The Ghost of Jack O'Neill

Author: BadgerGater

Email: BadgerGater@cs.com

Category: Drama, angst, humor, Jack's POV

Rating: PG, couple of adult words

Season: Two, before Spirits

Summary: An unlikely character must save Col. O'Neill

Warnings: Oh you know the Colonel gets into all kinds of trouble when the Badger starts writing.

Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, Gekko Productions; all the powers that be, not me; This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement intended. The story is the property of the author and may not be posted (O'Neills House, Heliopolis, Jack's Place excepted) without the author's consent.

Authors Notes: Thanks, Tanya & Corine & Carol.

So what do ya' think kids? Tell me. I like mail.

____________

They think I'm dead.

Maybe I am.

But I don't believe in ghosts.

---------

I guess I should start at the beginning.

We were going to P3F-201. (All right, so I cheated and looked up the damn 'planetary designation.' I positively refuse to memorize those stupid letter-number combinations we give planets that are somehow supposed to make it easier for us to remember them. Hah) It was one of the planets from the Abydos cartouche, and Daniel was absolutely beside himself with excitement when the MALP went through and the camera showed us a room with walls covered with writing.

Honest to God, I don't think I've ever seen a grown man drool over writing on the wall before, unless of course it was some girl's phone number, but that's a whole different story...

So, okay, back to P3F-201. We did all the usual pre-mission preparation stuff that occupies so much of my time. In the end I guess I was remiss for not calling in the ghostbusters, but a guy can't think of every eventuality. And who'd have thought I'd need them?

Anyway, I saluted the General, he wished us Godspeed and SG-1 (that's me, Dr. Daniel Jackson, Captain Sam Carter and our Jaffa buddy, Teal'c) stepped through the Stargate, rode the wormhole across the galaxy and emerged into a room on P3F-201.

The technical gizmos on the MALP had assured us that the air was perfectly safe. Still the place had an old musty smell, like a museum that had been locked up too long. I walked around the room, found only two exits, each doorway leading into another room, both of which appeared to be empty and dead ends.

"I think we're sealed in, kids," I said uneasily. I hate not having a backdoor.

Daniel was already raving over the writing on the wall. "Wow, look Jack, this is clearly a derivative form of ancient Egyptian..."

"Can you read it?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah, most of it," he said, his eyes trailing across the wall. "It says welcome to the home of our spirit."

"Spirit? As in team spirit? Evil spirits? Alcoholic spirits? Huh?"

Daniel was grinning, his enthusiasm bubbling over. "It's definitely a place of religious and/or spiritual significance. Might be a ceremonial palace, or a temple."

"Feels more like a tomb to me," I said, shivering.

"Just so it is not ours," said Teal'c warily, his deep voice echoing my own unease.

There was something about the place I didn't like, didn't like at all. I spun around, feeling like I was being watched, like someone was staring at me. Geez, Jack, get it together. No one here but us peaceful travelers from Earth, as Daniel was wont to say.

"Colonel?" asked Carter, concerned over my little whirling dervish move.

"Nothing, Captain. Just..." I shivered again. "It's like I've got the willies."

"There are no Willies here, Colonel O'Neill. We did not bring Maj. Davis and Capt. Wood with us," Teal'c's deep voice answered me again.

I looked at Teal'c questioningly. Major Davis? Capt Wood? "Ah, Willie Davis, Willie Wood. Ah, Teal'c that's not what I meant." Then I looked at him again. A joke, another joke, he was getting too good at this joke stuff, especially jokes aimed at me. "Okay Teal'c, aren't you supposed to be checking for Goa'uld threats or something?" I said, cocking one eyebrow at him.

"Yes, of course Colonel O'Neill."

Did I just see him smirk? And was that Carter sniggering? Nah, no way.

------------

An hour later, Daniel was still walking slowly along the wall, mumbling aloud as he translated bits and pieces of text from the wall.

"So, what have we got?" I asked.

"Well, I can't quite read all of it, but so far it seems to be a list of spirits, possibly of those who are entombed here..."

"See I knew it was a tomb, not a church..."

"Jack, it was common in European churches of the Middle Ages to bury the dead in the church itself..."

"So...."

"And the churches were also the repository for all knowledge, the home of the literate and the most educated segment of society."

"It is quite possible there could be useful information on this society and its technology, here Sir," piped up Carter, who had been spending the last hour slowly filming every square inch of the 40 foot high walls in the huge room.

"Okay then, I'll leave you kids to your reading."

I wandered around the room, looking at the walls. So yeah, I was bored all ready, looking for some action, something to do.

Stupid move, it turned out.

I walked over to the doorway between the big room with the gate and a smaller room. Hmm, a closet? A bathroom? Unlike the room we were in, the ceiling was much lower, probably only 15 or 16 feet tall. There was nothing written on the walls, either; they were bare, shimmering almost, like they were painted with something translucent.

As I stepped through the doorway, I saw something else. I swear it wasn't there the first time I'd checked that room.

Around to the left side of the doorway, there was a Stargate, a miniature Stargate, oh about six and a half feet tall, just tall enough for an average human to walk through upright.

"Holy Buckets," I muttered, then raised my voice to holler, "Hey, Teal'c you ever see anything like this before?" I asked him, approaching the tiny gate. There didn't seem to be a DHD, but in all other aspects, it appeared to be a regular, functional Stargate, a perfect replica, right down to the 39 (yup, I counted) cute little pictures inscribed on it.

Teal'c came into the room, Carter on his heels.

"Wow," she said.

"I have never before seen such a thing," said Teal'c in his always unruffled voice. "Of all the hundreds of Stargates I have ever seen, every one was of the large size of the gate on Earth. This is a most unlikely find."

Carter was still staring. "I wonder if it works."

"No DHD," I pointed out.

She looked disappointed as she reached out a hand to touch it.

"Careful Captain," I cautioned. You know, I ought to take my own advice more often.

She tapped it first with the butt of her gun, then carefully touched it with her hand. "It's naquada."

I walked closer, up the three small steps that lead up to the small platform the miniature gate stood on.

"Hmm," I said, and walked through.

That was funny, I didn't remember noticing these steps leading down the other side, or that the room seemed so big. I'd thought the gate was only a couple of feet from the wall. I turned around to say something to Carter, just as I heard her holler, "Colonel!" and got the shock of my life.

My body, or what looked just like my body, was lying on the gate platform, on the other side of the gate. Carter was kneeling beside it, saying my name, checking my pulse, her voice frantic. "Sir, Colonel, Sir, can you hear me?"

Of course I could hear her. I said, "Carter, I'm right here, I'm fine."

No response. She didn't look up, she didn't look at me, she just continued to talk to that 'body' on the floor, like it was me.

Exasperated, I said, "Carter," and started to walk back through the ring towards her. I hit and bounced off... something, like a glass door, that had mysteriously appeared across the gate. "Carter!" I hollered. "Teal'c!"

They were both still ignoring me. Had they gone deaf? And blind? I was standing only three feet away, shouting, and waving my hands. They should be able to see me, and hear me.

I spun around. "What? Who?" Man, I must be slipping to let someone sneak up behind me like that. Except there was no one there.

"Here, among the spirits? Now just wait a minute..."

I was watching Carter work frantically over my 'body' or what looked like my body, still trying to

revive me. "He's breathing, his pulse is nearly normal. It's just like he passed out." She was waving smelling salts in front of my nose. I hate that stuff. My 'body' didn't react.

"Teal'c, did you see what happened?" Carter asked.

"I was watching Colonel O'Neill as he walked up the steps, stopped beside you and proceeded to walk through the ring. Everything seemed normal except he suddenly collapsed. He did not utter a sound. Nothing struck him. He simply fell to the floor."

"Whoa," I yelped, turning again, convinced there was someone behind me, whispering in my ear.

"All right, whoever you are, come out and tell me who you are and what the hell is going on here?"

"Hell no."

"Well, ya, we're peaceful travelers from Earth..."

"Hey, no so fast. Wait just a minute here. Joining you? Here, where's here?"

A tiny knot was congealing in my stomach, no not from that lasagna for lunch, but dread. Something was entirely too rotten in the state of Denmark. "What are you guys talking about? And speak up while you're at it. And show yourselves."

Oh for crying out loud, not more people in my head again. I'd been there, done that, and didn't much like it. "Well, you guys can just get the hell out of my head and let me get on back to my friends. We'll just go home..."

Oh shit, "Not another one of those little mindtraps?"

I put my hands over my ears. "Stop it. Get out of my head. Let me get out of here."

"To get locked in a room with a bunch of voices? I don't think so. Look, you might be just fine, minds, but I really don't want to stay here. I don't belong here.." Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my head, then a babble of voices.

"O'Neill is the name, Jack O'Neill. And would you just explain what the heck is going on? Huh? And only one of you at a time, please?"

"It sounds like a bad cult," I muttered.

"Oh for crying out loud. Look you got the wrong guy here. Daniel, now Daniel, he'd enjoy spending eternity in here with you guys, thinking about things, thinking about anything and everything. He likes mental debates and brain games. Carter probably would like it too, she likes to think about things. But not me. Not Jack O'Neill. I'm not cut out for this. I'm a doer, not a thinker. I'm a man of action, not words." This would be heaven for them. It's hell for me. "Not that I'm offering them to you, no way, nope. But can't I go back?"

Please?

"Well, I did."

I swung around, and saw what Carter, Teal'c and Daniel were doing. They were taking my body away. Without me. "Wait. Hey, guys don't do that!"

"My burial party?"

"Dispose of it? I wasn't done with it yet!" I wailed. "Stop. Teal'c. Carter. Carter, stop, that's an order. Guys, don't leave without me. Huh?" Please???

"Look, let me go back. This is all just a silly mistake..."

"But I didn't choose to come here. I don't want to be here, so you can't keep me here." I could hear the sound of the gate dialing out, my friends leaving, taking my body back to Earth.

Whispers, a cacophony of whispers in my head, I couldn't get away from them. I never thought whispers could be so loud. And annoying. "Aaarrrgghhh. Please let me go back."

"Thank you."

"Why is there always a but with you aliens huh? Why can't any of you ever give a person a straight answer?"

"So how are you letting me go back?" I asked suspiciously.

I didn't wait for a second invitation. I was out the little gate, running (okay, if I'm a spirit I can't be running, but, but it seemed like I was running) across the room, racing for the gate, jumping through next to Daniel.

-------

It was chaos in the gate room, like it is any time a team returns early. Security personnel were everywhere, and then I looked down and saw Janet working on my 'body.' Captain Carter was trying to explain what had happened, and then they were rushing it, me, down to the infirmary. I was jogging alongside my team, but no one was looking at me, no one noticed me. They were all too busy staring at the body on the stretcher.

Hammond was full of questions, Carter looked stunned, Daniel looked lost, and Teal'c well Teal'c looked like Teal'c always does, you know. Daniel, hey, Daniel, I'm right here. Daniel? I tried to grab him by the shoulder, and my hand went right through him. Whoa! Now that was weird. Carter, Doc, General. Listen up guys. Take my body back, not down to the infirmary. No, no, don't take me there. I hate going there. Especially now. I don't need to go there. I need to go back. Please, not the infirmary.

Janet closed the door, leaving my team and the General out in the hallway, while she went to work. It was hard to watch her doing all that stuff to my body, all those needles and tubes and wires. It looked ugly, and painful too. I went back out to the hallway, walking right through the door. Cool, I thought, just like the Tollan.

In the corridor, Hammond was staring at the bulletin board, reading month old memos. Teal'c was pacing. Daniel was standing, arms hugging himself, leaning back against the wall. Carter sat on a chair, staring at her hands but looked up as he began to speak.

"You know," said Daniel suddenly, "it was so weird, Sam, it was like I could hear Jack complaining as we came down the hallway, the way he always protests being taken to the infirmary."

Yes, yes, way to go, Daniel! You've got your ears turned on. Okaaay!

"He was unconscious, Daniel. He didn't say a thing."

"I know. I guess I just so much wanted to hear his voice, " Daniel shook his head sadly. "It's just like he was right there, talking to me. It was so real. I could even hear that mulish tone he gets."

Mulish? Me? Hey, Danny, that was an insult.

Daniel chuckled. "Boy, he'd be mad if he heard me call him that."

"Wouldn't he?" said Carter with a worried look at the infirmary door.

-----------

It was nearly an hour before Janet emerged from 'my' room. Her face was grim. "He is still comatose. And, and there's no brain function. Nothing at all, except for the gross motor reflexes." She had a stunned look on her face. "He's deteriorating, even in the hour since you brought him in. It's slow, but steady." She paused, as if to gather her thoughts. "Unless something happens, he won't survive more than 24 hours at the most, even with all the equipment we've got helping him. I'm sorry."

"Can we see him?" asked Daniel very quietly.

"Of course," and the doc waved them into the room.

Geez, I looked awful. My face wasn't just pale, it was almost gray. Lifeless. Man, I hope I don't always look that bad.

Carter took my hand, okay, the hand on my body. "Sir," I'd heard that tone of voice before, back in Antarctica, when I thought I was dying and so did she. "Sir, we're all here. Colonel?" She rubbed my hand, then dropped it, shivering. "It's cold, like he's not there."

"Like his body is just an empty shell and he's gone already," whispered Daniel.

Janet stood beside them. "So it would seem, Daniel."

Hey you guys, oh for crying out loud, don't start getting all weepy on me, Janet, Daniel, not you too Sam. Good Lord, you're scaring me. I'm not dying, I'm right here. Look at me! Look, look. I was jumping up and down in frustration. How could I make them see, make them understand?

-----------

I was pacing up and down the corridor, next to Teal'c, all right, at least I was thinking I was pacing with Teal'c (this is all getting so very confusing. Am I really pacing, or just imagining I'm pacing or?? I need to ask Carter... damn, I can't ask Carter. This is making my head hurt. Can my head hurt, if I'm just a spirit, just a ghost?)

Teal'c listen up big guy, come on, come on. I'm here. I'm talkin' to ya.' I need ya' big guy.

Teal'c stopped, placed his hand on his stomach, as if in distress.

Distress? Junior, was Junior reacting to me?

Hey, Junior, snakebaby, come on little guy, listen to me. Get riled up. Get Teal'c riled up. I'm out here, right out here, and I'm a ghost...

Teal'c staggered, clutching his stomach.

"Hey Teal'c, what's wrong?" shouted Capt. Carter, hurrying to him.

"My symbiote is restless and agitated. I must leave, and undertake Kel'noreem."

Daniel was there, too. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I will be fine, Daniel Jackson, with a few moments of meditation."

I followed the Jaffa to his quarters. Junior, come on Junior. Agitate. Make Teal'c understand. I'm here, I'm here, I'm right here. He has to take my body back to that planet, quickly, before it's too late. Take me back, so they can put my spirit back into my body.

The room was full of lighted candles, as Teal'c knelt on the floor. I think back in the 60's they used to call that the lotus position? How can he sit like that? Doesn't it hurt? It sure looks like it hurts!

The Jaffa warrior closed his eyes, went quiet, and suddenly, his eyes popped wide open. "Colonel O'Neill!" Teal'c jumped to his feet, and ran down the corridor to the infirmary.

That's it, big guy. Listen to the little snake. He knows I'm out here! Go for it! Yay!

---------

"Doctor Fraiser, we must take Colonel O'Neill back to that planet."

"What?" said the Doc, startled by the shout of the normally quiet Jaffa as he ran into her infirmary.

"There is no time to argue. Colonel O'Neill must be taken back to that planet, to the little gate. We must put his soul back into his body."

"Teal'c look I know you're upset about this, we all are..." Carter, ever the voice of reason. Shut up Carter. Let him talk.

"My symbiote 'encountered' O'Neill."

"Now wait just a minute here Teal'c," ordered General Hammond. "You are trying to tell us that your Goa'uld larvae had a conversation with a comatose man?"

"No, Sir, General Hammond. 'Junior' was able to sense O'Neill's ghost."

"Ghost?" said Daniel.

"Yes, his ghost, his spirit. It is here, but unable to reunite with his body. We must return his body to P3F-201. Immediately," the Jaffa demanded.

Hammond looked at Fraiser, raising at eyebrow. "Doctor?"

Janet was shaking her head. "I don't.... Sir, I don't know. But if we do nothing the Colonel will surely die before the day is out."

Way to go, Doc! Come on. Yes, yes. Take my body back there. Go Go!

"The inscriptions did say it was the place of spirits," Daniel's eyes lit up with excitement. "General, it's a chance, the only one he may have."

Hammond looked uncertain.

Come on George. Don't fail me now. I'll take back every unkind thing I've ever said about you being from Texas, and bald, if you listen to them.

Hammond nodded. "Okay."

Teal'c didn't even wait for a stretcher. Fraiser unhooked the tubes and wires and the big Jaffa just grabbed my body off the bed, threw it over his shoulder in a fireman's carry and started for the gate. Hammond was on the phone, calling the control room, ordering them to dial up P3F-201.

Thank you, General!

I ran with them, down the hallway, down to the gateroom, jumped through the Stargate with them.

They stopped, just inside the large room.

"Now what?" asked Carter.

"I do not know, Captain Carter. The information was not that precise."

Dr. Fraiser was there, too, checking the vitals on my body. "There's no change yet, except for the worse. He's crashing. We...."

"We must take him back where we found him," said Teal'c suddenly, grabbing my body again, and heading off to the little room.

The miniature Stargate stood shimmering. Teal'c walked up and I jumped back through the ring to confront the spirits. "Okay, guys, now what do I do?"

No argument from me, guys. I just want to be back where I belong.

Teal'c walked up to the gate, held my body out in front of him, straining at the effort of holding my weight at arm's length.

"Well, uh, hasta la vista, folks. It's been ah, fun," I said and jumped.

It was like lightning struck me, like a dozen zat guns. Everything went black.

---------

I woke up slowly, on the cold stone floor. Cold. Hard. Wow, I could feel things. Yesssss!

"Colonel?" Doc's voice.

I opened my eyes. "Yes! Thank God," I breathed.

"Actually, Jack, I think you need to thank Teal'c," said Daniel.

"More like Junior," I said, sitting up. "Whoa." The room was spinning.

Janet grabbed my shoulder. "Not so fast, Colonel."

I put my hands to my head. God, yes, I could feel my hands touching my head. And then I looked up and realized they were all staring at me. Like I'd just grown two heads or something. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, Colonel," said the Doc, uncertainly.

Like I was going to believe that, what with the look on her face.

"It's nothing, Sir, just a little side effect maybe, from your experience." She didn't give me time for more questions. She had her little penlight out, was checking my eyes, testing my reflexes, asking me questions. "Well you seem okay, Colonel. Still dizzy?"

"No."

"All right then," she said.

Teal'c took my arm, helped me to my feet. That was good, really good. I jumped up and down a couple of times, experimentally. Yup, everything was working. "Let's get the hell out of Dodge, hmmmm kids?"

<><><><>

In moments, we were back through the gate. A crowd was waiting there as we stepped out of the wormhole and walked down the ramp.

Hammond was waiting at the foot of the ramp. "Colonel?" he asked, and there was something odd in the way he was looking at me.

"I'm back," I answered, in my best Arnold Schwarzenegger imitation. Okay, so it wasn't very good, but at least it was sound, people heard it. Maybe that was why they were all staring at me.

The General turned to Fraiser. "Is he okay, Doctor?"

"I need to get him down to the infirmary for tests, Sir, just to be sure, but I think he is. Even with..." and she waved her hand at me.

"Okay, this is enough all ready. Would everybody stop staring? And would somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?"

"In a minute, Sir," said Doc, steering me toward the infirmary.

I jumped up to sit on the edge of a bed, unhappy to be back here, well okay, happy to be back on Earth and alive and walking and talking, so I guess even the infirmary beat being a ghost. But I really, really wanted to know what was going on. Even the nurses were staring, and I don't think it was because of my good looks. (Although now that my spirit was back in my body, I was pretty sure I was looking pretty good again.)

"All right, Doc, what gives? Have I grown a Pinnochio nose? Or Mr Spock ears? Or what?"

Fraiser handed me a mirror.

I looked, stared, disbelieving. "Oh for cryin' out loud." My hair, my hair had gone gray, completely gray at the temples, streaks of gray shimmered all through my hair. "What the..."

"I don't know Sir. Looks to me like you saw a ghost," she said with a grin.

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