Don Sample
2006-04-25 03:17:02 UTC
Part XVI
Cassie had to evade the cops a couple of times on her way out of the
park, but it wasn't hard. Their lights meant that she could see them
long before they got close enough to see her, and she made a lot less
noise than they did. It was still nearly morning when she got back to
Sam's, eased her bedroom window open, and slipped through it into the
house.
"So, you're back."
Cassie was startled by Sam's voice. She spun toward the sound and saw
her sitting in a chair by the bed. "Sam, what are you doing here?"
"It's my house, remember? I looked in on you, a little after midnight,
and was surprised to find you weren't here."
"I'm sorry," said Cassie. "I just couldn't sleep. I went for a run."
"Alone, at night," said Sam.
"I can take care of myself," said Cassie. "You know that."
"I don't care. I came in here, and you were gone. I was worried about
you."
"I wasn't running away, or anything like that," said Cassie.
"I know, but you can't just go running off in the middle of the night,
without telling anyone where you're going. You gave us a scare."
"Us?"
"Oh yeah." Sam picked up her cell phone off the table beside her, and
hit a couple of buttons. She waited a few seconds for an answer. "Hi
Jack. She's come back. ... Okay, go home and try to get some sleep. ...
I'll see you in a couple of hours. ... Bye." She snapped her phone shut.
"You were keeping Jack awake too."
"I'm sorry," said Cassie. "But I couldn't just lie here looking at the
ceiling."
"Cassie, I understand what you're going through, but you can't go
running off by yourself like that. It isn't safe."
"I don't care."
"While *I* do." Sam got to her feet and came to Cassie. She wrapped her
arms around her. "I just lost one of my best friends. I don't want to
lose her daughter too."
---
Cassie was surprised when she awoke in daylight. Sam had put her to
bed--this time actually tucking her in after Cassie had changed into her
pyjamas--before going back to bed herself. Cassie hadn't thought that
she would get any sleep, but it seemed that she had dozed off.
She was also surprised to find young Jack in Sam's kitchen, reading the
morning paper and drinking a cup of coffee, when she schlepped into it,
still wearing her pyjamas. "Where's Sam?"
Jack looked at her over his newspaper. "She had to go back on duty. How
are you doing?"
"I'm okay," lied Cassie.
"So, beating up that guy in the park made you feel better?"
"What?" asked Cassie "How did you know--?"
Jack turned around his paper, and showed her the headline: 'Police
Apprehend Serial Rape Suspect.' "Seems he tried for the wrong victim,
she kicked the crap out of him, and then called 911 for them to come
pick him up. I was also in the park myself last night, and some cops
asked me if I'd seen a girl."
"He pulled a knife on me," said Cassie. "What was I supposed to do?"
"You shouldn't have been there in the first place," said Jack. "But
since you were...hell, if I'd been with you, I probably would have given
him a couple of kicks myself. This guy is a real piece of work. He's
suspected of half a dozen rapes, and some of his victims were cut up
pretty badly."
"Does Sam know?"
Jack shook his head. "She had to leave before the paper arrived. You
planning to tell her?"
"Will you, if I don't?" asked Cassie.
"No, but that still doesn't mean you shouldn't." Jack put the paper
down. "If you tell her, she won't be much madder than she already is
about you running out last night. If she finds out some other way..."
"I'll think about it."
"Why don't you go have a shower, and get dressed," said Jack. "It'll
make you feel better. I'll make you breakfast."
"I'm not hungry," said Cassie.
"Do it anyway," said Jack, sounding like a senior officer addressing a
raw recruit. "That's an order."
---
Major Janet Fraiser was buried with full military honours. Cassie's
mother's casket was carried to the grave site by six soldiers from the
SCG, while a Marine honour guard stood with presented arms. The Air
Force Academy Chaplain presided over the ceremony, saying words that
Cassie didn't really believe. The god of her childhood was a parasitic
snake that had slaughtered her first family, and she had never really
adopted any other. Janet herself had been an agnostic, not believing in
any particular gods, but not rejecting the concept either. Cassie sat
silently through the ceremony, trying to hold back her tears.
At the conclusion of the service, the honour guard fired off three
volleys with their rifles. A bugler played /Taps/ while the flag draping
her mother's casket was folded. The sergeant in charge of the casket
team presented the flag to General Hammond, who in turn brought it to
Cassie. He knelt on the grass in front of her as he placed it onto her
hands. "Your mother was a friend, a colleague, and one of the finest
officers it has been my privilege to command," he told her quietly. "We
will all miss her."
"Thank you, General," said Cassie.
"If there is anything that I can ever do for you, don't hesitate to ask."
Cassie just nodded her thanks. The knot in her throat wouldn't let her
say anything. General Hammond briefly rested his hand on hers, before he
rose, and went to speak with Janet's brother.
Janet's brother Ron, his wife, and their two children had come to
Colorado Springs for the funeral. They had been told that Janet had died
in a medevac helicopter crash, while transporting a man who had been
wounded in a training accident. Cassie didn't like lying to them about
that, so she spent a lot of time avoiding them. They had never really
been close, anyway. Janet's family lived in Baton Rouge, and Cassie had
only met them a few times.
The Fraisers weren't the only civilians present. Jack was there, of
course, as were several spouses of SGC personnel. One of them was a
woman who looked like she was ready to give birth to a baby any day now.
She was accompanying an airman whose stiff movements indicated that he
was not long out of his hospital bed, and probably should be going back
to it, now that the funeral was over.
Cassie wondered what her uncle, aunt and cousins would have said if they
had known that there were aliens at her mother's funeral. They seemed to
be a little uncertain how to react to the amount of military brass that
had come: two Air Force generals; Air Force and Marine colonels; lots of
lower ranking officers, and enlisted personnel, all in their full dress
uniforms. How would they have reacted if she told them that General
Carter was also hosting an alien symbiote?
Cassie felt conflicted by Selmac. She knew the Tok'ra were allies, and
Jack seemed to like this one (whatever his feelings about the Tok'ra in
general) but she felt a little nauseous whenever she was too close to
General Carter. Her Slayer sense, combined with what she already felt
because of the naquadah in her blood, made her very uncomfortable around
the Tok'ra, and she wasn't completely successful hiding it. It was a
good thing that she'd told Vi not to come to Colorado Springs when she'd
made the offer after hearing about her mother's death. There was no way
that another Slayer would be able to not notice that there was something
*wrong* about General Carter.
Bra'tac was there too, representing the Free Jaffa. He didn't make her
feel nearly as uncomfortable. He felt just like Teal'c, and Cassie had
gotten used to him being around. They were both dressed in similar dark
civilian suits. Anyone who asked about the marks on their foreheads was
told that they were Mozambican tribal tattoos.
People started to pass by, stopping briefly to offer their condolences,
and then continuing on their way, slowly filtering away from the
graveside, back toward their cars in the parking lot. Cassie didn't
recognize most of them. The airman with the pregnant wife stopped in
front of her. He couldn't meet her gaze, at first.
Cassie spoke first. "Thank you for coming. I can see this is hard for
you."
"I had to be here," said Airman Wells. "They wouldn't let me out of bed,
to come to the memorial in the base. Major Fraiser...It's my fault she's
dead."
Cassie shook her head. "No it's not."
"If I hadn't been hurt--"
"It wasn't your fault," said Cassie. "You didn't--" She had to stop
herself from saying 'shoot her.' There were too many people around who
didn't know how her mother had really died. "You didn't make the
helicopter crash."
"But if it wasn't for me, she wouldn't have been there."
Sam had come over to join them. "She was there because she was a doctor,
and an officer, Airman," she said. "Janet was there because it was her
duty as an officer, a physician, and a human being. Even if she had
known what was going to happen to her, she still would have been there.
That's the sort of person she was."
Airman Wells had straightened himself up, like he was coming to
attention, on Sam's approach--not that he had been slouching before.
"Yes Major."
"I don't blame you," said Cassie. "I blame-- you know." She looked
toward Wells' wife. "If you feel you have anything to pay back to my
mom...pay it forward. Be a good Dad to your baby. Mom couldn't ask for
more."
"Yes ma'am," said Wells.
---
There was a gathering at Cassie's house after the funeral. She couldn't
help thinking that it really was *her* house now. It had been 'hers'
for years, but now she really owned it. Janet Fraiser's will had left
nearly everything to her. Some family heirlooms had gone to her brother
and his family, but everything else was Cassie's now. She didn't know
what she was going to do with any of it.
People came bearing food. More food than could possibly be eaten by
them, and the others who had come. Cassie was a little overwhelmed by
all the visitors. The SGC must have been running on a skeleton staff,
and there were others: people who had known Janet before she joined the
SGC; friends from medical school; others who had known her before she
joined the military; Some of Cassie's friends from school, and their
parents. It was hard keeping them all straight in her head. It was hard
to keep repeating the lie about how her mother had died.
Jack and Colonel O'Neill were avoiding each other. It was kind of
interesting to see how they always seemed to keep as far away from each
other as possible. If one of them entered a room, the other would soon
exit it. It was like there was some sort of Conservation of O'Neills
law at work. Seeing Colonel O'Neill suddenly break off a conversation
with Daniel, and head for the kitchen was all Cassie needed to see to
know that Jack had come into the living room from the front hall, so she
wasn't at all surprised to hear him ask "How are you doing?" from behind
her.
She turned toward him. "I'm getting kinda tired of people asking me how
I'm doing."
He shrugged at her. "I'm sorry, but it means that you've got a lot of
people who care about you."
"I know, but...how am I supposed to answer that? Am I supposed to tell
them I'm doing okay, 'cause I really don't think I am. I
mean...sometimes I'm okay, but then I remember that Mom's gone, and
never coming back, and I just want to go cry by myself in a corner, but
she wouldn't want me to do that, so I have to go on, but it's hard."
"I know it's hard," said Jack, "but it gets easier. Every day it gets a
bit easier. You're always going to miss her, but after a while you
stop thinking so much about how bad it is that she isn't here anymore,
and start remembering more about the good times you had together." He
stopped and thought for a bit. "Do you think about your first parents?"
"Of course," said Cassie.
"What do you remember about them?"
Cassie smiled sadly at him. "Good things... they always made me feel
safe. Mommy was always ready with a hug and a kiss when I scraped my
knee playing. She made wonderful nobtail soup. She had the sweetest
smile. Daddy would carve me toys, from pieces of wood. He was big and
strong, and the gentlest man I knew."
"You still miss them, but their being gone doesn't hurt as much as it
used to," said Jack. "The same will happen with Janet. You'll always
miss her, but the hurting will get less as time goes by, and soon,
you'll be remembering the happy times you had with her."
"I guess," said Cassie.
"Trust me," said Jack. "It just takes time, and some help from your
friends."
---
Jack was right. Things did get better, with time. Janet's funeral had
come at the end of the week after her death, and the beginning of the
spring break from school. Sam had taken leave to help Cassie with the
transition.
Cassie moved in with Sam. Her Uncle Ron had offered to take her back to
Baton Rouge, to stay with him and his family, but Cassie wanted to stay
in Colorado Springs. All of her friends were there. Her uncle didn't put
up any argument, once he satisfied himself that Sam really wanted Cassie
to come live with her permanently. He stayed on another week, after his
wife and children had returned to their home to help settle Janet's
affairs.
Cassie, Sam and Ron went through the house together, picking out the
things that Cassie wanted to take to Sam's, what Ron wanted to keep,
what to put into storage, and what to toss out, or give to Good Will.
They decided that house itself would be rented. Janet had had life
insurance on her mortgage, so it belonged to Cassie now, free and clear,
so the rent only had to cover the property taxes, and general
maintenance costs. There was always someone temporarily assigned to the
SGC who was looking for an affordable place to stay, and renting the
house to one them meant that Sam would be able to do a much more
thorough background check on any prospective tenant than if they rented
it to a member of the general public.
---
Cassie threw herself into her school work and training, after the spring
break was over. Anything to keep her mind off how much she was missing
her mother. In addition to her regular school work, there was the extra
paperwork needed for her applications to university. She had applied to
several, including Colorado State, Stanford and Caltech, plus, with
Council support, she had applied to Oxford and Cambridge in England.
She wasn't alone applying to the English universities. Jack applied to
them too. It hadn't been easy explaining Jack to the Council. Part of
his knowledge of things military had been explained by the history that
the SGC had manufactured for him. According to it, he was an Air Force
Brat, and had travelled all over the world with his father as he had
moved from one posting to another. He had picked up bits of several
languages during that time, as well as learning things like how to
handle weapons, and fly an airplane. Jack was a little miffed that the
SGC hadn't supplied him with a pilot's license that actually matched his
qualifications, but it would be a bit difficult to explain how a
seventeen year old kid managed to get in enough flying hours to earn
instrument and multi-engine ratings, to say nothing about flying Air
Force jets (and a space ship or two.) Major Davis had told him that he
should be happy with the private pilot's license they'd given him.
Cassie started going out evenings, to patrol the cemeteries. Sam didn't
like it, but she was away too often to stop her, and had realized the
futility of trying. So they had come to a compromise: Jack came along
with her.
He was good company for the mood she was in. He knew when to keep
quiet, and he also seemed to know when he should say something: a joke
or a sarcastic comment, when she was slipping too deep into broodiness.
He also didn't let her just wander around at random. He prepared maps of
the areas that they wanted to patrol, and they planned each evening
before going out. They developed a routine which ensured that each of
the local cemeteries, parks, and warehouse districts was checked on a
regular basis, but not too regular. They kept changing the order around
so that if anyone was observing her, they wouldn't be able to predict
her future movements. He taught her the hand signals to use so they
could communicate silently with each other when out on patrol.
Cassie always stopped by her mother's grave, on the nights that their
patrols took them to that cemetery. It seemed a little silly to her,
but she always told her mother how things had been going. How things
were with school, what Sam told her about what was happening with the
SGC, how three different guys had asked her to the Prom, though she
hadn't decided if she was going or not. It made her feel better to be
able to say those things, even though her mother couldn't hear her
anymore. But there was a chance that she could. She knew from both
Daniel's experience, and from what she learned from the Council, that
sometimes the dead *could* still look in on the living.
Most of her nightly patrols were just an opportunity to burn off a
little excess energy, while having time to sort through her feelings
about how everything had changed in the last year. It had been nearly a
year now since she had first heard the call. A year in which her entire
life had been turned upside down. A year ago, she'd have been at home
most evenings, doing her homework, talking about guys on the phone with
her friends. Telling her mom how her day had been. She still did her
homework, and talked about guys with her friends, but after that she
went out to patrol the local cemeteries. Now she talked to her mother's
tombstone.
Jack always gave her lots of space when she stopped by her mother's
grave. She knew that he understood how she felt. There were graves that
he visited too: Charlie O'Neill's, Charles Kawalsky's, graves of other
people who had died in the service of the SGC. He sometimes had some
things to say to the dead as well.
Tonight they weren't in any of the cemeteries that held any of their
ghosts. They were checking out some old factories near the airport,
looking for any sign that something might have take up residence there.
They had been here on other nights, and found nothing, but Cassie had a
feeling that that was about to change. She couldn't explain why, but
she somehow knew that tonight would be different.
She and Jack were moving quietly through an alley between a couple of
abandoned warehouses when she felt it: the same chill she had felt in
that cemetery in Cleveland. She knew that there was a vampire nearby.
Maybe more than one. She signalled for Jack to stop. She stood in the
alley, trying to feel where the vampires were. The feeling seemed to be
coming from the building to her left. She signalled for Jack to wait
where he was, and climbed swiftly up a pile of crates, to look in a
window.
The glass was too coated with grime to see anything through, but there
was a broken pane in the window that gave her a clear view of the
interior. It also let her hear what was being said inside.
"Why have we come here?" asked one voice. "This town is dead."
"Exactly," said a second voice. "We can lay low here for a month or two.
Once things blow over in L.A. we can go back."
"But why *here*? Why not go someplace fun? I hear that things are
picking up in Cleveland."
"Yeah, and every vamp that goes anywhere near there ends up dust inside
a week. There's nothing in Colorado Springs. We can lay low here for a
while, clean a few homeless people off the streets, and wait for
whatever's going down between Blackthorn, and Wolfram and Hart to blow
over."
Cassie could see the two vampires, in the middle of the warehouse floor.
She couldn't see anyone else. She reached out with her other senses,
feeling for anything else, but she felt nothing. There was just the two
of them.
"This'll be a good place for us to hole up, during the day." The vampire
that seemed to be the leader of the two pointed to the floor. "Look at
all the dust. No one's been in here for ages. We can cover up the office
windows, not have to worry about any sunlight getting to us."
"I'd feel better someplace underground."
"Get over it. Most places don't have the sort of sewer system L.A. has.
Now come on, let's check out the office, and see what we need to make it
habitable. Then we can go out and look for something to eat before dawn."
Cassie jumped back down to the ground, and told Jack what she'd heard.
"There's only two of them," she whispered. "We can take them, easy."
"I wish I had more than a stick to use as a weapon," said Jack.
"Guns don't work on vamps."
"I know, but I'd like to see what a zat does to them. Maybe I can get
Carter to swipe one for me."
"How's she supposed to do that?"
"I don't know. She's the genius. She can figure it out."
"Later," said Cassie. "Right now, we have to take care of these vamps."
"We need a plan," said Jack. "Maybe some backup."
"There's no time for backup, they were talking about going out to get
something to eat tonight, and I have a plan." Cassie started to run down
the alley.
"Oh for crying out loud!" she heard Jack mutter behind her, before he
followed her.
Cassie found the door with a broken lock that the vampires had used to
get into the warehouse. She waited there for Jack to catch up with her.
"So, what's your plan?" he asked. "Ambush them when they come out?"
"Nope. They might use a different door." Cassie took a stake from her
pocket, and held it so it was concealed by her arm. She pushed the door
open, and strode into the warehouse, making no effort to be the least
bit stealthy. "What do you think Jack?" she called loudly. "Would this
place be great for our rave, or what?"
"Ah...I don't know," said Jack, looking confused for a second. "The
lighting kinda sucks."
"That's what the glow sticks are for!" said Cassie.
"Can we get power for the amps?"
"What are you kids doing here?"
Cassie turned toward the vampire. "Oh! I didn't think anyone was here!"
The vampire smiled at her. She could tell it was thinking that it
wouldn't have to go out for dinner after all. "Me and my friend were
looking the place over. We need a space to store some construction
equipment."
Cassie tried to look disappointed. "Oh...when are you going to be moving
in?" She moved a little hesitantly toward the vampire, trying not to
look like she was anxious to close the space between them. She hoped to
get close to both the vamps before she made her move, but they weren't
cooperating. The other vamp was moving to cut them off from the door,
to keep them from running.
"Not for a couple of weeks." The vampire gave her a friendly smile. "I'm
sure we can work something out for your party." He reached out toward
her. "Why don't we go into the office to discuss it?"
Cassie was close enough now. "I don't think so." Her hand snapped out,
plunging her stake into the middle of its chest. The vampire screamed
as it turned to dust. Cassie felt her stake disintegrate in her hand.
The second vampire snarled, and charged at Jack, its face changing as it
came. It leapt the last six feet, reaching out toward him with hands
like claws. Jack didn't have time to get his stake out. Instead he
seized the vampire's arm, and pivoted, using the vamp's own momentum to
turn its leap into a hard slam down onto the concrete floor, with Jack
landing on top of it. It would have knocked the wind out of a living
man, but the vampire barely seemed to notice. It grabbed at Jack, and
pulled his neck down toward its fangs. Jack hit the vamp with a head
butt, and broke its hold on him. He tried to scramble away, but the vamp
caught his jacket, and pulled him back down.
Cassie grabbed the vampire from behind, pulling it away from Jack. It
tried to pull away from her, but she managed to hold it with one of its
arms twisted up behind its back, and with her arm clamped around its
throat. It tried to claw at her with its free hand, but it couldn't get
hold of her.
"Stake it Jack!"
Jack had finally managed to get his stake out, and he stabbed it into
the vampire's chest. It exploded into dust in her arms.
Cassie coughed, and slapped vampire dust from her clothes. She saw Jack
glaring at her. "What?"
"Next time, please tell me the plan, *before* you go charging in."
Cassie had to evade the cops a couple of times on her way out of the
park, but it wasn't hard. Their lights meant that she could see them
long before they got close enough to see her, and she made a lot less
noise than they did. It was still nearly morning when she got back to
Sam's, eased her bedroom window open, and slipped through it into the
house.
"So, you're back."
Cassie was startled by Sam's voice. She spun toward the sound and saw
her sitting in a chair by the bed. "Sam, what are you doing here?"
"It's my house, remember? I looked in on you, a little after midnight,
and was surprised to find you weren't here."
"I'm sorry," said Cassie. "I just couldn't sleep. I went for a run."
"Alone, at night," said Sam.
"I can take care of myself," said Cassie. "You know that."
"I don't care. I came in here, and you were gone. I was worried about
you."
"I wasn't running away, or anything like that," said Cassie.
"I know, but you can't just go running off in the middle of the night,
without telling anyone where you're going. You gave us a scare."
"Us?"
"Oh yeah." Sam picked up her cell phone off the table beside her, and
hit a couple of buttons. She waited a few seconds for an answer. "Hi
Jack. She's come back. ... Okay, go home and try to get some sleep. ...
I'll see you in a couple of hours. ... Bye." She snapped her phone shut.
"You were keeping Jack awake too."
"I'm sorry," said Cassie. "But I couldn't just lie here looking at the
ceiling."
"Cassie, I understand what you're going through, but you can't go
running off by yourself like that. It isn't safe."
"I don't care."
"While *I* do." Sam got to her feet and came to Cassie. She wrapped her
arms around her. "I just lost one of my best friends. I don't want to
lose her daughter too."
---
Cassie was surprised when she awoke in daylight. Sam had put her to
bed--this time actually tucking her in after Cassie had changed into her
pyjamas--before going back to bed herself. Cassie hadn't thought that
she would get any sleep, but it seemed that she had dozed off.
She was also surprised to find young Jack in Sam's kitchen, reading the
morning paper and drinking a cup of coffee, when she schlepped into it,
still wearing her pyjamas. "Where's Sam?"
Jack looked at her over his newspaper. "She had to go back on duty. How
are you doing?"
"I'm okay," lied Cassie.
"So, beating up that guy in the park made you feel better?"
"What?" asked Cassie "How did you know--?"
Jack turned around his paper, and showed her the headline: 'Police
Apprehend Serial Rape Suspect.' "Seems he tried for the wrong victim,
she kicked the crap out of him, and then called 911 for them to come
pick him up. I was also in the park myself last night, and some cops
asked me if I'd seen a girl."
"He pulled a knife on me," said Cassie. "What was I supposed to do?"
"You shouldn't have been there in the first place," said Jack. "But
since you were...hell, if I'd been with you, I probably would have given
him a couple of kicks myself. This guy is a real piece of work. He's
suspected of half a dozen rapes, and some of his victims were cut up
pretty badly."
"Does Sam know?"
Jack shook his head. "She had to leave before the paper arrived. You
planning to tell her?"
"Will you, if I don't?" asked Cassie.
"No, but that still doesn't mean you shouldn't." Jack put the paper
down. "If you tell her, she won't be much madder than she already is
about you running out last night. If she finds out some other way..."
"I'll think about it."
"Why don't you go have a shower, and get dressed," said Jack. "It'll
make you feel better. I'll make you breakfast."
"I'm not hungry," said Cassie.
"Do it anyway," said Jack, sounding like a senior officer addressing a
raw recruit. "That's an order."
---
Major Janet Fraiser was buried with full military honours. Cassie's
mother's casket was carried to the grave site by six soldiers from the
SCG, while a Marine honour guard stood with presented arms. The Air
Force Academy Chaplain presided over the ceremony, saying words that
Cassie didn't really believe. The god of her childhood was a parasitic
snake that had slaughtered her first family, and she had never really
adopted any other. Janet herself had been an agnostic, not believing in
any particular gods, but not rejecting the concept either. Cassie sat
silently through the ceremony, trying to hold back her tears.
At the conclusion of the service, the honour guard fired off three
volleys with their rifles. A bugler played /Taps/ while the flag draping
her mother's casket was folded. The sergeant in charge of the casket
team presented the flag to General Hammond, who in turn brought it to
Cassie. He knelt on the grass in front of her as he placed it onto her
hands. "Your mother was a friend, a colleague, and one of the finest
officers it has been my privilege to command," he told her quietly. "We
will all miss her."
"Thank you, General," said Cassie.
"If there is anything that I can ever do for you, don't hesitate to ask."
Cassie just nodded her thanks. The knot in her throat wouldn't let her
say anything. General Hammond briefly rested his hand on hers, before he
rose, and went to speak with Janet's brother.
Janet's brother Ron, his wife, and their two children had come to
Colorado Springs for the funeral. They had been told that Janet had died
in a medevac helicopter crash, while transporting a man who had been
wounded in a training accident. Cassie didn't like lying to them about
that, so she spent a lot of time avoiding them. They had never really
been close, anyway. Janet's family lived in Baton Rouge, and Cassie had
only met them a few times.
The Fraisers weren't the only civilians present. Jack was there, of
course, as were several spouses of SGC personnel. One of them was a
woman who looked like she was ready to give birth to a baby any day now.
She was accompanying an airman whose stiff movements indicated that he
was not long out of his hospital bed, and probably should be going back
to it, now that the funeral was over.
Cassie wondered what her uncle, aunt and cousins would have said if they
had known that there were aliens at her mother's funeral. They seemed to
be a little uncertain how to react to the amount of military brass that
had come: two Air Force generals; Air Force and Marine colonels; lots of
lower ranking officers, and enlisted personnel, all in their full dress
uniforms. How would they have reacted if she told them that General
Carter was also hosting an alien symbiote?
Cassie felt conflicted by Selmac. She knew the Tok'ra were allies, and
Jack seemed to like this one (whatever his feelings about the Tok'ra in
general) but she felt a little nauseous whenever she was too close to
General Carter. Her Slayer sense, combined with what she already felt
because of the naquadah in her blood, made her very uncomfortable around
the Tok'ra, and she wasn't completely successful hiding it. It was a
good thing that she'd told Vi not to come to Colorado Springs when she'd
made the offer after hearing about her mother's death. There was no way
that another Slayer would be able to not notice that there was something
*wrong* about General Carter.
Bra'tac was there too, representing the Free Jaffa. He didn't make her
feel nearly as uncomfortable. He felt just like Teal'c, and Cassie had
gotten used to him being around. They were both dressed in similar dark
civilian suits. Anyone who asked about the marks on their foreheads was
told that they were Mozambican tribal tattoos.
People started to pass by, stopping briefly to offer their condolences,
and then continuing on their way, slowly filtering away from the
graveside, back toward their cars in the parking lot. Cassie didn't
recognize most of them. The airman with the pregnant wife stopped in
front of her. He couldn't meet her gaze, at first.
Cassie spoke first. "Thank you for coming. I can see this is hard for
you."
"I had to be here," said Airman Wells. "They wouldn't let me out of bed,
to come to the memorial in the base. Major Fraiser...It's my fault she's
dead."
Cassie shook her head. "No it's not."
"If I hadn't been hurt--"
"It wasn't your fault," said Cassie. "You didn't--" She had to stop
herself from saying 'shoot her.' There were too many people around who
didn't know how her mother had really died. "You didn't make the
helicopter crash."
"But if it wasn't for me, she wouldn't have been there."
Sam had come over to join them. "She was there because she was a doctor,
and an officer, Airman," she said. "Janet was there because it was her
duty as an officer, a physician, and a human being. Even if she had
known what was going to happen to her, she still would have been there.
That's the sort of person she was."
Airman Wells had straightened himself up, like he was coming to
attention, on Sam's approach--not that he had been slouching before.
"Yes Major."
"I don't blame you," said Cassie. "I blame-- you know." She looked
toward Wells' wife. "If you feel you have anything to pay back to my
mom...pay it forward. Be a good Dad to your baby. Mom couldn't ask for
more."
"Yes ma'am," said Wells.
---
There was a gathering at Cassie's house after the funeral. She couldn't
help thinking that it really was *her* house now. It had been 'hers'
for years, but now she really owned it. Janet Fraiser's will had left
nearly everything to her. Some family heirlooms had gone to her brother
and his family, but everything else was Cassie's now. She didn't know
what she was going to do with any of it.
People came bearing food. More food than could possibly be eaten by
them, and the others who had come. Cassie was a little overwhelmed by
all the visitors. The SGC must have been running on a skeleton staff,
and there were others: people who had known Janet before she joined the
SGC; friends from medical school; others who had known her before she
joined the military; Some of Cassie's friends from school, and their
parents. It was hard keeping them all straight in her head. It was hard
to keep repeating the lie about how her mother had died.
Jack and Colonel O'Neill were avoiding each other. It was kind of
interesting to see how they always seemed to keep as far away from each
other as possible. If one of them entered a room, the other would soon
exit it. It was like there was some sort of Conservation of O'Neills
law at work. Seeing Colonel O'Neill suddenly break off a conversation
with Daniel, and head for the kitchen was all Cassie needed to see to
know that Jack had come into the living room from the front hall, so she
wasn't at all surprised to hear him ask "How are you doing?" from behind
her.
She turned toward him. "I'm getting kinda tired of people asking me how
I'm doing."
He shrugged at her. "I'm sorry, but it means that you've got a lot of
people who care about you."
"I know, but...how am I supposed to answer that? Am I supposed to tell
them I'm doing okay, 'cause I really don't think I am. I
mean...sometimes I'm okay, but then I remember that Mom's gone, and
never coming back, and I just want to go cry by myself in a corner, but
she wouldn't want me to do that, so I have to go on, but it's hard."
"I know it's hard," said Jack, "but it gets easier. Every day it gets a
bit easier. You're always going to miss her, but after a while you
stop thinking so much about how bad it is that she isn't here anymore,
and start remembering more about the good times you had together." He
stopped and thought for a bit. "Do you think about your first parents?"
"Of course," said Cassie.
"What do you remember about them?"
Cassie smiled sadly at him. "Good things... they always made me feel
safe. Mommy was always ready with a hug and a kiss when I scraped my
knee playing. She made wonderful nobtail soup. She had the sweetest
smile. Daddy would carve me toys, from pieces of wood. He was big and
strong, and the gentlest man I knew."
"You still miss them, but their being gone doesn't hurt as much as it
used to," said Jack. "The same will happen with Janet. You'll always
miss her, but the hurting will get less as time goes by, and soon,
you'll be remembering the happy times you had with her."
"I guess," said Cassie.
"Trust me," said Jack. "It just takes time, and some help from your
friends."
---
Jack was right. Things did get better, with time. Janet's funeral had
come at the end of the week after her death, and the beginning of the
spring break from school. Sam had taken leave to help Cassie with the
transition.
Cassie moved in with Sam. Her Uncle Ron had offered to take her back to
Baton Rouge, to stay with him and his family, but Cassie wanted to stay
in Colorado Springs. All of her friends were there. Her uncle didn't put
up any argument, once he satisfied himself that Sam really wanted Cassie
to come live with her permanently. He stayed on another week, after his
wife and children had returned to their home to help settle Janet's
affairs.
Cassie, Sam and Ron went through the house together, picking out the
things that Cassie wanted to take to Sam's, what Ron wanted to keep,
what to put into storage, and what to toss out, or give to Good Will.
They decided that house itself would be rented. Janet had had life
insurance on her mortgage, so it belonged to Cassie now, free and clear,
so the rent only had to cover the property taxes, and general
maintenance costs. There was always someone temporarily assigned to the
SGC who was looking for an affordable place to stay, and renting the
house to one them meant that Sam would be able to do a much more
thorough background check on any prospective tenant than if they rented
it to a member of the general public.
---
Cassie threw herself into her school work and training, after the spring
break was over. Anything to keep her mind off how much she was missing
her mother. In addition to her regular school work, there was the extra
paperwork needed for her applications to university. She had applied to
several, including Colorado State, Stanford and Caltech, plus, with
Council support, she had applied to Oxford and Cambridge in England.
She wasn't alone applying to the English universities. Jack applied to
them too. It hadn't been easy explaining Jack to the Council. Part of
his knowledge of things military had been explained by the history that
the SGC had manufactured for him. According to it, he was an Air Force
Brat, and had travelled all over the world with his father as he had
moved from one posting to another. He had picked up bits of several
languages during that time, as well as learning things like how to
handle weapons, and fly an airplane. Jack was a little miffed that the
SGC hadn't supplied him with a pilot's license that actually matched his
qualifications, but it would be a bit difficult to explain how a
seventeen year old kid managed to get in enough flying hours to earn
instrument and multi-engine ratings, to say nothing about flying Air
Force jets (and a space ship or two.) Major Davis had told him that he
should be happy with the private pilot's license they'd given him.
Cassie started going out evenings, to patrol the cemeteries. Sam didn't
like it, but she was away too often to stop her, and had realized the
futility of trying. So they had come to a compromise: Jack came along
with her.
He was good company for the mood she was in. He knew when to keep
quiet, and he also seemed to know when he should say something: a joke
or a sarcastic comment, when she was slipping too deep into broodiness.
He also didn't let her just wander around at random. He prepared maps of
the areas that they wanted to patrol, and they planned each evening
before going out. They developed a routine which ensured that each of
the local cemeteries, parks, and warehouse districts was checked on a
regular basis, but not too regular. They kept changing the order around
so that if anyone was observing her, they wouldn't be able to predict
her future movements. He taught her the hand signals to use so they
could communicate silently with each other when out on patrol.
Cassie always stopped by her mother's grave, on the nights that their
patrols took them to that cemetery. It seemed a little silly to her,
but she always told her mother how things had been going. How things
were with school, what Sam told her about what was happening with the
SGC, how three different guys had asked her to the Prom, though she
hadn't decided if she was going or not. It made her feel better to be
able to say those things, even though her mother couldn't hear her
anymore. But there was a chance that she could. She knew from both
Daniel's experience, and from what she learned from the Council, that
sometimes the dead *could* still look in on the living.
Most of her nightly patrols were just an opportunity to burn off a
little excess energy, while having time to sort through her feelings
about how everything had changed in the last year. It had been nearly a
year now since she had first heard the call. A year in which her entire
life had been turned upside down. A year ago, she'd have been at home
most evenings, doing her homework, talking about guys on the phone with
her friends. Telling her mom how her day had been. She still did her
homework, and talked about guys with her friends, but after that she
went out to patrol the local cemeteries. Now she talked to her mother's
tombstone.
Jack always gave her lots of space when she stopped by her mother's
grave. She knew that he understood how she felt. There were graves that
he visited too: Charlie O'Neill's, Charles Kawalsky's, graves of other
people who had died in the service of the SGC. He sometimes had some
things to say to the dead as well.
Tonight they weren't in any of the cemeteries that held any of their
ghosts. They were checking out some old factories near the airport,
looking for any sign that something might have take up residence there.
They had been here on other nights, and found nothing, but Cassie had a
feeling that that was about to change. She couldn't explain why, but
she somehow knew that tonight would be different.
She and Jack were moving quietly through an alley between a couple of
abandoned warehouses when she felt it: the same chill she had felt in
that cemetery in Cleveland. She knew that there was a vampire nearby.
Maybe more than one. She signalled for Jack to stop. She stood in the
alley, trying to feel where the vampires were. The feeling seemed to be
coming from the building to her left. She signalled for Jack to wait
where he was, and climbed swiftly up a pile of crates, to look in a
window.
The glass was too coated with grime to see anything through, but there
was a broken pane in the window that gave her a clear view of the
interior. It also let her hear what was being said inside.
"Why have we come here?" asked one voice. "This town is dead."
"Exactly," said a second voice. "We can lay low here for a month or two.
Once things blow over in L.A. we can go back."
"But why *here*? Why not go someplace fun? I hear that things are
picking up in Cleveland."
"Yeah, and every vamp that goes anywhere near there ends up dust inside
a week. There's nothing in Colorado Springs. We can lay low here for a
while, clean a few homeless people off the streets, and wait for
whatever's going down between Blackthorn, and Wolfram and Hart to blow
over."
Cassie could see the two vampires, in the middle of the warehouse floor.
She couldn't see anyone else. She reached out with her other senses,
feeling for anything else, but she felt nothing. There was just the two
of them.
"This'll be a good place for us to hole up, during the day." The vampire
that seemed to be the leader of the two pointed to the floor. "Look at
all the dust. No one's been in here for ages. We can cover up the office
windows, not have to worry about any sunlight getting to us."
"I'd feel better someplace underground."
"Get over it. Most places don't have the sort of sewer system L.A. has.
Now come on, let's check out the office, and see what we need to make it
habitable. Then we can go out and look for something to eat before dawn."
Cassie jumped back down to the ground, and told Jack what she'd heard.
"There's only two of them," she whispered. "We can take them, easy."
"I wish I had more than a stick to use as a weapon," said Jack.
"Guns don't work on vamps."
"I know, but I'd like to see what a zat does to them. Maybe I can get
Carter to swipe one for me."
"How's she supposed to do that?"
"I don't know. She's the genius. She can figure it out."
"Later," said Cassie. "Right now, we have to take care of these vamps."
"We need a plan," said Jack. "Maybe some backup."
"There's no time for backup, they were talking about going out to get
something to eat tonight, and I have a plan." Cassie started to run down
the alley.
"Oh for crying out loud!" she heard Jack mutter behind her, before he
followed her.
Cassie found the door with a broken lock that the vampires had used to
get into the warehouse. She waited there for Jack to catch up with her.
"So, what's your plan?" he asked. "Ambush them when they come out?"
"Nope. They might use a different door." Cassie took a stake from her
pocket, and held it so it was concealed by her arm. She pushed the door
open, and strode into the warehouse, making no effort to be the least
bit stealthy. "What do you think Jack?" she called loudly. "Would this
place be great for our rave, or what?"
"Ah...I don't know," said Jack, looking confused for a second. "The
lighting kinda sucks."
"That's what the glow sticks are for!" said Cassie.
"Can we get power for the amps?"
"What are you kids doing here?"
Cassie turned toward the vampire. "Oh! I didn't think anyone was here!"
The vampire smiled at her. She could tell it was thinking that it
wouldn't have to go out for dinner after all. "Me and my friend were
looking the place over. We need a space to store some construction
equipment."
Cassie tried to look disappointed. "Oh...when are you going to be moving
in?" She moved a little hesitantly toward the vampire, trying not to
look like she was anxious to close the space between them. She hoped to
get close to both the vamps before she made her move, but they weren't
cooperating. The other vamp was moving to cut them off from the door,
to keep them from running.
"Not for a couple of weeks." The vampire gave her a friendly smile. "I'm
sure we can work something out for your party." He reached out toward
her. "Why don't we go into the office to discuss it?"
Cassie was close enough now. "I don't think so." Her hand snapped out,
plunging her stake into the middle of its chest. The vampire screamed
as it turned to dust. Cassie felt her stake disintegrate in her hand.
The second vampire snarled, and charged at Jack, its face changing as it
came. It leapt the last six feet, reaching out toward him with hands
like claws. Jack didn't have time to get his stake out. Instead he
seized the vampire's arm, and pivoted, using the vamp's own momentum to
turn its leap into a hard slam down onto the concrete floor, with Jack
landing on top of it. It would have knocked the wind out of a living
man, but the vampire barely seemed to notice. It grabbed at Jack, and
pulled his neck down toward its fangs. Jack hit the vamp with a head
butt, and broke its hold on him. He tried to scramble away, but the vamp
caught his jacket, and pulled him back down.
Cassie grabbed the vampire from behind, pulling it away from Jack. It
tried to pull away from her, but she managed to hold it with one of its
arms twisted up behind its back, and with her arm clamped around its
throat. It tried to claw at her with its free hand, but it couldn't get
hold of her.
"Stake it Jack!"
Jack had finally managed to get his stake out, and he stabbed it into
the vampire's chest. It exploded into dust in her arms.
Cassie coughed, and slapped vampire dust from her clothes. She saw Jack
glaring at her. "What?"
"Next time, please tell me the plan, *before* you go charging in."
--
Quando omni flunkus moritati
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Quando omni flunkus moritati
Visit the Buffy Body Count at <http://homepage.mac.com/dsample/>