Disclaimer: Supernatural belongs to the WB and Erik Kripke and its related producers as do all of the characters who appear here or are mentioned; they are not mine. Stargate SG-1 belongs to MGM Productions, Glasner/Wright Producers, etc’ it is not mine and only ‘borrowed’ for the purposed of the story. Note: This picks up shortly after where the previous story, “The Woman with One Red Shoe” left off.
Crossovers100 prompt #75 shade
“Revenant” by Karen
"Tea?" Sam offered as she went over to the island counter in the kitchen and began to open up a package from the box. Seeing Daniel come back from the dead via the
technology of the Gou'ald sarcophagi was one thing. Hell, it had become almost common place, but Samantha had reached the point where she just could not take losing one more person that she cared for and loved.
"I'm sorry," Sam mumbled, "All we have is breakfast tea; that's what you get from letting Jack do the grocery shopping."
"I'm not surprised, it is his cabin after all," replied Janet with a fond if somewhat wistful
smile."
“I guess, that explains a lot," Sam chuckled.
For Samantha Carter, Losing Janet that first time had been bad enough and throughout the memorial service and afterwards it had taken here quite a while to accept that Janet was
really gone, but seeing her now; well, as much as she wanted to know the how and why Janet was here now, alive and well, there was no easy way to get around to the way things used to be.
For her part Janet seemed to sense some of that awkwardness and at first engaged in a little small talk, about tea, and sugar, and even was privately glad that Sam was not as eager to dive right in to talking about what had happened to her. Several weeks, since her miraculous 'return from the dead' and she was still not entirely certain in her own mind.
Had John Winchester saved her shortly before her number was up? Would she have
truly died if he had not been there to save her? "So..." she trailed off. "What have you been up to, besides saving the universe and its outlying suburbs?" Janet smiled and stretched out her hands to accept the steaming hot cup of tea and then sat down on one of the chairs around the kitchen table.
A moment later Sam joined her at the table. "Boy," she said and stopped, uncertain of how to launch into all of the questions she had been meaning to ask from the moment Janet and her friend had almost literally stumbled into them, but somehow they all seemed to jumble together
and turn end over end in her mind like rocks to be polished in a rock tumbler.
“Janet, how, I mean, where, I mean, it's so good to see you again."
Janet set down her tea cup and extended her hands to take both of Sam's in hers.
"It's good to be seen. I missed you. It's so rare that we just got some downtime to talk like this."
"I thought you were dead.”
"So did I. I mean, I can't tell you what dying is like," she sighed and paused to reach up and finger-comb through the shoulder-length locks of her auburn hair. "Actually I could, but I doubt anyone wants to hear text-book medical explanations, and after everything we've both seen and been through, sometimes I doubt the medical textbooks would include a chapter on aliens."
"No doubt about that!" Sam as she felt some but not all of her initial tension seep out the situation. "Janet, you know I don't believe in all that dues ex machina nonsense, but inquiring minds want to know: I mean, we all saw your body, we were all at your memorial service, so just how did you survive?"
"I'm still figuring that out," replied Janet wistfully.
"Any theories?" Sam asked. As they really got down and began talking Sam began to realize that no matter what happened, whatever agency had been responsible for bringing Janet back, instead of indulging in her tendency to over analyze everything, find logical
explanations for everything; she would simply accept and be grateful to have her best
friend back.
“Same old Sam" Janet laughed. "Right about you, you're probably telling yourself to find
a logical explanation for my return from the dead."
"You can read minds now?" Sam joked.
“Not as much," Janet laughed. "I just think I know you too well. All kidding aside, as a doctor I too have been looking for a nice, neat logical explanation, and I don't mind telling you, up until now I have not been able to find one."
"Okay, okay," Sam nodded, taking a sip from her tea cup and then setting it back down on the table. "For the sake of argument let's say that maybe there isn't a logical explanation, as much as it grates on my nerves to admit to that. So, if that theory holds then by process of elimination there must be what, an illogical explanation."
"Oh, hell yes! To tell you the truth, I am still not entirely certain I can wrap my mind
around it. If you ask John, he's attributed not only my survival but my very presence in the exact time and location to supernatural causes."
It was a good thing that Sam had finished her tea for otherwise she would have spluttered all over her shirt front. "You have got to be kidding me!"
“Yeah, turns out he's pretty heavy into that stuff. Told me that's how he lost his wife,
and now he and his sons are bound and determined that no one else need to endure what he's been through. I wouldn't have believed it either if I had not seen some really 'outer limits' creepy stuff with my own eyes."
"Urban legends, things that go bump in the night, all of that is 'real?"
"If you had never volunteered or otherwise been recruited into the stargate program would you have believed that aliens were real?"
Sam slowly nodded her head while finger-combing the snarls out of the strands of her
blonde hair, "Touché. But really, ghosts?
"Ghosts, but according to John, they prefer to be called poltergeists or phantasms."
"Enough of this, tell me about this John Winchester. What's he like?"
"Figures we'd get around to that sooner or later," Janet laughed.
"He's well, he's nice in a sort of intent, tall-dark and handsome way," Janet laughed.
"Does that sound as crushing and hokey as I think it does?"
"Not even remotely," Sam replied loyally and then added. "Well. maybe a little, but who am I to judge. I mean, I'm not exactly an expert in the relationship field. Do you like him?"
"I guess. But as much as I've come to care for him, I don't think I want to spend the rest of my second chance at life, in the family business."
"Would he ask you to? And what kind of business is he in?" Sam asked.
"Keeping people safe from the monsters in the night."
Sam stared at her and Janet said nothing for a moment before adding, “Are you serious?”
"No, really, I'm serious."
"Oh, I don't doubt that you are, it's just a lot to take in." Sam shook her head and then thought to look down at her wrist watch. "Oh, look at the time, I bet the boys are getting restless out there. Do you want to help get supper ready. I don't know about you. but I'm getting hungry."
"Of course," Janet replied. "Be glad to help. Sam, for what it's worth, thank you. I
honestly did not know what to expect. Hell, I never thought I would see anyone of you again. Thank you; for everything."
***
“What is it?" Jack inquired, curious but not yet alarmed or certain whether or not this stranger presented a threat.
Shortly before sundown the ground-hugging mist had begun to rise and Jack had begun to consider giving up fishing for the day and going inside the cabin to begin fixing something for them to eat for supper when the temperature around the lake had dropped considerably.
Daniel had been pacing up and down the landing dock while Teal'C had dropped off to
sleep in one of the chairs lined up along the edge. Along the far northern tree-line where a stand of oaks, alders, and pine trees hugged the edge of his property the mist was
especially thick, and right up until the point where Jack could have sworn that his eyes and the mist were playing tricks on him, he saw the apparition.
It was human-shaped, stood upright on two legs and had long dark hair. As it approached it's form appeared to waver in an out of definition. It still retained a vaguely human form, but its
features were indistinct; it had two eyes, liquid black, a mouth, a nose, and a sharply pointed chin. It's mouth was wide open as if it wanted to speak, and in the gap thus revealed were a set of very sharp teeth. and a pink tongue.
John Winchester glanced at the three men who claimed to be friends and colleagues of
Janet Fraiser and then back at the apparition, debating whether or not to give the answer that he had been balancing on the edge of blade. In any other company he might not have
hesitated and he was still wondering what was taking his sons so long to get here.
He had called them almost six or seven hours ago, and the way that his younger son, Dean drove and barring any unfortunate snags along the road, they should have been here sooner than this. John told Janet about some but not all of his life, into the closely guarded part of his heart, and he had truly come to care for her and respect her.
However, there was still too many uncertainties in the life he had chosen to live, dealing with the things that went bump in the night, and was it really fair to drag someone into that kind of life without telling them everything that might conceivably come along; that was what had caused him to develop a seemingly impossible to bridge rift between himself and his oldest son, Sam.
John shook his head to rid it of the inevitable cobwebs brought on by his meandering
thoughts and returned his attention to the task at hand. "It's a revenant. I was afraid of this."
"It's a what!" demanded Jack a bit ticked off at the other man's casually studied nonchalance and to add insult to injury, John Winchester seemed to know more about this situation, and wasn't sharing it with the rest of the class.
In the back of his mind Jack did have to wonder, is it that he isn't sharing what he knows, and I really don't trust him anyway. Or is it because he's the one who saved Janet? Jack shook his head and mentally chided himself," COME OFF IT, O'Neill, you're way too old to be jealous of a guy who looks like he shaves himself out of the rear view mirror of that old green pickup truck.”
Aloud he said, "Okay, so you've identified the thing. Is it dangerous?"
"Yes and no," John replied.
"So very helpful," Daniel remarked as he left off his pacing and came to stand on the edge
of the dock with the two older men.
"Agreed," Jack nodded.
Hearing the commotion coming from outside the cabin Sam and Janet exchanged one significant glance and ran outside, at the least, the men had gotten into a shouting match that maybe had become more physical. At the worst well, both women agreed that they did not want to contemplate the worst-case scenario.
The small dock was becoming very crowded and the grassy verge that faced onto the property had become equally crowded what with the group of creatures milling around on it. To Jack’s way of thinking it was almost mildly amusing the way they ebbed and flowed around the two trucks parked on either side of the gravel driveway.
He darted a glance at Daniel who seemed to regard the situation with that detached yet interested air of a anthropologist faced with a new species or civilization for the very first time. That was okay, as long as Daniel realized that these might not be friendly natives.
He nodded to Sam and Janet as they ran out from the cabin.
“What’s going on, Sir.” Sam asked.
“That’s what I’d like to know.”
“I was hoping you could tell us,” replied Janet.
“John?” Janet whispered. With a brief nod of his head John turned to Janet and said. “Don’t worry, hon. I got this under control. Just stay back; out of harm’s way.”
And with that, the safety on his rifle off, fully locked and loaded into the firing position, John began to unload pellet of after pellet of rock crystal bullets directly into the fetch; only noting with a flicker of one eyelid that the first creatures had now been joined by a dozen more of its kind.
Once into the motion of fighting John realized that he now could tune out all other distractions, especially when the others gathered on the dock began to shout questions and try to pull him back or stop him.
The big man introduced as Teal’C, a baseball cap pulled low over his wide brow stepped forward and produced a wicked-looking snake-headed weapon out of one of his pockets and began to shoot at the creatures what appeared to John as contained discharges of white lightning.
“Dammit!” John muttered out of the corner of his mouth, “What do you think you’re doing! You can’t fight these things with lasers. Get the hell outta my way!”
“We’re trying to help!” shouted Jack loud enough to be heard over the racket and the confusion.
“I don‘t think he wants your help,” Janet replied in an undertone. She had seen John Winchester get like this any number of times since they had first met.
He, in his own closely guarded and roundabout way had once explained what he had been through and consequently the kind of life he had chosen to live. Although it took her quite a while to wrap her head around the very fact, that one, it had happened, and two that it was real;, not just legends, hyperbole and urban myths. Creatures, ghosts, and other things that went bump in the night, were really out there.
In the back of her mind, ‘are ghosts and goblins, and the rest of it really any worse than the parasites, alien and what else we’ve faced as a team? And how do explain all of that in any coherent fashion to my friends and old teammates?’
Interlude
Dean and Sam pulled up just a few yard short of the cabin, but they could hear the commotion coming from the cabin long before they could actually see what was going on. “Dad’s in trouble, again.” Sam muttered and then chuckled. “So, what else is new?” he added after a pause of a few seconds.
“What I don’t get is why he sounded so urgent on the phone that we haul ass, insisting that we get up here as fast as possible..“ Dean turned off the ignition in the car, brought it to stop, then opened the door and got out before adding: “When it looks like he’s got the situation well in hand. I mean, a few dozen fetches, come on That’s kids-stuff.”
“Maybe that’s not his only problem,” Sam remarked, taking not of the other people gathered on the front porch of the good-sized cabin. “Maybe he’s got into trouble with the law. That wouldn’t be the first time for him or for us. And some of those folk look like they’re more than local authorities.”
“If they are, or they aren’t. I can deal with the Feds.”
“Oh, really? How? By digging through the junk we’ve got stock-piled in the trunk and yanking out any one of a number of fake Ids?” Sam got out of and walked over to other side of the car and grabbed Dean by one arm. “Oh, I’m sure that would go over ‘really’ well.”
Dean yanked himself free of his older brother’s grip and yelled. “Well, smart-ass, you got any better ideas?”
Conclusion
Once the last of the creatures, fetches, whatever one wished to call them had been disposed of, Daniel suggested that they leave the dock and return to the front porch.
Once there Jack launched into John Winchester. In his own mind Jack was not entirely certain if he was more angry at the entire situation or the fact that, even off-duty at his favorite fishing spot; that he was not the one in control.
He had long since come to grips with the fact that his old friend and teammate was alive and well, but to add insult to injury, the man she was with seemed to more than he should about the things that had threatened all of them.
“Okay, care to tell us what the hell that was all about?” demanded Jack stepping forward and yanking the rifle out of John Winchester’s hands and tossing it to Daniel Jackson who stood to his left and a few paces behind him with a muttered “Hold onto to this.”
“I would, but I sincerely doubt you would believe me,” John replied.
“We’ve got company.”
“Great,” Sam replied. “Most likely it’s the local police.”
“Maybe not,” Daniel replied. “It’s deer hunting season. They’re probably used to guns being fired off around here.”
“The short one seems a little young to be the police,” Sam remarked.
“Dad!” Sam and Dean both yelled as were a few strides of the cabin’s front porch.
“Dad?” Sam echoed.
Janet, despite the obvious tenseness of the past half-hour or more could not resist allowing a small smile to slip out. “Didn’t I mention he had two sons from a previous marriage.”
Sam, too had difficulty mastering her own sense of the absurd and allowing a little bit of levity to lighten up the moment slip out as well. “You might’ve mentioned that, Janet!”
“Must’ve slipped my mind,” replied Janet, the smile still on her face.
“What were those things,” asked Daniel turning to face John Winchester.
“Fine, if you must know, those were fetches.”
“Yes, but what manner of creatures threatened us,” asked Teal’C.
“Shape-shifters. They can take on the mannerisms, voices, and even the features of any living thing, but come to think of it I’ve never seen them attack anyone in such numbers.”
John, uncertain whether it was own heightened emotions or a trick of the light, but the more he concentrated the more it seemed that the fetches, taking the lead from the initial creature, took on the form of his wife, then his sons, then those he had known in his life, and finally, the form of the woman he was currently with, Janet. He shook his head to clear it of the inevitable cobwebs, and thought, “Way too much of a coincidence, and can’t afford any more distractions right now.’ I can’t tell her that the fetch apparation took on her form, not after everything Janet’s been through. I would not do that to anyone, especially someone I’ve come to care about.’
Shoving the disturbing thoughts and perhaps equally disturbing images into a back corner of his mind, John focused on the task at hand.
“I don’t know what’s worse; the fact that these things are real, or the fact that you more about them than you should,” remarked Sam.
“Ma’am, Sam said as he rushed up to stand beside his father, “I don’t see how it’s any business of yours how he came by that information.”
“Sam,” John replied placing one hand on his oldest boy’s shoulder. “It’s okay.”
“But, Dad,” Dean chimed in. “You told us to come up here as fast as possible. I nearly totaled the Impala in a ditch during a rain storm…”
“Dean, Dean, Calm down.”
“Okay, you’ve had your little family reunion,” Jack said. “I’d hate to interrupt but for crying out loud, could someone please explain what just happened here?”
“Besides now my new friends can met my old ones.” “Janet, these are my boys, Sam and Dean, boys, that’s Janet Fraiser She’s a medical doctor. Although I could have wished we had all met under better circumstances.”
Sam shook his head and then as Janet stepped forward he managed to remember a few smatterings of good manners and muttered “Nice to meet you,” and shook her hand. His own was so much bigger than her that it swallowed it up. Dean managed to nod and turned back to the crowd of people that were regarding the three of them with varying degrees of anger, curiosity, and doubt.
“Dad, I should let you take the lead here, right?”
“Same old Dean,” John replied.
“I think it’s fair to say that we’ve each got our respective share of secrets. And before we dive right into the that area, I think it’s fair to say that Janet has told me a little bit about what you do, Colonel O’Neill.”
“Military? Oh, hell. The Feds I could’ve dealt with, not so sure about the military.” Dean turned to regard the woman that his father had gotten himself involved with and regarded with a different eye than he had when first introduced to her, a more grudging but respectful eye.
Sam, too, although he was not at all certain if his father considered her just a friend or if he become more serious than that. He did not mind if his father wanted to get involved; after more than twenty years had passed since their mother and John’s wife had died in the fire that had nearly taken his own life as a baby; however, was this any different? And how much did this Janet Frasier know already about the kind of life they all lived now?
It was a toss-up and besides they had gotten a lot of experience in dodging around the essential question, especially when faced with the questions likely to be posed by the authorities be they local, state, or even, heaven help them all, representatives of the United Sates military. Aloud he said, “What branch are you with?”
“Air Force,” Sam quietly replied. “And try not to worry so much. We don’t mean you any harm. In fact, it was at Colonel O’Neill’s insistence that we come out here for a little downtime and take in some fishing that we’re here at all.
“Thanks. Thanks a lot. I didn’t think it would happen, but someone actually managed to ruin fishing trips for me.”
“Jack,” Daniel chimed in, “You say that now, but I’ll lay odds that at the very earliest opportunity for you take some vacation, you’ll be out here again. And if those ah, fetches, or whatever they are, come back, it still would not deter you from fishing. So there.”
“Shut up, Daniel,” muttered Jack under his breath.
Sam Winchester and Janet Frasier began to laugh and Janet said,” Are they always like this?”
“A good deal of the time,” Teal’C replied.
“So, we cool, then?” Dean asked.
“I am,” Daniel replied, and I don’t know about everyone else, but I could eat. Is there anything left inside the cabin, otherwise I feel like ordering a pizza, with everything on it.”
“Fighting does tend to make people hungry,” John added. “I’d say go for it, Dr. Jackson.”
“Does anyone care about my opinion?” Jack griped.
“Of course we do, Jack,” Daniel grinned and began to walk towards the front door, “It’s just that you’ve been outvoted.”
“Shut up, Daniel and go make the call, I could eat, too.”
“Yes, Sir.”
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