Puddle Jumping Chap 3
Title:Puddle Jumping
Author:Calamityjim
Fandoms:Supernatura/SGA/SG1
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Supernatural-Spoilers to season 5, SG-1, to season 9, and SGA, all seasons. Also Violence, swearing, pairings, and aliens
Disclaimer:Stargate belongs to MGM, Supernatural to the CW
Distribution: Story, WIP
Summary: Gabriel's solution to the apocalypse was unorthodox. Now Sam and Dean are struggling to survive in a reality they don't understand against forces that take a little more than salt to kill. First Story in the Rebirth Verse the Atlantis Arc.
Previous Chapter
Puddle Jumping
Chapter 3
Mice, Men, and the Military
Sam Winchester walked through the military corridor with his hands bound in front of him and with a three-man escort. He'd already dismissed the idea of fighting his way out. While he was fairly confident that on a good day he could take out both Jack and Daniel he wasn't willing to add the man Jack called Teal'c to the mix. For starters the broken nose that Sam had left Teal'c with was already mostly healed. The injury looked like it was weeks old instead of a day or so. So whatever Teal'c was, he recovered fast. Second, Sam was not on the top of his game. The constant bombardment of visions had left him worn and exhausted, the lack of food was making him feel light and whatever they'd hit him with in the barn was causing tremors. On top of all that Sam was out of practice. Certainly he and Dean had taken up sparing the past few months but that never truly equated to the same experience that came from actual battle. Sam knew that he'd gotten lucky a few lucky shots off in the barn, but the fact was Teal'c had only acted on the defensive. If he'd been trying to hurt Sam it was likely that he would have succeeded.
Besides, even if he did managed to make a run for it, how far would he truly get? The place was hardly empty, with armed military personnel passing Sam's little escort an average of every five minutes. Giant red buttons were visible every dozen feet or so and the doors were all controlled by digital security.
That and "Lvl-16" had been painted on the wall.
So fighting his way through was out.
Instead Sam stayed quiet, mapping out the floor as he was led away from his cell, and staggering into Daniel from time to time. By the time Sam heard a familiar voice floating through the hallway the older man was helping support Sam's weight.
"You are too a cougar! You're one freaking year younger than my mom."
"It was for strategic purposes, not sexual attraction," came the aggrieved reply and Sam winced. They'd tried to seduce Dean? What did they think he was, an amateur?
"Oh honey, denial is so not a river in Egypt."
"Please. You're hardly my type."
"Oh, so you're into women? Or am I not allowed to ask that?"
Under Sam's shoulder Daniel shifted nervously. "Uh, Jack? Don't you think you should intervene before they kill each other?" The caution was unneeded with the general swiftly moving to replace the door stooge of the room.
"You deluded, egotistical, chauvinistic-"
"Hello, campers!" Jack inserted with gusto, cutting off the woman's growing rant.
Teal'c came up beside Sam and placed a massive paw on his shoulder, as though anticipating an outburst of some kind from the youngest Winchester. Sam ignored the hand. From his vantage point he could only see the Jack's back and absolutely nothing of his brother, which meant that Dean couldn't see him either. While it was tempting to call out it wouldn't serve any purpose. Dean already knew what he needed to so instead Sam settled for listening to Jack and Dean negotiate.
"Hey Johnny," Dean greeted the general and Sam couldn't help the small smile that graced his lips. It looks like Jack had a new nickname, wanted or not.
"Dean." Jack's voice was level and pleasant, undermining the seriousness of the situation. "What do you think you're doing?" The general kept his tone more curious than hostile and Sam wasn't sure if it was because that was how O'Neill handled things, or if he had managed to get that good of a read on Dean.
"Oh, you know, this and that." Sam could hear the casual shrug in his brother's tone. "Military Barbie here was interested in how well I could handle a piece and I promised to show her."
"Oh," Daniel whispered next to Sam. "He did not just say that. Did he?" and Sam could only think, he's Dean. Of course he did.
"Military Barbie?" came the indignant squawk. God, Sam loved his brother.
"Quiet Carter," Jack ordered, keeping his tone pleasant. Sam didn't know the man well but he almost sounded amused.
"Carter," Dean rolled the name off of his tongue like a cat licking cream. "You know, if you'd come in here calling yourself that instead of Sam I would have been more inclined to show you a good time."
Sam winced. They'd tried to seduce Dean using someone with Sam's name? No wonder Dean had pulled a gun. Sam knew his brother had made it a habit to avoid women who shared names with family. Dean had never slept with a Mary, Samantha, Sam or Sammy, and he'd once turned down a Roberta because she went by Bobby.
"Of course," Dean continued, "If you had really wanted my attention you would have brought me pie. I'm an absolute slut for pie." Teal'c turned his head to Sam who gave a little nod. Dean really was.
"Well," Jack drawled, "I can bring you pie, if that's what you really want."
"I'd rather Sammy Swap." God, Sam loved his brother, but there were definitely times where he didn't like him.
"Sammy Swap," Jack echoed, definitely amused.
"Yeah. Seeing as how you'd have to actually go get some pie I figure I'll just save you the trouble and take what've you've brought with you."
Jack stiffened and both Teal'c and Daniel turned to Sam who ignored them intently. "What makes you think I've brought Samuel with me?"
Dean huffed, offended. "He's my brother," he told them as though it was the only explanation.
"Riiiight," came the skeptical reply but Jack forged on anyway. How Dean knew didn't change that he did. "So what guarantees do I have that if I give you your Sam you'll give me mine back in one piece?"
"Seriously dude? You want to do this the long way?" Dean gave his long-suffering "see what I put up with" sigh. "I'm trapped in a tiny room with a gun. You guys are outside with bigger guns. I shoot your Sam you'll probably just shoot me and I'm really not willing to deprive the women of the world this handsome face."
"What makes you think we'll hold up our end of the bargain?" Daniel winced while Teal'c focused on the general's back, but Sam got it. He'd seen negotiations often enough to know that if you were truly going to go through with it you hammered out the fine details, no matter how gritty they would be. Quick promises were empty ones.
Dean reached the same conclusion. "You asked me to trust you. That's what I'm doing."
The general nodded and stepped back.
"Jack, are you sure that's wise?" Daniel asked. O'Neill just gave a half smile and motioned Sam forward.
Sam straightened and pulled his shoulder's back, walking unaided into the room and getting his first look at Dean and his hostage.
Carter, the woman who had shot Dean, was unharmed but obviously pissed.
She was also completely restrained. Her one arm was crossed over her torso, her hand stretched over her hip with the sparkle of a handcuff clearly visible. Her other arm was hidden, twisted behind her back. If Carter tried to pull on either of her hands it would place tension on the other. It didn't help that Dean's long arm had looped under her elbow, holding her body in place as he held the gun to her chin, forcing her to lean back into him.
Dean, on the other hand, looked completely relaxed and was wearing his cat that ate the canary grin. He looked good, healthy. Not like he had been electrocuted, was dying and needed a faith healer to turn things around.
Sam felt a little tension drain out of him before Jack placed a hand on Sam's back. "So how are we going to do this?"
"My Sam comes here and uncuffs your Sam. I give her the gun and you give us ten minutes alone."
"Five," Jack countered.
Dean nodded. "Five then." It was better than nothing and Dean was already pushing things.
O'Neill nodded and Sam felt the hand leave his back. He took short slow strides towards his brother, keeping his hands down. He watched gratefully as Dean shifted around, moving the gun from under the woman's chin so that it pointed directly at Sam's heart. Carter's face clouded in confusion as Sam stopped half a foot in front of Dean and lowered his head while his brother's gun never wavered from its target.
Dean reached out and placed a large hand on the back of Sam's neck. Both boys ignored the way the metal of the cuff dug into the sensitive skin across Sam's throat as Carter's arm remained to Sam's front. Sam heard someone behind him shuffle, his uniform rubbing on itself to make an irritated scratching sound, and figured that whoever had moved had noticed that the gesture was not one of relieved brotherly solidarity. Dean's fingers buried deep into the flesh of Sam's neck, hard enough to bruise, prodding along the spine in search of mysterious lumps and bumps.
When Dean was satisfied it was his brother standing before him and not an extra from The Faculty he pulled his hand back and rested it on his own shoulder. He tapped his fingers to indicate what he wanted.
Sam gave Dean the bitch face, the corners of his mouth puckering in displeasure. Dean lifted his eyebrows and Sam sighed. He moved to stand behind Dean. Behind his brother's back he shed his own cuffs before reaching over Dean's shoulder to shove the key into the cuff restraining his brother.
"Where did you-" Daniel trailed off as he stared at the key. He began patting his pockets and Sam flashed the man a guilty smile. Maybe he had been exaggerating how poorly he was feeling but it wasn't his fault Daniel's outfit had so many pockets.
Beside Daniel Jack reared back his head and Sam knew that he and Dean weren't going to be lucky enough to be underestimated again.
With a twist the cuff jumped free and Dean opened his arms. Carter stumbled half a step forward. True to his word Dean handed her the gun, after he ejected the clip, emptied the chamber and flicked the safety on. She glared at him as she accepted it before stomping out of the room.
Jack sighed as he watched her go before turning once again to Dean. He nodded, soldier to soldier, and pulled the door shut.
The clock was ticking.
x-x-x-x
"What took you so long?" Dean didn't look up as Jack finally entered the room, nor did he pause in smoothing out Sammy's hair. Dean had forced his little brother to lay his head against Dean's legs twenty minutes ago, despite Sam's insistence that he wasn't tired. What really meant was that he didn't want to sleep, to fall back into the nightmares that Sam seemed destined to be plagued by. While Dean could sympathize, he was tired of his brother waking up in cold sweats with screams choking his throat; he had a sneaking suspicion that they were safe. Whether or not anyone else was, Jack, at least, seemed to be friendly. Sam had also mentioned that the floor they were on was the sixteenth and Dean was fairly certain that they weren't sixteen stories up. So unless the dudes after Sam got a written invitation they were probably as safe as they were going to get.
"Had to check on Carter," Jack answered as he set something on the table. Whatever it was it smelled delicious. "Then that pesky blood work finally came in so I had to go listen to Dr. Cam explain. Took her twenty minutes to go through it."
"Oh? And what'd she find? Are me and Sam gonna hulk out on you guys?" Dean asked flippantly even as he felt as cold hand wrap itself around his heart, ready to squeeze.
"Nah." Jack shook his head as he settled himself on the opposite side of the room, directly across from Dean with his back resting on the door. "Besides having the ATA gene in spades, you're perfectly normal. One hundred percent human."
"Oh good. I'm glad we got that all cleared up," Dean grumbled, really not liking where the conversation was headed.
"Your brother, on the other hand-"
"You so much as touch Sammy and I'll bite your hands off!" snarled Dean, his hands hovering protectively over his brother's face.
"Easy there, Tyson!" Jack lifted his own hands into the air, a gesture of peace. "You know as well as I do that if we were going to hurt your brother we would have done it by now but that doesn't change that the NID are out to get him. Now do you want to know why or not?" Dean continued to glare but gave a grudging nod. When Jack was certain the kid wasn't going to interrupt he picked up his explanation. "As I was saying, you've both got the ATA gene, but Samuel's is a bit wacky." Dean frowned at this but remained silent. "Because it's a bit wacky he's all that more important."
Dean tapped the back of his head against the concrete wall of the cell. Either Gabriel had planned this or Sam was just the unluckiest bastard to walk the Earth.
"Why?" croaked a bleary voice and Sam shifted.
Dean's hand rested in Sam's hair instead of pulling back as though burned the way they would have once done. "How long you been awake for?"
"Since Jack entered," Sam confessed, moving Dean's leg and drawing himself up until he was sitting shoulder to shoulder with his brother. The kid still looked like hell but the slight trembles had completely subsided and his coloring had improved. "So Sir," Sam pressed, his determined but respectful, "why is this ATA gene important? Why is mine important? It's got to do something more than determine eye color."
Jack nodded. "Why don't you boys grab something to eat while I explain?" The boys exchanged silent looks and Jack watched an entire conversation take place with head twitches and eyebrows, though he caught the gist of it when Sam huffed and nodded submissively while Dean stood up to grab the food trays Jack had snagged from the mess.
The general waited until both boys were sitting down, food firmly in their laps before launching into an explanation of the Stargate program. The Stargate program had been founded decades ago when the 'gate had originally been found in Egypt. Nothing much happened until Dr. Daniel Jackson wrote his paper on ancient civilizations and aliens.
Jack ignored Samuel's wide eyes, knowing that stopping meant hearing geek speak over the paper, and pressed on, telling about how he and Daniel had been recruited to go through the 'gate and how they totally kicked Ra's ass and effectively ended the program.
Until Goa'uld from a different planet had shown up, shot up the 'gate room and kidnapped a soldier. The suckers were out there posing as Egyptian gods and enslaving planets all across the galaxy, so Jack and Daniel had been called back to go kick more alien ass. Carter had joined the team to help them out and Teal'c had been recruited from the enemy's ranks to help with the Goa'uld problem, which was now mostly under control.
But there were still the replicators to deal with, these little spidery machines that kept building each other out of whatever was available. They were causing the Asgard, the aliens that had posed as Norse gods and were generally neutral to humanity's plight except for when Jack asked really really nicely, some pretty serious problems in a different galaxy. But on top of the replicators there were also the Ori, these super powerful beings who were also running around doing the whole divine thing.
All of these events had led to the search for new tech that was farther away and had resulted in the discovery of Atlantis, the home base of the race that had been responsible for the 'gates in the first place. But the Ancients had pissed some people off and had been wiped out. Many died from a plague, others fled to Earth and had trysts with the locals, passing their genes on to the Tau'ri, and the rest, the vast majority, had ascended, which basically meant that they were these goopy clouds of light that were all powerful but preferred to sit on their asses instead of helping clean up their messes.
But they had left behind their technology and anyone with and ATA gene was free to use it, which meant that only some of the Tau'ri and a very few natives of the Pegasus galaxy were free to use it, which would have been all kinds wonderful if the discovery hadn't also lead to the introduction of the Wraith, who were basically space vampires. So Atlantis was hiding from the Wraith to keep the bastards away from Earth who was fighting off the Ori and couldn't ask the Asgard for help because they were fighting off the replicators.
And just to make things interesting there was a group on Earth called the NID who was constantly attempting to steal alien technology to utilize for whatever it was evil organizations did with advanced tech. Plus certain sectors of the NID had also joined up with a few Goa'uld and were currently a giant thorn in Jack's ass. Their latest scheme had been the blood test flag, the one that had brought Samuel to their attention.
"Basically it sounds like they were spreading a net to catch those who were ATA positive and not involved with the military. That way they could snag them and figure out how to activate the gene in the rest of the world, which would let them play with Atlantis's toys. However, Samuel here has a wacky version of the gene and since the Ancients all poofed out in a light show it looks like the NID took it to mean that your brother's jumped ahead on the evolution scale. The Goa'uld probably think that he's developed some special powers from his ATA gene and will be looking to stick a snake in his head so they can pull the whole 'take over the world' ploy.
"The good news is," Jack summarized, "that they won't kill Samuel here. He's too valuable. They need him alive. The bad news is that he's important enough that they aren't going to back off just because we found you first. Until we manage to take the NID down they are going to be looking for you.
"Now," Jack shifted as he spoke, trying to work out some of his growing stiffness. He really was getting too old to do this sort of shit. "We can get you boys into protective custody. You don't have to come, Dean, but I'm betting that you're gonna want to stick with your brother."
Dean snorted. "Damn straight."
Jack nodded. "We can set you up with new identities in a new city where a whole bunch of your neighbors just happen to work for me and carry guns."
"So you're just going to let us go? After everything that's happened? " Sam asked incredulously. His face was etched with disbelief.
"I have some paperwork for you to fill out and some questions I need answered, but yeah, I'm just going to let you go."
"Cool." Dean smirked before slurping his jell-o down noisily.
Sam gave a disapproving glare. "Dude."
"What?"
"Manners!"
"Pft." Dean waved his hand, and subsequently his fork, dismissively. "We're prisoners in a military base, not guests of the Queen." He slurped down more jell-o, moving his head so he could do so in Sam's ear.
Sam jostled his brother. "You're such a jerk."
"Bitch." The boys glared at each other for a beat. "Can I have your jell-o?" Sam's jell-o moved to the next tray. "Sweet." Dean wiggled the small dish, apparently amused by the foodstuff. He took another noisy bite. "So Johnny, what sort of questions do you have?"
"It's Jack," O'Neill grounded out in irritation. "And I need to know things like how the hell you boys got your hands on all that paperwork."
Dean smirked. "That's it? Really? That's an easy one. Sammy?" He turned to his brother with an expectant eye.
Sam closed his eyes and seemed to gather himself. When he opened them his shoulders relaxed and his face became earnest and serious. "Good afternoon. I'm Special Agent Jobs and this is my partner, Special Agent Gates. We're with the Internal Oversight Advisory and we need to look through your records." Sam paused to wait for an imaginary response. "It's classified." Another pause. "I understand that procedure needs to be upheld, but this is a matter of national security and it's important that you let us do our jobs. Please. Lives are at stake." With the plea Sam's face softened. His eyebrows knitted together in an expression of pained worry even as his lower lip stuck itself out just ever so slightly, his mouth barely open as though he were praying. Worse, his hazel eyes seemed to double in size and shimmer, and for the moment Jack felt like he had been sucked into a Disney cartoon and he was the man running around killing the forest critters.
"Huh." They'd conned their way into the military's darkest secrets? Shit! Jack resisted the urge to rub his temple. This was going to be such a headache to fix.
Dean smirked knowingly. "If it's any consolation we broke into the places where that didn't work. I can give you a list and explain how we got in."
Well, that would help a bit, but still. If these boys managed to weasel their way in from the very outside with nothing more than fake IDs and pretty smiles how the hell was Jack supposed to keep the NID out from where they didn't belong? The NID had real badges and a foot already in the door.
"Any other questions?"
Jack really didn't want to ask anything else. He wasn't certain he could handle the answers. He missed when life was simple and problems could be solved with bullets or by Daniel's geek speak. "Do either of you have secret magical powers?"
The boys echoed twin looks of wry amusement. "Well," Dean drawled, "Fabulous secret powers were revealed to me the day I held aloft my sword and said, 'By the power of Greyskull!' "
Jack lifted an eyebrow in dry amusement. "That was He-Man."
"Was it?" Dean looked slightly confused as though trying to figure out how he could have got that one wrong while Sam snickered.
Jack sighed. "You didn't answer my question."
Dean cocked his head thoughtfully. "You're right. I guess I didn't."
x-x-x-x
Sam and Dean spent nearly a week being trapped under the mountain. Despite the circumstances that had carried them to this point it actually wasn't so bad. The boys had been moved down to level twenty-two, and while they both weren't keen on the idea of being that deep underground, the perk was that the mess hall was on the same floor and that they were given relative freedom to walk around.
Sam spent the majority of his time conversing with Daniel and the archeologist eagerly shared his thoughts. When the Daniel wasn't showing Sam the differences between Latin and Ancient the two were comparing theories on the origins of myths of cultures that didn't have alien gods to explain them away or dissecting the newest theory to have come out in the field.
Dean shadowed his brother for the first two days, but when a growing sense of trust of SGC personnel and utter boredom tipped the scale he ended up first in the gym, then in the shooting range. He was supervised by Teal'c at all times but he didn't mind. The alien made for good company. He may not have said much but he also never told Dean to shut up. Better yet, he had Carter's schedule memorized, ensuring that Dean didn't accidentally bump into her.
When playing with the military's guns became boring Dean somehow found himself in hanging out with O'Neill. The man had decided to chill on base until Sam and Dean's situation was cleared up, partly because he hated paperwork but also because Jack seemed to be the only man that Dean really trusted and keeping him around kept Dean from pulling weapons and taking hostages. The general was down to earth and sarcastic and it didn't take much prodding on Dean's part for Johnny to jump into stories about what he and his team had done.
It was easily the best week the brothers had had since this nightmare had begun, but that didn't mean that they weren't relieved when it was finally over.
"It's gonna be good to see the sky again."
Sam nodded with his brother's assessment. "Open sky and fresh air."
Dean clapped him on the back. "Amen to that, little brother."
The pair stood in the centre of an escort as they waited for the elevator to descend. There were four airmen who were going to ensure that the Winchester brothers made it safely to their destination while three more were going to give the general a ride back to Washington.
Dean shuffled nervously and Sam let his shoulder brush against his brother's. He knew Dean had issues with being underground. It wasn't surprising considering he'd climbed out of his own grave and now that he wasn't sidetracked by anything he had time to dwell on how getting into a little box with nine other guys could go horribly wrong. The only way Sam could really help was through distraction.
"So Jack, are you ever going to tell us our new names?"
"Samson and Dennis Smith." Both the boys cringed in remembrance of the last time Dean had been a Smith, causing Jack to frown. "It's better than Job and Gates. I can't believe you got away with that one."
Dean's grin stretched from ear to ear. "People ain't that bright, Johnny. Sammy here once got away with flashing a bikini inspector ID."
"Seriously?" asked Lieutenant Simmons.
"Dude!" Sam hissed. He was actually glad Dean was talking and not thinking, but being annoyed was the best way to ensure that Dean followed through.
"Oh yeah," Dean relished, rubbing his hands together with the memory. "I told Sam it would work and he was all 'no Dean! This will never work. Will you save me if they catch me?'" Dean imitated Sam in a falsetto. "I was 'don't worry, Sam. It will work. Trust in my awesome.' By this time he was already at the counter and-"
The elevator chimed and they squeezed in. Sam moved to the back, smiling as Dean picked up the story, exaggerating the intimidating presence of the nurse and throwing in obstacles where there had been done. When he finished Jack was frowning intently at the oldest Winchester.
"You do know you can't do that anymore. I can only get the President to pardon you so many times."
"All the more reason to relive the glory days," Dean answered with glee. "For the base we knocked over in Massachusetts we went in as Kirk and McCoy. Even I can't believe we got away with that one. Seriously, who hasn't seen Star Trek? But apparently they hadn't. The gate guard was this big burly-"
Sam winced, tuning his brother out. He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to work out whatever tension was causing the headache creeping up on him. He'd spent the night with Daniel hunched over a cultural evaluation that SG-20 had filed a few weeks ago. He must have pinched a nerve or something.
The elevator chimed again, releasing them onto floor eleven. Only one more elevator ride until freedom.
Sam glanced at Dean who was listening to Lieutenant Menard describe a ritual that SG-11 had been forced to participate. Captain Hanson then tried to top that story with an encounter SG-9 had had with man-eating plants. By the time they had made it to the first floor O'Neill had told the story of how SG-1 had saved Earth from two Goa'uld ships using hand grenades. Despite them all having heard the story before everyone was suitably impressed.
Sam took three steps out of the elevator before he stopped to rub his temple.
"You all right, Sam?" Sergeant Warren gave Sam a worried look.
"Fine," Sam choked out with a forced smile. "It's just a headache." He straightened and took another step before the world dissolved in pain.
Then he was sitting in the armored van, no idea how he had gotten there. Dean was sitting beside him, telling Captains Raimi and Blasdale about a waitress he had hooked up with in Florida. Menard and Simmons were sitting up front. Menard was driving and adding the odd wry comment while Simmons ignored Dean completely, scanning the road intently.
A soft crack was barely heard over the laughter. Sam glanced up to see the webbed hole in the window and the way Menard touched his bloodied chest with disbelief. He slumped forward and the van veered into the ditch.
"Shit!" Dean grabbed his brother and threw him to the floor, shielding Sam with his own flesh as the van rumbled through the rough turf. When it came to a stop courtesy of tree Simmons bailed out the passenger's side, coming around to swing the back doors of the van open.
Captain Raimi had his weapon out, scanning intently while Blasdale placed pressure on his now bleeding scalp, his eyes thick with confusion. Raimi peered past Simmons, searching for danger. "Did you see them?"
Simmons nodded and brought his gun up, lodging a bullet in Raimi's skull. Blasdale reached for his gun far too late to stop the bullet from tearing through his temple, leaving only Sam and Dean alive.
"Step away from him." Simmons motioned Dean to move with the gun, keeping it trained on the older brother. Men in full tactical gear appeared behind the airman, keeping their weapons on Sam. Not that it really mattered. Neither he nor Dean had been provided with a weapon.
Dean looked at dead soldiers before bringing his glare up to Simmons. "Why?"
Simmons shrugged. "Better benefits." He pulled the trigger.
"No!" Sam shouted in denial as Dean stumbled a step back, only falling after two more bullets tore through his chest.
Sam scrambled over to his brother, his not dying brother, and held Dean as blood seeped out his mouth.
He hushed Dean as he attempted to talk, to sputter out a joke or worse, a goodbye, and placed his hands on the wounds, trying to maintain the pressure of Dean's lungs so that he could draw in breath.
Hands were pulling, dragging Sam out of the van even as Simmons crawled back in. He watched as the soldier lifted the gun, aiming at Dean's forehead.
The crack of the air was almost as shattering as Sam's scream.
Then Sam was back in Cheyenne Mountain on his knees, gasping and struggling weakly against whoever held him.
The familiar arms tightened their grip and Sam let himself go slack, his face falling into Dean's neck as his brother whispered soothing things.
"Where the hell is that crash cart?" Sam recognized it as Jack's voice, but he couldn't figure out who was hurt.
"I told you he's fine!" Dean snarled and pulled Sam closer. "It was just a seizure." Oh. They were talking about him. Well. Crap.
"Seizures don't equal fine!"
"M'okay," mumbled Sam, moving to extricate himself from Dean's arms. His brother eased back to grab Sam's elbows and help lift him from the floor. As soon as he was standing Sam brushed off Dean's hands, having a much easier time shaking off the after effects of the vision since he had grabbed a few nights good rest.
Jack looked Sam over before frowning. "I don't care. Infirmary. Now."
Dean opened his mouth to protest and Sam grabbed his wrist. Dean deflated and Sam gave an apologetic smile, knowing that he was going to owe Dean forever for sticking by him as his freaky nature once again got them into trouble.
x-x-x-x
Jack stood by the door to the infirmary. Dr. Cam had called him to let him know the results of Samuel's tests. By all medical standards the kid was fine. The EEG, PET scan, CAT scan and MRI all came back negative. No tumors, no weird wave readings, and no freaky alien radiation were hanging around. Samuel was perfectly fine if you ignored the fact the kid had gone catatonic for over thirty seconds.
Jack had come down to try and figure out what the hell was going on. Dean knew something. That was for certain. He'd been too quick to catch Sam, too calm while his brother was unresponsive in his arms to not have done that before.
Jack's plan had been to charge in and demand to be filled in, but the raised, irritated voices of the Winchesters floating through the door caused him to pause. It wasn't really eavesdropping. It was recon, which was totally different.
"-elling him. Do you want to end up as a science project?"
Samuel's voice was quieter than his brother's but it carried well. "It's not a choice of what I want. Dean, they're already here."
"Which is all the more reason to shut up!" Scuffling feet accompanied the exclamation and Jack knew that was pacing. The guy seemed incapable of sitting still when riled.
Samuel let out a soft breath. "They already know and they're pissed off. They're going to kill you, Dean. They're going to kill you and take me and stick a fucking worm in my brain. We need the help and I don't think we're ever going to get better offer. General O'Neill-"
"Is a bureaucrat!" Jack winced. He had hoped that Dean was beginning to trust him.
"General O'Neill is a good man. We took him hostage and he had us pardoned by the President. He could have just as easily tossed you into a cell to rot and handed me over to the closest doctor. He didn't. He's on our side."
The pacing stopped. "No, Sam. He's not. It's our side because it's just us. It's always been just us."
"Really?" Samuel's voice brimmed with amusement. "How about Bobby?"
"That's an exception!"
"And Ellen? How about Jo and Ash? Rufus? Jim? Caleb? Joshua? And what about Jefferson?" There was a pause. "Castiel?"
"Fuck you, Sammy." There was definite heat in Dean's tone. "You don't get it. This guy has the power to-"
"What? Turn me into meat on a slab?" Samuel let out a hysterical laugh. "Dean, that's where I'm going to end up if we try to keep trying to do this by ourselves!" There was a strangle sob. "God Dean. I don't want one of those things inside me."
The rustling of fabric indicated that a manly hug had ensued. "Fine." Dean's voice was strained with worry. "We'll tell him. I don't like it but we'll tell Johnny."
Seizing the opportunity Jack slipped through the door. "Tell me what?"
The boys broke their hug, obviously embarrassed about being caught in the display of emotion. It only took seconds for Dean's shame to morph into anger and suspicion, with him taking a protective stance between Jack and his brother.
Samuel fidgeted nervously on the bed, his fingers picking at invisible flecks on the white sheets. "I have visions of the future."
That… was not what Jack had been expected. "What?" he asked stupidly.
Samuel shifted and Dean inched closer to his brother. "My 'seizure,'" Sam air quoted, "was a vision. Of the future."
The kid didn't have any tumors. Maybe there hadn't been time for one to grow. "How long have you been having them?"
Sam shrugged. "Since the NID's been after me. The first one I had was a few days before they broke into my apartment, hence why I wasn't there." So Samuel had been having visions for a long time. Looked like the kid was going to stay tumor free.
"And the NID knows." Dammit.
Sam nodded. "They bugged Dean's phone."
"What did you see?" If this was anything like the Jonas situation it was nothing good.
"The NID were going to ambush our vehicle and kill everyone." Jack didn't miss the inflection on everyone, or the way that Samuel's knee moved to brush against the back of his brother's leg.
"Damn." Jack slid into a chair, pinching the bridge of his nose. "How the hell did they find out?"
"Lieutenant Simmons works for them."
"What?"
Sam gave an apologetic shrug. "Simmons works for the NID. In my vision he shot Raimi, Blasdale and-" Samuel cut himself off as he swallowed, his face pale.
Jack rubbed a hand over his face. Now everything made sense. The kid could see the NID coming. He could probably see what they were planning to do to him, which explained how the boys found out about the Goa'uld and how they'd managed this on their own for six months.
"I can't offer you the type of protection you need."
Dean took a step forward, his hands balling into fists. "You sonuvabitch!"
"I'm not abandoning you." Jack sighed wearily. "Look, if they've gotten into the base there is no where I'll be able to hide you that they won't know about and they aren't going to stop. A Goa'uld that could predict the future would be unstoppable. They know that and because of that they are going to pursue you to the ends of the Earth."
"Fuck!" Dean screamed, his foot launching an empty chair across the room.
Sam whispered softly, running a hand through his hair. "So what do we do?"
Jack tapped his fingers on his knee before a sly smirk slid across his face. "They're going to chase you to the ends of the Earth, so why don't move you further?"
The brothers blinked. "What?" they asked in unison.
"How do you boys feel about Atlantis?"
X_X_X_X_X_X_X
Confusion Clear ups.
Smith- Dean was Dean Smith in an episode where he had his memory wiped. He played a day trader who was on a low-everything diet. It was an unpleasant experience.
Jonas Situation- Jonas Quinn, who was a member of SG-1 for a year, developed the ability to see the future but also picked up a brain tumor. Tumor was removed and visions vanished.
Next Chapter
Author:Calamityjim
Fandoms:Supernatura/SGA/SG1
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Supernatural-Spoilers to season 5, SG-1, to season 9, and SGA, all seasons. Also Violence, swearing, pairings, and aliens
Disclaimer:Stargate belongs to MGM, Supernatural to the CW
Distribution: Story, WIP
Summary: Gabriel's solution to the apocalypse was unorthodox. Now Sam and Dean are struggling to survive in a reality they don't understand against forces that take a little more than salt to kill. First Story in the Rebirth Verse the Atlantis Arc.
Previous Chapter
Puddle Jumping
Chapter 3
Mice, Men, and the Military
Sam Winchester walked through the military corridor with his hands bound in front of him and with a three-man escort. He'd already dismissed the idea of fighting his way out. While he was fairly confident that on a good day he could take out both Jack and Daniel he wasn't willing to add the man Jack called Teal'c to the mix. For starters the broken nose that Sam had left Teal'c with was already mostly healed. The injury looked like it was weeks old instead of a day or so. So whatever Teal'c was, he recovered fast. Second, Sam was not on the top of his game. The constant bombardment of visions had left him worn and exhausted, the lack of food was making him feel light and whatever they'd hit him with in the barn was causing tremors. On top of all that Sam was out of practice. Certainly he and Dean had taken up sparing the past few months but that never truly equated to the same experience that came from actual battle. Sam knew that he'd gotten lucky a few lucky shots off in the barn, but the fact was Teal'c had only acted on the defensive. If he'd been trying to hurt Sam it was likely that he would have succeeded.
Besides, even if he did managed to make a run for it, how far would he truly get? The place was hardly empty, with armed military personnel passing Sam's little escort an average of every five minutes. Giant red buttons were visible every dozen feet or so and the doors were all controlled by digital security.
That and "Lvl-16" had been painted on the wall.
So fighting his way through was out.
Instead Sam stayed quiet, mapping out the floor as he was led away from his cell, and staggering into Daniel from time to time. By the time Sam heard a familiar voice floating through the hallway the older man was helping support Sam's weight.
"You are too a cougar! You're one freaking year younger than my mom."
"It was for strategic purposes, not sexual attraction," came the aggrieved reply and Sam winced. They'd tried to seduce Dean? What did they think he was, an amateur?
"Oh honey, denial is so not a river in Egypt."
"Please. You're hardly my type."
"Oh, so you're into women? Or am I not allowed to ask that?"
Under Sam's shoulder Daniel shifted nervously. "Uh, Jack? Don't you think you should intervene before they kill each other?" The caution was unneeded with the general swiftly moving to replace the door stooge of the room.
"You deluded, egotistical, chauvinistic-"
"Hello, campers!" Jack inserted with gusto, cutting off the woman's growing rant.
Teal'c came up beside Sam and placed a massive paw on his shoulder, as though anticipating an outburst of some kind from the youngest Winchester. Sam ignored the hand. From his vantage point he could only see the Jack's back and absolutely nothing of his brother, which meant that Dean couldn't see him either. While it was tempting to call out it wouldn't serve any purpose. Dean already knew what he needed to so instead Sam settled for listening to Jack and Dean negotiate.
"Hey Johnny," Dean greeted the general and Sam couldn't help the small smile that graced his lips. It looks like Jack had a new nickname, wanted or not.
"Dean." Jack's voice was level and pleasant, undermining the seriousness of the situation. "What do you think you're doing?" The general kept his tone more curious than hostile and Sam wasn't sure if it was because that was how O'Neill handled things, or if he had managed to get that good of a read on Dean.
"Oh, you know, this and that." Sam could hear the casual shrug in his brother's tone. "Military Barbie here was interested in how well I could handle a piece and I promised to show her."
"Oh," Daniel whispered next to Sam. "He did not just say that. Did he?" and Sam could only think, he's Dean. Of course he did.
"Military Barbie?" came the indignant squawk. God, Sam loved his brother.
"Quiet Carter," Jack ordered, keeping his tone pleasant. Sam didn't know the man well but he almost sounded amused.
"Carter," Dean rolled the name off of his tongue like a cat licking cream. "You know, if you'd come in here calling yourself that instead of Sam I would have been more inclined to show you a good time."
Sam winced. They'd tried to seduce Dean using someone with Sam's name? No wonder Dean had pulled a gun. Sam knew his brother had made it a habit to avoid women who shared names with family. Dean had never slept with a Mary, Samantha, Sam or Sammy, and he'd once turned down a Roberta because she went by Bobby.
"Of course," Dean continued, "If you had really wanted my attention you would have brought me pie. I'm an absolute slut for pie." Teal'c turned his head to Sam who gave a little nod. Dean really was.
"Well," Jack drawled, "I can bring you pie, if that's what you really want."
"I'd rather Sammy Swap." God, Sam loved his brother, but there were definitely times where he didn't like him.
"Sammy Swap," Jack echoed, definitely amused.
"Yeah. Seeing as how you'd have to actually go get some pie I figure I'll just save you the trouble and take what've you've brought with you."
Jack stiffened and both Teal'c and Daniel turned to Sam who ignored them intently. "What makes you think I've brought Samuel with me?"
Dean huffed, offended. "He's my brother," he told them as though it was the only explanation.
"Riiiight," came the skeptical reply but Jack forged on anyway. How Dean knew didn't change that he did. "So what guarantees do I have that if I give you your Sam you'll give me mine back in one piece?"
"Seriously dude? You want to do this the long way?" Dean gave his long-suffering "see what I put up with" sigh. "I'm trapped in a tiny room with a gun. You guys are outside with bigger guns. I shoot your Sam you'll probably just shoot me and I'm really not willing to deprive the women of the world this handsome face."
"What makes you think we'll hold up our end of the bargain?" Daniel winced while Teal'c focused on the general's back, but Sam got it. He'd seen negotiations often enough to know that if you were truly going to go through with it you hammered out the fine details, no matter how gritty they would be. Quick promises were empty ones.
Dean reached the same conclusion. "You asked me to trust you. That's what I'm doing."
The general nodded and stepped back.
"Jack, are you sure that's wise?" Daniel asked. O'Neill just gave a half smile and motioned Sam forward.
Sam straightened and pulled his shoulder's back, walking unaided into the room and getting his first look at Dean and his hostage.
Carter, the woman who had shot Dean, was unharmed but obviously pissed.
She was also completely restrained. Her one arm was crossed over her torso, her hand stretched over her hip with the sparkle of a handcuff clearly visible. Her other arm was hidden, twisted behind her back. If Carter tried to pull on either of her hands it would place tension on the other. It didn't help that Dean's long arm had looped under her elbow, holding her body in place as he held the gun to her chin, forcing her to lean back into him.
Dean, on the other hand, looked completely relaxed and was wearing his cat that ate the canary grin. He looked good, healthy. Not like he had been electrocuted, was dying and needed a faith healer to turn things around.
Sam felt a little tension drain out of him before Jack placed a hand on Sam's back. "So how are we going to do this?"
"My Sam comes here and uncuffs your Sam. I give her the gun and you give us ten minutes alone."
"Five," Jack countered.
Dean nodded. "Five then." It was better than nothing and Dean was already pushing things.
O'Neill nodded and Sam felt the hand leave his back. He took short slow strides towards his brother, keeping his hands down. He watched gratefully as Dean shifted around, moving the gun from under the woman's chin so that it pointed directly at Sam's heart. Carter's face clouded in confusion as Sam stopped half a foot in front of Dean and lowered his head while his brother's gun never wavered from its target.
Dean reached out and placed a large hand on the back of Sam's neck. Both boys ignored the way the metal of the cuff dug into the sensitive skin across Sam's throat as Carter's arm remained to Sam's front. Sam heard someone behind him shuffle, his uniform rubbing on itself to make an irritated scratching sound, and figured that whoever had moved had noticed that the gesture was not one of relieved brotherly solidarity. Dean's fingers buried deep into the flesh of Sam's neck, hard enough to bruise, prodding along the spine in search of mysterious lumps and bumps.
When Dean was satisfied it was his brother standing before him and not an extra from The Faculty he pulled his hand back and rested it on his own shoulder. He tapped his fingers to indicate what he wanted.
Sam gave Dean the bitch face, the corners of his mouth puckering in displeasure. Dean lifted his eyebrows and Sam sighed. He moved to stand behind Dean. Behind his brother's back he shed his own cuffs before reaching over Dean's shoulder to shove the key into the cuff restraining his brother.
"Where did you-" Daniel trailed off as he stared at the key. He began patting his pockets and Sam flashed the man a guilty smile. Maybe he had been exaggerating how poorly he was feeling but it wasn't his fault Daniel's outfit had so many pockets.
Beside Daniel Jack reared back his head and Sam knew that he and Dean weren't going to be lucky enough to be underestimated again.
With a twist the cuff jumped free and Dean opened his arms. Carter stumbled half a step forward. True to his word Dean handed her the gun, after he ejected the clip, emptied the chamber and flicked the safety on. She glared at him as she accepted it before stomping out of the room.
Jack sighed as he watched her go before turning once again to Dean. He nodded, soldier to soldier, and pulled the door shut.
The clock was ticking.
x-x-x-x
"What took you so long?" Dean didn't look up as Jack finally entered the room, nor did he pause in smoothing out Sammy's hair. Dean had forced his little brother to lay his head against Dean's legs twenty minutes ago, despite Sam's insistence that he wasn't tired. What really meant was that he didn't want to sleep, to fall back into the nightmares that Sam seemed destined to be plagued by. While Dean could sympathize, he was tired of his brother waking up in cold sweats with screams choking his throat; he had a sneaking suspicion that they were safe. Whether or not anyone else was, Jack, at least, seemed to be friendly. Sam had also mentioned that the floor they were on was the sixteenth and Dean was fairly certain that they weren't sixteen stories up. So unless the dudes after Sam got a written invitation they were probably as safe as they were going to get.
"Had to check on Carter," Jack answered as he set something on the table. Whatever it was it smelled delicious. "Then that pesky blood work finally came in so I had to go listen to Dr. Cam explain. Took her twenty minutes to go through it."
"Oh? And what'd she find? Are me and Sam gonna hulk out on you guys?" Dean asked flippantly even as he felt as cold hand wrap itself around his heart, ready to squeeze.
"Nah." Jack shook his head as he settled himself on the opposite side of the room, directly across from Dean with his back resting on the door. "Besides having the ATA gene in spades, you're perfectly normal. One hundred percent human."
"Oh good. I'm glad we got that all cleared up," Dean grumbled, really not liking where the conversation was headed.
"Your brother, on the other hand-"
"You so much as touch Sammy and I'll bite your hands off!" snarled Dean, his hands hovering protectively over his brother's face.
"Easy there, Tyson!" Jack lifted his own hands into the air, a gesture of peace. "You know as well as I do that if we were going to hurt your brother we would have done it by now but that doesn't change that the NID are out to get him. Now do you want to know why or not?" Dean continued to glare but gave a grudging nod. When Jack was certain the kid wasn't going to interrupt he picked up his explanation. "As I was saying, you've both got the ATA gene, but Samuel's is a bit wacky." Dean frowned at this but remained silent. "Because it's a bit wacky he's all that more important."
Dean tapped the back of his head against the concrete wall of the cell. Either Gabriel had planned this or Sam was just the unluckiest bastard to walk the Earth.
"Why?" croaked a bleary voice and Sam shifted.
Dean's hand rested in Sam's hair instead of pulling back as though burned the way they would have once done. "How long you been awake for?"
"Since Jack entered," Sam confessed, moving Dean's leg and drawing himself up until he was sitting shoulder to shoulder with his brother. The kid still looked like hell but the slight trembles had completely subsided and his coloring had improved. "So Sir," Sam pressed, his determined but respectful, "why is this ATA gene important? Why is mine important? It's got to do something more than determine eye color."
Jack nodded. "Why don't you boys grab something to eat while I explain?" The boys exchanged silent looks and Jack watched an entire conversation take place with head twitches and eyebrows, though he caught the gist of it when Sam huffed and nodded submissively while Dean stood up to grab the food trays Jack had snagged from the mess.
The general waited until both boys were sitting down, food firmly in their laps before launching into an explanation of the Stargate program. The Stargate program had been founded decades ago when the 'gate had originally been found in Egypt. Nothing much happened until Dr. Daniel Jackson wrote his paper on ancient civilizations and aliens.
Jack ignored Samuel's wide eyes, knowing that stopping meant hearing geek speak over the paper, and pressed on, telling about how he and Daniel had been recruited to go through the 'gate and how they totally kicked Ra's ass and effectively ended the program.
Until Goa'uld from a different planet had shown up, shot up the 'gate room and kidnapped a soldier. The suckers were out there posing as Egyptian gods and enslaving planets all across the galaxy, so Jack and Daniel had been called back to go kick more alien ass. Carter had joined the team to help them out and Teal'c had been recruited from the enemy's ranks to help with the Goa'uld problem, which was now mostly under control.
But there were still the replicators to deal with, these little spidery machines that kept building each other out of whatever was available. They were causing the Asgard, the aliens that had posed as Norse gods and were generally neutral to humanity's plight except for when Jack asked really really nicely, some pretty serious problems in a different galaxy. But on top of the replicators there were also the Ori, these super powerful beings who were also running around doing the whole divine thing.
All of these events had led to the search for new tech that was farther away and had resulted in the discovery of Atlantis, the home base of the race that had been responsible for the 'gates in the first place. But the Ancients had pissed some people off and had been wiped out. Many died from a plague, others fled to Earth and had trysts with the locals, passing their genes on to the Tau'ri, and the rest, the vast majority, had ascended, which basically meant that they were these goopy clouds of light that were all powerful but preferred to sit on their asses instead of helping clean up their messes.
But they had left behind their technology and anyone with and ATA gene was free to use it, which meant that only some of the Tau'ri and a very few natives of the Pegasus galaxy were free to use it, which would have been all kinds wonderful if the discovery hadn't also lead to the introduction of the Wraith, who were basically space vampires. So Atlantis was hiding from the Wraith to keep the bastards away from Earth who was fighting off the Ori and couldn't ask the Asgard for help because they were fighting off the replicators.
And just to make things interesting there was a group on Earth called the NID who was constantly attempting to steal alien technology to utilize for whatever it was evil organizations did with advanced tech. Plus certain sectors of the NID had also joined up with a few Goa'uld and were currently a giant thorn in Jack's ass. Their latest scheme had been the blood test flag, the one that had brought Samuel to their attention.
"Basically it sounds like they were spreading a net to catch those who were ATA positive and not involved with the military. That way they could snag them and figure out how to activate the gene in the rest of the world, which would let them play with Atlantis's toys. However, Samuel here has a wacky version of the gene and since the Ancients all poofed out in a light show it looks like the NID took it to mean that your brother's jumped ahead on the evolution scale. The Goa'uld probably think that he's developed some special powers from his ATA gene and will be looking to stick a snake in his head so they can pull the whole 'take over the world' ploy.
"The good news is," Jack summarized, "that they won't kill Samuel here. He's too valuable. They need him alive. The bad news is that he's important enough that they aren't going to back off just because we found you first. Until we manage to take the NID down they are going to be looking for you.
"Now," Jack shifted as he spoke, trying to work out some of his growing stiffness. He really was getting too old to do this sort of shit. "We can get you boys into protective custody. You don't have to come, Dean, but I'm betting that you're gonna want to stick with your brother."
Dean snorted. "Damn straight."
Jack nodded. "We can set you up with new identities in a new city where a whole bunch of your neighbors just happen to work for me and carry guns."
"So you're just going to let us go? After everything that's happened? " Sam asked incredulously. His face was etched with disbelief.
"I have some paperwork for you to fill out and some questions I need answered, but yeah, I'm just going to let you go."
"Cool." Dean smirked before slurping his jell-o down noisily.
Sam gave a disapproving glare. "Dude."
"What?"
"Manners!"
"Pft." Dean waved his hand, and subsequently his fork, dismissively. "We're prisoners in a military base, not guests of the Queen." He slurped down more jell-o, moving his head so he could do so in Sam's ear.
Sam jostled his brother. "You're such a jerk."
"Bitch." The boys glared at each other for a beat. "Can I have your jell-o?" Sam's jell-o moved to the next tray. "Sweet." Dean wiggled the small dish, apparently amused by the foodstuff. He took another noisy bite. "So Johnny, what sort of questions do you have?"
"It's Jack," O'Neill grounded out in irritation. "And I need to know things like how the hell you boys got your hands on all that paperwork."
Dean smirked. "That's it? Really? That's an easy one. Sammy?" He turned to his brother with an expectant eye.
Sam closed his eyes and seemed to gather himself. When he opened them his shoulders relaxed and his face became earnest and serious. "Good afternoon. I'm Special Agent Jobs and this is my partner, Special Agent Gates. We're with the Internal Oversight Advisory and we need to look through your records." Sam paused to wait for an imaginary response. "It's classified." Another pause. "I understand that procedure needs to be upheld, but this is a matter of national security and it's important that you let us do our jobs. Please. Lives are at stake." With the plea Sam's face softened. His eyebrows knitted together in an expression of pained worry even as his lower lip stuck itself out just ever so slightly, his mouth barely open as though he were praying. Worse, his hazel eyes seemed to double in size and shimmer, and for the moment Jack felt like he had been sucked into a Disney cartoon and he was the man running around killing the forest critters.
"Huh." They'd conned their way into the military's darkest secrets? Shit! Jack resisted the urge to rub his temple. This was going to be such a headache to fix.
Dean smirked knowingly. "If it's any consolation we broke into the places where that didn't work. I can give you a list and explain how we got in."
Well, that would help a bit, but still. If these boys managed to weasel their way in from the very outside with nothing more than fake IDs and pretty smiles how the hell was Jack supposed to keep the NID out from where they didn't belong? The NID had real badges and a foot already in the door.
"Any other questions?"
Jack really didn't want to ask anything else. He wasn't certain he could handle the answers. He missed when life was simple and problems could be solved with bullets or by Daniel's geek speak. "Do either of you have secret magical powers?"
The boys echoed twin looks of wry amusement. "Well," Dean drawled, "Fabulous secret powers were revealed to me the day I held aloft my sword and said, 'By the power of Greyskull!' "
Jack lifted an eyebrow in dry amusement. "That was He-Man."
"Was it?" Dean looked slightly confused as though trying to figure out how he could have got that one wrong while Sam snickered.
Jack sighed. "You didn't answer my question."
Dean cocked his head thoughtfully. "You're right. I guess I didn't."
x-x-x-x
Sam and Dean spent nearly a week being trapped under the mountain. Despite the circumstances that had carried them to this point it actually wasn't so bad. The boys had been moved down to level twenty-two, and while they both weren't keen on the idea of being that deep underground, the perk was that the mess hall was on the same floor and that they were given relative freedom to walk around.
Sam spent the majority of his time conversing with Daniel and the archeologist eagerly shared his thoughts. When the Daniel wasn't showing Sam the differences between Latin and Ancient the two were comparing theories on the origins of myths of cultures that didn't have alien gods to explain them away or dissecting the newest theory to have come out in the field.
Dean shadowed his brother for the first two days, but when a growing sense of trust of SGC personnel and utter boredom tipped the scale he ended up first in the gym, then in the shooting range. He was supervised by Teal'c at all times but he didn't mind. The alien made for good company. He may not have said much but he also never told Dean to shut up. Better yet, he had Carter's schedule memorized, ensuring that Dean didn't accidentally bump into her.
When playing with the military's guns became boring Dean somehow found himself in hanging out with O'Neill. The man had decided to chill on base until Sam and Dean's situation was cleared up, partly because he hated paperwork but also because Jack seemed to be the only man that Dean really trusted and keeping him around kept Dean from pulling weapons and taking hostages. The general was down to earth and sarcastic and it didn't take much prodding on Dean's part for Johnny to jump into stories about what he and his team had done.
It was easily the best week the brothers had had since this nightmare had begun, but that didn't mean that they weren't relieved when it was finally over.
"It's gonna be good to see the sky again."
Sam nodded with his brother's assessment. "Open sky and fresh air."
Dean clapped him on the back. "Amen to that, little brother."
The pair stood in the centre of an escort as they waited for the elevator to descend. There were four airmen who were going to ensure that the Winchester brothers made it safely to their destination while three more were going to give the general a ride back to Washington.
Dean shuffled nervously and Sam let his shoulder brush against his brother's. He knew Dean had issues with being underground. It wasn't surprising considering he'd climbed out of his own grave and now that he wasn't sidetracked by anything he had time to dwell on how getting into a little box with nine other guys could go horribly wrong. The only way Sam could really help was through distraction.
"So Jack, are you ever going to tell us our new names?"
"Samson and Dennis Smith." Both the boys cringed in remembrance of the last time Dean had been a Smith, causing Jack to frown. "It's better than Job and Gates. I can't believe you got away with that one."
Dean's grin stretched from ear to ear. "People ain't that bright, Johnny. Sammy here once got away with flashing a bikini inspector ID."
"Seriously?" asked Lieutenant Simmons.
"Dude!" Sam hissed. He was actually glad Dean was talking and not thinking, but being annoyed was the best way to ensure that Dean followed through.
"Oh yeah," Dean relished, rubbing his hands together with the memory. "I told Sam it would work and he was all 'no Dean! This will never work. Will you save me if they catch me?'" Dean imitated Sam in a falsetto. "I was 'don't worry, Sam. It will work. Trust in my awesome.' By this time he was already at the counter and-"
The elevator chimed and they squeezed in. Sam moved to the back, smiling as Dean picked up the story, exaggerating the intimidating presence of the nurse and throwing in obstacles where there had been done. When he finished Jack was frowning intently at the oldest Winchester.
"You do know you can't do that anymore. I can only get the President to pardon you so many times."
"All the more reason to relive the glory days," Dean answered with glee. "For the base we knocked over in Massachusetts we went in as Kirk and McCoy. Even I can't believe we got away with that one. Seriously, who hasn't seen Star Trek? But apparently they hadn't. The gate guard was this big burly-"
Sam winced, tuning his brother out. He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to work out whatever tension was causing the headache creeping up on him. He'd spent the night with Daniel hunched over a cultural evaluation that SG-20 had filed a few weeks ago. He must have pinched a nerve or something.
The elevator chimed again, releasing them onto floor eleven. Only one more elevator ride until freedom.
Sam glanced at Dean who was listening to Lieutenant Menard describe a ritual that SG-11 had been forced to participate. Captain Hanson then tried to top that story with an encounter SG-9 had had with man-eating plants. By the time they had made it to the first floor O'Neill had told the story of how SG-1 had saved Earth from two Goa'uld ships using hand grenades. Despite them all having heard the story before everyone was suitably impressed.
Sam took three steps out of the elevator before he stopped to rub his temple.
"You all right, Sam?" Sergeant Warren gave Sam a worried look.
"Fine," Sam choked out with a forced smile. "It's just a headache." He straightened and took another step before the world dissolved in pain.
Then he was sitting in the armored van, no idea how he had gotten there. Dean was sitting beside him, telling Captains Raimi and Blasdale about a waitress he had hooked up with in Florida. Menard and Simmons were sitting up front. Menard was driving and adding the odd wry comment while Simmons ignored Dean completely, scanning the road intently.
A soft crack was barely heard over the laughter. Sam glanced up to see the webbed hole in the window and the way Menard touched his bloodied chest with disbelief. He slumped forward and the van veered into the ditch.
"Shit!" Dean grabbed his brother and threw him to the floor, shielding Sam with his own flesh as the van rumbled through the rough turf. When it came to a stop courtesy of tree Simmons bailed out the passenger's side, coming around to swing the back doors of the van open.
Captain Raimi had his weapon out, scanning intently while Blasdale placed pressure on his now bleeding scalp, his eyes thick with confusion. Raimi peered past Simmons, searching for danger. "Did you see them?"
Simmons nodded and brought his gun up, lodging a bullet in Raimi's skull. Blasdale reached for his gun far too late to stop the bullet from tearing through his temple, leaving only Sam and Dean alive.
"Step away from him." Simmons motioned Dean to move with the gun, keeping it trained on the older brother. Men in full tactical gear appeared behind the airman, keeping their weapons on Sam. Not that it really mattered. Neither he nor Dean had been provided with a weapon.
Dean looked at dead soldiers before bringing his glare up to Simmons. "Why?"
Simmons shrugged. "Better benefits." He pulled the trigger.
"No!" Sam shouted in denial as Dean stumbled a step back, only falling after two more bullets tore through his chest.
Sam scrambled over to his brother, his not dying brother, and held Dean as blood seeped out his mouth.
He hushed Dean as he attempted to talk, to sputter out a joke or worse, a goodbye, and placed his hands on the wounds, trying to maintain the pressure of Dean's lungs so that he could draw in breath.
Hands were pulling, dragging Sam out of the van even as Simmons crawled back in. He watched as the soldier lifted the gun, aiming at Dean's forehead.
The crack of the air was almost as shattering as Sam's scream.
Then Sam was back in Cheyenne Mountain on his knees, gasping and struggling weakly against whoever held him.
The familiar arms tightened their grip and Sam let himself go slack, his face falling into Dean's neck as his brother whispered soothing things.
"Where the hell is that crash cart?" Sam recognized it as Jack's voice, but he couldn't figure out who was hurt.
"I told you he's fine!" Dean snarled and pulled Sam closer. "It was just a seizure." Oh. They were talking about him. Well. Crap.
"Seizures don't equal fine!"
"M'okay," mumbled Sam, moving to extricate himself from Dean's arms. His brother eased back to grab Sam's elbows and help lift him from the floor. As soon as he was standing Sam brushed off Dean's hands, having a much easier time shaking off the after effects of the vision since he had grabbed a few nights good rest.
Jack looked Sam over before frowning. "I don't care. Infirmary. Now."
Dean opened his mouth to protest and Sam grabbed his wrist. Dean deflated and Sam gave an apologetic smile, knowing that he was going to owe Dean forever for sticking by him as his freaky nature once again got them into trouble.
x-x-x-x
Jack stood by the door to the infirmary. Dr. Cam had called him to let him know the results of Samuel's tests. By all medical standards the kid was fine. The EEG, PET scan, CAT scan and MRI all came back negative. No tumors, no weird wave readings, and no freaky alien radiation were hanging around. Samuel was perfectly fine if you ignored the fact the kid had gone catatonic for over thirty seconds.
Jack had come down to try and figure out what the hell was going on. Dean knew something. That was for certain. He'd been too quick to catch Sam, too calm while his brother was unresponsive in his arms to not have done that before.
Jack's plan had been to charge in and demand to be filled in, but the raised, irritated voices of the Winchesters floating through the door caused him to pause. It wasn't really eavesdropping. It was recon, which was totally different.
"-elling him. Do you want to end up as a science project?"
Samuel's voice was quieter than his brother's but it carried well. "It's not a choice of what I want. Dean, they're already here."
"Which is all the more reason to shut up!" Scuffling feet accompanied the exclamation and Jack knew that was pacing. The guy seemed incapable of sitting still when riled.
Samuel let out a soft breath. "They already know and they're pissed off. They're going to kill you, Dean. They're going to kill you and take me and stick a fucking worm in my brain. We need the help and I don't think we're ever going to get better offer. General O'Neill-"
"Is a bureaucrat!" Jack winced. He had hoped that Dean was beginning to trust him.
"General O'Neill is a good man. We took him hostage and he had us pardoned by the President. He could have just as easily tossed you into a cell to rot and handed me over to the closest doctor. He didn't. He's on our side."
The pacing stopped. "No, Sam. He's not. It's our side because it's just us. It's always been just us."
"Really?" Samuel's voice brimmed with amusement. "How about Bobby?"
"That's an exception!"
"And Ellen? How about Jo and Ash? Rufus? Jim? Caleb? Joshua? And what about Jefferson?" There was a pause. "Castiel?"
"Fuck you, Sammy." There was definite heat in Dean's tone. "You don't get it. This guy has the power to-"
"What? Turn me into meat on a slab?" Samuel let out a hysterical laugh. "Dean, that's where I'm going to end up if we try to keep trying to do this by ourselves!" There was a strangle sob. "God Dean. I don't want one of those things inside me."
The rustling of fabric indicated that a manly hug had ensued. "Fine." Dean's voice was strained with worry. "We'll tell him. I don't like it but we'll tell Johnny."
Seizing the opportunity Jack slipped through the door. "Tell me what?"
The boys broke their hug, obviously embarrassed about being caught in the display of emotion. It only took seconds for Dean's shame to morph into anger and suspicion, with him taking a protective stance between Jack and his brother.
Samuel fidgeted nervously on the bed, his fingers picking at invisible flecks on the white sheets. "I have visions of the future."
That… was not what Jack had been expected. "What?" he asked stupidly.
Samuel shifted and Dean inched closer to his brother. "My 'seizure,'" Sam air quoted, "was a vision. Of the future."
The kid didn't have any tumors. Maybe there hadn't been time for one to grow. "How long have you been having them?"
Sam shrugged. "Since the NID's been after me. The first one I had was a few days before they broke into my apartment, hence why I wasn't there." So Samuel had been having visions for a long time. Looked like the kid was going to stay tumor free.
"And the NID knows." Dammit.
Sam nodded. "They bugged Dean's phone."
"What did you see?" If this was anything like the Jonas situation it was nothing good.
"The NID were going to ambush our vehicle and kill everyone." Jack didn't miss the inflection on everyone, or the way that Samuel's knee moved to brush against the back of his brother's leg.
"Damn." Jack slid into a chair, pinching the bridge of his nose. "How the hell did they find out?"
"Lieutenant Simmons works for them."
"What?"
Sam gave an apologetic shrug. "Simmons works for the NID. In my vision he shot Raimi, Blasdale and-" Samuel cut himself off as he swallowed, his face pale.
Jack rubbed a hand over his face. Now everything made sense. The kid could see the NID coming. He could probably see what they were planning to do to him, which explained how the boys found out about the Goa'uld and how they'd managed this on their own for six months.
"I can't offer you the type of protection you need."
Dean took a step forward, his hands balling into fists. "You sonuvabitch!"
"I'm not abandoning you." Jack sighed wearily. "Look, if they've gotten into the base there is no where I'll be able to hide you that they won't know about and they aren't going to stop. A Goa'uld that could predict the future would be unstoppable. They know that and because of that they are going to pursue you to the ends of the Earth."
"Fuck!" Dean screamed, his foot launching an empty chair across the room.
Sam whispered softly, running a hand through his hair. "So what do we do?"
Jack tapped his fingers on his knee before a sly smirk slid across his face. "They're going to chase you to the ends of the Earth, so why don't move you further?"
The brothers blinked. "What?" they asked in unison.
"How do you boys feel about Atlantis?"
X_X_X_X_X_X_X
Confusion Clear ups.
Smith- Dean was Dean Smith in an episode where he had his memory wiped. He played a day trader who was on a low-everything diet. It was an unpleasant experience.
Jonas Situation- Jonas Quinn, who was a member of SG-1 for a year, developed the ability to see the future but also picked up a brain tumor. Tumor was removed and visions vanished.
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