Chapter nine

A/N: Sorry for the long wait :)



Jack ruffled Willow’s red hair as he gave the girl a blue crayon, the kid grinned up at him from her position on the floor; she turned back to her colouring book. The colonel, stood back up and smiled slightly as he watched child scribbling with the crayon with gusto.

Both Willow and Xander had been given the all-clear to leave the infirmary, the psychologist for the children was being called to the SGC at that moment; he’d arrive in a few days.

But for now the kids were playing in their room, well, what passed for a room anyway; the VIP room wasn’t all that welcoming. Neither of the children seemed to mind though, in fact Willow had been drawing for a best part of two hours trying to lighten the room up with her pictures.

The brightly-colours flowers stood out, it was a welcoming bright contrast from the dull and dreary surroundings of the room, and the smiley-faces in the plants just amused him- Willow, not so much…

Xander had drawn the smiley-faces onto the flowers stating that it made the flowers look ‘laughier’, according to him anyway; the girl really hadn’t been amused and stated that plants didn’t have faces on them while glaring at him.

Jack looked at the boy in question and smirked, the kid had decided that Teal’c’s stoicism was unnecessary and was now pulling faces at the Jaffa and whispering things to him, a slight smile was already tugging at the guy’s lips.

As he watched them he saw Teal’c nod at something that Xander had said, the Jaffa waited as the kid dug a hand into his pocket and withdrew something, but he couldn’t see what it was.

What was he doing?


~*~


Xander grinned as he felt Jack’s eyes on his back, he was turned away from the man so that he couldn’t see what he was doing; he carefully kept the rim of the coin untouched as he tucked the felt-tip pen into his pocket, he grinned excitedly.

But he’d better stop looking like that, otherwise Jack would think he was going to do something; it would mess everything up. He pinched the coin’s faces with his index finger and thumb, careful not to touch the rim, and walked back over to Teal’c. He hid the coin against his leg so that Jack couldn’t see as he walked passed him.
Xander stood in front of Teal’c, who was kneeling down to his height, and whispered, “Just watch this, and don’t say anything.”

“I will not, Xander,” agreed Teal’c with a rare trace of amusement in his voice.

Xander grinned momentarily before quickly wiping it off his face, something he’d learned to do whenever his dad came into the room, and walked towards Jack, “Hiya Jack.”

Jack smiled at him and knelt down to his level like Teal’c had done, “Hey, kiddo. Having fun?”

He was going to in a minute, THAT was for sure! He struggled to stop the smile tugging at his tightly-pressed lips, “Yep.”

Xander held up at coin shyly and said, “Betcha can’t roll this up and down your face, just-” he trailed his index finger from the middle of his forehead, over his nose and then down passed his lips and chin. “-roll it like this.”

Jack watched him with a slight smile on his face, “Sure thing, kiddo.”

Xander grinned inwardly, Teal’c was gonna HAVE to laugh now!


~*~


Jack saw the spark of mischief in the boy’s dark eyes as he handed him the coin, he held it the same way Xander was- he figured he had to- as he wondered what the kid was planning, whatever it was he’d figure it out.

Just as soon as he found out why in the world Xander would want to have him roll a penny down his face; he smirked. Kids. Well, if it cheered him- and Teal’c- up…

He rolled the coin carefully down the middle of his forehead, then over his nose, over his lips and then down his chin and finishing; he wondered why Xander was grinning at him goofily.

He smirked back, wandering what he wanted him to do next; what was the next part of the trick? “Xander, do go on…” he gestured with his hand for the six-year-old to continue.

Xander just grinned at him, laughing as he did so and holding up the coin, he turned to Teal’c, “Told ya!”

Confused, Jack looked up from the kid and looked at the Jaffa, he was startled to find that Teal’c- somber, blank-faced Teal’c- was now actually smiling in his direction, “Indeed you did, Xander. I am, in fact, every much corrected.”

What? Jack turned his confused look to the side as Willow giggled, she was on her tummy with her chin on both her fists; her elbows digging into the bed mattress, “What? I swear if someone doesn’t tell me-”

Willow broke out in hysterics, her head now buried in her arms and muffling her giggles; her colouring book was lying, forgotten, next to her on the bed.

What the hell…?


~*~


Willow pressed her face into her arms, laughing at that image of Jack still in her mind; and he looked so confused too! She looked up, her face hurting from the grinning, and snorted in amusement as Jack glared at her.

He looked so funny with that line going down his face! And he didn’t even notice it, she looked at Teal’c and was surprised, and happy, to find that he was grinning as well. She knew he could smile!

“Oh, c’mon!” cried Jack in exasperation. “What-” he froze, then touched his face, near the line, glared at them again before striding over to the small mirror over the equally small table to his left.

After he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror he spun around and frowned at them, “Funny…very funny,” sarcasm dripped from his voice.

Oy, those kids! They were as bad as Charlie had been…and pushing THOSE thoughts aside. He was SO gonna teach them a lesson!

He frowned at them, inwardly grinning fiendishly, “You know what I’m gonna do now?” he smirked inwardly as slightly worried looks flitted across the kids’ faces. “I’m gonna getcha!”

With that said he ran at Xander, a gleam of his own mischief shining in his soul, Xander dived out of the way at the last minute; Jack ALMOST got him!

Xander laughed and ran away from him towards Willow- who jumped off the bed, grinning excitedly- and started jumping up and down, “Can’t get me! Can’t get me!” he said just a little too loudly.

“Wanna bet?” asked Jack slyly. He mock-dived at Xander, landing on his side as Xander, predictably, leapt to the side. “Oh, I missed, didn’t I?”

“Yup!” said Xander shrilly, grinning. “’Cause you was TOO slow!”

Jack quickly grabbed the boy’s leg, pulling it from under him and swiftly catching him before he let the ‘Tickle-monster of doom’ out. Xander giggled hysterically and wriggled around, kicking and flailing as Jack tickled him, “No!” he yelled before dissolving into giggles.

He hadn’t let the dubbed ‘Tickle-monster of Doom’ out since Charlie had….

“Don’t worry, Xander!” yelled Willow from behind Jack. “I’ll save you!”

Jack felt an added weight on his back as the girl jumped on him, “Geeze…” he snickered, amused, as Willow thwacked him over the head with her brightly-coloured plastic plate.

“Do not worry, O’Neill,” said Teal’c in his booming voice. “I will endeavor assist you.” After that was said Jack felt Willow being lifted from him followed by a squeal of glee.

“Noooo! Xander, save me!” laughed the redhead from behind him.

Xander just cackled, screwing up his eye.

It was a moment before Jack realized that he’d stopped tickling Xander, he looked down and saw that the boy was beaming at him happily with his now-open eye, Jack smiled back before the six-year-old reached out his arms towards him.

Jack ducked down a little so that the kid could wrap his arms around his neck, he scooped Xander up, rocking back from his kneeling position and landing softly into a sitting position. Xander laughed as they tipped back, eliciting a chuckle from the colonel.

Jack suddenly frowned as he reciprocated Xander’s hug, memories of Charlie flitted through his mind- echoes of his laughter filled his ears- he shook his head violently, making Xander look at him oddly, “Jack?”

Jack sucked in a breath, pushing the memories away- the pain- and then he looked down at the boy hugging his chest, “It’s okay, kiddo.”

Xander blinked up at him, unconvinced, but nodded slowly, “Okay.”

Willow moved to stand beside them; bent down closer to their level and asked, “Are you okay?” her small freckled hands were planted on her bent knees as she observed them intently, a shadow of the smile from a minute ago still on her face.

Teal’c had obviously put her down, he was now also glazing intently at the colonel, though he had a look of understanding in his dark eyes.

“Peachy,” replied Jack feigning carelessness, shaking off the looks.

“Ahem.”

Jack turned towards the door and the direction in which the noise had come from, he groaned inwardly.

Crap.


~*~


Xander looked up at Jack, the first grown-up he’d ever trusted in his entire life, and felt worried. He could the deep pain behind the man’s kind and laugh-y eyes; it made his eyes dark and kinda shiny.

Then he shook the thoughts away as something Willow’s mom had a while ago echoed through his mind; she’d said that he was very…what was that word? Perceptive?

Whatever THAT meant.

It obviously meant something bad, grown-ups hardly ever said anything nice about him, except Jack. Jack was nice. Jack would NEVER hurt him…or Willow.

“Jack?” he asked, he tried to push the thoughts away but he had to ask.

“It’s okay, kiddo,” said the man, Xander smiled inwardly at the nickname…it was nice. But Jack was still sad, he’d said that he was okay but Xander didn’t believe him; he could always tell if people were lying.

He should know, he lied all the time; at school, to the teachers…whenever they asked about his bruises…

But Xander would hate it if someone found out about his lying; it made him feel better knowing that they believed him…so he should do the same to Jack; he was the best, after all.

“Okay,” he answered, but he knew about all the lies, so many lies.

Xander looked up as he saw his best friend looking at them, she standing beside them, bending down slightly to look at them; Teal’c was right next to her, also looking at them concerned.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Peachy,” said Jack.

Xander couldn’t help but think it- liar, liar, pants on fire! Jack was pretending that nothing was bad, but Xander could tell.

He could ALWAYS tell.

“Ahem.”

Xander looked in the direction of the noise and saw General Hammond standing at the now-open door, staring at them; behind him were two people that Xander had never seen before. He held up his right hand slowly and waved, “Hi.”

Jack stood up so fast that Xander jumped in fright, but he didn’t fall because Jack was carrying him; he wrapped his arms around the man’s neck tightly; he didn’t think that he’d drop him. But just to be sure.

“Samuels,” noted Jack with an edge of anger in his voice as he looked at the man with the slicked-back dark hair. Then he turned to the other man who was shorter than the other, Jack eyed him disdainfully, “Hello, Maybourne.”

Xander got the feeling that Jack disliked the ‘Samuels’ guy whilst he seemed to only be annoyed at Maybourne, That ‘Maybourne’ guy didn’t look too bad, but if he’d learned anything from his parents it was that he should always be careful.

He shouldn’t trust too easily, they might hurt him. Xander became aware that his grip around Jack’s neck had tightened a LOT; he loosened the squeeze. And at the same time he noticed the bits of food on Jack’s hair, he snickered.

Jack had food in his hair!


~*~


General Hammond shook his head at the colonel in exasperation as he saw that the man had food in his rather messy-looking hair, not to mention the black line that ran down the center of his face, he seemed to be connecting with Xander, if the position that they were in a second ago was any indication.

He smirked inwardly at the predictable dismay and annoyance in Jack’s voice was made apparent, at some point that day he knew that his 2IC was going to make an ‘I’m gonna shoot you’ comment at Maybourne.

As much as Hammond disliked Maybourne he couldn’t fault the man, he had his own orders just like himself, and as much as he wanted to he couldn’t disobey them without ending up, worse case scenario, in jail and best case, in a world of trouble.

The downside to working in the military, you all but had your free will taken away from you in a situation like that. It was something that no one liked but it was their job.

Hammond smiled as Xander giggled, obviously noticing the state of Jack’s hair; he and Willow were the same age as Kayla, his youngest granddaughter, so it was good to see him happy after learning of his rather horrendous upbringing; Willow, too, seemed to be happy at the base.

Then he frowned, they couldn’t keep the kids on the base for much longer. They needed fresh air and new clothes, they were going to have to leave the SGC eventually, sighing he turned to the two men beside him, “As you can see, we have the situation well under our control. There’s no need for you to be here, so if you’d just step into my office for a moment-

“General Hammond,” interrupted Samuels, his oily hair glinting slightly in the fluorescent lighting of the room. “I believe the President and the Joint Chiefs would disagree with you, or we would not be here.”

Hammond just glared at him.

Jack looked exasperated, “For crying out loud, Samuels. There IS no situation!” then he paused, obviously rethinking that statement. “Or at least not one which merits you people being here.”

Maybourne blinked and then smirked slightly, “On the contrary, Jack, the information that we’ve received was more than enough for the President to want people outside the SGC’s friendly little neighborhood to be present.”

General Hammond sighed inwardly, he understood why the President would have trouble trusting them- from his point of view the SGC seemed to be a law unto themselves, “Be that as it may, I think we should discuss this in the briefing room.”

And NOT in front of the kids.

They had been through quite enough as it was.


~*~


Willow frowned at the two men silently as she stood beside Jack and watched them intently. She didn’t like either of them very much, she didn’t know why but she got a bad feeling when she looked at them and she wondered what they were going to be talking about in the so-called ‘Briefing room’. It was about them- her and Xander- it had to be; something bad was going to happen…like they’d be taken away from their friends.

She didn’t want to be taken away from them, especially not Sam- she hadn’t even had the chance to ask about everything the woman knew. She was obviously real brainy and she seemed to like science- just like Willow- would Sam teach her about Science?

From what she had read of it, it sounded interesting; they didn’t get taught much in first grade, it was kinda boring; but she stayed in that grade for Xander…he didn’t have anyone- and neither did she.

Maybe Sam would let her look in her lab, one thing was for sure- if she and Xander were taken away she’d NEVER get to look around…and who was to say that she AND Xander would be together after they were sent away?

The fact that all they had was each other seemed to be more obvious now that they were in some place they had no knowledge of; and after they were sent away what would happen to them?

Would they be sent back to their parents?!

Fear and helplessness rose up inside Willow as she realized, for the first time, that she and Xander had absolutely NO control over what happened to them. Anything could happen to them and they would have to let it happen…

Willow was suddenly jerked right out of her scared thoughts as she realized that she was staring upwards…at the shocked faces of Samuels and Maybourne.

She heard Daniel say hesitantly, “Uh, Willow? How about letting the nice men down from the ceiling?”

She blinked helplessly up at the two men, “Um…oh no…” what should she do! Panic welled up inside her, she COULD let them down- at least she thought she could anyway- but what would happen them?

Absently, she heard Jack say, “Cool…can I keep her?”

Could he?

They’d send her and Xander away, Willow’s eyes widened a second later as she realized that she had just used magic again. She hadn’t even noticed it! What was she DOING?!

Her eyes burned with hot tears as she stared up the men in shocked remorse, maybe she was going bad; she was a bad Willow, just like she always was.

Warren’s corpse seemed to be a reddish patchwork of muscle, veins and flesh as he was stretched and bound between trees; limp…lifeless. His screams echoed in her head, hauntingly sweet- to her at least.

The smell of blood and darkness- kinda chalky- was almost overwhelming; but she didn’t let it show, she didn’t care. Her previous words flitted through her mixed-up mind,

“Bored now.”

And then the screams…the sounds of flesh tearing…

There was still screaming! Willow’s eyes refocused themselves on the ceiling, she frowned in confusion as she saw that the men weren’t on the ceiling any more; she looked down away from the ceiling.

Maybourne and Samuels were sprawled on the ground, dazed and slightly pained-looking. Maybe they’d just fallen.

Colonel Maybourne groaned and rubbed his face with his right hand, “You people really do know how to bring in the difficult and dangerous ones, huh?”

Samuels just grunted, rubbing his left arm tentatively and glaring at her; Willow looked away guiltily, she didn’t think she could say sorry for THAT.

Maybe she should make him cookies, she had her easy-bake oven at home…wherever THAT was!

She felt strong arms pick her up, next thing she knew she was hugging Teal’c around the neck and sniffling.

She was such a bad girl.


~*~


Teal’c blinked worriedly as Willow retched and coughed, arms clinging to him so tightly at seemed as if she was trying to crawl into him, the was more coughing and crying and then Xander yelled; he tried to untangle her from him in an effort to calm Willow down and ask if she was ‘Okay’ as the Tau’ri often said.

She was hanging on pretty tight, so he stopped trying; he didn’t want to harm the child. He held onto her shaking form protectively.

“Ew, Teal’c!? She’s-” exclaimed Xander, penny forgotten on the ground.

Jack interrupted him, “Oops, she’s just sick is all. Teal’c, give her to me.”

Surprisingly, Willow all but threw herself into Jack’s arms, crying, “I’m sorry!”

Teal’c felt a dampness touch the skin on his back beneath his clothes and raised an eyebrow, he looked at Sam as she examined his back; she was grimacing slightly, “It’s just vomit, Teal’c. You might wanna get washed up though.”

He blinked, more concerned for Willow’s mental state than his damp shirt, “I will remain here.”

Jack looked at him, slightly pain look on his face, “Y’know, I admire you for that, T, but seriously in my experience….puke STINKS.”

‘Stinks?’ that word was a term that the Tau’ri used for describing a particularly bad smell. And that was the case, he concurred; in his OWN experience with Rya’c when he was a young child vomit often did emit a rather foul odor.

Inclining his head submissively, Teal’c walked towards the door, then he paused and turned back to the two men, now standing upright, and said menacingly, “If you attempt to harm either of these children I will have to dismember you.”

They gulped as one, nervously, and nodded slightly.

Satisfied, Teal’c walked out of the room.


~*~


Jack hugged Willow tightly, rubbing her back, and turned to his CO, “Sir, I’m requesting permission to kill these men.” Yup, he was pissed and he WAS going to shoot these men one day…hopefully now.

He KNEW nothing good could come of these two snooping around the SGC and their kids; Willow had gotten upset and sick and Teal’c…had got barfed on.

“As much as I’d love to give the order, Colonel, permission denied,” said Hammond, seriously.

Damn.

General Hammond knew that Jack was serious about delivering out some punishment, but those men were being ordered to be at the SGC; he could hardly fault them for THAT.

As much as Jack wanted to hate Maybourne and Samuels, he couldn’t, he disliked them- hell yeah, he did! But they were under the chain of command.

Just like him.

Willow sobbed, and then lifted her tear-soaked face from his shoulder and said, “I-I don’t wanna g-go!”

Huh? “What d’ya mean, kiddo? You’re not going anywhere.” He was felt the eyes of everyone in the room on him, but he shook them off.

“Uh huh,” she arguing tearfully. “They’re gonna take us away from you, and we d-don’t know anyone else…e-except Xander…and what if they take us away from each other later? I don’t want me an’ X-Xander to g-go, I wanna us to stay here with you.”

“Me too, me too!” piped up Xander, suddenly looking anxious. “We don’t have to go, right!?”

The boy glared at the two men with his one eye, “We’re not going, we’re not going, we’re NOT GOING!”

“Woah!” yelled Jack, silencing them both. “Neither of you are going anywhere; you’re both staying with my team and I. Okay?”

Xander hopped up and down, “Alrighty.”

Jack sighed, turning to Willow, “Willow?”

“’kay,” said Willow soberly. “’cause I don’t want to go anywhere else; I like it here with you guys and Xander.” Wet, reddened eyes stared into his seriously; then she looked nervous. “Y-you want us to be here, right?”

Jack looked at her for a moment, then smiled, “More than anything else.” Which was true; he swore inwardly as he looked into Willow’s jaded eyes.

There was something she wasn’t telling him, he could see it in her eyes; he could see the guilt and the kind of fear that said that she was scared…of herself, of what she could do- that she was losing trust in herself.

Wondering if she was a ‘good guy’ as kids called them these days.

He knew the look.

He’d seen the look in the mirror since his first kill, since Charlie had died. He’s seen it every single unwanted-day.

What the hell had put that look there? She was just a little kid.

Jack would find out sooner or later, he knew it; he wanted to make sure he knew enough to help her, to help both the children.

God help anyone who tried to stop him.


~*~


Next time on NKotB: Xander teaches Teal’c a Christmas tradition of his and the kids step outside of the SGC for the first time.

~*~

A/N: You guys know I LOVE feedback… ;)