DISCLAIMER: I only borrowed them for a while. MGM and whoever can have them back whenever they want.
SERIES: The first in a series of vignettes from those close to Sam/Janet.
SPOILERS: Set during Death Knell (Season 7)
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author

Outside Looking In:
Jacob

By Celievamp

The Carter Clan are wanted in Goa'uld town. By the biggest black hat of them all no less – Anubis himself.

That bastard has his eye on my little girl. One of his obscenities hunted her across that planet for three days. And she beat him.

I just wish that she would wake up. Doctor Fraiser assures me it is simple exhaustion. Her injuries were messy but relatively minor and are healing well. I can see that Janet is calm, the brittle nervousness that characterized her whilst Sam was missing in action has vanished. So I believe her when she says that my daughter will be all right.

My daughter. Her lover.

I wanted so much for my Sammie, only the best for General Carter's little girl. All the time I wasted because my daughter was strong enough to have her own dreams, to want her own career, to live her own life. And I was too proud and too arrogant to acknowledge that. All things I should have celebrated rather than holding them against her all those years.

Janet Fraiser is a big part of that life. Once I would have been horrified by that. Thank God I've grown beyond such petty distinctions. Janet is one of the best things to happen to my daughter. She has helped to complete her, to make her a whole person again. Elizabeth would have adored her. I think she always knew that her beloved daughter would always travel her own path.

Her hand tightens in mine. "Sammie?" I call softly, but loud enough to alert Janet that something might be happening. All I want is to see her open her eyes, to hear her say my name. I don't know if she was told that I had survived as well before she lost consciousness on the planet.

Three days being hunted, running for her life and she was one of the lucky ones. There are sixty bodies in the morgue.

Janet is standing by the door, out of Sam's line of sight. She frowns, I watch her swallow and then her lips part and her eyes open at last. "Dad?" Her smile is weary but luminous. "You made it."

"We both made it, kid," I said. "You were asleep for a long time, Sam. You gave us quite a scare."

She shrugged that off. "It worked," she whispered. "The gun worked."

"We know. It's already in production." Now came the hard part. I glanced across at Janet who nodded. She would pick up the pieces. I trusted her to do this for me, for my little girl.

"Look, I may not be able to come round as much for the next little while."

She listened in silence to my explanation of the failure of the alliance. "If I stay with the Tokra I can at least try to mend some fences."

Her eyes glistened but she did not let the tears fall. Not while I was here. She was daddy's good little soldier and it broke my heart.

"I'll miss you," she whispered.

"I'll miss you too." I kissed her on the brow, feeling her shiver beneath my touch. There was nothing more to be said. I might never see her again but I could not say that. We both knew it anyway.

I stood up to go. She did not try to stop me. This is how it had always been between us, even before Elizabeth died. I wasn't the one she needed now. I put my hand on Janet's shoulder for a moment. "Look after my little girl for me, Janet."

She nodded, her dark eyes wide and watchful. She did not like what I had done but she knew I had to do it. I had to go.

When I glanced back at the Infirmary door she was sitting on Sam's bed, Sam's good hand in hers and their heads were close together. This was Sam's family now, the kind of family my daughter deserved. I was just visiting.

The End

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