Fanfic: Unplanned Parenthood Chapter Five
Title: Unplanned Parenthood
Author: LexKitten
Chapter: Five - Unwelcome Advances
Previous Chapters: Prologue, Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four
In This Chapter: Jack avoids punishment, while Sam endures a visit from an old “friend”(?) - Rodney McKay.
Rating: Teen
A/N: Someone asked me in a comment a while back, how people that knew Jack and Sam might react to their new “daughter”. And of course, I thought of McKay. I love McKay ^^; There is something so utterly endearing about how annoying he is. And I always wanted to see a “show down” between McKay and Jack. So, this is my little indulgence.
Thank you as always to windsparrow , tardisinthesgc andlilferret ! For the spell checking, Americanization, and the witty details.
***
“That was a hell of a stunt you pulled,” General Hammond growled at Jack from the head of the briefing table. It was two hours since the disastrous code-read, and General Hammond had finally dropped the complete lock-down, despite Jack’s protests.
“You put the safety of this entire base in jeopardy - against my orders,” Hammond continued.
Jack frowned, trying to look chastised, but not really pulling off the sincerity. He was too busy fuming -at Daniel and Teal’c, at the airmen in the gate-room, and at any other hapless bystander he decided to blame - to feel guilty about his own misbehavior just yet.
“Sir, we never meant to put anyone in danger, or disobey your orders,” Sam apologized, seeing that Jack was in no mood to defend himself. “We just weren‘t thinking about that.”
“Thank you, Major, but you didn’t defy my orders,” the General reminded her. “It’s Colonel O’Neill who should be apologizing.”
Jack scowled. “My kid was in there,” he said, though he didn’t think his actions really needed excusing. As if to punctuate the point, Henrietta crawled up from under the table onto his lap, and beamed adorably up at the General.
“Which is why I’m not going to recommend a formal reprimand,” the General said.
“Thank you, Sir,” Sam sighed gratefully. She looked at Jack, raising her eyebrows.
“Thank you,” Jack mumbled.
“Can I just say -again- that Teal’c and I are very, very sorry that she got away from us,” Daniel added, looking pleadingly at Jack.
“Indeed,” Teal’c agreed, nodding solemnly.
“I’m going to need to hear that at least another dozen times before I even think about forgiving you,” Jack said, holding his daughter protectively to his chest. Henrietta smirked at Daniel, seemingly pleased that he was being punished.
“What happened, Major?” the General asked, expressing the general confusion felt by everyone at the base. “Why couldn’t we close the Iris?”
“Someone took control of the computer mainframe, and locked all other users out,” Sam explained. “Actually, they used your admin code, Sir.”
“Mine?” said Genera Hammond. “Who would have access to that?”
“Only you, Sir,” Sam said. “Which is what’s so unusual. We can’t find the origin of the log-in. We do know that they used an auto-run program to lock out all other users and prevent the Iris from closing.”
“Why would they do that?” asked Daniel. “I mean, why not set the auto-destruct or something worse?”
“I don’t know,” Sam said. “But I was wondering the same thing.”
“Major, I’ve spent the last two hours going over the security tapes and so far we haven’t identified any unauthorized personnel on the base.” General Hammond said. “Could the attack have been remotely triggered? Through the open worm-hole.”
“Possibly,” Sam conceded, frowning. “But, unless this is some technology I’m unfamiliar with, they’d still need to have manually hacked your codes. Those are in-base, closed system codes. It just doesn’t make sense. There haven’t been any unusual visitors on the base?”
The General shook his head. Jack ran a hand through his hair, remembering the strange presence he’d sensed in the gate-room. “Sir, I think there was something there, in the gate room.”
“Nothing came through the gate, Jack,” the General reminded him. “And we didn’t see anything in there with you.”
“I know,” Jack frowned. He frowned uncomfortably, wondering how to explain the strange feeling he’d had in the gate-room to his teammates. “But I did get like a ... feeling,” he muttered. Teal’c raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, I know how dumb it sounds, but there’s no other way to put it. It was nothing certain, just kind of a sense that something bad was nearby.”
“Actually, I experienced something similar this morning,” Sam said. She turned to Jack, her eyes glinting with the excitement of adding another clue to the puzzle. “Remember I said this morning that I felt something when we were leaving Daniel’s office?”
“Without more to go on, I don’t think we can identify whom or what attacked us,” General Hammond said. “I’m ordering the base on a low-level alert until we can work out what it was. Full scans of anyone coming or going. Double gate-room security. But I can’t very well put people on the lookout for an invisible ‘bad feeling’.”
Jack felt his face heat up. “Well, when you put it like that, Sir…”
“Thankfully it appears for the moment, what ever it was has stopped,” General Hammond declared. He set his palms down on the table, as if coming to a difficult decision. “Colonel, needless to say I am not pleased with your disobedience this morning. However, regardless, I’ve decided to grant your request.”
“Sir?” Jack asked. He didn’t remember making a request in the briefing so far.
“I’m granting joint custody of the child to you and Major Carter,” he said. Daniel and Teal’c turned to look at Jack, both raising their eyebrows. Jack looked back towards the General to avoid their curious looks. “And, I would request that you both remain in your positions on SG1.” He looked significantly at Jack, his eyes conveying words his mouth couldn’t say. Whatever was going on between his officers, the General wasn’t going to investigate. Jack felt his heart thump against his chest - somehow, impossibly, they were going to get away with it. Whatever ‘it’ was.
“Thank you, Sir,” Sam said breathlessly.
“What happened this morning convinced me that we need our best officers here, and that means the two of you,” General Hammond said. “In fact, I’m requesting you both return to active duty immediately.” The General got to his feet. SG1 all scrambled to their feet as well, Jack juggling Henrietta into his arms. “And for Gods sake, put that girl in day-care,” he said, shaking his head. “This is a military base.”
***
Sam rubbed a hand across her eyes, as she watched the same security playback for at least the twentieth time. She ran a heat scan over the top this time, hoping to find clearly defined blobs of heat where Jack, Henrietta and the invisible presence would be. Hoping, but not really expecting to. Every time was the same, no matter what she tried - ultra violet, radio-spectral, particle tension. She growled as, once again, her attempts were foiled by the massive interference in the recording. The strange energy pulse from ‘the presence’ contaminated every reading.
A sharp tug on the hem of her shirt drew Sam’s attention. Henrietta squinted up at her, thumb in mouth with her book bent open in her lap, twisting her mother’s shirt out of place. “Did you want something, sweetie?” Sam cooed, only a little sarcastically.
“To annoy you,” Henrietta grinned in an eerily Jack like way. “When’s daddy getting back?”
“Soon, I hope,” Sam replied. “He’s gone to find you a day-care, where you can stay while we work. He won’t be much longer.”
“Good,” Henrietta declared. “You’re boring.”
Sam grinned at her daughter. Henrietta clearly had a favourite parent. “Yeah well, one day you’ll find obsessing over energy readings fun too.”
Henrietta poked out her tongue. “Will not,” she declared, returning to her book.
Strictly speaking, Sam wasn’t supposed to be obsessing over these readings anymore. The General hadn’t bought into Jack’s claims about a ‘strange presence’ in the gate-room. And the ranking specialist on practical charge physics, Dr Weller, insisted the energy anomaly was consistent with a sophisticated jamming pulse, probably sent through the gate to confuse their sensors. Sam would usually have bowed to Weller’s superior knowledge of charge physics, but something about it just didn’t seem right to her. And she couldn’t let it go until she figured it out.
“Well, well, if it isn’t the lovely Samantha Carter,” a familiar - and annoying - voice called from the doorway. “Fancy seeing you here.”
Sam looked up to see Rodney McKay leaning around her doorframe, doing his best to look charming and nonchalant. “This is my lab,” Sam pointed out dryly, surprised at just how much she sounded like Jack. “Why would you be surprised to find me here?”
“Er, well yes,” Rodney admitted, inviting himself into the room proper. “Actually, that’s why I came here - to find you - because I knew you’d be here.” Sam raised an eyebrow as she waited for his awkward babbling to stop. “Hi,” he finished.
“Hi,” she said, smiling. Despite her best intentions, Sam kind of liked Rodney McKay. Not as much as he liked her, that’s for sure. But he was kind of endearing. Plus, he had the mind of a super computer.
“So, aren’t you going to ask me why I’m here?” he prompted, leaning against her desk with an annoyingly self-satisfied grin on his face.
“Why are you here, Rodney?” Sam asked dutifully, half turning back to her monitor to glance at the energy readings again. Just so he knew how uninterested she was in whatever he wanted to boast about.
Rodney leaned half-way across the desk, forcing himself back into her line of sight. “I’m installing my Trans-phase Wave Sensor in the defense mainframe.”
“Oh yeah, I heard something about that,” Sam replied off-handedly, fighting to keep her amusement from showing.
“I should hope so,” McKay said indignantly. “It’s only one of the greatest advancements in dimensional technology in - well, ever. You know, I got featured in The Journal of Experimental Physics for that little invention. Well, I had to call it a ‘theory’ there. Since it is classified, and all.”
Sam did know. Because, of course, she subscribed to the JEP - but also because McKay had sent her several e-mails alerting her to the article when it was printed. “Oh, really? I don’t keep up with journals at the moment,” she lied off-handedly. “I spend so much time off-world, saving earth from invading aliens; it’s hard to find the time to read.”
McKay’s face turned from petulant to outright jealous. “Well, apparently there’s only one science genius allowed per SG team, and all the spots are taken. But if you ever die in battle, I’ll be happy to take your place.”
“That’s a horrible thing to say,” Sam chided, though she was smiling. Rodney sure knew how to win a girl’s heart. “If you’re done hoping for my death, do you want to give me a hand with something?”
McKay’s eyes lit up at that suggestion. “Having a little trouble with your equations, Major?” he teased. “Need some tutoring.”
Sam ignored the sleazy undertone in his voice, and shifted the computer screen around so McKay could see the footage and the energy readings. “I’m trying to isolate this energy, and determine what it is, but it’s giving me all kinds of mixed signals.”
“I know all about mixed signals,” McKay said, raising his eyebrows at her. Sam rolled her eyes at him in response. “Alright, alright, this is obviously too hard for you, but it should be a piece of cake for me.”
Sam resisted the urge to take the bait- she had made that mistake too many times before. The only way to work with McKay was to let it slide - or they’d waste hours in rounds of single combat via theoretical physics. Instead, Sam comforted herself by counting up the number of times she had saved the world, compared to McKay’s slim total.
McKay ran the same basic tests Sam had started with, cursing quietly under his breath when they came up scrambled.
“I tried all that already,” Sam murmured close to his ear, in a patronizing voice that would drive him mad.
McKay’s eye twitched. “I’m just warming up. Besides, you could’ve missed something. Seems like the kind of thing you’d do.” He tried a couple of more creative tests, though Sam knew he’d get the same results she had. McKay let the test run, his eyes darting over at Sam, then quickly away again. “So, are you…seeing anyone at the moment?” He asked, his eyes pointedly fixed on the screen.
“What?” Sam asked, surprised by his forwardness. “Um, no, not really.” She tried not to think of Jack as she spoke, but her subconscious flickered to him anyway.
“Huh,” Rodney said, still avoiding her eyes. “Because I heard a weird rumor…”
“From who?” Sam demanded.
“I have my sources,” McKay said dismissively. “I just heard maybe that you were seeing someone … maybe someone that you shouldn’t be.” He left the details frustratingly unsaid. Probably because he didn’t have any details.
“Well, I’m not,” Sam replied defensively. McKay shrugged, catching her eyes for just a moment. He looked a little pleased. Too pleased. Sam rolled her eyes.
“Mommy,” a small voice echoed out from behind Sam’s chair, shocking both adults. Henrietta had been so uncharacteristically quiet, Sam had almost forgotten she was there. “I’m done with this book. Did you bring the next one?” She got up off the floor, standing on her tiptoes to push the completed chapter book onto Sam’s workbench, peering at the flashing monitor with interest.
“Hang on, hon.” Sam replied, swinging her chair around to the other bench to rifle through Henrietta’s back-pack. She pulled out another book and swung back to Henrietta, neatly patting her on the head with the book. Henrietta grinned up at her, pretending to wince in pain from the blow.
McKay looked from Sam, to the child, and back to Sam, his mouth falling open in shock. “What is that?” he cried, pointing at Henrietta as if she were a glowing mutant - and not a normal human girl.
“She’s a child,” Sam replied, rolling her eyes at McKay’s expression of utter horror. “My child, in fact.”
McKay’s eyes bulged out of his head. “Where did it come from? You haven’t always had …one of those.”
“Gee, you’re sharp,” Sam teased, though she groaned internally. She didn’t really want to explain the whole “Henrietta situation” to McKay. Especially not the part about Jack. A part of her knew it was pointless, because it was going to get out sometime, but still… something about admitting that she and Jack were now raising a child together made Sam feel a little guilty. Like she was bending the rules, if not breaking them.
“It’s complicated,” She said. “She came through the quantum mirror,” she explained, knowing that McKay would understand the implications of this statement - and that Henrietta wouldn’t.
McKay looked from Sam to Henrietta again, his small eyes analyzing this development. He opened his mouth a few times, as if to ask further questions, but he couldn’t find the words. “What’s its name?” he asked finally.
“Her name is Henrietta,” Sam said.
Henrietta perked up at the sound of her name, turning to squint at Rodney “Hey, I know you.”
“Yes well, a lot of people know me,” he replied curtly, giving her a withering glare. “I’m very important.”
“You’re annoying,” Henrietta declared. Sam had to bite down on her bottom lip to stop herself laughing.
“Excuse me?” McKay demanded, looking scandalized.
“My daddy doesn’t like you,” Henrietta told him.
“Well, your daddy is probably jealous,” McKay accused, putting his hands on his hips in an imitation of Henrietta’s own offensive stance. “Because I’m a lot smarter than him.”
“Maybe,” Henrietta admitted. “But my dad could whoop your ass.”
“Henrietta,” Sam chided automatically, though she couldn’t help a little grin sneaking over her face. “No rude words, thank you.”
McKay narrowed his eyes, “Wait a minute, just who is your father?” he asked, mischievous eyes glinting.
Sam, blushing despite herself, interrupted before Henrietta could reply. “Come on, are you helping me with this?” She asked, tapping the flashing monitor. “Or is it too hard for you.”
“I see what’s going on here,” McKay said, smirking knowingly at Sam.
“Trust me, you don’t,” she warned.
“Who is it, Samantha?” McKay drawled dramatically, waggling his eyebrows. “Someone I know?”
“If you’re not going to help me, go away,” Sam replied.
But McKay was a practiced agitator - he wouldn’t give up that easily. “Come on, he’s in another dimension. Why don’t you want me to know?”
And then - with a sense of timing that could only be explained by Murphy’s Law - Jack returned.
“Oi, Henry,” he barked from the door, holding his arms out expectantly. Henrietta dutifully threw down her book and dashed across the room, launching herself at Jack and smacking full force into his chest. Jack stumbled back dramatically, hoisting her into his arms with a grunt. “Guess what your dear old dad did for you?”
“Got me a present?” she asked hopefully.
“One better,” Jack announced. “I found some poor souls, crazy enough to want to look after you. Almost as crazy as me and your mom,” he said, grinning up at Sam.
Sam felt like crawling under her desk and hiding, before things could get anymore awkward. McKay stared slack-jawed at Jack, uncharacteristically lost for words. Jack pretended to be oblivious. As always.
He sauntered casually around the desk, coming up close behind her and peering over her shoulder at the computer screen. “Do these flashing bars mean you’re ready to get lunch? Or do I have to pull the plug?”
“I’m not finished by a long-shot, Sir,” she said. “Rodney and I were just running a few more tests.”
Jack turned slowly and peered at McKay, looking surprised as if he hadn’t noticed the other man standing very obviously in the middle of the room. “Oh, McClain. Didn’t see you there.”
“McKay,” Rodney corrected hastily. He narrowed his eyes at Sam, though he addressed Jack when he surmised, “So, you’re the kid’s father?”
Jack moved an inch closer to Sam, though he was already unusually close to her, and confirmed with a very broad grin, “she’s our pride and joy.”
McKay tried to shrug it off casually and look disinterested, but he had never been very good at hiding his thoughts. Sam could tell by the dead give-away flickering eyes that McKay did not like this new revelation. He eyed the Colonel warily. “Yes, well, I suppose things can be very different in alternate dimensions,” he said.
Jack hoisted Henrietta higher on is hip, and slung his free arm around Sam’s shoulders. “Or, sometimes, much the same,” he countered.
Sam felt the two men staring each other down over her head. There was clearly some kind of macho show-down taking place in the lab. Finally, McKay dropped his gaze and addressed Sam. “So, the rumors are true,” he said.
Sam hastily shrugged out from under Jack’s arm, “No, they’re not,” she insisted. “Look, I don’t want you spreading this around Rodney.”
“If the rumors aren’t true, there’s nothing to spread,” McKay replied, his black beetle eyes glinting. “Right, Samantha?”
Sam bit her bottom lip. She knew McKay had her out-foxed. Things couldn’t possibly look more suspect. Or so she thought. Jack, as usual, proved her wrong. With all the casual nonchalance of familiar intimacy, he slung his arm around Sam’s shoulder again, and bent low so their faces were almost level. She turned to look at him, her mouth falling open to protest. “C’mon Carter, people are going to find out sometime,” he said. “We might as well tell them ourselves, right?”
McKay was physically taken aback. The situation for him had gone from bad to worse. “Tell us what?” he asked, his eyes darting from Jack to Sam.
A polite knock on the open door interrupted the awkward tension- the first knock Sam had received all day, though this was her third visitor. “Major Carter?” it was General Hammond.
“Sir,” Sam hopped to her feet, knocking Jack away from her. Jack saluted sheepishly, guilt plastered all over his face. McKay looked awkward and a little out of place.
“Glad to find you here, Jack,” Hammond said. “I have some news for you both.” He looked pointedly at McKay.
“Oh, right, sure,” he scowled. “Leave Rodney out of the loop.” But he knew he was out-ranked here, and bowed to the General’s request, scuttling out the door with one last suspicious glance at Sam. She let out a breath she’d forgotten she’d been holding. Though given what Rodney had seen already, he’d have plenty of gossip to spread.
Hammond closed the door and turned to his officers. “I’m afraid we’ve just received an urgent message from the Tok’Ra about an impending attack on Earth,” he explained gravely. “They’ve requested to speak with the both of you.”
“Are we being punished or something?” Jack moaned. “Why can’t Daniel go? Or better yet, send SG 11. Stevens loves the Tok’Ra.”
General Hammond shook his head. “They requested the two of you - and only the two of you - specifically. Our alliance is looking fragile Jack, now isn’t the time to get on their bad side.”
“What about getting on my bad side?” Jack scowled. General Hammond remained silent. “Alright, alright. When do we leave?”
General Hammond frowned, “You’ve got 45 minutes.”
“Sir!” Sam cried in alarm. Then, remembering her rank, began more quietly, “I mean, that’s all? We - what are we going to do with Henrietta?”
Jack grimaced. “Got any favors you can call in? ‘cause we’re going to need a sitter.”
***
Continued in Chapter 6: Good News, Bad News
Author: LexKitten
Chapter: Five - Unwelcome Advances
Previous Chapters: Prologue, Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four
In This Chapter: Jack avoids punishment, while Sam endures a visit from an old “friend”(?) - Rodney McKay.
Rating: Teen
A/N: Someone asked me in a comment a while back, how people that knew Jack and Sam might react to their new “daughter”. And of course, I thought of McKay. I love McKay ^^; There is something so utterly endearing about how annoying he is. And I always wanted to see a “show down” between McKay and Jack. So, this is my little indulgence.
Thank you as always to windsparrow , tardisinthesgc andlilferret ! For the spell checking, Americanization, and the witty details.
***
“That was a hell of a stunt you pulled,” General Hammond growled at Jack from the head of the briefing table. It was two hours since the disastrous code-read, and General Hammond had finally dropped the complete lock-down, despite Jack’s protests.
“You put the safety of this entire base in jeopardy - against my orders,” Hammond continued.
Jack frowned, trying to look chastised, but not really pulling off the sincerity. He was too busy fuming -at Daniel and Teal’c, at the airmen in the gate-room, and at any other hapless bystander he decided to blame - to feel guilty about his own misbehavior just yet.
“Sir, we never meant to put anyone in danger, or disobey your orders,” Sam apologized, seeing that Jack was in no mood to defend himself. “We just weren‘t thinking about that.”
“Thank you, Major, but you didn’t defy my orders,” the General reminded her. “It’s Colonel O’Neill who should be apologizing.”
Jack scowled. “My kid was in there,” he said, though he didn’t think his actions really needed excusing. As if to punctuate the point, Henrietta crawled up from under the table onto his lap, and beamed adorably up at the General.
“Which is why I’m not going to recommend a formal reprimand,” the General said.
“Thank you, Sir,” Sam sighed gratefully. She looked at Jack, raising her eyebrows.
“Thank you,” Jack mumbled.
“Can I just say -again- that Teal’c and I are very, very sorry that she got away from us,” Daniel added, looking pleadingly at Jack.
“Indeed,” Teal’c agreed, nodding solemnly.
“I’m going to need to hear that at least another dozen times before I even think about forgiving you,” Jack said, holding his daughter protectively to his chest. Henrietta smirked at Daniel, seemingly pleased that he was being punished.
“What happened, Major?” the General asked, expressing the general confusion felt by everyone at the base. “Why couldn’t we close the Iris?”
“Someone took control of the computer mainframe, and locked all other users out,” Sam explained. “Actually, they used your admin code, Sir.”
“Mine?” said Genera Hammond. “Who would have access to that?”
“Only you, Sir,” Sam said. “Which is what’s so unusual. We can’t find the origin of the log-in. We do know that they used an auto-run program to lock out all other users and prevent the Iris from closing.”
“Why would they do that?” asked Daniel. “I mean, why not set the auto-destruct or something worse?”
“I don’t know,” Sam said. “But I was wondering the same thing.”
“Major, I’ve spent the last two hours going over the security tapes and so far we haven’t identified any unauthorized personnel on the base.” General Hammond said. “Could the attack have been remotely triggered? Through the open worm-hole.”
“Possibly,” Sam conceded, frowning. “But, unless this is some technology I’m unfamiliar with, they’d still need to have manually hacked your codes. Those are in-base, closed system codes. It just doesn’t make sense. There haven’t been any unusual visitors on the base?”
The General shook his head. Jack ran a hand through his hair, remembering the strange presence he’d sensed in the gate-room. “Sir, I think there was something there, in the gate room.”
“Nothing came through the gate, Jack,” the General reminded him. “And we didn’t see anything in there with you.”
“I know,” Jack frowned. He frowned uncomfortably, wondering how to explain the strange feeling he’d had in the gate-room to his teammates. “But I did get like a ... feeling,” he muttered. Teal’c raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, I know how dumb it sounds, but there’s no other way to put it. It was nothing certain, just kind of a sense that something bad was nearby.”
“Actually, I experienced something similar this morning,” Sam said. She turned to Jack, her eyes glinting with the excitement of adding another clue to the puzzle. “Remember I said this morning that I felt something when we were leaving Daniel’s office?”
“Without more to go on, I don’t think we can identify whom or what attacked us,” General Hammond said. “I’m ordering the base on a low-level alert until we can work out what it was. Full scans of anyone coming or going. Double gate-room security. But I can’t very well put people on the lookout for an invisible ‘bad feeling’.”
Jack felt his face heat up. “Well, when you put it like that, Sir…”
“Thankfully it appears for the moment, what ever it was has stopped,” General Hammond declared. He set his palms down on the table, as if coming to a difficult decision. “Colonel, needless to say I am not pleased with your disobedience this morning. However, regardless, I’ve decided to grant your request.”
“Sir?” Jack asked. He didn’t remember making a request in the briefing so far.
“I’m granting joint custody of the child to you and Major Carter,” he said. Daniel and Teal’c turned to look at Jack, both raising their eyebrows. Jack looked back towards the General to avoid their curious looks. “And, I would request that you both remain in your positions on SG1.” He looked significantly at Jack, his eyes conveying words his mouth couldn’t say. Whatever was going on between his officers, the General wasn’t going to investigate. Jack felt his heart thump against his chest - somehow, impossibly, they were going to get away with it. Whatever ‘it’ was.
“Thank you, Sir,” Sam said breathlessly.
“What happened this morning convinced me that we need our best officers here, and that means the two of you,” General Hammond said. “In fact, I’m requesting you both return to active duty immediately.” The General got to his feet. SG1 all scrambled to their feet as well, Jack juggling Henrietta into his arms. “And for Gods sake, put that girl in day-care,” he said, shaking his head. “This is a military base.”
***
Sam rubbed a hand across her eyes, as she watched the same security playback for at least the twentieth time. She ran a heat scan over the top this time, hoping to find clearly defined blobs of heat where Jack, Henrietta and the invisible presence would be. Hoping, but not really expecting to. Every time was the same, no matter what she tried - ultra violet, radio-spectral, particle tension. She growled as, once again, her attempts were foiled by the massive interference in the recording. The strange energy pulse from ‘the presence’ contaminated every reading.
A sharp tug on the hem of her shirt drew Sam’s attention. Henrietta squinted up at her, thumb in mouth with her book bent open in her lap, twisting her mother’s shirt out of place. “Did you want something, sweetie?” Sam cooed, only a little sarcastically.
“To annoy you,” Henrietta grinned in an eerily Jack like way. “When’s daddy getting back?”
“Soon, I hope,” Sam replied. “He’s gone to find you a day-care, where you can stay while we work. He won’t be much longer.”
“Good,” Henrietta declared. “You’re boring.”
Sam grinned at her daughter. Henrietta clearly had a favourite parent. “Yeah well, one day you’ll find obsessing over energy readings fun too.”
Henrietta poked out her tongue. “Will not,” she declared, returning to her book.
Strictly speaking, Sam wasn’t supposed to be obsessing over these readings anymore. The General hadn’t bought into Jack’s claims about a ‘strange presence’ in the gate-room. And the ranking specialist on practical charge physics, Dr Weller, insisted the energy anomaly was consistent with a sophisticated jamming pulse, probably sent through the gate to confuse their sensors. Sam would usually have bowed to Weller’s superior knowledge of charge physics, but something about it just didn’t seem right to her. And she couldn’t let it go until she figured it out.
“Well, well, if it isn’t the lovely Samantha Carter,” a familiar - and annoying - voice called from the doorway. “Fancy seeing you here.”
Sam looked up to see Rodney McKay leaning around her doorframe, doing his best to look charming and nonchalant. “This is my lab,” Sam pointed out dryly, surprised at just how much she sounded like Jack. “Why would you be surprised to find me here?”
“Er, well yes,” Rodney admitted, inviting himself into the room proper. “Actually, that’s why I came here - to find you - because I knew you’d be here.” Sam raised an eyebrow as she waited for his awkward babbling to stop. “Hi,” he finished.
“Hi,” she said, smiling. Despite her best intentions, Sam kind of liked Rodney McKay. Not as much as he liked her, that’s for sure. But he was kind of endearing. Plus, he had the mind of a super computer.
“So, aren’t you going to ask me why I’m here?” he prompted, leaning against her desk with an annoyingly self-satisfied grin on his face.
“Why are you here, Rodney?” Sam asked dutifully, half turning back to her monitor to glance at the energy readings again. Just so he knew how uninterested she was in whatever he wanted to boast about.
Rodney leaned half-way across the desk, forcing himself back into her line of sight. “I’m installing my Trans-phase Wave Sensor in the defense mainframe.”
“Oh yeah, I heard something about that,” Sam replied off-handedly, fighting to keep her amusement from showing.
“I should hope so,” McKay said indignantly. “It’s only one of the greatest advancements in dimensional technology in - well, ever. You know, I got featured in The Journal of Experimental Physics for that little invention. Well, I had to call it a ‘theory’ there. Since it is classified, and all.”
Sam did know. Because, of course, she subscribed to the JEP - but also because McKay had sent her several e-mails alerting her to the article when it was printed. “Oh, really? I don’t keep up with journals at the moment,” she lied off-handedly. “I spend so much time off-world, saving earth from invading aliens; it’s hard to find the time to read.”
McKay’s face turned from petulant to outright jealous. “Well, apparently there’s only one science genius allowed per SG team, and all the spots are taken. But if you ever die in battle, I’ll be happy to take your place.”
“That’s a horrible thing to say,” Sam chided, though she was smiling. Rodney sure knew how to win a girl’s heart. “If you’re done hoping for my death, do you want to give me a hand with something?”
McKay’s eyes lit up at that suggestion. “Having a little trouble with your equations, Major?” he teased. “Need some tutoring.”
Sam ignored the sleazy undertone in his voice, and shifted the computer screen around so McKay could see the footage and the energy readings. “I’m trying to isolate this energy, and determine what it is, but it’s giving me all kinds of mixed signals.”
“I know all about mixed signals,” McKay said, raising his eyebrows at her. Sam rolled her eyes at him in response. “Alright, alright, this is obviously too hard for you, but it should be a piece of cake for me.”
Sam resisted the urge to take the bait- she had made that mistake too many times before. The only way to work with McKay was to let it slide - or they’d waste hours in rounds of single combat via theoretical physics. Instead, Sam comforted herself by counting up the number of times she had saved the world, compared to McKay’s slim total.
McKay ran the same basic tests Sam had started with, cursing quietly under his breath when they came up scrambled.
“I tried all that already,” Sam murmured close to his ear, in a patronizing voice that would drive him mad.
McKay’s eye twitched. “I’m just warming up. Besides, you could’ve missed something. Seems like the kind of thing you’d do.” He tried a couple of more creative tests, though Sam knew he’d get the same results she had. McKay let the test run, his eyes darting over at Sam, then quickly away again. “So, are you…seeing anyone at the moment?” He asked, his eyes pointedly fixed on the screen.
“What?” Sam asked, surprised by his forwardness. “Um, no, not really.” She tried not to think of Jack as she spoke, but her subconscious flickered to him anyway.
“Huh,” Rodney said, still avoiding her eyes. “Because I heard a weird rumor…”
“From who?” Sam demanded.
“I have my sources,” McKay said dismissively. “I just heard maybe that you were seeing someone … maybe someone that you shouldn’t be.” He left the details frustratingly unsaid. Probably because he didn’t have any details.
“Well, I’m not,” Sam replied defensively. McKay shrugged, catching her eyes for just a moment. He looked a little pleased. Too pleased. Sam rolled her eyes.
“Mommy,” a small voice echoed out from behind Sam’s chair, shocking both adults. Henrietta had been so uncharacteristically quiet, Sam had almost forgotten she was there. “I’m done with this book. Did you bring the next one?” She got up off the floor, standing on her tiptoes to push the completed chapter book onto Sam’s workbench, peering at the flashing monitor with interest.
“Hang on, hon.” Sam replied, swinging her chair around to the other bench to rifle through Henrietta’s back-pack. She pulled out another book and swung back to Henrietta, neatly patting her on the head with the book. Henrietta grinned up at her, pretending to wince in pain from the blow.
McKay looked from Sam, to the child, and back to Sam, his mouth falling open in shock. “What is that?” he cried, pointing at Henrietta as if she were a glowing mutant - and not a normal human girl.
“She’s a child,” Sam replied, rolling her eyes at McKay’s expression of utter horror. “My child, in fact.”
McKay’s eyes bulged out of his head. “Where did it come from? You haven’t always had …one of those.”
“Gee, you’re sharp,” Sam teased, though she groaned internally. She didn’t really want to explain the whole “Henrietta situation” to McKay. Especially not the part about Jack. A part of her knew it was pointless, because it was going to get out sometime, but still… something about admitting that she and Jack were now raising a child together made Sam feel a little guilty. Like she was bending the rules, if not breaking them.
“It’s complicated,” She said. “She came through the quantum mirror,” she explained, knowing that McKay would understand the implications of this statement - and that Henrietta wouldn’t.
McKay looked from Sam to Henrietta again, his small eyes analyzing this development. He opened his mouth a few times, as if to ask further questions, but he couldn’t find the words. “What’s its name?” he asked finally.
“Her name is Henrietta,” Sam said.
Henrietta perked up at the sound of her name, turning to squint at Rodney “Hey, I know you.”
“Yes well, a lot of people know me,” he replied curtly, giving her a withering glare. “I’m very important.”
“You’re annoying,” Henrietta declared. Sam had to bite down on her bottom lip to stop herself laughing.
“Excuse me?” McKay demanded, looking scandalized.
“My daddy doesn’t like you,” Henrietta told him.
“Well, your daddy is probably jealous,” McKay accused, putting his hands on his hips in an imitation of Henrietta’s own offensive stance. “Because I’m a lot smarter than him.”
“Maybe,” Henrietta admitted. “But my dad could whoop your ass.”
“Henrietta,” Sam chided automatically, though she couldn’t help a little grin sneaking over her face. “No rude words, thank you.”
McKay narrowed his eyes, “Wait a minute, just who is your father?” he asked, mischievous eyes glinting.
Sam, blushing despite herself, interrupted before Henrietta could reply. “Come on, are you helping me with this?” She asked, tapping the flashing monitor. “Or is it too hard for you.”
“I see what’s going on here,” McKay said, smirking knowingly at Sam.
“Trust me, you don’t,” she warned.
“Who is it, Samantha?” McKay drawled dramatically, waggling his eyebrows. “Someone I know?”
“If you’re not going to help me, go away,” Sam replied.
But McKay was a practiced agitator - he wouldn’t give up that easily. “Come on, he’s in another dimension. Why don’t you want me to know?”
And then - with a sense of timing that could only be explained by Murphy’s Law - Jack returned.
“Oi, Henry,” he barked from the door, holding his arms out expectantly. Henrietta dutifully threw down her book and dashed across the room, launching herself at Jack and smacking full force into his chest. Jack stumbled back dramatically, hoisting her into his arms with a grunt. “Guess what your dear old dad did for you?”
“Got me a present?” she asked hopefully.
“One better,” Jack announced. “I found some poor souls, crazy enough to want to look after you. Almost as crazy as me and your mom,” he said, grinning up at Sam.
Sam felt like crawling under her desk and hiding, before things could get anymore awkward. McKay stared slack-jawed at Jack, uncharacteristically lost for words. Jack pretended to be oblivious. As always.
He sauntered casually around the desk, coming up close behind her and peering over her shoulder at the computer screen. “Do these flashing bars mean you’re ready to get lunch? Or do I have to pull the plug?”
“I’m not finished by a long-shot, Sir,” she said. “Rodney and I were just running a few more tests.”
Jack turned slowly and peered at McKay, looking surprised as if he hadn’t noticed the other man standing very obviously in the middle of the room. “Oh, McClain. Didn’t see you there.”
“McKay,” Rodney corrected hastily. He narrowed his eyes at Sam, though he addressed Jack when he surmised, “So, you’re the kid’s father?”
Jack moved an inch closer to Sam, though he was already unusually close to her, and confirmed with a very broad grin, “she’s our pride and joy.”
McKay tried to shrug it off casually and look disinterested, but he had never been very good at hiding his thoughts. Sam could tell by the dead give-away flickering eyes that McKay did not like this new revelation. He eyed the Colonel warily. “Yes, well, I suppose things can be very different in alternate dimensions,” he said.
Jack hoisted Henrietta higher on is hip, and slung his free arm around Sam’s shoulders. “Or, sometimes, much the same,” he countered.
Sam felt the two men staring each other down over her head. There was clearly some kind of macho show-down taking place in the lab. Finally, McKay dropped his gaze and addressed Sam. “So, the rumors are true,” he said.
Sam hastily shrugged out from under Jack’s arm, “No, they’re not,” she insisted. “Look, I don’t want you spreading this around Rodney.”
“If the rumors aren’t true, there’s nothing to spread,” McKay replied, his black beetle eyes glinting. “Right, Samantha?”
Sam bit her bottom lip. She knew McKay had her out-foxed. Things couldn’t possibly look more suspect. Or so she thought. Jack, as usual, proved her wrong. With all the casual nonchalance of familiar intimacy, he slung his arm around Sam’s shoulder again, and bent low so their faces were almost level. She turned to look at him, her mouth falling open to protest. “C’mon Carter, people are going to find out sometime,” he said. “We might as well tell them ourselves, right?”
McKay was physically taken aback. The situation for him had gone from bad to worse. “Tell us what?” he asked, his eyes darting from Jack to Sam.
A polite knock on the open door interrupted the awkward tension- the first knock Sam had received all day, though this was her third visitor. “Major Carter?” it was General Hammond.
“Sir,” Sam hopped to her feet, knocking Jack away from her. Jack saluted sheepishly, guilt plastered all over his face. McKay looked awkward and a little out of place.
“Glad to find you here, Jack,” Hammond said. “I have some news for you both.” He looked pointedly at McKay.
“Oh, right, sure,” he scowled. “Leave Rodney out of the loop.” But he knew he was out-ranked here, and bowed to the General’s request, scuttling out the door with one last suspicious glance at Sam. She let out a breath she’d forgotten she’d been holding. Though given what Rodney had seen already, he’d have plenty of gossip to spread.
Hammond closed the door and turned to his officers. “I’m afraid we’ve just received an urgent message from the Tok’Ra about an impending attack on Earth,” he explained gravely. “They’ve requested to speak with the both of you.”
“Are we being punished or something?” Jack moaned. “Why can’t Daniel go? Or better yet, send SG 11. Stevens loves the Tok’Ra.”
General Hammond shook his head. “They requested the two of you - and only the two of you - specifically. Our alliance is looking fragile Jack, now isn’t the time to get on their bad side.”
“What about getting on my bad side?” Jack scowled. General Hammond remained silent. “Alright, alright. When do we leave?”
General Hammond frowned, “You’ve got 45 minutes.”
“Sir!” Sam cried in alarm. Then, remembering her rank, began more quietly, “I mean, that’s all? We - what are we going to do with Henrietta?”
Jack grimaced. “Got any favors you can call in? ‘cause we’re going to need a sitter.”
***
Continued in Chapter 6: Good News, Bad News