We Love as One – Chapter 3

Disclaimer in Index

Time Frame: Two Days ago from the previous chapters.

“It is impossible, Jacob. You know as well as us that the chances for Martouf to survive are too remote.” Garshaw said emphatically as the other High Council members nodded their heads in agreement.

Jacob restrained throwing his hands in the air in frustration. “So because of that, you’re not even going to try?”

Re’nal, though not part of the High Council, piped up, “Even if we were to try the blending, Lantash is still recuperating. To try to blend them now would be to kill then both.”

“So obviously you’re cutting your losses and obviously choosing the symbiote, leaving Martouf to die.” Jacob accused. He stood up from his chair. “Isn’t this what it’s all about anyway?”

Garshaw avoided Jacob’s eyes as she asked, “What do you mean?”

“Meaning if Martouf *had* survived, you wouldn’t be able to hand his body over to Anise and her knives to dissect his brain tissue in order to gather information for her Za’tarc research.” Jacob tried to steady his voice, but it was obvious he was trembling with anger.

He was pissed. And not simply because of the High Council’s callous decision to just hand off Martouf, one of their own, a man who had dedicated his life to the Tok’ra cause, who was their *friend*, to Anise, the butcher as a lab rat, but also because of Sam.

Conversations and actions such as this that took place amongst the Tok’ra always made Jacob do a double-take and made him assess of what the Tok’ra were really like. Though he accepted that they were different from the Goa’uld, he had to admit that that margin of difference was slim.

Jacob could feel Selmac’s protest in his mind, but ignored her. These were his thoughts, his feelings. *His*. And he could think and feel whatever he damn well wanted to; right not, he was too mad to care about stepping on a few people or symbiotes ‘toes’.

It boggled Jacob’s mind sometimes that for claiming to be a well-knit group, when push came to shove, it was every man for him or herself. What happened to the good old ‘No one gets left behind’ spiel? It made Jacob wonder that when and if his time came, would any of the Tok’ra show up? Or would his former comrades of Earth be the ones to prove their mettle? 

Again, Jacob blocked out Selmac’s protests and thought back to his main motivation: Sam. The Tok’ra hadn’t seen the quiet despair and pain that his baby girl was going through. Jacob would be the first to admit that he was well over being emotional, but in his mind, his girl hadn’t had a lot of happiness in her life and the way things were going, it didn’t look like there was going to be for quite sometime.

Sure, she had her work, her team, her few friends, and family, when looked at pessimistically, it didn’t amount to much. Work could only make one so happy, it didn’t offer a helping hand when you were down, couldn’t cheer you up, make you laugh, smile, offer a shoulder to cry on, and it couldn’t talk to you whenever you needed to talk.

SG-1 was a close group, but each and every one of them carried so much baggage, it boggled Jacob. Each could be so wrapped up in their own emotional dilemmas that adding more would make their team dynamics even more fragile than it already was. A single shove could send the whole team into chaos. What few friends that Sam had besides SG-1 had their own lives to live also and Jacob was skeptical if Sam had any good friends *outside* the SGC.

Family. Besides him and Mark, Sam had no one. He, himself, was so hard to get in touch with constantly moving from one planet to another, taking on missions that required no contact for weeks or months. And while Mark had accepted them both back in his life, that relationship was still tentative and new. Jacob also knew that Sam wasn’t seeing anyone; her reluctance to get involved with military after Jonas was clear and military was all she ever exposed to. What her top-secret and classified life, she wouldn’t be able to tell someone anything about her without them having a high security clearance.

“That is enough, Jacob.” High Councilor Persus said firmly. “I understand your reluctance to accept what has happened, but it has happened. To that end, the decision has been made to take Martouf out of stasis and send his body to Anise over at the Tok’ra base on Lytien for study. We have already decided to blend Lantash to a new host who will be arriving tomorrow, Elias.”

Jacob snapped out of his thoughts and visibly clenched his jaw. He curled his hands into fists and opened his mouth to retort something when Selmac took control.

He bowed his head and said, “Of course, High Councilor. Both Jacob and I understand your wishes.” Selmac bowed his head. “Now if you will excuse us.” Selmac walked out calmly of the meeting chamber and toward their personal quarters, trying his hardest to calm his host down.

Once alone, Selmac relinquished control and Jacob fumed, “Calm down! You want me to calm down? Then tell those stuffed up callous people who stepped out of the ’10 Things not to Wear’ magazine that they’ve made a stupid decision. Martouf is or should I say was a good friend and a damn good Tok’ra, he deserves more than just to be shipped off to be dissected by the butcher lady herself.”

“I don’t care that they think it’s for the best, that doing this might, *might* help prevent further za’tarcs or that it’s what Martouf would have wanted. Frankly, I doubt that he’d want his head and brain opened and analyzed. This is about compassion and respect! It’s what separates us from the Goa’uld, the Tok’ra are supposed to be better than this!” Jacob stormed, his hands itching to throw something.

<Well I suggest you do calm down, Jacob. There *is* nothing you can do.> Selmac said firmly.

Jacob sat down hard on his bed and placed his hands on his knees. Was there really nothing he could do? That new host, Elias, would be arriving tomorrow and tomorrow Jacob was supposed to be bringing Martouf’s body to that woman. He knew that there was nothing he could do for Lantash; he couldn’t be in two places at once and besides, Lantash was still alive and recovering quickly. It was Martouf who had drawn the short straw and who Jacob was determined to save. But how?

 <Jacob…what are you thinking?> Selmac said warningly. <Do not do anything foolish.>

Jacob snorted at Selmac’s warning. (Before I became Tok’ra, Selmie, I spent the greater part of my life in service to my country. I did everything; that includes subterfuge and handling any and every sort of risky mission that came my way. I can pull this off; trust me.)

<That’s what I’m afraid of.> Selmac grumbled. <You are going to do something that will most definitely get us into trouble.>

Jacob smiled, his mind already cooking up a plan to save Martouf, a man he gladly called a close friend in the past years. (In the words of Jack O’Neil, ya sure ya betcha.)