In the morning, the children kept looking at each other and then at Jack. He had been quiet, studying them. Katie had a hollow feel to her, but hope still burned a small light as she put her trust in him and clung to him. The glimmer was extending toward Daniel, too. Jack wished Sam was around more often, and made a mental note to see what could be done about that. Stacy was next to Katie as they ate breakfast; she had a small case of hero-worship toward her new big sister and was aching for more contact. Davy was confused but knew that Jack would make things alright. Jerrie was next to Davy, talking with him as she fed Olivia. Jerrie had a case of hero-worship, too, but it was directed at the household in general. Olivia –just contentment. Matthew was…. alone. That got Jack’s attention.
It was Daniel’s turn to play school bus, so hugs were passed out to Jack as children scrambled for back-packs and lunches.
“Hey,” Jack grabbed Matthew who darted past him after a quick hug. “I love you.”
“I know,” Matty said. Jack still clung to him. Matthew had yet to call Jack by a name. Uncle Jack, Jack, or Dad; it didn’t matter to him, he just wanted to hear something.
“I don’t think you do, Matty,” Jack said. He took Matthew’s face between his hands, staring into those brown eyes. O'Neill brown, to the good-natured complaining of the other side of the tree. “I love you. I want you to know that. Know it in your heart. I can’t give you back what’s been lost, I wish I could, but I will do my damnedest to replace it with whatever I can. How about we play hooky today? You and me. Let’s go.”
“Play hooky?” Matthew questioned, his face scrunched up in confused disbelief. “I thought adults didn’t play hooky?”
“This one does,” Jack informed him. “I feel like getting some fresh air. Head up into the mountains for a hike. Would you like to come with me? Just the two of us?”
The mountains were starting to turn white at the top, so Jack broke out the sub-zero gear. He had no plans on going up that high, but the mountains were still a little chilly at the lower altitudes. He left instructions for Jerrie, called Daniel and Sam, checked Matty out of school, and informed Paul that he was taking a couple days. The Prime Minister of Somewhere wasn’t going to be happy, but Jack was declaring it a family emergency. Sam reminded him to take his comm with him, just in case.
He found himself in training mode, teaching the cadet about survival and dependence upon a partner. He made Matty leave the Walkman home, and packed light, sealed matches, and a radio that recharged by turning a crank handle. Fishing gear was packed, just a spool and hooks, two guns and ammo, knives, change of heavy sub-zero socks and thermal underwear, maps, compass, and a first-aid kit. Jack went through the list in his head and mentally checked off his military cold weather survival list as he packed their bags. He talked as he packed, telling Matthew why each item was needed and why others were not. Jack discovered that his nephew had never been camping before. Oh, he had been to camps, like his church Bible camp, but Jack felt that it didn’t count. It was a set of buildings out in a field, comfy dorms and a full kitchen. It seemed Andrew wasn’t about to sleep on the ground and refused to live a day without indoor plumbing, so Bible camp was the closest the kids had come to camping.
Jack had Jerrie drive them to the base of their starting point, gave her a return time, his itinerary, and emergency instructions, and they were off. He wasn’t all that concerned, since the Heaven’s Bow could find them with the tags.
Matty tired easily, not used to the heavy workout combined with a large backpack; his JROTC wasn’t doing survival training. Jack took it easy on him but wouldn’t let him gulp the water. Just sips, for the moment. When they settled into a spot for a while and relaxed, then Matty could get a mouthful without risking stomach cramps.
Jack showed him how to find berries, how to know if they were edible, which plants could be eaten, which roots, and where to find seeds. Matthew had no idea he could break open a pinecone and eat the seeds from it. When they decided to make camp for the night, Jack did something to a rope on the ground a hundred yards away and went to put up the tent. He zipped their sleeping bags together. Matthew thought they were sleeping in separate bags.
“It’s cold,” Jack informed him. The temperature had been steadily dropping. “You sleep with your partner and use each other for heat.”
By the time he was done with the tent and getting set up, he looked at his rope. A creature was wiggling in it.
“A rabbit!” Matthew exclaimed.
“Dinner,” Jack said. He got a fire going, quickly dispatched the rabbit, skinned and gutted it, and slid it onto a spit for the fire. He explained each step of the process as he went.
“Yes, he’s cute and fuzzy,” Jack said. “But I’m hungry. Some people thank the animal for its sacrifice, so you can do that, if it will help. Daniel says that’s how prayers at mealtime started.”
Matthew was sure he wasn’t going to eat it, but the smell of cooking rabbit overcame him and he found himself accepting the hot flesh.
Jack made him take care of toilet needs before getting into the sleeping bags, because he didn’t want to be woken up by cold gusts when the bags were opened. Matthew was freezing when Jack made him take off his outer wear, and he quickly got into the bags, his teeth chattering. Jack got in, pulled Matthew into his chest and zipped them up. With the two of them, the bags heated up and Matthew was no longer cold.
After a breakfast of cold rabbit, nuts, and berries, Jack showed him how to take apart a gun, the names of the different pieces, put it back together, and then how to shoot it. They talked more about girls and sex, about school, and about a few of the missions Jack had been on. He made sure to include all the messy parts, so that Matthew didn’t glamorize it in his mind. He unexpectedly found himself telling Matthew about his time in Iraq. Matty was shocked, but Jack sat him down and told him to never be afraid to tell him if something bad happens to him. Matthew thought only girls could get raped, certainly not his uncle who saved the world on a regular basis. He wanted to know how he could do things with another man, after what happened.
“It’s about intent,” Jack told him, casting out the fishing line into the stream. “Daniel loves me, I love him. I know that when he touches me, he does so out of love for me. If I don’t want to do anything, I tell him and he respects that. Same for him; if he doesn’t want to, we don’t. The first time was very difficult for me to get through; I’ve had nightmares for years, but Daniel helped me through them. I haven’t had any bad dreams about it since.”
“Does Sam know about it?” Matthew asked.
“Sure, she does,” Jack said. “She’s my wife and I’m honest with her.”
“Why do men to things like that?” Matty asked, frowning as he played with his fishing line. “It’s so… I don’t know. Makes me feel sick.”
“Makes me sick, too. And I don’t know why men do it,” Jack said. “Lots of reasons, I guess; I think a lot of them were abused as children. Maybe had a bad mother or they saw their father hitting their mother and so they think it’s normal. I don’t know. I’ve never even considered raping a woman; I don’t comprehend anyone who does. I was raised that no means no. I love women, Matty, I love how they look, how they smell, how they taste, even how they sound. And after working with some of the smartest women in the world, if not the universe, and after watching your mother and Aunt Sara giving birth, I respect the hell out of them.”
“Did you see me born?”
“Yes, I did,” Jack nodded, smiling sideways at him. “Your dad didn’t want to be in the delivery room so I coached your mom with all three of you. You were easy, you just came right out and you were not happy until your mom held you; it was Katie that gave your mom grief. Twenty-three hours of labor with your big sister. Davy was hard because he was very early. We almost lost him a couple of times. Olivia is a miracle, Matty; she could have died, too, yet she didn’t even have a bruise.”
Matty was quiet for a while, and Jack reached.
�
�Matty, when Charlie died, I cried for more than a year,” he said. “I retired from the air force, I was feeling so lost. I even let my hair grow almost as long as Nate’s. Jonathan’s. Damn. We have all lost someone, Matt; I’ve lost grandpa and Charlie, Sam lost her father and her mother, Daniel lost both of his parents, too, as well as his wife. Your sister and your brother are also hurting, your mom was their mom, too, so give them hugs and let them know you love them. We all understand how you are feeling, so keep telling yourself that you’re not alone. You cry for as long as you need to; it’s okay.”
Matty was quiet and thoughtful as Jack showed him how to clean a fish for roasting after showing him how to tell a sick fish from a healthy one. They discussed religion and Jack was as clear as he could be on his own views. He had seen too much, knew too much, to believe in a god, but at the same time, he did believe in life after death and did the best he could to explain Ascension. He didn’t tell Matthew about Daniel, only explained his own version of his understanding of it.
Matthew frowned. “Is it okay if I believe in God?” he asked tentatively.
“Of course, it is,” Jack told him. “You need to make your heart happy; if believing in God makes your heart happy, then I will support you one hundred percent.”
“Will you come to my Confirmation?”
“I will even wear a tie,” Jack promised.
Jack did his best to fit a childhood’s time of father-son conversations into a three-day weekend. He needed Matthew to know he was okay, that he was normal, that all his hopes, fears, and dreams were normal. Jack was a little pissed that Matthew seemed to be out of touch with the fact that he was a normal, healthy teenage boy. He was also a little pissed that Matthew didn’t seem to have anyone in his life, previously, to teach him how to be a man. Except his great-grandfather, who was an old man when Matty was born, and didn’t have the energy to keep up with a kid.
“Vinnie, Col. Bosco’s son, thinks I’m cute,” Matthew unexpectedly told him, slightly pink faced. “I told him thank you, like you said, but I can only be his friend. He thought I was only saying that to be polite. I really do think he’s nice; he’s funny and he’s smart.”
“Good,” Jack said with a nod. “You just be there as a friend, and he’ll learn to go with it. He’s a good kid. Matthew, I want you to know that I’m proud of you; you have a kind heart. You might get picked on for it now by the other kids but believe me, when you become an adult, the girls will love you for it, and you will go further in life because of it. The greatest leaders in the world have had kind hearts. And besides; you know what?” Matthew shook his head. “You ARE cute.”
Matthew laughed and shoved him.
They were both filthy and tired by the time they got home early Sunday evening. Daniel picked them up, and he and Sam unloaded the truck when they got home as Jack steered the half comatose boy up the stairs and into his bedroom. He set Matthew on the bed, took his boots off, and pushed the boy under the covers. He smoothed a lock of hair from his forehead and kissed the skin.
“Good night, love you,” Jack whispered. Matthew turned over and sank into his pillow.
“….love you, too, Dad.”
Jack almost fell to his knees.
He took a long, hot shower, ignoring the occasional taste of salt that slid into his mouth. After putting his pajamas and robe on, he checked in with the rest of the brood, discussed with Olivia her beauty and grace, was updated by the adults, and then went to bed. Sam and Daniel came in and looked at him as he stared at the ceiling, hands resting on his chest.
“He called me Dad.”
His partners held him.
Just before the first alarm went off for Sam, Jack checked in on the baby. He went back to the bedroom, woke Sam up, and dragged her into the bathroom for mutual appreciation in the shower.
“Did you two use all the hot water?” Daniel asked groggily as they reentered the bedroom.
“Yes; you’ll have to wait for a tank refill,” she told him. “It’s been emptied twice already this morning.” Jack swatted at her butt.
It wasn’t until just before lunch that Jack was informed that the American ambassador to Rome was possessed by a demon. The old fashioned kind, not the snake kind. He wasn’t quite sure the situation fell under HomeWorld jurisdiction, but no one else seemed to be able to deal with it.
“Is his head spinning?” he asked the aide standing in his office.
“No, sir, but he is snarling in an unknown language in many different voices,” he was told. “Even a voice analyzer has determined that they are all different people speaking.”
Jack stared at the aide.
“My birthday has already passed, you know; no surprises this year, it was nice and quiet.”
“Happy birthday, sir.” A disk was set in front of him and the aide excused himself.
Jack watched the disk twice, called Paul in, watched it again, and then called Daniel after emailing it to him. Daniel watched it and told Jack it looked like an unknown alien presence.
“Ya think?” Jack asked. Daniel was going to Rome. Jack insisted on going with him. Actually, President Hayes insisted that he go, considering that it was the American ambassador they were talking about. All the 303s were out of the area, as well as the Heaven’s Bow, which was dropping off a few things on Kalam, so Jack took an al'kesh. Davis had recommended that he use a little of his considerable power to get himself a private vessel of his own to get around in. Jack said he would feel like Mussolini riding around in something big and ostentatious. Davis told him that he could continue to take regular jets, if he wanted to sit for hours on end. Jack sent a requisition order to Area 51 and soon had an al'kesh sitting in the field behind the HomeWorld Security offices.
Alvin, Jack’s al'kesh, arrived in Italy only minutes after take-off. They found several exhausted priests attempting to exorcise the demon from an even more exhausted man who was tied down to the bed. It was the American Ambassador to Italy, Charles Pierce. The priests objected to the presence of HomeWorld Security, and Daniel stepped in with rapid-fire Italian while Sam waved an MRI over the man on the bed. She shook her head at Jack; no snake. She picked up several more instruments as Daniel argued. The ‘demon’ snarled something and spat at Sam.
“Oh, shut up,” Jack told it. “We’re working here. And mind your manners.” Sam scooped up some spittle and put it into one of her gadgets which was held and then examined by Dr. Caballo, an Area 51 doctor who had accompanied them.
Daniel turned toward the writhing man on the bed. “Look, I don’t know why you still bother,” he said reasonably. “Never in our history have any of your kind been able to inhabit our bodies and live in a co-existent symbiosis. We are not compatible. The symbiotes are compatible with us, you are not. Whatever you are. So give it up and go find another life form to irritate.”
The creature remained unimpressed while the exorcists stared at him. Sam told him she could find no physical presence in the ambassador’s body of something alien to the host. The medic agreed. The priests were satisfied that they were justified to continue with their exorcism. Sam said whatever it was had the ability to mould the host body, attempting to change it into what the creature seemed to need.
“Jack, reach,” Daniel said quietly to him. “If you get a feel on it, try pushing really hard.”
Jack stood near the man, wrinkling his nose at the horrible smells. People dead a week in the hot sun smelled better. He held a hand close, trying not to actually touch the body. Jack kept reminding himself that Ninurta said he didn’t need to touch. The creature roared at him and spat yellow goo which ran down Jack’s chest. It was trying to distract him. Jack grabbed hold of his anti-interrogation training and centered himself to ignore what was going on around him. He reached and found himself in a black cloud. The creature howled and attempted to leap up and bite Jack, incredulous that for the first time in the planet’s history, a human had discovered it.
“Gotcha,” Jack whispered with a nasty smile. He
PUSHED. The room shook as the creature howled, roared, screeched, and gibbered. The priests backed up to the far wall, shocked as they watched. Lights flickered and Sam calmly raised another toy to them. Daniel was listening to the languages pouring out of the ambassador’s mouth, recording them for later analysis. Jack pushed again, using his entire will to send the black cloud out of the body. Enki had told him to ignore the sense of air or non-physical whatevers, and to convince himself that everything he sensed in a person had a physical form and could be manipulated like any other physical object. Jack pushed at the dark cloud, which had turned into a heavy wall. It slowly slid inward and then fell open and out of the way completely. Pierce’s body shook, arched to an impossible angle, and then slumped back to the bed. Dr. Caballo quickly put two fingers to his neck.
“Defibrillator!” he called out. Sam immediately handed the portable machine to him. Small paddles were charged, everyone ordered to clear, and Pierce was given a jolt. On the third jolt, the ambassador took a deep, gasping breath.
“You’ll be alright,” Caballo told him.
The pope was white-faced after Daniel was done telling him exactly what had transpired, and that it was an unknown alien entity that was involved, not a demon. One could call it a demon, but it was still alien. He told the pope about other non-corporeal entities that they had encountered, and that this one was nasty but not unsolvable. The pope wanted to know how Jack did it.
“I meditate a lot,” Jack told him.
“Jack,” Daniel scolded. “Teach. Evolve.”
Jack sighed and pouted. “It’s inside,” he said, touching his chest and his head. “Not out there. I’m just learning how to do this, myself, so I’m really not in a position to teach anyone.”
“Maybe not,” Daniel acknowledged. “But describe to the Holy Father how you do it.”
Jack scratched his head and ruffled his hair as he turned to pace.
“I just…. feel inside of a person,” he said. “I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s like closing my eyes and knowing what kind of pie my mom is making just by smelling it.”
The Anunnaki Unification, Book 2: A Staraget SG-1 Fan Fiction Story Page 11