Stargate SG1: Suffer the Little Children (15/19)

[brihana25]

All disclaimers, notes, warnings and summary are in the Master post: Suffer the Little Children


Chapter Fifteen

He was suddenly awake, but he didn't remember falling asleep.

He was suddenly at the bottom of the hill, but he didn't remember walking down it.

All he really knew was that it was dark where he was; he wanted to go back to sleep. His head felt sticky behind his ear, and it hurt. The side of his neck stung like it had the day he'd tried to shave with Dad's razor and cut himself, and the top of his arm burned and throbbed unlike anything he'd ever felt before. There was something weird about his chest, too; it hurt to breathe and he could hear little squeaking noises every time he did.

He wasn't laying in the most comfortable of places, bent around the tree like he was, but at the moment he didn't really see any reason to get up. He thought he remembered that something bad had happened, but he couldn't quite recall what it was. But it was dark outside, which meant it was late, and he was tired and hurting... so he tried to curl up a bit closer to the tree and go back to sleep.

"Daniel!"

Jenny's voice sounded funny to his ears, distant and panicked. He opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings once more, trying his best to remember how he'd gotten there.

"Help! Somebody help!" she cried.

Jenny!

Jenny was at the top of the hill, fighting to get away from the monster that had grabbed him. It had to be a monster, didn't it? Real people didn't go around grabbing little boys like that, did they? And he hadn't had a face, and he'd been whispering scary things that Daniel hadn't understood.

None of this could be real, which meant it had to be a bad dream. This really couldn't be happening, could it?

"Daniel!"

No, it was real. It hurt too much not to be real. It was happening, and Jenny needed him. He had to get up, he had to save her... but his head hurt so badly and his arm felt funny and it was so hard to breathe. He pressed his hands against the ground and tried to stand - Jenny needed him and he had to get up.

He just needed to ignore the pain and get up.

He managed to get back on his feet, and he stumbled up the hill. He could hear sounds from above that he couldn't identify but that reminded him of the sound of Mom making meatloaf, slapping the meat into the pan. He climbed as fast as he could, but found himself slipping back down more than once. It was harder to walk than it should have been, and he really couldn't move his left arm at all, which was making balance difficult. Breathing was becoming harder with every step he took.

By the time he reached the top of the hill, it was all he could do to stay on his feet, and if it weren't for the one thought that occupied his mind, he wouldn't have bothered to try.

He had to find Jenny; they had to go home. At home, they'd be safe. At home, they could go to sleep and wake up to find that this entire night was nothing more than a bad dream.

He leaned against a tree to steady himself, and he looked across the top of the hill to where he knew he'd been before he'd fallen. Jenny was still there, fighting with the monster whose face Daniel still couldn't see. She managed to push the monster away from her, and it slid down the hill just as Daniel had done. She turned away quickly, spinning around until she saw Daniel, and she ran toward him. She was bleeding now, just a little bit from her arms and nose.

Daniel pushed himself away from the tree. He didn't notice that he was stumbling more with every step - all that mattered was that he was moving forward, getting closer to Jenny with every second. It was almost over; this nightmare would be ending soon. Jenny was reaching for his hand, and she was going to take him home and then everything would be okay.

The monster reappeared from nowhere. He was right behind Jenny, moving toward her with more speed than Daniel thought should be possible. He was so close to her, and Jenny didn't know he was there, didn't realize the danger that she was in. The monster was reaching for her again, and Daniel saw the moon flash brightly from the blade of the knife.

"Behind you!" He thought he yelled it, but it was only a whisper to his ears.

She screamed when the monster grabbed her, exactly as he'd grabbed Daniel, pinning her arms to her sides. The monster lifted the knife up in front of her, showing her the blade before pressing it against the side of her neck.

"Daniel, run!"

But he didn't run.

He couldn't move; he couldn't breathe. All he could do was stand and watch, somehow knowing what he was seeing but at the same not believing that it could be real. He saw the knife and the blood - so much blood - and watched in slow motion as his sister collapsed lifelessly to the ground like a broken doll.

He still didn't run.

He stood there staring at Jenny, watching the blood seep out of her body and soak into the ground. He felt the tears rolling down his cheeks and heard himself screaming her name, but he couldn't feel his body any more. His arm, his head, his chest; he felt none of them. He was numb, completely and totally numb.

The monster looked directly at him, and Daniel saw its face for the first time, and the reality of what he saw was more terrifying than the nightmare. It wasn't a monster, but a man - a man just like any other, except for the knife he held in his hand, the knife that had just stolen his sister from him and still dripped with her blood. Daniel stood, transfixed, as the man looked at him and smiled.

Daniel stared straight into his eyes; the evil he saw there burned into his mind in a way he knew he would never forget.

He screamed.

He woke up screaming, but he didn't remember falling asleep.

He woke up in a cabin, but he didn't remember walking into it.

His hair was sticky with blood and his left arm hurt like hell, but that was where the similarity to his nightmare ended.

The night Jenny died it had been warm, late in August, and he'd been wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Now, he was cold and his jeans and long-sleeved shirt were soaking wet with patches of unmelted snow still clinging to them. The night Jenny died it had been his fear that had paralyzed him even as the arms wrapped around his chest had kept him from running away. Now, it was rope around his wrists that kept his hands behind his back and rope around his ankles that kept him from running. The night Jenny died he'd had to lean against a tree at the top of the hill to keep from falling over because it was so hard to breathe. Now, he was propped up in the corner of a living room, shivering from the cold, and he knew that those walls were the only things holding him upright.

"Hello, Daniel."

The night Jenny died, Daniel had stared straight into eyes so evil that he thought he'd never forget them and screamed.

Now, Daniel stared straight into those same eyes, glared at the monster that had stepped out of his nightmares, and imagined what it would feel like to kill the bastard.

"Colonel, you can't!"

"Do you really want to try and stop me, Carter?"

Sam huffed her exasperation and tilted her head back to stare at the stars above her.

Colonel O'Neill had wasted no time in contacting Agent Baker to tell him about the road conditions on the mountain. He'd told him to stop in Balltown and grab as many road plows and county workers as he could find at 2AM so they could get the road cleared as quickly as possible. An hour later, Baker called back to tell them that he was underway again, with one plow and three workers. He'd also told them that with the avalanche the colonel had described, it would be 6AM at the earliest before they'd be underway again.

The colonel had been less than thrilled with the news.

That was why he and Teal'c were standing behind the SUV, suiting up in heavy coats and snowshoes and preparing to venture out into the snow on foot.

"Daniel Jackson requires immediate assistance," Teal'c said evenly as he fastened the last buckle on one of his snowshoes. "There is no time to waste."

"We're four miles away, Carter," Jack added. "And it's gonna take three hours to clear this road enough to drive on it. That's if there's not another avalanche further up. If we walk, we can be there in two."

"But, Colonel, it's not safe," Sam persisted. "There's already been one avalanche, sir, which increases the odds of another..."

"So we'll walk quietly," Jack interrupted as he finished fastening up his heavy coat.

"But it's twenty-eight degrees out here!"

Jack held up one finger and raised his voice so that he could be heard from where Janet sat inside the SUV. "Hey, Doc?"

Janet rolled down her window and leaned out slightly. She'd been sitting in the SUV since they'd first come across the avalanche. Sam couldn't decide if she was worrying herself over Cassie's situation or trying to ignore it. "Yes, Colonel?"

"How long do you figure someone without a coat could last in this weather?"

"Before severe hypothermia set in, sir?

"Preferably," Jack muttered.

Janet considered the question only a moment before answering. "I wouldn't want him out in this any more than an hour, sir, at the absolute maximum."

Sam looked back and forth between them, watching the conversation in confusion.

Jack turned back to her with an unhappy smile on his face. "Let me tell you something about Daniel, Carter. He's not the type to just sit there and wait for rescue; you know that."

Sam nodded. "Yes, sir."

"So, the first chance he gets, he's going to grab Cassie and make a run for it."

Sam nodded again; she still didn't understand the point of his questions to Janet, though. "So you think he won't take the time to put his coat on?"

Jack shook his head. "Not at all, Carter. He's not stupid. He'd put a coat on before he went anywhere." Jack paused and looked out across the mountain. "If he had one."

Sam's eyes widened in shock. "He doesn't have a coat?" She shook her head, still slightly confused. "But, sir, how do you know that?"

"Fraiser told me," he answered simply, hooking a thumb in the direction of the SUV.

"Janet?" Sam said as she turned toward the open window.

"He had me throw it away, Sam, after he hit his head. He said there was too much mud on it to ever wash out, and he'd just buy a new one." Janet shook her head sadly. "He never got a chance."

"Surveillance video at the gate shows him leaving the mountain in a pair of jeans and a white shirt, Carter," Jack added. "His shirt has long sleeves, but even so... without a coat, in all this snow? And as you pointed out, it's only twenty-eight degrees out here..."

"He'll freeze to death," Sam whispered.

"He will not," Teal'c answered. Everyone turned their heads to look at him. "We will find him before the cold becomes an issue." Teal'c glanced at Janet, who was obviously trying to hide her deep concern but was failing miserably at it. "Daniel Jackson will protect Cassandra Fraiser until we arrive, and we will find them both alive and well."

Jack nodded at Janet. "Absolutely, Teal'c."

Jack reached into the back of the SUV one last time and pulled out two shotguns. He handed one to Teal'c and kept one for himself. Teal'c gave the weapon a look of mild distaste, and Jack shrugged.

"We're on Earth, Teal'c. There'll be civvie law enforcement all over this mountain in a few hours, and I don't think zatting an FBI agent is the best of ideas right now."

Teal'c nodded once in acknowledgement.

"Colonel, I think we should come with you," Sam said suddenly, as she stepped toward the back of the SUV. "Daniel's already sick and hurting; he's going to need Janet. That's why you wanted her to come."

Jack couldn't help the small smile that crossed his face. Of course Sam was going to fight against them going without her - Daniel and Cassie were in these mountains somewhere, and they were in trouble. She loved them both, and she wanted to be there when they were found. And it was just like Sam to use logic against him - and manage to make it seem like something he'd argued against had actually been his idea - to do it.

The door of the SUV opened and Janet climbed out. "Plus, we don't know about Cassie. If she's hurt, Colonel..."

She didn't have to finish her sentence for Jack to know what she was saying. She was a mother; she'd move Heaven and Hell to get to her child. He'd have done the same, if he'd had the chance. Add to that her doctor's instinct to help someone she knew was injured, and she was a more formidable force than normal.

But understanding her thinking, and Carter's, didn't mean that Jack was about to let them come. There was the very real possibility - even though he was denying it with everything he had in him - that they'd be too late, that Daniel and Cassie would already be dead by the time they reached them. In that instance, Teal'c was the only one he could count on to not only to not grow over-emotional himself, but also to pull Jack back from wherever his mind would go if he found them like that.

There was no way Jack could tell them that, though. Luckily, he didn't have to, because there was a perfectly reasonable reason why they couldn't go. Sam wasn't the only one who had the ability to use logic to convince people to do what she wanted, after all.

"Doc, how much medical equipment do you have in this truck?"

Janet nodded her head slightly. "A lot, sir. I brought warming blankets, hot water bottles, oxygen, my bag..."

"Can you possibly carry all of it across a mountain?"

Janet shook her head.

"Are you willing to leave any of it behind?"

Again she shook her head, but much more slowly, as she came to understand what he was saying. "No, sir. There's no way of knowing exactly what I'll need, without knowing how badly hurt or sick they are."

Jack nodded as he closed the back hatch of the SUV and stepped away. He gave Carter a small smile of understanding as he slung the strap of his shotgun across his shoulder. "Stay with the truck, Carter. Wait for Doug. We'll keep them safe until you get there."

"But, sir..."

"We'll find them, Carter," Jack said. "I promise."

With that, he turned and walked out across the snow, Teal'c at his side.

Sam and Janet stood beside the SUV and watched until Jack and Teal'c disappeared over a snow bank, then turned and climbed back into the truck. Janet pulled her coat a bit tighter around her, and Sam turned the heater up a notch. A few minutes passed in silence before Janet spoke.

"Sam, if they don't make it in time..."

"They'll find them, Janet," Sam interrupted. She refused to admit that it might be possible that they might not succeed. She had to believe that Daniel and Cassie would be found, and that they'd be not only alive, but just fine. If she stopped believing that... no. She couldn't even think about it.

"They'll find them, and they'll be fine. The colonel promised."

Daniel wished he had his hands free, if only so he could wipe the blood out of his eyes.

He was tired and sore and beaten in more ways than one, but he was still alive and as far as he knew, so was Cassie. He hadn't seen her since he'd come to in the cabin, and he'd been trying to get Phillips to tell him where she was, but so far Phillips was refusing - violently. Every time Daniel would ask, Phillips would hit him and continue talking about whatever he wanted.

At the moment, Phillips wanted to talk about the night Jenny died. He'd been going on about it for some time now, though exactly how long Daniel had no way of knowing. Daniel had tried listening at first, paying attention to see if Phillips would say something that Daniel could use against him, but it had been too hard. The memories that had just resurfaced made it seem, to Daniel, like Jenny had died twenty minutes ago instead of twenty years. He was still in shock, he supposed, but he knew that he couldn't deal with it right now. Dealing with Jenny's death had waited for two decades; he guessed it could wait another few hours.

Finding out where Cassie was couldn't wait, though. If they had any hope of getting out of this alive, he had to know where she was.

"Where's Cassie?" he asked again.

The response was expected now. Daniel saw Phillips' hand draw back, and he flinched involuntarily against the blow he knew was coming.

It never landed, which was surprising enough. When Phillips hand cupped the side of his face instead, his eyes shot open and he tried to pull away. The look in Phillips' eyes made him shudder. Instead of angry, he looked almost... protective? Fond? Paternal?

"I wish you wouldn't make me hit you so much, Daniel," Phillips said softly. "You can be a good boy, can't you? It would be so easy, Daniel. Just stop talking. When the doctor comes back, don't talk to him any more. Don't tell him how you got hurt, and I won't have to hit you again."

"Wh... what?"

"You can't tell anyone what happened, Daniel, not even your parents. Do you understand me? You don't want me to hit you again, do you?"

Daniel shook his head slowly, completely speechless. Phillips had completely lost touch with reality. When he looked at Daniel now he didn't see a thirty year old archeologist tied up on the floor of a cabin in the mountains; he saw a ten year old boy bleeding on a hospital bed in Albany. Asking about Cassie again was pointless, because Phillips didn't even remember that she was there.

Daniel remembered the words Phillips was saying to him, remembered having heard them before. This was the "conversation" they'd had in the hospital the night Jenny died, when Phillips had chased the doctor out of the room to "question" the witness. This was how Phillips had gotten him to forget what had happened.

"I'm not allowed to talk to doctors," Daniel whispered.

"That's my good boy," Phillips said.

The tone of voice Phillips used and the way he was now caressing Daniel's cheek with his thumb made Daniel's skin crawl, and he pulled away.

"Don't touch me," he said softly. "Please."

The anger flashed in Phillips' eyes once more, and he pulled his hand away quickly. "Oh, I'll do more than touch you, boy!"

It was more than one fist this time, and when Phillips was done, Daniel was left curled into a ball on the floor, whimpering softly.

"I own you!" Phillips punctuated the declaration with a final kick to Daniel's chest.

Then he knelt down beside Daniel, wrapped his fingers in his hair and pulled his head up from the floor, forcing Daniel to look at him.

"And don't you ever forget it."

He released his grip and let Daniel fall to the floor one final time, then turned and walked out of the cabin, into the darkness of the pre-dawn hours.

Daniel coughed harshly and wondered if he should try righting himself back against the wall, but quickly decided against it. There wasn't a place on him that didn't hurt, and he was fairly certain he'd felt something snap in his chest with Phillips' last kick. The blood that ran down his face was coming not just from his forehead, but from his mouth and nose as well. Breathing was a difficult proposition at best, and having his hands tied behind his back wasn't helping anything.

He pressed his forehead against the floor and allowed himself a moment of hopelessness. He let the silent tears fall down his face, as much in sorrow for the rawness of his sister's death as for his and Cassie's current situation. Phillips was completely and totally insane now, and he knew that he wouldn't survive another encounter with him.

"I'm still alive, Jack," he whispered, as the darkness started to grow at the edges of his vision. Spitting the blood out of his mouth brought on another round of coughing, which made the darkness stronger. He felt his body go completely limp, and he let unconsciousness come with one final thought.

"But you'd better hurry."