A Sentinel/Stargate crossover | Dark, Still Water

[lit_gal]

When one of Daniel Jackson's friends goes snooping into the wrong computer network, the SG-1 team comes to Cascade to find her before the NID can. But the local detective assigned to assist them--and his very strange anthropologist partner--complicate an already complicated mission.

Part One | Part Two

"Daniel!" Carter called, waving across the campus.

"Sam! I was going to call you," Daniel quickly offered with a sheepish grin.

"You're just lucky the colonel isn't here," she pointed out. Normally Carter was indulgent with Daniel Jackson's failings, but this time her voice was sharp. Teal'c chose to not add anything to the reprimand since Daniel was already looking suitably chastised.

"Whoa, and I thought Jim was a mother hen," Blair laughed. "We're only a couple of miles from the station."

Daniel ducked his head and looked at Sam out of the side of his eyes, an expression that usually earned him forgiveness, although it did seem to occasionally anger O'Neill more than placate him. "Sam, Blair thinks he knows where Elizabeth might have gone. I was going to call you just as soon as we found anything out."

Blair appeared confused as he looked from Daniel to Carter and back with growing concern. "It was only a couple of miles," he said, suddenly uncertain.

Were Teal'c forward enough to comment on another's demeanor, he would suggest that Blair had been criticized too often. A little criticism would inspire a warrior to improve poor performance, but this young man had reached the point where even the suggestion of criticism caused him distress and withdrawal. If Ellison had caused this reaction, then he should be stripped of the title of tec'ma-te and never allowed to work with a cha'til again. But humans had odd notions of proper, and given the disinterest of the guards at the station, it appeared that the mishandling of a young one was not a priority. He doubted that O'Neill would approve of any attempt on Teal'c part to challenge James Ellison and publicly strip him of the cha'til's loyalty. Teal'c, however, would not allow Ellison near Daniel Jackson.

Carter reacted to that tone, Blair Sandburg's distress clearly causing her to reconsider her anger for Daniel. "I know it isn't far, but with Elizabeth on the run, some pretty aggressive people may be looking for her. You could catch the wrong people's attention," Carter pointed out.

"Sam's right," Daniel said as he gave Blair a reassuring pat on the arm. "I should have told them we were leaving." He turned to Carter. "I was hoping you were having luck with the computer trace, and I didn't want to pull you away."

"I could have accompanied you," Teal'c pointed out.

"I wanted to catch Jack before his afternoon class," Blair said apologetically.

"Jack?" Carter questioned.

Blair frowned. "Jack Kelso. He was CIA, but after he retired, he wrote a big expose. If she was looking for help, he would have been at the top of her list," Blair's tone was reserved, as though expecting to be berated.

"Good idea," Carter smiled. Teal'c did not believe that Daniel Jackson was the only one to feel an almost avuncular attitude toward Blair. "Why don't we go all see him?" she suggested.

Blair was already nodding, the frown clearing the moment Carter agreed to his suggestion. "He's always out getting his coffee before class, and he's way less suspicious about meeting new people in the open, at least when the people involved are connected to the government. Paranoia isn't actually paranoid when they're really out to get you," he laughed. But the sound was strained and ended in a harsh cough that made Carter frown with worry.

"He sounds wise," Teal'c agreed. Blair gave him a small smile between coughs before he finally got control of his breathing. He was clearly not well.

"Are you okay?" Daniel asked.

"Fine. You know how it goes, you get all worn down by the end of the semester."

"Is this not the beginning of the semester?" Teal'c asked, confused by what he had believed to be the instructional cycle for those pursuing advanced training.

"To-mA-to, to-maa-to." Blair shrugged, and Teal'c raised an eyebrow, signaling his confusion to the others. However, it was Blair who responded to his tacit request for information. "It's a saying meaning that different people say things different ways, and they're all right. People from one region pronounce the word to-mA-to and those from another will say to-maa-to. It's all good, man." Blair turned and headed for the campus, leaving Teal'c wondering if the others noted how Blair had failed to explain his poor health.

"Softie," Carter whispered with a smile in Teal'c direction before she followed. Daniel's smile was equally conspiratorial. Teal'c could only sigh as he followed. His desire to try and undo the damage inflicted by an incompetent tec'ma-te did not signal an unwillingness to kill this Blair Sandburg or a blindness to any potential threat he posed. He still worried that this young man's vulnerability could be no more than an effective trap to catch Daniel's attention.

"So, Murray, what tribe are you from?" Blair asked. He turned and walked backwards several steps, a bounce in his walk that lasted only moments before another round of coughing forced him to adopt a more sedate pace.

Teal'c looked to Daniel for the answer to this question.

"I mean," Blair went on, not even waiting for a response, "the fact that you aren't familiar with colloquial English pretty much means you're not American, but your language and cadence is so very proper. Totally colonial."

"Murray's from a rural area," Daniel said, largely ignoring the actual question. Blair gave him an incredulous look that made it clear that he had detected the obfuscation.

"Top secret?" Blair guessed with a smile.

"Indeed," Teal'c offered quickly. The young man was astute enough that Daniel Jackson's attempts to avoid the situation would, no doubt, simply inspire more curiosity.

"That's cool. Man, there are some very unstable regions, so I bet there are governments that would not want it known they have people training with the US military." Blair appeared confident in his interpretation of the situation, and Teal'c felt no need to correct his assumptions. "There he is," Blair said as he pointed to a man in a wheelchair who was sitting near the edge of a communal gathering area.

"Jack!" Blair called out, and then he was trotting over to the man.

"Geez, it's like watching Daniel hopped up on crack," Sam joked.

"Very funny," Daniel answered dryly before he increased his pace. Blair was pointing at them, talking far more quickly than most humans. This Jack Kelso watched suspiciously, and Teal'c would not have been surprised to learn that he had a weapon secreted within his wheelchair. The man had the demeanor of a warrior. Teal'c looked again, and realized that he knew the man's face.

When Teal'c had first received clearance to access cultural artifacts from earth, nonfiction descriptions of government agencies had been his first priority. Long before the NID had attempted to undermine the SGC, these books had educated Teal'c on the nature of governments and their lack of integrity. Jack Kelso had written a particularly scathing book outlining the ways in which honorable soldiers were co opted to serve corrupt and manipulative masters. This truly was a man of honor and a warrior who Teal'c trusted to assist them in their quest.

"Jack, this is Sam Carter and Daniel Jackson and Murray." Blair gestured toward each of them. "Guys, this is Jack Kelso, the man most likely to piss off covert agents here in Cascade. If there are spooks around, Jack knows it."

This Jack Kelso gave Blair an indulgent look. "I think the point of being a spy is to prevent people from knowing you're around."

"Whatever," Blair shrugged. "You are the best. Daniel here has a friend who's in trouble, so I thought you might be able to help."

Blair looked over toward Daniel, and once again, Daniel told his carefully edited tale that included only vague references to nefarious persons wishing to silence the woman. Jack Kelso, however, watched sharply, and Teal'c could well imagine that he knew more than he revealed.

"So, you were in Colorado when your friend was trying to prove the government was holding you captive?" he asked in a friendly tone that did not fool Teal'c.

Daniel nodded. "It was a stupid misunderstanding. I didn't get back to her quick enough, and she just figured if I wasn't calling her back it was because I couldn't. She overreacts sometimes."

Jack Kelso did not respond, but Sam turned to give Teal'c a concerned look, so Teal'c knew he was not the only one who had noticed this man's demeanor. "I can see where she's concerned," Kelso said slowly. "You disappear in the middle of the night and don't surface for over a year. Not a single credit card transaction." Teal'c hand shifted closer to his zat'ni'katel. Clearly this Kelso had investigated Elizabeth Canarsee's story, which meant he did have information. Daniel, however, continued on as though he didn't notice the man's unexpected knowledge about the situation. Much like O'Neill, Daniel was remarkably effective at feigning a certain level of obliviousness. Unlike O'Neill, Daniel could sometimes simply be oblivious.

"After what I said at that last conference, I thought it was in my best interests to give people time to forget," Daniel offered with a self-deprecating laugh.

"What did you say?" Blair asked. Kelso definitely looked interested in the answer to that.

"Just something stupid." Daniel shrugged the question off. "But Elizabeth is way off base, and if she's hacked information from the wrong people, she is not going to be able to fix this on her own."

"I wish I could help you," Kelso said, his eyes drifting to a spot on the far side of Carter. Teal'c angled his body slightly, and he could see O'Neill and James Ellison striding across the campus. Both men carried themselves as warriors ready to fly into battle, anger radiating from every step.

"She's a friend. I'm really worried about her. Look, I even have a picture of us together," Daniel said, reaching for his wallet. Teal'c noted that Kelso stiffened, and that Daniel moved with deliberate care, his body telegraphing the fact that he was not going for a weapon. Clearly Daniel had identified Kelso as a potential threat, even if his speech and mannerisms feigned ignorance.

"Hey, kids, whatcha doing?" O'Neill called out as he closed the distance.

"Colonel!" Carter appeared surprised. "Blair suggested that Mr. Kelso might be able to help us."

O'Neill and Ellison had reached the small group, and anger clouded Ellison's features. If Teal'c respected the man enough to offer advice, he would tell him that such strong emotion interfered with a warrior's ability to react to his surroundings. Teal'c offered nothing. Ellison quickly cut through the center of the group and took a position near young Blair.

"I thought you were going to stay at the station, Chief," he said, his voice tight, but a hand reached out and touched Blair's shoulder as though to reassure either himself or Blair.

Blair grinned sheepishly. "I thought that if Daniel and I could talk to Jack without all you military types around, he might be less likely to think that we're up to something sneaky."

Teal'c watched with amusement as O'Neill gave Daniel a withering look.

"We followed, sir," Carter quickly offered, pointing out that she had not been part of the plan where Daniel went with an individual who had not been cleared during an investigation including NID operatives.

Now Daniel gave Carter a look equally as withering. As much as Teal'c did not understand command structures and power within human units, he did enjoy watching the posturing and tacit communication between the members of his team. O'Neill looked to him for some sort of support, and Teal'c raised an eyebrow, silently asking what O'Neill expected him to do. O'Neill sighed.

"Yeah, well Ellison here had the same idea after he struck out over at the apartment. So, since we're all here, whatda know?" O'Neill asked Kelso. Teal'c was struck by how much Kelso had actually relaxed.

"Jack Kelso, this is Jack O'Neill," Blair introduced them.

"Yes, I know," Kelso said. "Jack and I have worked on a few projects together. I thought you gave up the business. You claimed your knees were too old for it."

"They work better than yours," O'Neill answered. Carter gasped, so Teal'c was guessing that O'Neill had broken some custom, but one that Teal'c did not fully understand. To comment on such a disastrous injury as Kelso had suffered was to comment on his strength in surviving it. Clearly Kelso felt the same. He laughed.

"But my aim is still better than yours, not to mention my ability to play well with others."

"Ya sure, but are you as handsome as I am?" O'Neill shot right back. Obviously, these two had worked together many times.

"Maybe we should ask Ilsa Beganovitch that question," Kelso suggested with a salacious expression.

O'Neill laughed. "You old war horse. I can't believe you've settled in for the boring life."

"Says the man who spends every vacation fishing in a lake with no fish and staring at the stars."

O'Neill shrugged, but he did not attempt to defend his odd choice in recreational activities. After one attempt to engage in fishing, Teal'c did not believe there was a defense for such a pointless exercise. In over one hundred years, he had found no voluntary activity that he disliked as much as standing still and allowing small insects to feast on his blood as he held a fishing pole.

Teal'c looked, and Blair was watching the exchange with the sort of fascination Daniel often displayed when finding new ruins. Ellison, however, appeared increasingly agitated.

"So, you can follow this lead up on your own," Ellison interjected with very little concern for politeness. He put a hand on Blair's back and began urging him back toward the parking lot.

"Um, hey, nice to meet you guys," Blair hurried to offer before Ellison had shoved him away.

Once they were far enough away to shield them from human eavesdropping, Ellison leaned over to whisper roughly in Blair's ear, "What the hell are you thinking, going somewhere with a member of the military?"

"He's an archeologist," Blair answered sharply.

"So he says."

"I think I know enough about archeology to spot a fake. Back off, Jim." Blair started to walk ahead, but Ellison reached out and yanked him back to his side. However, they were far enough away that Teal'c could no longer hear their conversation. He turned to look at O'Neill, but he shrugged, clearly indicating that Blair's business was his own and Teal'c was not to interfere.

"So, Jack, what are you really doing here?" Kelso asked long after Jim and Blair had left.

"Trying to find a girl."

"That's the story of your life," Kelso teased, but then his eyes grew serious. "Are you sure the girl wants to be found?"

"Oh, I'm sure she doesn't," O'Neill quickly answered. "But she can't live off grid forever, and the others who are looking for her are a lot more dangerous than I am."

Kelso leaned forward and studied O'Neill. "Don't forget, I know how far you'll go to get what you want," Kelso said softly. Daniel shifted uncomfortably, but then he rarely liked to be reminded that their leader had his own dark past. "What do you want from her?" Kelso demanded.

"We want to help," Daniel quickly offered, but O'Neill held up a hand.

"She's good, Jack. My boss is willing to offer her a position, something that she would probably enjoy since she likes trying to take down the bad guys in our own government."

Kelso sat back, obviously surprised. "Counter-intelligence? I thought you were out of the nasty end of the feeding frenzy."

"I am." O'Neill studied the crowd as though supremely uninterested in the conversation, but Teal'c did not believe that for a moment. "My work attracts some people with questionable ethics, and if I have to take action to stop them, I will."

"Questionable ethics?" Kelso laughed. "Who's been trying to teach you to be diplomatic?"

O'Neill smirked in Daniel's general direction.

"Oh no," Daniel answered the silent comment in that look. "You can be as undiplomatic as you want to the NID. I'm just trying to teach you to be nice to people who deserve respect."

O'Neill shrugged, clearly suggesting that he found the whole exercise in diplomacy to be a waste of time, and Daniel only shook his head. There was a day when this would have caused a vociferous and heated exchange between the two, but it was only after listening to the conversation Daniel had shared with Blair that Teal'c realized just how subdued their friend had become.

"We want to hire her, but even if she doesn't want the job, she's going to need protection," O'Neill told Kelso.

"And Jim and Blair?" Kelso's question appeared to throw O'Neill.

"What about them?"

"You come to Cascade, and you immediately go to a man with a history in covert ops and wetwork? I don't think Ellison has ever shared his whole background with Blair, but you and I know what he's done. Why would you use him to find her? What are you expecting him to do once you do find her?"

Teal'c watched Carter and Daniel stiffen at the implication that they would do harm to Daniel's friend. While Teal'c did not believe O'Neill intended any such action, he did understand the strategic value in destroying one who could not be controlled. Apophis had ordered him to destroy an entire planet once. He had stood on the ha'tak and pressed the crystal that had obliterated their cities from space. The memory of huge brown eyes pleading with him pulled him into another memory.

The child had been remarkable. By the age of eight, he would argue mathematics with the priests of the temple. He had unlocked a puzzle of the gatebuilders by nine, and Apophis had targeted the child as a host. The boy had run at eleven, and when Teal'c had caught up to him in the marsh woods of Tareen, he had begged Teal'c to not allow the goa'uld to have him, to instead destroy him. O'Neill often made fun of the staff weapons, calling them tools of intimidation rather than war, and he was correct. The staff weapon was designed to do no more harm than a sarcophagus could repair. But the boy had pleaded to be destroyed rather than to allow a god to take his form. Teal'c had aimed for the boy's head. His first shot had vaporized the boy's eye and seared that remarkable brain.

The sarcophagus had reanimated the boy but not his mind. Teal'c had destroyed the boy to prevent Apophis from using him. Teal'c certainly could understand destroying an asset before allowing the enemy to make use of it.

"We don't hurt people," Daniel angrily insisted. "And we certainly aren't planning anything with Ellison or Elizabeth, tell him, Jack," Daniel demanded.

"Calm down, Danny."

"I'll calm down when you tell him how wrong he is," Daniel said angrily.

O'Neill shook his head. "Danny, you know we aren't going to hurt anyone. Jack, Elizabeth's in trouble. If I'd been sent to eliminate her... first, I wouldn't. I didn't go along with that shit when I was younger, and now that I'm old and cranky, I really don't go along with that shit. Second, I wouldn't use Ellison. The man is an ass. However, the intel says he's the best ass to find a missing person in Cascade. When we find Daniel's friend, my only suggestion for him is that he not let the door hit him in the ass on the way out."

O'Neill stepped closer, and sat on the edge of the low wall next to Kelso's chair. "What aren't you telling me about Ellison?"

For long seconds, Kelso studied O'Neill. "Nothing I plan to tell you in the near future," Kelso said with a casual shrug that did not match the tightness around his mouth and eyes.

"I'm not interested him," O'Neill repeated.

"I'm less interested in him than Blair," Kelso said seriously. "Blair's a friend, and he doesn't need to get pulled into the middle of this, not now."

"Oh, for crying out loud. When did you start assuming that I was the bad guy? I'm not trying to drag Sandburg into anything."

"Um, Jack," Daniel said in that uncertain tone of voice that Daniel intended to use to defuse any anger. Unfortunately, that tone always managed to made O'Neill tense up even more. "I told Blair that there were options out there if life got to be too much, I suggested he could call me."

"You what?" O'Neill was up and standing inches from Daniel within seconds.

"Sir, he did not reveal anything classified," Carter quickly assured him.

With narrowed eyes, Daniel turned on her. "Of course I didn't, but how would you know that?" Carter didn't answer immediately. "Are you bugging Blair?" Daniel demanded.

"Indeed not. We have bugged you," Teal'c informed Daniel to prevent the coming fight. Daniel's mouth fell open and he looked from Carter to O'Neill.

"Hey, if you'd stop getting yourself in trouble, we wouldn't have to," O'Neill said without apology. "But back to you offering Blair a job..."

"I didn't exactly offer. I implied. The way a person might imply that they didn't trust a person by bugging them."

O'Neill threw an arm around Daniel's shoulders. "Oh, I trust you. It's just the rest of the universe I don't trust as far as I can throw."

"Not to interrupt," Kelso interrupted, "but I mean it, you need to leave Blair out of whatever you have going on. Weeks ago, he was laying on campus dead."

"Dead?" Carter sounded alarmed, and now the entire team appeared to be on alert. If someone had a sarcophagus in the area, that indicated goa'uld involvement or perhaps that the NID had more resources than Stargate Command believed.

Kelso studied them for a second, evidently confused by their reactions. "He was drowned by a woman named Alex Barnes who had stolen highly toxic nerve gas. The paramedics declared him dead before he started breathing again for some bizarre reason. Then he checked himself out of a hospital when he still had pneumonia to go running down to South America to back up Ellison."

"Sounds like someone I know," O'Neill said with a sigh as he glared at the whole team. Teal'c simply looked back at their leader. While all of them had gone against Dr. Frazier's advice, her advice was often inappropriate when it came to Teal'c. His symbiote was far more effective than the doctor or O'Neill seemed willing to believe, and both would order Teal'c to stand down when he was battle-ready.

"Then try this on for size," Kelso said. "I'm dating one of the colleagues from the department, and she said that once they were down there, Ellison started showing a lot of interest in Alex Barnes. He compromised their position and brought live fire down on them in order to cover her retreat." Kelso crossed his arms and dared O'Neill to make light of that fact.

O'Neill frowned, clearly confused. "Were Barnes and Ellison partners? Was Ellison in on the theft?"

"No." Kelso said the word so definitively that Teal'c had no doubt that his intel was sufficient to support his conclusion. "No, he had no interest in her at all until he was down there. Then he left Blair kneeling on a stone floor, still tied up from where terrorists had taken him captive, and instead he comforted Alex who had overdosed on something. If Megan hadn't been tied up, she would have shot Ellison on the spot."

"Megan?" O'Neill asked.

Kelso shrugged. "I'm in a wheelchair, I'm not dead. And if I can get a beautiful woman who knows how to shoot a gun to take a little interest, I'm not going to apologize."

Daniel spoke before Jack could. "He left Blair tied up? When Blair had pneumonia?" Daniel turned to O'Neill. "Jack?"

"Daniel, no!" O'Neill did not even ask what Daniel wanted, but then it was fairly obvious.

"Jack!"

"No. We don't know him."

"We can do a background check."

Kelso watched the exchange with a sharp-eyed interest. "If you're thinking of pulling him into our world, don't," he said firmly. "Blair is always going to follow his heart, and in this business, that will get you killed."

O'Neill looked at Daniel who had learned that lesson entirely too many times. Teal'c sometimes despaired at his inability to keep Daniel safe, and he knew that O'Neill felt the same.

Eventually, O'Neill turned his attention back to Jack Kelso. "We are here to find Elizabeth Canarsee and either hire her or offer her protection. You and I both know that she can't stay off the grid long enough shake these people."

"Daniel Jackson here did."

O'Neill glanced over. "I helped him disappear from the grid, and if that's what she wants to do, I can make that happen. But we can't afford to let the NID stick her in a room with a computer and force her to do their dirty work."

"She wouldn't help them," Daniel said stubbornly, but then he and O'Neill had been having that disagreement for two days now.

"Danny, when they finished with her, she would do whatever they wanted her to," O'Neill said firmly. Teal'c tended to agree, but his relationship was not sufficiently close to Daniel for him to offer such suggestions without appearing to condescend to the man, so he held his tongue.

"Jack's right," Kelso agreed. "If the NID is after her, she's in real trouble." He pulled a small notebook and pen out of his pocket, and started writing. "I just hope you aren't lying about your motives because if something happens to her, I will come looking for you. Don't forget Johannesburg," Kelso warned O'Neill, jabbing the end of his pen in his direction.

"I still limp when it rains," O'Neill said, his words a clear promise to the man. Kelso handed the paper over.

"This is everything I have."

"If you hear anything..."

"I'll call," Kelso said. "I still have your cell number."

O'Neill nodded and then turned and started walking away without any of the convoluted pleasantries that humans often engaged in.

"Thanks," Daniel offered awkwardly before he turned to hurry after O'Neill. Carter offered a smile, and Teal'c inclined his head--one warrior to another.

Kelso watched them go, his eyes never straying, not even when Teal'c finally turned to follow the team, walking the rear to cover their position. The more Teal'c learned of Ellison and Blair, the more concerned he was becoming. He simply could not determine whether his concern stemmed from the fact that Ellison was abusive or that Blair appeared to be a well-designed decoy to attract Daniel's attention. Without enough evidence to judge or a strong enough understanding of human nature to intuit the correct solution to the puzzle of Blair Sandburg, Teal'c resolved to follow O'Neill's lead. If O'Neill permitted it, Teal'c would, however, be more than willing to teach Ellison the error of his ways. He would enjoy teaching that man a lesson that would last long after the bones healed.