Heart's Desire (34 page)

“It's all right,” Daniel said, sampling the curry. It was hot and delicious, as always. “Right now there's nowhere else I ought to be.”

J
ack pulled into the school driveway and into what seemed like an endless line of minivans. At the school entrance, kids were climbing out, opening umbrellas against the driving rain, with occasional umbrella collisions ensuing. “You got your lunch?”

“I'm going to buy lunch,” Charlie said. “It's cheeseburgers today.”

“Didn't I see a lunch that your mother packed sitting on the counter?”

“I'll take it tomorrow.” Charlie wrestled his backpack up from the floor of the car into his lap. Jack wasn't sure what he had in there. The kid packed for school the way Carter packed to explore other planets.

“Be sure to get ketchup,” Jack said. “So you'll have a vegetable.”

“Is mustard a vegetable?”

“No, it's more of a…”

“Mineral?”

“Condiment,” Jack offered.

“Okay. What about mayonnaise?”

“It has eggs. So it's animal.”

“Works for me,” Charlie said. “Thanks for the ride.” He shrugged out of his seat belt and threw open the door, rain gusting into the car. He splashed out, the hood of his sweatshirt still hanging down his back, and his umbrella God only knew where.

Jack shook his head as Charlie slammed the door, and fished his cell phone out of his pocket as he pulled out of the school's driveway.

“What did Charlie forget?” Sara asked, her voice amused.

“He left his lunch on the counter.”

“I put it away before I left,” Sara said. “I take it I'm competing with pizza day.”

“Cheeseburger day,” Jack said.

“Oh, well, then.”

“I may be late tonight,” Jack said.

“And that's different from every other night how?”

“It's really not, and yet I say it anyway.”

“And I appreciate it anyway,” Sara said. “See you when you get home.”

He tucked the phone back into his pocket as he changed lanes, wipers thumping against the rain. Sometimes he felt a little guilty about talking to Sara like he was going to be spending the day behind a desk at the mountain when he was actually going out to get shot at again. This wasn't going to be one of those days, though. This mission was one he'd been looking forward to for a while.

Besides, he was pretty sure she knew he didn't have a desk job. He didn't explain it when he came home bruised or banged up, or provide much of an excuse for the times he had to spend several days off-world, and he figured she thought he was doing some kind of short-term special ops work, the kind where you moved on a moment's notice and aimed to get in and out before anyone knew you were there.

He had a real, honest-to-God vacation coming up, though, and he was determined that he was going to take it, no matter how many interesting new planets Carter found for them to explore. They'd drive up to the cabin, and he and Charlie could do some fishing while Sara sat on the dock and read a book, her feet bare to soak up the warmth of the autumn sun.

The last time they'd been up there, Charlie had caught the biggest trout Jack had ever seen, and had insisted on taking a picture of it before Jack cleaned it for dinner. He had the snapshot taped to the door of his locker at work, Charlie grinning and brandishing his fish at arm's length, his cheeks red with sunburn. Sara had snagged one of Jack asleep in a lawn chair on the dock, his baseball cap pulled down over his eyes.

“You want a picture of me asleep?” Jack said.

“I want a picture of you relaxed,” Sara said, and leaned up to press her cheek to his.

He didn't have as many opportunities to relax as he might have wanted, but that pretty much came with the territory of having a kid and a house and a top-secret job exploring other planets. Every time he put it that way to himself, he had to smile. He'd thought when he joined the Air Force that it would be a good way to see the world. Seeing other worlds hadn't even been on his radar.

He slowed down for security as he entered the base, and pulled into the parking lot. The rain was letting up, and he only got a little wet as he waited for the shuttle into the mountain. Inside, he made his way down to the SGC's floors, heading straight for the locker room. His chance to eat breakfast had evaporated somewhere around the time that Charlie had talked him into dropping him at school so he wouldn't have to wait for the bus in the rain.

Kawalsky was already in there, buttoning his uniform shirt. “Thought we'd have to head out without you,” he said.

“Not this time,” Jack said. “Next week, when we're going back to the planet with all the mud
—”

“Oh, but Major Carter says it's scientifically important mud.”

“Feel free to leave without me for that one.”

“We need you to carry your share of the mud,” Kawalsky said while Jack was lacing his boots.

“I should ask Hammond if we can go back to the place with the purple beaches.”

“There wasn't anything there.”

“Nice, warm beaches. Palm trees.”

“Dr. Lee says the palm tree things were poisonous.”

“So don't eat them,” Jack said. “Come on, let's go hit the sand.”

“Not exactly beach sand,” Kawalsky said, but he wasn't complaining either.

Carter and Teal'c were waiting in the gate room, and shouldered their packs as he came in.

“Ready to hit the beaches?” he said.

Carter grinned. “I can work on my tan.”

“I do not believe that there are any beaches within walking distance of the Abydos Stargate,” Teal'c said.

“All we're missing is the ocean part,” Jack said. “I can work with that.”

Hammond came down the stairs from the control room. “Give my regards to Dr. Jackson, please, and also give him these.” He handed Jack a notebook full of scribbled hieroglyphic symbols. “Dr. Rothman would like Dr. Jackson's assistance with some more translations.”

“Not exactly news,” Jack said. “I'll trade him these for the ones he's finished.”

“Please do,” Hammond said. “I expect we'll have plenty more after these.”

“Should keep him busy,” Jack said, although he privately thought that Daniel was finding plenty to occupy himself on Abydos even without the translations Hammond kept sending through for him. He and Sha're hadn't given the impression that they were bored with each other the last time SG-1 had come to visit.

He'd asked Daniel once if he was ever tempted to join them on SG-1. They'd seen a lot of pretty cool things out there. Met a few bad guys, too, although since Ra wasn't a threat anymore, most of the people they'd met were friendly. The Jaffa were still cleaning up some of the mess Ra had left behind, but Teal'c said that was coming along pretty well.

“I think one new planet to explore is enough for me right now,” Daniel had said. “Maybe in a few years we'll think about it.”

“Suit yourself,” Jack said. It might be for the best, anyway. Daniel was a scientist, and while he'd get a kick out of the cool parts, Jack wasn't sure he wanted to see what the bad parts would do to Daniel's general belief that people were good and could be trusted. He and Kawalsky were old cynics, and Carter would get that way eventually; it came with the blue suit, and he wouldn't trade it for a gentler life.

He didn't really feel like trying to argue Daniel out of one, though. “All right, kids,” he said. “Let's go pay the Abydonians a visit.”

The wormhole's chill tugged at him, and then he stepped out into heat, and the bone-dry air of the Abydonian day. There were braziers lit in the chamber where the Stargate rested, and he could smell smoke and the scent of something cooking.

“O'Neill!” Skaara said, scrambling to his feet and smiling. He'd clearly been sitting on the steps waiting for them. “Daniel sent me to wait for you. He says that he is exploring a new chamber he has discovered, but that he will return by the noon meal.”

“Which means sometime this afternoon,” Kawalsky said. “Hi, Skaara.”

“We could come back,” Carter suggested.

“Cool your jets, Carter. We don't have anything else on the schedule for today.” And if they went back, they'd more than likely get roped into exploring somewhere with a lot of mud. “There's no reason we can't hang out until Daniel gets back.”

 
“Indeed,” Teal'c said. He hadn't been very enthusiastic about the planet with the mud either.

“I see I'm outvoted,” Carter said. “That's all right. I've been meaning to take some atmospheric readings.”

“Read away,” Jack said. “Is Mrs. Jackson also looking at interesting walls?”

“No,” Skaara said with a smile. “Sha're says you must come and have tea until Daniel returns. She says she is sorry for his rudeness in not being here to greet his friends.”

“We're all used to him,” Jack said. “Lead the way.”

T
eal'c stepped out into the cool of the courtyard, letting the door close behind him and dull the sound of the crowd inside the palace. The official feast had turned into long hours of celebration, and no one was showing much readiness to go home.

“Had enough of that din?” Bra'tac asked, with a sideways smile. He was standing looking up at the stars. On the other side of the courtyard, torches lit the palace stairs, and people were still coming and going, or gathering in little knots on the stairs to talk.

“A moment of quiet would be welcome,” Teal'c said. “I expect there will be little sleep tonight.”

“How could there be?” Bra'tac cuffed him affectionately on the arm. “We are a free people tonight. There will be time enough to sleep when everyone has celebrated our victory.”

“Indeed,” Teal'c said. He had last seen Drey'auc trying to bring some order to the laying out of the food and drink so many people had brought, ordering people about as if she were a First Prime and looking entirely pleased at the opportunity to do so. “Sometime after dawn, it appears.”

“Or the next day,” Bra'tac said.

“And then there will be much work to do,” Teal'c said. “We must have a council of some kind, to make our own laws and see to the defense of our own world.”

“Yes, of course,” Bra'tac said. “That will be the work of many days. We may as well take these few to celebrate.”

It felt strange not to feel any sense of urgency about organizing their defenses. But Bra'tac was correct that there was hardly any pressing need. The Goa'uld were defeated forever, their power broken, and there was no one now who could send a fleet against them.

“The Jaffa of other worlds…” Teal'c began, unsure for a moment how he meant to finish that thought. Events had moved so swiftly that he was unsure how things stood for Jaffa off Chulak. Many of them had been enemies for many years, but surely they would put that aside now that their freedom was before them.

“They will be celebrating as well,” Bra'tac said. “No doubt they will send their envoys to us through the chappa'ai in good time. For now, you should take pride in what you have done. You have led us to victory.”

“There can be no greater honor,” Teal'c said.

“Do not let it go to your head,” Bra'tac said, thumping him on the arm again, a bit harder this time.

 
Teal'c could not help smiling. “That is unlikely, old friend.”

He had feared when he turned against Apophis that even his closest friends and family would not understand his decision. He had expected to be branded a traitor, even, and woken from dreams where even his family hissed ‘shol'va' and turned their faces from him. In truth, though, he had been surprised by the loyalty of those who knew him, and then ashamed to have ever doubted it.