Unification: The Anunnaki Unification Book 5

by Michele Briere

  “Shaving,” Jack said.

  “And he came to you for lessons?” Daniel said. He flushed and turned the shower on. “I’m surprised you have a face left, the way you shave.”

  The smell of peppermint filled the room as steam began to come from the shower. Jack’s butt was still feeling a little sore from their evening of romping through various scented oils.

  “Shower is slippery,” he heard Daniel comment.

  “The oils,” Jack said.

  “Oh, right. Jack? My ass hurts. How many times did we go at it?”

  “Don’t know,” Jack said. “There were six flavors of oil and I think we went through all of them. I don’t think I’ve slept, yet.”

  “Sam was already gone when I got up,” Daniel said.

  “She got up just before I did. I don’t know how she does it, Danny; she was all wide-eyed and bushy-tailed.” He leaned over the sink and spat out the toothpaste.

  “This is her fault,” Daniel informed him. “She’s the one who insisted on tasting each of the oils.”

  “Did she have to use us as her tasting boards?” Jack asked. “This isn’t her fault, this is your fault. You bought the damned things.”

  “Is that a complaint?”

  Jack opened the shower curtain. “No, it isn’t,” he said and leaned in to peck at Daniel’s mouth. “But you do know that she’s a little behind schedule in jumping one of us with one of her fantasies.”

  Daniel paused. “Oh, dear. We’ve created a monster and she hasn’t fed in a while.” Jack flicked soap from a nipple and left before he was tempted into doing something his body wasn’t up for.

  Jack put Fang on his runner and filled his dish while Olivia ran barefoot in the grass. She fell on her diapered bottom, her face stunned for a moment before something in the grass took her attention. Jack was at her side before she could eat the worm.

  “Nasty,” he told her, swinging her up onto an arm. “When you are in a remote village somewhere, you can eat the worms. Not at home, though. It makes Daddy cringe.” She babbled and pointed. Not having much else to do, Jack let her steer. They explored the trees, discussed the mailbox in great length, and watched a neighbor’s cat stalk a bluejay and fall head over tail as it missed the feathers. Olivia thought it was a very humorous moment and pointed at the humiliated animal as she blew raspberries at it. The rocks on the driveway crackled and he saw an SF coming up the drive.

  “Good morning, sir,” the man said with a salute. Jack returned it.

  “It is a nice morning, isn’t it, Major?” he asked. Olivia jumped against the arm under her butt. Jack tightened his grip. “Livie thinks so, too.”

  “Sir, may I speak freely?” the major asked, almost breaking a smile as the baby babbled.

  “Sure.”

  The SF glanced at the baby. “It’s….”

  “She’s eleven months old, Major,” Jack pointed out. “Speak.”

  “Yes, sir. There’s been a few complaints,” the major said. “Well, more like grumbles.”

  “About what?” Jack asked, switching Olivia to the other arm.

  “Colonel Davis, sir.”

  Jack thought about it, waiting. “What about him?”

  The SF shifted feet, clearly uncomfortable. “It seems he and Nick like to… play outside? They’ve startled a few families a couple of times. Parents don’t know what to tell their kids when they ask why they can’t play in the woods.”

  Jack chuckled and nodded. “I’ll talk to him. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. Any complaints about my house?” The major hesitated, shamefaced. “It’s okay, Major; we will keep it closer to home, too. How’s your wife?”

  The SF brightened. “She’s fine, sir, thank you.”

  “When’s she due?”

  “In October,” he said proudly. “It’s a girl.”

  “Congratulations,” Jack said, shaking the man’s hand. He gave Olivia’s fuzzy head a stroke. “It’s a strange species, but well worth the effort.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Dad!”

  Jack looked back at his house. Katie stood in the doorway, wrapped in an orange robe with her hair in a green towel. She was holding a small mirror up and poking at her face. “Dad! I need you!”

  “What?” he called.

  “I have a date with Josh! Freakin’ pimples! Fix it! Pleeeeeeze!”

  Jack sighed and looked at the SF. “Honest. They really are worth it. Face the teenage years with courage, soldier; they will be the most trying.” He went back to the house and redacted the red blemish with a peck on her head.

  “You know chocolate does that to you,” he reminded her. She scowled at him and went back to watching her skin heal.

  “When a boy gives you chocolate, you eat the chocolate,” she informed him. She pulled the towel off and fluffed her hair as she spun around and rushed back up the stairs.

  “Daniel!” Jack called out. Daniel looked out from the library. “You haven’t bought me chocolate in a while.”

  “Yes, I did,” Daniel said. “I ate it.”

  Jack set Olivia on the floor and she toddled quickly to Daniel. He caught her and lifted her, putting noisy kisses on her face as she inspected his face with curious little fingers. The TV was on and Jack looked over to see Davy sprawled on the floor watching his Saturday morning cartoons.

  “Where’s Stacey?” Jack asked.

  “Bike riding with some of the girls.”

  “Which girls?” Jack asked. Daniel shrugged.

  “Girls up and down the street,” he said. “Her usual cohorts.”

  “Oh. Would one of those girls happen to be Molly Than?”

  Daniel held Olivia up and blew on her belly. She screeched and kicked.

  “I think so, why?”

  “Nothing,” Jack said. Daniel slowly lowered Olivia to the floor.

  “Why?” Daniel asked again.

  “It’s probably just coincidence,” Jack said. Daniel moved in until they were nose to nose.

  “Why? And don’t make me use the full name.”

  Jack frowned. “That’s mean, Danny. The Thans live next door to the Kaplans.”

  It took Daniel a moment….. “As in Simon Kaplan?”

  “Could be.”

  Daniel headed for the door and was pulled back.

  “She’s fine,” Jack assured him. “She’s doing normal little girl things with other normal little girls. Giggling over normal little boys happens to be one of those things.”

  “Daddy, Sheriff Richardson wants you,” Davy informed him without taking his eyes from the TV. Jack looked at him and then at Daniel. Daniel shrugged.

  “Did the sheriff call, buddy?” Jack asked.

  “No,” Davy said, shaking his head.

  “So, how do you know he wants me?”

  “Don’t know. He does.”

  Jack reached. He then looked at Daniel and picked up the phone. “Andy. Jack. Oh, you know…. Yeah, sure, how many? Tell them to come by my office on Monday and let me get a look at them. I’ll decide what we can do with them. Anytime.” He inclined his head and walked toward his office. Daniel shut the door behind them.

  “You know those ex-cult boys around here?” Jack asked, perching on the edge of his desk.

  Daniel thought about it. “You mean the boys who were kicked out of their homes? The off-shoot Mormon cult?”

  “Yeah, them. Andy’s boys arrested a few of them last night. B&E. He wants me to see if I can do anything with them. The boys are so clueless, they’d be eaten alive in jail.”

  “And they’ll probably need some remedial classes to catch up on what they were not taught in school. If I remember right, there is no more draft,” Daniel said. Jack waved a hand at him.

  “I’m not going to draft them,” he said. “Just find them a job. You can help me interview them and see if we can come up with an appropriate place for them.”

  There was a knock and the door opened. Sam stuck her head around the door.

  “Hi,
honey,” the men said. She came in, wiping the sweat from her neck with a towel.

  “How was your run?” Jack asked.

  “It was very nice,” she said. “You two need to start joining me.”

  Jack lifted his shirt and looked at his flat stomach while Daniel pulled self-consciously at his t-shirt. Weight had always been his enemy.

  “What are you saying?” Jack asked her.

  “I’m saying you two are starting to huff and puff when you walk a long distance,” she informed them. “If we were still at the SGC and going off-world every week, would you qualify us for duty?”

  Jack thought about it. “No, I guess I wouldn’t. Alright, we’re back on a regimen.” He looked at his watch. “Matty’s game is in three hours. Are we all going?” Sam and Daniel would be going with him. Sam went for a shower while Jack reminded David of his brother’s ball game. Daniel was still lying on the couch in Jack’s office. Jack went back in and looked down at him.

  “What’s the problem?”

  Daniel lifted an arm from his face. “Nothing. Just tired.” Jack went back into squatting position.

  “Danny, you know we love you,” Jack said. He put a hand under Daniel’s shirt and stroked the smooth skin. “A few extra pounds won’t change that.”

  “I know,” Daniel muttered. “I like the muscles and all, but I don’t want my life to revolve around the gym.”

  “Then don’t,” Jack said with a shrug. “I like your muscles, too, but you’re no longer required to live up to military standards. You’re a civilian, not a meat-grinder. Sam’s right in that I need to start working out again; I need to set an example for the men and women under my command. And who knows when I’ll need to be in combat again? I don’t have a problem with your extra inch, Danny. I believe I heard Paul refer to you as a teddy bear. You’re our teddy bear.” He put a kiss on Daniel’s stomach.

  Daniel glared at him from under an arm. “Alright. I’ll give myself to Major Brice’s tender mercies.”

  Jack leaned in and kissed him. Daniel reluctantly responded and began to relax under Jack’s attentions. “Only if you want to,” Jack told him, holding Daniel’s eyes. “A few extra pounds isn’t going to get you kicked outta bed. Danny, you’re not lazy and you’re not a junk-food junkie. Any more than the rest of us, anyway. We have our days. Relax and enjoy life. You’ve earned it.”

  “Daddy.”

  Jack looked toward the door where Davy stood. “How come you didn’t tell us you were going to be on TV?” the boy asked. Jack looked at Daniel. Daniel got up and they went into the living room. Jack didn’t know he was going to be on TV because whoever had the camera had hidden it.

  “….and this isn’t the only so-called healing that has taken place,” the reporter was saying over a shaky, grainy video of Jack picking up a little girl from a fallen bike. She was crying and holding her arm. Jack knelt in front of her, talking low and reassuringly as he gently touched her arm. The girl soon stopped crying and nodded, flexing her arm. The camera zoomed in and the image was split: one side showing a bloody gash in the arm and the other side doing a fast forward, showing the wound seeming to repair itself in seconds. Jack recognized the girl from one of the neighborhood families.

  “……there are also rumors of military personnel being healed after General O’Neill visited their hospital rooms,” the reporter said. “There is a report of General O’Neill being shot, yes, shot, ladies and gentlemen, in the chest, injuring a lung, and yet he is out of the hospital within forty-eight hours.”

  “Get Sam out of the shower,” Jack told Daniel. “And round up the rest of the kids.” He picked up the phone and called the guard house, putting them on alert.

  The news image switched to a man whose identity was obscured.

  “The general isn’t the only one with odd things happening,” the man said. “His daughter volunteers at the Academy Hospital and she has a remarkable degree of…..”

  Jack picked up the phone again. “Are you watching the news? Look at Channel 8. Hell might be about to break loose.”

  “You still want me to ignore this?” he asked when Daniel came out of the bedroom with Sam right behind him. She was dripping wet and wrapping a towel around her body.

  “Yes, for now,” Daniel quickly said. “We already have the story of leaping to back us up; we can pin all this on that. Just let this happen, Jack. We knew it would come out eventually.”

  “We have a leak,” Sam said as she watched the news. “Who the hell would know about you being shot? It was on the base and you were operated on upstairs.”

  “No, I want him to…. never mind, I can deal with it a lot faster,” Jack said into the phone. “Call Washington and warn Maynard and Hayes. I don’t know yet. Daniel is still telling us to sit on it. His weirdness radar has been a little off lately, but he’s usually right.”

  “In researching this story, we came up with something unexpected,” the reporter was saying. “All over the world, there are stories just like these beginning to crop up. Millions of children are doing unusual things and learning at an elevated speed, and a few are going the extra mile. Although spontaneous healing, such as General O’Neill has been seen to do, has been spotted in a few other people, no one seems to be doing anything as advanced as O’Neill. Watch this home video of the general in action.” A video was shown of Jack yelling and a red line suddenly appearing in the green grass. “Not hours later, that patch of grass was dug up and removed by government officials. General O’Neill’s oldest son is seldom seen and mysteriously absent, any threatening elements have disappeared, his neighborhood is guarded by Special Forces, and his house is a no-fly zone. There is also a report of a cadet from the Air Force Academy who was taken abruptly out of class a year early and given a field promotion. According to the young man’s family, he is on a special assignment off-world. Students at the Academy say that this young man, Grant Kendrick, was able to read minds! Yes, you heard me, folks –read minds!”

  Jack made another phone call and put the base on alert. “Call Kalam,” he told Landry. “Tell them to stay away, and for God’s sake, keep Kendrick out of the area completely! Send a couple of SF to Kendrick’s folks and make sure they’re alright.”

  The door opened and Paul came in, holding the earwig as he talked quietly into it. Nick came in after and shut the door.

  “…no, sir, he is advising that we hold,” Paul said into the tiny filter. He and Nick stood and watched the news, waiting for Jack to issue an order. “Well, sir, the leaping information would actually take care of it. I’m putting together a statement for the press. Yes, sir.”

  Nick opened his mouth and Jack held up a hand. He closed his eyes and concentrated. After a moment, he went into his den and quickly ran over the bookcase until he found what he was looking for. He pulled it down and rapidly skimmed through it, scanning faces. He stopped.

  “Get me this man,” he said, tapping the picture and handing the book to Nick. The man memorized the face and the name and left the house. Jack picked up the phone again. “George, I’m sending Nick to fetch one of your kids. Sorry, if I’m stepping on toes. Again. Oh, I’m a little ticked. I also want to know who the leak in the hospital is. I’m going to look at ID’s in a moment. My bigger concern is who leaked my medical records. There are extremely few people who have access to those. No, not yet. I’ll let you know. Thanks, George.”

  Katie slowly came down the stairs, hearing the commotion.

  “No one goes nowhere alone today,” Jack told her. “Josh may come here and visit, but I don’t want you outside without an escort. That means one of us or a guard.”

  The door opened again and Michael came in. “Jack, what….?”

  “Mike, I really need you to stay with Mom for a while,” Jack said. “I’ll send a couple SF with you. I don’t want her bothered. And unplug her phone.”

  “The SF have this neighborhood blocked off to anyone except locals,” Michael said. “They weren’t going to let me through except
that one of the men recognized me. If it’s that serious, shouldn’t I take the kids with me?”

  “No,” Jack said. “They’re safer here. I’ll have the kids taken off-world, if I need to. You and Mom, too, so don’t worry. Daniel and Paul will put a statement together and we can hope that it takes care of most of the damage.” Michael reluctantly nodded and left.

  “How about Gabriel?” Paul asked. Jack looked at him. “Well, he is the Director-General of the World Health Organization. If he steps forward and makes a statement, won’t his presence give greater credence to the fact that there is nothing for people to get upset about?”

  “Good,” Jack said, pointing in emphasis. “Call him. And I want a closed studio when I speak with the press. Just one reporter, one camera. Not someone excitable.” He took note of the baby sleeping on a large pillow. “I want my children to live normal lives. This needs to be taken down a few notches.”

  Ignoring advice from Paul, the family attended Matty’s ball game. Jack’s personal guard took deep breaths and followed the family. They didn’t usually all go to the games, but it was time for a show of unity. Since Matty’s team was composed of all SGC off-spring, there were a lot of military present at the ball field. Seeing Jack, Sam, and Daniel, and all the kids, the military made room in the center of the bleachers. Once the family was seated, the troops surrounded them. The reporters wandering around the field took one look at the blockade and decided to wait. The Anthem was played, everyone stood and sang, and the game was on.

  “Any news on the leaks?” Landry had joined them to cheer on their team.

  “One of Kendrick’s former roommates,” Jack said. “He’s about to be dishonorably discharged. Still hunting down the med tech from the hospital. Seems he’s MIA. I’ll find him. Dr. Thorn and I will be holding court in New York tomorrow in a news studio. Colonel Davis and Daniel are writing responses.”

  Landry looked at Daniel who was clapping and whistling at their team. “I see he’s working hard at it,” Landry commented. Jack glanced at Daniel.

  “Actually, he is,” Jack said. “Daniel –healing abilities….”

  “Just another one of those odd things happening with evolution. Saves on band-aids in the house. Wave to Matty, Liv.” Daniel held Olivia up high so she could see her big brother. It was a bit far for her to make out exact faces, but she jumped against Daniel’s shoulders and yanked on his hair anyway.