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A Good Sense of Timing…
by Bethany
“Why should we trust you again?” Jack asked the fugitive.
“Because I’ve made it my life’s task to take down Simmonds…” Maybourne stated, dryly, and deadly serious. “The N.I.D have been back in action, unfruitful as far as I know, but also undetected, and a little bird told me that Faxen is still alive…”
Sam was sick of losing her boyfriends, or those who might have eventually taken the vacancy. “How can we get him back?” She asked.
“Don’t even know if we will yet, Major… I knew bringing you along was a mistake!” Jack said protectively.
“I asked you to include the Major in our little meeting, Jack…” Maybourne reminded him.
“That’s right! You did…” Jack moved in on Maybourne menacingly. “Why exactly?”
“Truthfully…” Maybourne paused. “Because I knew she’d do her damnedest to bring him back home, and the more good guys there are around here, the more chance Simmonds has of hitting the floor hard when he falls…”
“If Joseph will become a target for your N.I.D, I’m not willing to be the cause of that…” Sam told Maybourne.
“He didn’t know who the N.I.D were when their paths crossed, Major… That little incident won’t cause him anything to worry about, but understandably, he’d like to get home…” Maybourne said, retreating into the shadows. “He is alive, and he is waiting for that all-elusive ticket home, but life isn’t easy for him. He has been put to solitary work on the farmland that was once the location of the Stargate… The previous tenant has been moved on… It seems a sympathiser convinced the Aschen Leader to make use of Faxen.”
“A sympathiser???” Jack called after Maybourne, but he was gone.
“Maybe it was Vorin…” Sam mused.
"Or maybe it was a trap…” Jack thought aloud.
“General, we brought home Doctor Littlefield safely… We gave him the hero’s welcome that was his due… I consider Joseph Faxen to be a man of the same calibre, a true hero…” Sam Carter strongly put across her point to Major General George Hammond, as she and the rest of SG1, sat in the Briefing Room…
“Shouldn’t we go and get him then?” Jonas asked everyone.
“The Aschen are capable of Biological Weaponry…” Teal’c said, calmness underlying the heaviness of his words.
“The N.I.D sneaked onto the Volian homeworld undetected by the Aschen.” Daniel said, in support of Sam’s hopes. He knew what it was like, to want to rescue someone, not to want to let the inevitable happen all over again… It was unbearable. Sarah was home now, and though he would never stop wishing he could have done the same for Sha’re, re-addressing the balance had washed over him as if to cleanse his soul more than even Oma DeSala was capable of.
“This is a BAD idea, a very, very bad idea..!” Jack O’Neill said. He was in his night-op gear, about to step through Earth’s Stargate in an effort to bring back another of Earth’s good old fashioned All-American Heroes… “What are Faxen’s family gonna think,” Jack paused, looking at Sam’s concerned face, “when he suddenly turns up on their doorstep again???”
“Faxen has no family, sir. That’s why we have to bring him home…” Sam said.
“Really?” Jack asked.
“Yes, sir! That’s exactly why we should bring him home… We must show him that he’s not alone in this Universe!” Sam stated with great confidence…
“You heard the Major!!!” Jack turned to the rest of his team.
Each member of SG1 marched through the Gate to the unknown…
Jack O’Neill scanned the perimeter with his keen eyesight the minute he got through… The MALP coulda missed somethin’… Wouldna be the first damn time! He thought.
Sam and Jonas Quinn came through the Gate next, and immediately followed his example.
Daniel Jackson and Teal’c arrived on the scene…
“Let’s get goin’, troops..!” Jack whispered.
“Why haven’t we met more resistance?” Daniel asked.
“Over confidence and gate-crashing…Over-confidence being their main fault, gate-crashing being down to our daring, of course..!” Jack continued to move forward, as they all did.
“This place’s all farmland, Colonel… How will we ever find Joseph Faxen???” Jonas Quinn was the next to ask a question.
“Everyone follow me and SHUT UP!!!” Jack stated.
O’Neill and his team reached the old Stargate site, and continued on to the hut that they hoped was Faxen’s home… “Now what?” He turned to Major Carter, and asked her opinion.
“Now, sir, we knock on the door…” She stepped forward resolutely.
“This may not be a wise plan, Major Carter…” Teal’c warned.
“You’re right…” She said, and knocked on the door almost gingerly.
Equally gingerly, it seemed, the person on the other side of that door opened it up… He peeked through the crack into the night, and then, he flung the door back, abandoning caution entirely, rather like SG1 were putting into practise with this entire mission…
“How did you know the Aschen were off world???” Joseph Faxen asked, ushering them to the crates he used for seating.
“We didn’t…” Daniel admitted for them.
“And you came back for me?” Joseph said, almost overwhelmed.
“We have an ally…” Jack said, through gritted teeth. “He, in turn, has friends, who let us know you’re still alive an’ kickin’!!!”
“Why couldn’t they rescue me..?” Faxen asked, looking at Carter with unshielded awe.
“Because those guys have other priorities…” She informed him, breaking out of her own glad reverie…
“Follow us, Faxen… Stay close to Carter!” Jack quietly told him, as they raced back into the cold night.
“That won’t be difficult, Colonel…” Faxen admitted, though O’Neill himself hated to admit there was no bravado in Faxen’s admission.
“You keep an eye on those two… We haven’t got him this far to lose him, and our own lives…” Jack ran ahead, and told Teal’c to drop back slightly. “Stay between them and trouble…”
Teal’c nodded. “Is that not Major Carter’s job?”
“Well, yeah, but let’s just say I’m not willing to bet her life on his, should we need to…” Jack paused. “Not that I’m all that keen on risking you either, buddy!” He patted Teal’c on the shoulder. “But I gotta get us all home in one piece, and someone needs to hold the reigns on those two…” He nodded askance at Jackson and Quinn. “They’re both as bad as each other for runnin’ off like they do…” He turned back to Teal’c. “If somethin’ happens and I don’t make it, you make sure that Faxen and Carter do… At least then,” Jack paused, and sighed. “This crazy mission will have been worth it.”
SG1 ran down the ramp. “We’re home!” Jack called up to the General, and Davis, whom he could see in the control room. “We’re bloody home!!!”
Joseph Faxen turned to Colonel O’Neill, and shook his hand.
“Just don’t ever go bein’ all heroic again, not ever, ya hear me?” Jack grinned at him. “We’re so damn lucky we made it that time..!”
Faxen turned so that his gaze encompassed them all, including the General, who had just come into the Gateroom, after leaving Davis with the order to close the Iris. “Thank you all from the bottom of my heart…”
“And the top of those nicely filled beer glasses ya definitely owe us all!” Jack clapped him on the shoulder.
“Well, I did say I was going to take Major Carter out to lunch last time we all met…” He smiled at her. “I think my tab can run to making sure you all enjoy a gourmet meal…” He looked at each of them with a wide grin… “After all, I haven’t touched my bank account in a whole year!”
Joseph Faxen looked at Sam Carter as she stood before him in a deserted corridor of the SGC. “I still hope to take you out to dinner without the rest of the gang sometime…”
“You will!” She said. “You will…” She tenderly kissed him on the cheek. “But you’ll need this first…” She handed him a piece of paper from one of her pockets.
“What’s this?” He grinned, unfolding its secrets.
“I think you know…” She said. “Welcome home!” She held his hand. “You’re home’s still where you left it. Your neighbours are simply under the impression that you moved away… I wouldn’t let the General tell the authorities to put it up for sale… I didn’t know what had happened to you. But I hadn’t lost hope either!” She beamed.
Tears were in his eyes, as he kissed her hand. Gentleness she clearly wasn’t used to being shown, as a Military woman.
Sam smiled at him, warmth exuding from her every pore. She grinned, almost giggling and giddy. “Don’t you dare lose that phone number!” She teased him, putting on her sternest face, and waggling the finger of her free and un-kissed hand in his handsome face.
THE END…