have him. He’s coming home with me!!!” O’Neill stood toe to toe with her.
“I believe Charlie’s symbiote will have something to say about that…” She was almost venomous in her conviction.
“And what about Charlie..???” O’Neill spat.
“We need all the help we can get, Colonel. Your son wanted to go on this mission…” She looked down at Colonel O’Neill imperiously.
“Just like Charlie wanted to be like his Daddy when he grew up..!” O’Neill wanted to kill this worm.
“Charlie is grown up, Colonel…” She was uncaring.
“Not him!!!” O’Neill thundered at her, almost screaming.
“His first son!” Janet said protectively. “Sir, you knew that Charlie was Jack’s before he went on this mission, didn’t you?” She turned to General Carter.
“Yes.” He looked the Air Force doctor straight in the eyes.
“We had not known long…” Anise tried to smooth things over, for her own sake.
“You knew????” O’Neill dived on the admission.
“Sir, Charlie needs you...” Frasier gently reminded.
“How much of my blood do you need???” O’Neill refused to back down, and looked at Anise, host to regular human eyeball to eyeball.
“Quite a bit of it, Colonel…” Jacob freely admitted.
“But they have blood reproduction abilities, Colonel. I’m as sure as I can be that they’ll be safe on you…” Frasier remembered her studies.
“How come you didn’t realise he’s my son, Janet?” O’Neill turned on her.
“I wish I had, sir…” Frasier was saddened.
“Charlie’s DNA had been so convoluted by the Re’tu’s engineering. Your Physician should not be blamed for her inability to detect the human half of the young man’s parentage…” Jacob explained.
“Sorry, Janet…” O’Neill quietly and wearily said, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“Understandable, sir.” She smiled, concerned for him.
“The procedure must start soon…” Jacob Carter informed them both.
“Okay. Listen, Jacob. I’m really sorry…” Jack was already exhausted with emotion.
“I’m the sorry one, Jack….” Jacob Carter paused, patting O’Neill on the shoulder with concern.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Is the boy alright?” Selmak asked Dr, Frasier, as he entered a waiting room area in which she sat, clenching her hands with the burning desire to be useful.
“Just, but his symbiote should kickstart the healing process pretty soon…” She looked up, tiredly.
“How is my fellow Tok’ra?” Selmak sat beside her. “Recovering as hoped, at the moment.” Frasier looked at his host, Jacob Carter.
“Thank you for letting me know this, Dr. Frasier.” The Tok’ra stated warmly.
“Why would I keep it from you?” She looked at his presence, shimmering behind the eyes of Jacob Carter. “Oh….” She realised that he had expected to be treated in kind, after Annice’s attitude toward O’Neill. “We’re not like that, most of the time…” She smiled genuinely, to reassure this fellow concerned being.
“And we are only as we have to be, but I did not wish to keep the news from Jack O’Neill…” The symbiote admitted, equally genuine.
“That’s good to hear….” She paused. “I’m going to be staying here for a couple of weeks, if you don’t mind…?”
“I’ll make sure it’s not a problem…” Jacob spoke up.
“Thanks. I’ll need to ask Sam to help look after Cassie…” Janet Frasier thought of her daughter.
“I don’t think either of them will see that as a punishment…!” Jacob softly and warmly laughed.
“All we have to do is get the Colonel better, then we can all get out of your hair…!” Frasier felt a little brighter.
“Which hair are you speaking of?” Jacob asked, deadpan.
“What do you have to report?” Hammond settled himself in his seat around the de-briefing table. “Did they tell you anything?”
“Yes, sir…” Frasier looked around the table at the anxious faces of the remaining SG1. Sam, Daniel, Jonas Quinn, the newest member…
“Teal’c is meeting us in here…” Hammond informed her.
“How is he???” Sam Carter could contain her question no longer.
“The Colonel?” Janet asked.
“Yeah, and Charlie…” Sam stated, distractedly, eagerly, worriedly.
“They are both doing well, but I’m not willing to move Jack back to the Base yet. I am going to request of the General that the Colonel and I be allowed to stay with the Tok’ra for a couple of weeks…” Frasier noted Teal’c, as he entered the room.
“I apologise for my tardiness…” He nodded sagely. “I was in Kel’nor’eem.”
“Sir, Colonel O’Neill has given a sizeable amount of his own blood, to help save Charlie…” Dr. Frasier looked directly at the General.
“Why would only the Colonel’s blood do?” Sam asked, almost impatiently.
“I don’t think it was so much a case of that, as of your father,” Janet Frasier paused, “seizing an opportunity…”
“What kind of an opportunity?” Sam asked.
“I am not sure I should divulge this…” Frasier looked to Hammond. “Doctor/Patient Confidentiality.” She explained.
“Whatever it is, could it affect Jack’s work for the SGC?” He tried to ease her split loyalty.
“I suppose it might…” She had to say yes.
“Divulge it.” Major General George Hammond commanded simply.
“…The opportunity General Carter took was to tell Colonel O’Neill that Charlie is his son…” Frasier took in the looks on each face.
“How didn’t you know this, from when Charlie visited the Base?” Sam Carter asked, trying to make sense of the revelation.
The Tok’ra have more sophisticated DNA reading abilities than the SGC Lab affords…” Quinn piped up.
Dr. Frasier nodded her agreement at his assessment.
“Oh…” Sam was bewildered.
“Has Charlie been told?” Daniel asked a question.
We decided it might help the Colonel to recover more speedily if he knew that he didn’t have to worry about breaking the news to Charlie.” Frasier stated.
“How did the boy take it?” Hammond enquired.
“Happily.” Even now, Janet issued a sigh of relief as she said it.
“Happily…” Teal’c observed.
“That’s a relief.” Hammond nodded his agreement with Teal’c’s statement.
“Yes, sir. I would like to request, sir, permission not to have to extract the Colonel from his recovery bed in the Tok’ra network just yet…” Frasier stated.
“Permission granted, Doctor.” Hammond was always reasonable.
“Thank you, sir.” Janet paused. “And, I have a favour to ask of you, Sam…”
“Sure…” Sam said gently.
“Will you help take care of Cassie while I’m off-world?” The doctor asked her colleague and friend.
“That shouldn’t be difficult. I have leave starting tomorrow…” She smiled.
“Charlie…!” Jack O’Neill awoke on his Tok’ra sickbed
“It seems Son was the right name for me after all…” The Tok’ra ‘boy’ reached out a hand to his father’s cheek.
After two whole weeks of getting to know his son, who had been known as Charlie for so long, it was wrong to ask him to change his name, O’Neill came home tired and confused. It felt odd talking to SG1. He worked with them all day, every day. He had to face their faces all day, every day. They knew about Tok’ra Charlie. They knew him so well, even Jonas, that they allowed him his silence. But there was so much more to it than that…
“Don’t you dare laugh when I say this, ok?” Jack said, as he settled into a seat next to his old friend. He had been thinking a lot lately. After all, he’d recently gained TWO children. He and Wenonah had patched things up, and now, he had been reunited with the other Charlie. He didn’t know if he wished he could tell his daughter and ex-wife, so it had left him doing a lot of thinking. Thinking and remembering…
“Why? What ya gonna say???” Colonel Kawalsky said, leaning forward in his rec-room chair.
“Well, I got somethin’ to tell ya…” Jack began cautiously.
“Right.” Kawalsky took stock. “What is it?”
“Well, y’know when I told you I had a son???” Jack said, awkwardly. “Uh,” he said, sounding like Daniel. “I mean, way back when…”
“Yeah, sure, when we first got here…” Kawalsky tried to put him at ease.
“Yeah, that’s right….” Jack took a deep mental breath… “Aint you ever wondered about the fact that he’s called Charlie?”
“I thought it was just a good name…!” Kawalsky grinned that grin.
“Yeah. Well, that’s not the only reason. Sara and I, we named him after you.” Jack hurried out the latest revelation on his mind.
“…Wooooaaahhh!…Jack….” Kawalsky put a shaky hand over his mouth, open in shock.
“Yeah, well…” O’Neill felt supremely awkward.
“What did I do?” Kawalsky had to wonder.
“You saved me…” O’Neill recalled for them both.
“Yeah… But I wasn’t the only one…” Kawalsky said, in awe of what his friend had done for him.
“You helped me out of there…” Jack paused, looking directly at him, fleetingly. “and besides, like ya said, Charlie’s a good name, right..?”
“Thanks, Jack…” Kawalsky didn’t have the words to say it any better.
“Don’t mention it…” Jack caught himself off-guard with his seriousness.
“OK.” Kawalsky was still in awe of this man, his best friend.
Jack lightened up, slightly. “Nah, I mean, y’know, we wanted to call him Charlie for ya. I tried to contact you when you were at Panama, and back out in the Gulf,‘cos it was crap that we lost touch…”
“I know…” Kawalsky whole-heartedly agreed with that statement.
“I could never manage to get through to ya…” Jack said, distantly….Those times were pretty crazy for a couple years there… And then, y’know…”
“Yeah.” Kawalsky knew exactly what O’Neill couldn’t say.
“Heya, Jack, buddy…” A voice spoke to Jack O’Neill as he dreamed that night…
“Hey…” Dream Jack replied hazily.
“Ya made it, Jack. Ya gonna be ok…” O’Neill could hear Frank Cromwell saying.
“Where’s Sara???” Dream Jack was agitated, highly.
“She’s not here, Jack…” Cromwell said, patiently.
“Why? Where’s Sara? What’s happened to Sara?” Dream Jack opened his eyes, and saw his colleague looking down at him with real concern etched in his eyes, and the lines of his weary face.
“Nothin’ buddy… Sara’s at home. She’s waiting for ya at home!” Cromwell reassured Jack, trying to get him to, once again, rest his head on the makeshift Air Force issue pillow.
“And the baby..? The baby’s at home???” Jack couldn’t find the strength to resist Cromwell’s gentle insistence that he rest his concussed head.
“Yep, that’s where Sara is. She’s waiting for ya, Jack, at home, waiting so she can have that boy of yours…!” Cromwell knew how much his friend was looking forward to the birth of his son.
“I need to get home, see the baby, see Sara…” Jack tried to get up again.
“I know, buddy, I know, and we’re gonna get ya there!” Cromwell insisted he lay down again, putting one hand on the shoulders of his injured comrade, the other guiding him gently, to make sure he did not fall.
“Where’s the baby, Frank… Where’s my boy…?” Jack did some insisting of his own.
“He’ll be waiting for ya at home…” Cromwell stated kindly.
“And Sara???” Jack needed reassurance.
“That’s it. Ya gettin’ there. We’ll have ya makin’ sense before we get ya home…! Cromwell smiled.
“I need to get home…To see them both, to let Wenonah know Daddy’s home safe…. Don’t leave me behind, buddy!” Jack pleaded, as he lost consciousness again.
“No one’s getting left behind, Jack. No one…” Cromwell said into thin air, and Jack observed his dream-self after he had been rescued from his parachute accident not long before the time when Cromwell had been forced to leave O’Neill to an Iraqui Prison.
And then, Jack O’Neill awoke in the SGC, in his bunk, and he rubbed a sleepy hand over tired eyes, and, long since given up the practice of having an alarm clock by his bed, O’Neill knew it was time to begin another day’s work in the military.
THE END