To Dance Between the Raindrops: A Snowflake's Waltz - Chapter 18
To Dance Between the Raindrops: A Snowflake's Waltz
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I own nothing in this Stargate SG-1/Sanctuary crossover story but my altered headspace. Stargate SG-1 belongs to Gekko Film Corp, MGM, Fox, various individuals and companies and whoever owns them. Sanctuary belongs to Damian Kindler, Amanda Tapping, Martin Wood, The Beedie Group, Tricon Films & Television, Space and whoever else owns bits and pieces of it.
Spoilers: For SG-1, to the end of series; for Sanctuary, up to the episode “Pavor Nocturnus” (Season 2, Episode 5). Everything after that is up for grabs.
Summary: Sam and Cassie go Christmas shopping in New City ...
To Dance Between the Raindrops: A Snowflake's Waltz
Chapter 18
It was a long moment before Janet realised that the strangled gasp didn’t come from her own throat, but from Sam, who was struggling to sit up in her bed.
Shooting Magnus a venomous glare, Janet hissed, “You’re crazy,” and hurried over to Sam’s bedside, returning the syringe to her lab coat pocket.
“Janet, what the hell is going on?” Sam rasped out. “Who is this?”
Janet silently cursed the other woman’s intolerance for most sedatives and anaesthetics-and her body’s ability to quickly build up immunity to those she could tolerate. On the dose she’d given Sam, most people would be out for at least another four to six hours-not be awake after barely two.
“It’s all right, Sam,” Janet said soothingly as she forced her to lie down again, and helped her moisten her mouth with a spoonful of ice chips. “This is Dr. Helen Magnus; she runs the Sanctuary-that’s the facility you’re at right now. Somehow, her people transported her daughter, Ashley, Cassandra and you out of the building where your kidnappers had been holding you.”
“They didn’t transport us, Janet,” she said staring fixedly at Helen Magnus, who now stood at the foot of her bed.
“What do you mean, Sam?” Janet said in confusion. “Of course they transported you-Hailey detected its trace-”
Sam shook her head, still holding Magnus’ gaze. “No Janet, they don’t have transporter technology-”
“Then how did they get you here?”
“They didn’t-her daughter, Ashley, has the ability to teleport matter from one place to another,” Sam said hoarsely.
“What?” It was Janet’s turn to shout in shock.
“Samantha is entirely correct, Janet,” Magnus said; her voice level, almost impassive as she held Sam’s gaze. “It is a talent Ashley inherited from her father.”
“What is her range?” Sam asked Magnus, startling Janet because she knew that tone of voice very well; weak as she was, Sam’s insatiable scientific curiosity was rearing its head.
“I have not yet had a chance to test her abilities,” Helen replied in the identical tone of voice. “But her father can send himself from here to London in the time it takes you to blink.”
“That’s why they kidnapped Ashley, Mom-” Janet spun to face her daughter as she spoke, sitting up in bed and wiping the sleep from her eyes. “It’s part of the reason why they exposed her to the Source Blood-to activate whatever latent traits she inherited from her parents. They were trying to create an army of super-soldiers like her, but the others were weaker than Ashley for some reason … they burnt out-mind and body-but Ashley didn’t.”
Cassandra hopped off the bed and crossed quickly to Sam’s side. Leaning in, she pulled her second mother into a gentle hug.
“How are you doing, kiddo?” Sam asked tenderly cupping her face. “You weren’t hurt, were you?”
“No, I’m fine,” she replied, eyes brimming with tears. “Everything went just like we planned-up until you got yourself shot! Don’t ever do that to me again, Sam.”
Sam pulled her into another tender hug. “I’ll try not to, sweetheart,” she said. “I promise.”
Over Cassandra’s shoulder, Sam met Janet’s gaze with a small, bittersweet smile; it was the only promise Sam had learned to make to Cassandra-the promise to try. There were no absolutes in their line of work.
“You’re very brave, Cassandra,” she said kissing their daughter’s temple. “You’re very brave.” Cassandra rested her forehead against Sam’s for a moment before straightening up.
Just then, Jack poked his head in the door. “Hey Carter!” he said with obvious relief. “I thought I heard your voice.”
“Hi sir,” Sam said smiling, which gave way to a small grimace as she tried to sit up.
“As you were, soldier,” O’Neill said gently as the rest of SG-1 filed into the infirmary followed closely by Magnus’ people.
“God Sam,” Daniel said pushing past O’Neill to get to her bedside. “Should you even be awake?”
Sam grinned as he pecked her cheek. “You know me and drugs, Daniel,” she chuckled softly.
“Yeah,” Daniel replied ruefully as he stepped back.
“SamanthaCarter, it is good to see you are healing well,” Teal’c said formally with his characteristic bow.
“Thanks, T-ah, it looks like we’ll have to postpone our next ballroom dancing lesson though,” she said, quickly covering her near slip with one of their old jokes.
“Indeed,” the big man replied with another nod.
“Well now that you’re confined to bed, at least you won’t have any excuses not to watch the Resident Evil zombie apocalypse series with me,” Vala said leaning in to give Sam an enthusiastic hug.
Sam groaned, whether from pain of being jostled or the prospect of being subjected to those horror movies, Janet didn’t know, but they all laughed as the tension in the room broke.
Curiously, Helen Magnus was the one person who tensed up as everyone relaxed at Vala’s joke. In fact, since Jack and SG-1 had entered the room, Janet had watched out the corner of her eye as the Sanctuary’s leader tried to unobtrusively inch her way over to Will Zimmerman who was standing near the door.
“Yes, well that will have to wait, Vala,” Sam said in an uncharacteristically hard voice as she fixed Magnus with an angry stare. “Until Dr. Magnus sees fit to explain why she thinks I’m a clone of her-and why she has a virtual clone of my brother standing next to her!”
For a moment, in the utter stillness, it was as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. The two women stared at each other; Helen Magnus’ confused face drained white, while Sam’s face flushed an angry red.
As Jack shouted, “What!” Janet found she could suddenly breathe again.
“Oh my God,” Cassie said in shock. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.”
“Understandable Cassie, you were just twelve,” Sam said grimly as her team turned to stare at Magnus and her people. “You only met Mark that one time and he wasn’t terribly nice to you.”
Janet remembered that incident well-how angry Sam had been that her brother refused to accept Cassie as part of their family, yet he’d demanded that Sam pay more attention to his children … “her real family,” as he’d put it. It had created an even greater rift between Sam and Mark that Janet regretted. She knew how much Sam loved her niece and nephew and how much it hurt her when Mark pulled away again because of Sam’s relationship with Janet and Cassie.
“You think that I look like your brother?” Will Zimmerman croaked in disbelief. “I can assure you-”
“Not you … him,” Sam said pointing to Declan McCrae, standing just behind Kate Freelander on the other side of Magnus.
“Declan?” Helen Magnus turned to look at her colleague, seemingly as confused as everyone else. “Declan looks like your brother?” she said hoarsely.
“About five-ten years younger,” Sam replied angrily. “And he’s managed to hang onto his hair, but yes, he looks like my brother, Mark.”
“What utter rot!” the man in question exploded. “What the bloody hell are you trying to pull?”
As Sam opened her mouth to retort, Ashley Magnus woke up and began to scream. Cassandra stiffened, before hurrying over to the other young woman’s bedside. As she began to gently soothe the screaming girl, Sam’s eyes widened in shock.
“Ashley,” she whispered looking at Helen Magnus’ tearful face as the woman gazed helplessly at her daughter. Compassion broke over Sam’s face, banishing her anger of just moments before, and then her eyes widened in shock.
“Cassie!” Sam said with new urgency in her voice; Janet stared at her in surprise. “Sweetheart, take her back-back to Huntress in the library. Then close the portal and let them be.”
“B-but Sam-” Cassie whimpered and Janet looked from one tear-stained face to the other, trying desperately to decipher the subtext between them.
“Do it, Cassandra!” Sam ordered, cutting her off ruthlessly. “You were only supposed to hold her reins until we escaped. She’s shredding you from the inside-out and your control is slipping!”
“Oh God, Cassandra!” Janet shouted, panicked as she stared at her daughter in absolute horror. Sam caught her wrist in a vice-like grip, keeping her from rushing to Cassandra’s side.
“She belongs with Huntress and Ash, Cassandra,” Sam said over their daughter’s quiet sobbing. “If Ashley Magnus is to ever come out of that place with any semblance of her sanity in tact, it has to be due to their actions … they must work together to free her and she must work to integrate them. You’re not a part of them, Cassie, and they’re not part of you. You can’t do this for her-you can’t take on all her pain. Put Monster back and leave Ashley’s mind. Do it now, Cassandra!” Sam commanded.
Janet watched her daughter’s heart break as she whispered, “I’m sorry ... I’m sorry,” over and over to Ashley Magnus, before letting go of the girl and stumbling away from the bed.
Sam released Janet. “Go,” she said hoarsely and Janet fled to her distraught daughter’s side, just in time to catch her as she began to collapse. And then Teal’c was there, relieving her of Cassie’s weight, as Jack pulled a chair over and helped her into it. Teal’c then placed her child in her lap. Cassie curled into her, sobbing brokenly.
“It’s alright, baby,” Janet said as her heart began to slow its pounding-and then she felt it; the flutter of a wounded, broken thing brushing against her mind. Without hesitation, she opened the window and welcomed it in. “I’ve got you, baby, I’ve got you.”
Then the keening cries began, before the body of the other young woman started to convulse wildly, straining at the bonds that shackled her to the bed.
“What have you done?” Janet heard Helen Magnus scream as she rushed to her daughter’s side. “What have you done?”
“Only what needed to be done!” Sam retorted. “Now you need to do what needs to be done, Dr. Magnus. What would you do for a convulsive patient?”
“Ashley? Ashley!” Magnus cried wildly; Janet instinctively clutched Cassie closer to her, feeling her daughter stiffen against the emotional onslaught.
“Do your duty, Dr. Magnus!” Sam’s voice whip-cracked through the room with a power that belied her condition; she grimaced in pain, tears slipping down her face. “Attend your patient!” she ground out, snapping Magnus out of her immobility.
For the next few minutes, there was a flurry of activity as Helen Magnus and Will Zimmerman worked frantically to stop Ashley’s convulsions. Finally, the activity stopped, and all Janet could hear was Helen’s sobbing as she held her daughter’s still body.
“Your daughter was harming mine, Dr. Magnus,” Sam whispered hoarsely. “And Cassandra was allowing her to because once she’d become so closely bound to her, she couldn’t help but take on her pain as well. In addition to being a telepath, Cassie is a powerful empath-”
“And left to her own devices, she would take on all the pain of the entire world if she could,” Helen finished hoarsely.
“Yes,” Sam replied. “She dropped her guard and let Ashley get in too close-she was losing her sense of self and had to be forced to let go before the strain of Ashley’s psychic onslaught damaged her mind.”
“And what about Ashley?” Helen begged tearfully.
“I don’t know,” Sam admitted; her voice was full of regret. “Perhaps once you and Janet have figured out how to reverse her changes, or mitigate them in some way-perhaps taking the strain off her body may help take the strain off her mind as well … allow her various personas to reintegrate.”
Her only response was Helen Magnus’ broken sobs.
#
Chapter 19
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I own nothing in this Stargate SG-1/Sanctuary crossover story but my altered headspace. Stargate SG-1 belongs to Gekko Film Corp, MGM, Fox, various individuals and companies and whoever owns them. Sanctuary belongs to Damian Kindler, Amanda Tapping, Martin Wood, The Beedie Group, Tricon Films & Television, Space and whoever else owns bits and pieces of it.
Spoilers: For SG-1, to the end of series; for Sanctuary, up to the episode “Pavor Nocturnus” (Season 2, Episode 5). Everything after that is up for grabs.
Summary: Sam and Cassie go Christmas shopping in New City ...
To Dance Between the Raindrops: A Snowflake's Waltz
Chapter 18
It was a long moment before Janet realised that the strangled gasp didn’t come from her own throat, but from Sam, who was struggling to sit up in her bed.
Shooting Magnus a venomous glare, Janet hissed, “You’re crazy,” and hurried over to Sam’s bedside, returning the syringe to her lab coat pocket.
“Janet, what the hell is going on?” Sam rasped out. “Who is this?”
Janet silently cursed the other woman’s intolerance for most sedatives and anaesthetics-and her body’s ability to quickly build up immunity to those she could tolerate. On the dose she’d given Sam, most people would be out for at least another four to six hours-not be awake after barely two.
“It’s all right, Sam,” Janet said soothingly as she forced her to lie down again, and helped her moisten her mouth with a spoonful of ice chips. “This is Dr. Helen Magnus; she runs the Sanctuary-that’s the facility you’re at right now. Somehow, her people transported her daughter, Ashley, Cassandra and you out of the building where your kidnappers had been holding you.”
“They didn’t transport us, Janet,” she said staring fixedly at Helen Magnus, who now stood at the foot of her bed.
“What do you mean, Sam?” Janet said in confusion. “Of course they transported you-Hailey detected its trace-”
Sam shook her head, still holding Magnus’ gaze. “No Janet, they don’t have transporter technology-”
“Then how did they get you here?”
“They didn’t-her daughter, Ashley, has the ability to teleport matter from one place to another,” Sam said hoarsely.
“What?” It was Janet’s turn to shout in shock.
“Samantha is entirely correct, Janet,” Magnus said; her voice level, almost impassive as she held Sam’s gaze. “It is a talent Ashley inherited from her father.”
“What is her range?” Sam asked Magnus, startling Janet because she knew that tone of voice very well; weak as she was, Sam’s insatiable scientific curiosity was rearing its head.
“I have not yet had a chance to test her abilities,” Helen replied in the identical tone of voice. “But her father can send himself from here to London in the time it takes you to blink.”
“That’s why they kidnapped Ashley, Mom-” Janet spun to face her daughter as she spoke, sitting up in bed and wiping the sleep from her eyes. “It’s part of the reason why they exposed her to the Source Blood-to activate whatever latent traits she inherited from her parents. They were trying to create an army of super-soldiers like her, but the others were weaker than Ashley for some reason … they burnt out-mind and body-but Ashley didn’t.”
Cassandra hopped off the bed and crossed quickly to Sam’s side. Leaning in, she pulled her second mother into a gentle hug.
“How are you doing, kiddo?” Sam asked tenderly cupping her face. “You weren’t hurt, were you?”
“No, I’m fine,” she replied, eyes brimming with tears. “Everything went just like we planned-up until you got yourself shot! Don’t ever do that to me again, Sam.”
Sam pulled her into another tender hug. “I’ll try not to, sweetheart,” she said. “I promise.”
Over Cassandra’s shoulder, Sam met Janet’s gaze with a small, bittersweet smile; it was the only promise Sam had learned to make to Cassandra-the promise to try. There were no absolutes in their line of work.
“You’re very brave, Cassandra,” she said kissing their daughter’s temple. “You’re very brave.” Cassandra rested her forehead against Sam’s for a moment before straightening up.
Just then, Jack poked his head in the door. “Hey Carter!” he said with obvious relief. “I thought I heard your voice.”
“Hi sir,” Sam said smiling, which gave way to a small grimace as she tried to sit up.
“As you were, soldier,” O’Neill said gently as the rest of SG-1 filed into the infirmary followed closely by Magnus’ people.
“God Sam,” Daniel said pushing past O’Neill to get to her bedside. “Should you even be awake?”
Sam grinned as he pecked her cheek. “You know me and drugs, Daniel,” she chuckled softly.
“Yeah,” Daniel replied ruefully as he stepped back.
“SamanthaCarter, it is good to see you are healing well,” Teal’c said formally with his characteristic bow.
“Thanks, T-ah, it looks like we’ll have to postpone our next ballroom dancing lesson though,” she said, quickly covering her near slip with one of their old jokes.
“Indeed,” the big man replied with another nod.
“Well now that you’re confined to bed, at least you won’t have any excuses not to watch the Resident Evil zombie apocalypse series with me,” Vala said leaning in to give Sam an enthusiastic hug.
Sam groaned, whether from pain of being jostled or the prospect of being subjected to those horror movies, Janet didn’t know, but they all laughed as the tension in the room broke.
Curiously, Helen Magnus was the one person who tensed up as everyone relaxed at Vala’s joke. In fact, since Jack and SG-1 had entered the room, Janet had watched out the corner of her eye as the Sanctuary’s leader tried to unobtrusively inch her way over to Will Zimmerman who was standing near the door.
“Yes, well that will have to wait, Vala,” Sam said in an uncharacteristically hard voice as she fixed Magnus with an angry stare. “Until Dr. Magnus sees fit to explain why she thinks I’m a clone of her-and why she has a virtual clone of my brother standing next to her!”
For a moment, in the utter stillness, it was as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. The two women stared at each other; Helen Magnus’ confused face drained white, while Sam’s face flushed an angry red.
As Jack shouted, “What!” Janet found she could suddenly breathe again.
“Oh my God,” Cassie said in shock. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.”
“Understandable Cassie, you were just twelve,” Sam said grimly as her team turned to stare at Magnus and her people. “You only met Mark that one time and he wasn’t terribly nice to you.”
Janet remembered that incident well-how angry Sam had been that her brother refused to accept Cassie as part of their family, yet he’d demanded that Sam pay more attention to his children … “her real family,” as he’d put it. It had created an even greater rift between Sam and Mark that Janet regretted. She knew how much Sam loved her niece and nephew and how much it hurt her when Mark pulled away again because of Sam’s relationship with Janet and Cassie.
“You think that I look like your brother?” Will Zimmerman croaked in disbelief. “I can assure you-”
“Not you … him,” Sam said pointing to Declan McCrae, standing just behind Kate Freelander on the other side of Magnus.
“Declan?” Helen Magnus turned to look at her colleague, seemingly as confused as everyone else. “Declan looks like your brother?” she said hoarsely.
“About five-ten years younger,” Sam replied angrily. “And he’s managed to hang onto his hair, but yes, he looks like my brother, Mark.”
“What utter rot!” the man in question exploded. “What the bloody hell are you trying to pull?”
As Sam opened her mouth to retort, Ashley Magnus woke up and began to scream. Cassandra stiffened, before hurrying over to the other young woman’s bedside. As she began to gently soothe the screaming girl, Sam’s eyes widened in shock.
“Ashley,” she whispered looking at Helen Magnus’ tearful face as the woman gazed helplessly at her daughter. Compassion broke over Sam’s face, banishing her anger of just moments before, and then her eyes widened in shock.
“Cassie!” Sam said with new urgency in her voice; Janet stared at her in surprise. “Sweetheart, take her back-back to Huntress in the library. Then close the portal and let them be.”
“B-but Sam-” Cassie whimpered and Janet looked from one tear-stained face to the other, trying desperately to decipher the subtext between them.
“Do it, Cassandra!” Sam ordered, cutting her off ruthlessly. “You were only supposed to hold her reins until we escaped. She’s shredding you from the inside-out and your control is slipping!”
“Oh God, Cassandra!” Janet shouted, panicked as she stared at her daughter in absolute horror. Sam caught her wrist in a vice-like grip, keeping her from rushing to Cassandra’s side.
“She belongs with Huntress and Ash, Cassandra,” Sam said over their daughter’s quiet sobbing. “If Ashley Magnus is to ever come out of that place with any semblance of her sanity in tact, it has to be due to their actions … they must work together to free her and she must work to integrate them. You’re not a part of them, Cassie, and they’re not part of you. You can’t do this for her-you can’t take on all her pain. Put Monster back and leave Ashley’s mind. Do it now, Cassandra!” Sam commanded.
Janet watched her daughter’s heart break as she whispered, “I’m sorry ... I’m sorry,” over and over to Ashley Magnus, before letting go of the girl and stumbling away from the bed.
Sam released Janet. “Go,” she said hoarsely and Janet fled to her distraught daughter’s side, just in time to catch her as she began to collapse. And then Teal’c was there, relieving her of Cassie’s weight, as Jack pulled a chair over and helped her into it. Teal’c then placed her child in her lap. Cassie curled into her, sobbing brokenly.
“It’s alright, baby,” Janet said as her heart began to slow its pounding-and then she felt it; the flutter of a wounded, broken thing brushing against her mind. Without hesitation, she opened the window and welcomed it in. “I’ve got you, baby, I’ve got you.”
Then the keening cries began, before the body of the other young woman started to convulse wildly, straining at the bonds that shackled her to the bed.
“What have you done?” Janet heard Helen Magnus scream as she rushed to her daughter’s side. “What have you done?”
“Only what needed to be done!” Sam retorted. “Now you need to do what needs to be done, Dr. Magnus. What would you do for a convulsive patient?”
“Ashley? Ashley!” Magnus cried wildly; Janet instinctively clutched Cassie closer to her, feeling her daughter stiffen against the emotional onslaught.
“Do your duty, Dr. Magnus!” Sam’s voice whip-cracked through the room with a power that belied her condition; she grimaced in pain, tears slipping down her face. “Attend your patient!” she ground out, snapping Magnus out of her immobility.
For the next few minutes, there was a flurry of activity as Helen Magnus and Will Zimmerman worked frantically to stop Ashley’s convulsions. Finally, the activity stopped, and all Janet could hear was Helen’s sobbing as she held her daughter’s still body.
“Your daughter was harming mine, Dr. Magnus,” Sam whispered hoarsely. “And Cassandra was allowing her to because once she’d become so closely bound to her, she couldn’t help but take on her pain as well. In addition to being a telepath, Cassie is a powerful empath-”
“And left to her own devices, she would take on all the pain of the entire world if she could,” Helen finished hoarsely.
“Yes,” Sam replied. “She dropped her guard and let Ashley get in too close-she was losing her sense of self and had to be forced to let go before the strain of Ashley’s psychic onslaught damaged her mind.”
“And what about Ashley?” Helen begged tearfully.
“I don’t know,” Sam admitted; her voice was full of regret. “Perhaps once you and Janet have figured out how to reverse her changes, or mitigate them in some way-perhaps taking the strain off her body may help take the strain off her mind as well … allow her various personas to reintegrate.”
Her only response was Helen Magnus’ broken sobs.
#
Chapter 19