Reversal of Fortune: Part 18
By
Gemsong

Turner stood in the doorway of the small cell, his eyes on silent figure lying on the bed. Beside the child sat the doctor.

"Well?" Turner asked.

The doctor shook her head. "I'm sorry, Mr. Turner," she said. "But he's barely conscious and running an extremely high fever. Whatever it is this is doing to him is burning him out."

"Can he talk?" Turner asked, his mouth pressed into a grim line.

The doctor sighed. "Only if you speak Ancient," she said. "And even then it's probably mostly nonsense. He's showing signs of delirium. " The woman shook her head. "He's just too small for whatever this is. To access what's in his mind draws a lot of his physical resources. If he were older....."

Turner swore. This was supposed to be a short-term operation. Get what was in O'Neill's head and move on. If they had to wait until he grew up, it wasn't worth the risk. The SGC, his team would never stop looking for him. And the thought of trying to raise O'Neill was simply out of the question.

"Do what you can doctor," Turner said in a flat voice. "We'll get what we can out of him and that's it."

The doctor looked at him surprised.

"Do you have a problem with that, Dr. Mathers?" he asked the chill in his voice seeming lower the temperature in the room.

The woman swallowed and shook her head. "No, sir," she replied. "I'll try to get his fever down and see if I can get him going."

"See that you do, doctor," Turner said. He spun on his heel and stalked out of the room.

The doctor stared at the empty doorway for a moment then turned back to the pale child on the bed. She pushed sweat-dampened hair off his forehead.

"I'm so sorry," she said softly. "I wish I could get you out of this. You don't belong here."

Fever glazed brown eyes opened and looked up at her. The faintest smile touched his lips. His hand moved to touch hers where it rested against his cheek. Mathers had the oddest sensation. As if this child was touching something inside her. For a moment tears burned her eyes and she blinked them away rapidly.

"S-stay with me?" Jack asked in a whisper.

The doctor started to shake her head then stopped. Jack spoke English. That meant he was better. But if he 'stayed' sick, there might be a chance she could do something. "All right," she whispered.

"N-name?" Jack whispered. It seemed an effort for him to speak.

"Julia," she replied. "Julia Mathers."

Jack shifted on the bed raising his arms. Automatically the doctor drew the child into her arms wrapping the blanket around him. His small arms were around her neck, his head resting on her should.

"Stay," he murmured. "Stay safe."

Julia closed her eyes wishing that were true. But she knew it wasn't.

"Daddy's coming."

The doctor looked down at the child in her arms startled. She knew who and what he was and suddenly it occurred to her. With all the knowledge of the ancients in his head, what else could he be capable of?

***

Every large city seemed to have a warehouse district. And every one of them seemed to have a section that people avoided. Not even the homeless were desperate enough to take shelter here. Street gangs kept their distance preferring to do their business elsewhere. Life was dangerous enough.

But to the people now approaching the building it was a target. And within it was something precious. SG 2 and 3 were part of the group. Along with Major Tomasello and his hand picked team. The three members of SG-1 were in the forefront. It was their operation. Jack, with Shau're's help had given Daniel everything he had seen within the building and every person he had seen. Daniel knew he hadn't seen everything and everyone, but it was better intelligence than most black ops teams got on a good day.

Daniel had been able to identify most of the people that Jack had seen around him through the files that Sam had been able to access. They had the names and faces of most of the people there. One name stood out. Samuel Turner. He and Jack went way back and had played on opposite sides of the fence. The man hated Jack. And in a child's body, Jack was helpless against him. Teal'c looked almost murderous when he realized what that meant.

Now all the teams were in position around the building awaiting the signal to move. On the roof of the building two men were pacing keeping watch in case anyone approached. They didn't see the black clad teams approaching. They weren't expecting trouble. No one knew they were here. They were wrong.

Two snipers shots took out the roof guards. All exits were covered. The signal was given and all hell broke loose as the SG teams broke into the warehouse. There was immediate resistance from the guards within the buildings. But they were outnumbered and the rescue teams better armed and more determined. They weren't here for the money.

So many things happened simultaneously. The operation was swift and deadly. Daniel knew exactly where Jack was in the building. Sam and Lou Ferretti followed him down the hall. One of the guards was heading the in same direction, looking for a hostage and the best one would be Jack. They couldn't touch him if he had the child. As he was unlocking the door, the three came up on him fast and silent.

Daniel recognized the face. One of the men who had left bruises on Jack's face. Before the man could bring up his gun, Daniel was on him. The first punch knocked the gun out of his hand. The following blows were accompanied by a single word each.

"You. Hit. My. Son!" Daniel snarled. The last word was combined with a double fisted punch so hard to throw the man back against the wall and leaving him to slide down unconscious. Daniel stood over him a moment breathing hard his fists still clenched. Then without a word he turned away. Sam and Lou stared at him as if he was a stranger. They had never seen him like that before.

As Lou secured the unconscious man as Daniel pushed open the door. The room appeared empty, the cot unoccupied. He felt his heart clench for a moment until he heard a sound coming from behind the door. As he moved the door a sight he didn't expect to see confronted him.

Jack was wrapped in a blanket, his arms around the neck of a woman who was holding him protectively. His son lifted his head, turning to look at his father.

"Daddy..?"

Daniel snatched him from the unresisting woman to hold the small body tightly. Jack squeaked slight protest at the too tight grip. "Baby, are you all right?" he murmured.

"Tired... head hurt," Jack replied.

"They were asking too much of him," the woman said pushing herself to her feet, well aware of the gun Sam had turned on her.

Daniel's cold blue eyes locked on the woman. Before he could speak Jack lifted his head from his shoulder. "This is Julia," he said. "She kept me safe."

Daniel looked down at the bundle in his arms, the face flushed and feverish. But the brown eyes held his without wavering. Jack trusted her. He knew that. When he looked again at the dark haired brown-eyed woman, some of the coldness had left his eyes. For now he would trust Jack.

"All right, Julia," Daniel said. Then he turned to Sam. "Take the two of them out to Janet. There is one more thing I need to do."

Jack turned in his arms and reached out again to Julia. Sam was the one with the gun and would make sure they got out safely. With Sam leading the way, Julia followed without a word. Meanwhile Daniel continued down he corridor followed by Ferretti. There were a few more faces he wanted to find.

Elsewhere Teal'c and Major Tomasello were coming up against heavier resistance. The scientists had given up easily enough, but there were a few guards that wouldn't surrender without a fight. As the team moved forward, gunfire pushing back the reluctant mercenaries, Teal'c paused a moment. He turned around just in time, his staff weapon coming up to knock aside the P-90 that would have killed his team.

The man smiled with a feral grin. "So you're the famous Teal'c," he said.

"You are Samuel Turner," Teal'c replied, his face impassive. He recognized the man from the pictures they had been given.

"You're heard of me?" Turner asked, the smile widening.

"No." The answer was flat and unimpressed.

The smile faltered for a moment. "I've always wanted to meet you," Turner said. "Rumor has it that you're the best, even without your 'fire stick'." He added gesturing to the staff weapon.

Teal'c expression did not change and he knew what he had to do. "You have met me," the former Jaffa replied. "You will surrender."

"Oh I don't think so," Turner replied.

Teal'c's eyes watched the man's stance. This human wanted to engage Teal'c in hand-to-hand combat. He wanted to see who was the better man. Jack had once tried to explain this aspect of human behavior, but understanding escaped him. It did not matter who was better. Only who won. But perhaps it was some twisted sense of human honor.

Teal'c held up his hand when Tomasello turned, with his gun raised. Instead Teal'c handed him his staff weapon. If this human Turner wished to fight, he would do so. With full knowledge that this human had caused harm to young Jack.

Later, Jim Tomasello would be unable to fully describe the results of this particular fight. For a big man, one would think that Teal'c was slow. He was anything but. He was swift, graceful and precise. Turner was down and unconscious in a matter of minutes. Jim decided in a fight he would always bet on Teal'c.

The final mopping up of the operation was taking place. Nearly everyone was accounted for with the exception of Simmons. There was no sign of the man. Either he hadn't been there or had somehow escaped. Either way, he was a loose end a lot of people would be looking for.

Daniel stood in the office that Simmons had apparently been using. Files and computer disks were being gathered to be taken back to the SGC for analysis. They were unsure what they would find, but Daniel had a feeling it wouldn't be information intended for the betterment of mankind.

He was taking a final look around when the phone rang. He stared at it startled for a moment. Then slowly put the handset to his ear.

"Yes?" he said gruffly.

"You're late with your report," came the male voice on the other end of the line. A voice he recognized. "What have we gotten out of O'Neill?"

Daniel was silent for a moment. Then he spoke, his voice clear and recognizable by the caller. "Kinsey, if you send someone after my son again, remember I will always find him. And the last thing you will ever see will be my face," he said. Then he slammed the receiver down. Daniel walked out of the office to join his son now in Janet's expert care.