Work Text:
Finders Keepers
Archive: www.jackfic.com www.stargatefan.com and Kelly’s site http://crashtomcat.bravepages.com ...Thank you, you three for a lovely compliment...
Feedback: "Constructive flames keeps the fire smouldering, but the good stuff gives it life..."
Chapter One
"Colonel!" Sgt Grogan called out, just before the unmistakable whine of a ‘zat’ gun and the familiar arc of the electrical burst enveloped the young man.
Jack turned in time to hear the whine of the ‘zat’ gun aimed at him, but not in time to avoid its burst. Within seconds his entire body stiffened and then shook as the electrical tendrils gobbled up his nervous system and then rendered him unconscious. ‘Crap!’ was his last thought as he crumpled to the floor.
# #
"Sir?"
Jack painfully came to awareness. His head hurt and his arms felt stiff and sore. He rolled onto his side and tried to open his eyes. He could feel the coarseness of the Marul’s office carpet scratch his cheek where he laid his head on the floor. "Grogan?" he croaked.
"Yes, sir," the young man replied.
Jack could hear the fear in the boy’s voice and to be honest, he didn’t blame him. Last thing he ever wanted was to be taken by a Jaffa blindly serving the latest head honcho of the System Lords. Jack tried to rise, but his arms shook a little with effort. Still, he managed to get himself to a seated position and gratefully leant back against the wall. "You okay?" he eventually asked his companion, rubbing at his temples.
"A... a little stiff and sore, but... but other than that, I’m okay. You, sir?"
"Much the same Sergeant," Jack mumbled and continued to try and ease the pressure behind his eyes. He looked up as the door to the office suddenly opened and sighed to see the lead Jaffa stride to where he and Grogan sat. "Got any aspirin?" he lightly asked, not expecting an answer, but looking as though he expected one.
"Silence!" the lead Jaffa shouted at him.
Jack winced, rubbed as his temples again and muttered, "Would you mind keeping the noise down, I’ve got a bit of a headache here, you know?" He felt his head snap to the right as the butt of Staff Weapon clashed with his head. The moment he felt the warmth of his blood trickle into his left eye, he knew that the wound he already had there had opened again. "For crying out loud!" he exclaimed, clamping a hand over his eyebrow, "do you know how long that takes to heal?"
"I said silence!"
"Well if you wouldn’t keep yelling at me, then maybe I *would* be silent," Jack groused.
The lead Jaffa took a threatening step forward and raised the butt of his Staff Weapon again.
"All right, all right," Jack muttered, "being quiet."
The Jaffa took a step back then quarter turned away and signalled for another to approach and grab Grogan. The Sergeant let out a squeal of fright before a punch to his jaw rendered him silent.
"Hey!" Jack yelled as he stumbled to his feet, "leave the kid alone. He doesn’t know anything."
"And how do you know he knows nothing when I have not *asked* anything of him yet?"
"Well," Jack shrugged, "Cos he’s just a kid, that’s why."
"You Tauri are amusing," The Jaffa laughed, "but it is I and my followers that will *enjoy* the amusement."
"We aim to please."
The lead Jaffa suddenly snapped his fingers and then pointed to Jack.
As two Jaffa suddenly took each arm, Jack solemnly watched as Grogan sank to the ground unconscious. ‘Well,’ he thought, ‘at least he’ll be unconscious and won’t know what’s in store for him.’
"My brothers can be a bit heavy handed," the lead Jaffa muttered in explanation, "but be rest assured, *you* will remain conscious throughout."
"Throughout?" Jack asked, "Throughout what?"
"This," the Jaffa muttered and with the butt of his Staff Weapon, he hit Jack in the stomach.
Unable to do anything other than take the blow, Jack doubled over, only to find himself straightened by another blow to his chin. He furiously blinked the stars from his eyes and the fuzziness in his brain. "Well, *that* was unpleasant," he whispered around the pain and when he’d managed to get his breath back.
"And there is so much more where that came from..."
"Good to know," Jack gasped.
"Where is the Sentinel?" the Jaffa suddenly asked.
"Sentinel? Don’t know what you mean..."
That earned him a blast from the pain stick that the Jaffa carried and he cried out unashamedly as the pain engulfed every nerve ending; constricted every muscle, leaving him breathless when it stopped.
"You *will* tell me Tauri."
"Go hang... you... *slimy*, *son* of a *bitch*," Jack replied through gritted teeth of pain and then gasped as the stick returned to his back. He arched forward in a vain attempt to get it away from him, but the Jaffa behind him pushed it deeper and he screamed with agony as it bit into him. He thought his lungs would explode and his throat implode with his yelling, but just when he thought he could take no more, the stick was taken from his back.
He sagged a little in the Jaffa’s arms, such was his relief, and gulped in huge breaths of air; his chest hurting with the residual pain that the stick had invoked. He could hear the rasps of his own breaths but could do nothing about it. ‘This is going to hurt,’ he told himself over and over, gathering enough strength within himself to withstand the pain he knew was about to be inflicted.
Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Grogan stirring and silently prayed that the kid would stay down. He glanced there and slowly shook his head when the boy looked up at him silently asking him what to do. ‘Don’t do anything stupid,’ he thought, hoping that his face would convey as much. It must have done because he saw Grogan lie his head back down on the floor and close his eyes. ‘Good boy,’ Jack silently complimented the young man and then turned his attention to the Jaffa in front of him.
He felt the butt of the Staff Weapon connect with his stomach again and then crack against an arm. He winced and chewed his lip until it bled, determined not to give the Jaffa the satisfaction of hearing his pain. His eyes watered with the effort and he could feel a sickening sweat pop out in his forehead, stinging the wound to his eyebrow. He swallowed the bile and braced for more.
"Tell me where the Sentinel is..." the Jaffa demanded.
"Finders keepers, losers weepers," Jack sing-songed to the Jaffa and then cried out again when the pain stick was pushed against his back again.
"Tell me where the Sentinel is..." the Jaffa demanded.
Jack screamed and yelled, writhed and groaned, but still managed to shake his head.
"You *will* tell me," the Jaffa confidently announced over the harsh gasps coming from his prisoner.
Jack looked up at him and with every ounce of breath that he had, he snarled, "Over my dead body." Jack winced when he saw the Jaffa raise his hand, readying himself to indicate to another Jaffa to inflict more pain on his body.
The door suddenly flew open and another Jaffa hurried to the side of the one in front of Jack. He could see an animated conversation going on but couldn’t understand a word of it. He sagged a little more in the arms of the Jaffa that held him and concentrated on regaining some of his strength back.
"Well, Tauri, it appears that we know where the Sentinel is."
‘Crap!’ Jack thought, but said aloud, "Yeah? You couldn’t tell me could you?"
"I can do better," the Jaffa replied, "I can *show* you." He then turned away from Jack and instructed two of the other Jaffa’s to chain the Colonel and Grogan up and to bring them along.
Jack winced when the leather band around his neck was clasped together and chained to a pole. This pole was then fed through his arms and his arms chained tightly to it. Hell, it hurt but it was sight lot better than the pain stick.
"Are you all right, sir?" Grogan asked as he was chained to his own pole.
"Been better, you know?" Jack replied.
"Yes, sir," Grogan replied and hung his head in shame.
"Ah for crying out loud," Jack whispered, but then said, "I’m all right Sergeant... and so will you be."
"Yes, sir..." Grogan softly replied and then disappeared from sight as one of the Jaffa’s yanked on Jack’s chain, forcing them along to see the sentinel.
Epilogue:
"Sir?"
Jack groggily woke. "That you, Grogan?" he croaked, his mouth dry.
"Yes, sir," the young man replied and placed a straw at the Colonel’s mouth.
Jack sipped at the water, very grateful for it. He was tempted to gargle the dryness from his throat, but decided against it when he thought he might just succeed in spitting it all over himself. On that thought he swallowed the water and looked to the young man seated at his bedside. "You okay?" he eventually asked.
Grogan nodded and regretfully added, "Apparently a lot better than yourself, sir."
"Hell, I’ve had worse soldier," Jack replied trying to raise Grogan’s spirits, but by the pained look on the young man’s face he was failing... and failing miserably. Still that hadn’t stopped in the past and it wouldn’t stop him now. "Something bothering you?" he asked.
"I screwed up sir, big time."
"No you didn’t..." Jack countered.
"Yes, I did..."
"Didn’t..."
"Did..."
Didn’t," Jack replied and before the young man could say anything else, he quickly added, "We could go on all night like this, soldier. You just ask Daniel Jackson," he added with a fond smile.
Grogan let his own smile lighten his face as he nodded, "So I hear, sir."
"Yeah?" Jack muttered, surprised by that revelation.
"Apparently it’s legendary, sir." Grogan admitted.
"Cool," Jack muttered with utter pleasure.
But the smile on Grogan’s face faded and he looked down at his hands on his lap as he muttered, "But this *is* all my fault."
"No it isn’t," Jack muttered.
"It is, sir," Grogan countered and quickly added, "and please, sir, don’t deny it, because I’m prepared to go all night with this one."
"None of this is your fault, Sergeant," Jack sighed. "If it comes down to anyone being blamed then it should be me."
"With all due respect, sir," Grogan announced, "but... don’t be ridiculous."
Jack simply raised an eyebrow at the young man, but decided against discipline. Instead he said, "I should have known..."
"Known what?"
"That wherever you go, Grogan, trouble follows..."
"Sir?"
"My assessment of you, after we tested you and the rest of your group, was, he’s good, but he’ll draw every ‘zat’ to him on every mission."
"If that’s the way you felt, sir," Grogan replied slightly hurt by the assessment, "then why did you pass me?"
"Because, soldier," Jack sincerely replied, "I saw something of myself in you."
Grogan’s head snapped up and a look of complete and utter surprise locked his mouth open. Eventually he gasped, "You did?"
Jack slowly nodded. Although he passionately hated this hero worship amongst the newbies of SGC, and he’d heard a lot about it, he thought that maybe now was the time to use it to his advantage, and judging by the grin that was spreading across Grogan’s face, he knew he’d picked the *right* time to use it.
"Thank you, sir," Grogan whispered gratefully.
"You’re welcome," Jack muttered and added, "Now, you gonna let an old man sleep or are you gonna keep me awake all night with this inane chatter?"
Grogan stood, knocked over a hospital table that had Jack’s leftover dinner on it, winced when it crashed to the floor, then bent, catching his head on the side of Jack’s bed as he bent, and then picked up the food that had slipped from it’s plate, rubbing head with the other hand.
"For crying out loud!" Jack exclaimed when the table hit the deck, "Will you just leave me alone, soldier?" Immediately regretting that he’d made this... this buffoon feel *better* about himself.
Grogan nodded and backed out of the infirmary, muttering his thanks and his ‘sorry’s’ as he moved. He bumped his nose as he turned to walk out of the door, only to find Daniel Jackson trying to come in. He stepped back, rubbed his nose and murmured, "Sorry, Doctor Jackson... sorry."
Daniel did his best not to laugh but still could not stop the chuckle. "It’s all right, Ted, no harm done..."
And with that Grogan left.
Jack let out a huge sigh of relief as Daniel approached his bed.
"You did good there, Jack," Daniel said sincerely, as he indicated the door which Grogan had just left by.
"Did you just see what he just did?" Jack exclaimed, completely ignoring what Daniel had just said to him.
Daniel nodded, "Yep and I have to say that you were... accurate... very accurate..."
"Huh?"
"There *does* seem to be a striking resemblance," the archaeologist muttered, then let rip with a full bodied laugh when he saw the chagrin on his friend's face; and he laughed harder when he heard the distinctive ‘Harrumph’.
The End
Author's Notes: I would just like to thank those that have requested my stories to be archived on their sites. I am truly humbled and flattered by them and I hope I can live up to their faith in my writing abilities... Cheers!...
© June 30, 2003 The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Showtime and Gekko Film Corp.
The Stargate, SG-I, the Goa'uld and all other characters
who have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the names,
titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of MGM-UA Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd. Partnership. This fanfic is not intended as an infringement upon those rights and solely meant for entertainment. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author.