Sorrow Is Like The Tea In My Cup

by Belladonna

URL: http://www.area52hkh.net/asb/belladonna/sorrowis.php
Summary: Jack's clone happened to be attending Virginia Tech the day of the massacre. See how he handled it
Info: Dedicated to the known, and unknown heroes who kept the massacre from being worse than it was

"Daniel, did you hear?" Cam asked as he barged into Daniel's office.

"Did I hear..." Daniel trailed off, eyebrows up at Mitchell's obvious agitation.

"There was a massacre at Virginia Tech," Cam said shortly. "I have a couple of cousins there. I called my Aunt but she says she hasn't heard anything." He flipped on Daniel's t.v., wiping the dust off of the rarely used screen.

"Ohgod, I hope they're going to be okay," Daniel said sincerely.

"Thanks," Cam said.

They watched the coverage, shaking their heads in commiseration, when Daniel's heart suddenly clutched. "Oh fuck," he said and snatched up his phone. He didn't notice Cam's head whip around and he quickly dialed a number and began chanting, "C'mon, answer, damn it! C'mon."

"D..." he began but Daniel held up his hand as someone obviously answered the other end.

"Jack, have you watched the news?" Daniel asked.

"Hello, Daniel. How are you?"

"Jack! There was a school massacre at Virginia Tech!" Daniel snapped.

"Shit, I'll call you back," and the phone went dead.

"What's going on, Jackson?" Cam asked curiously.

Daniel stood and rubbed his back, his attention on the t.v. "Jack and I have someone at Virginia Tech, I just didn't remember until now."

"Do I know them?" Mitchell asked.

"Not really," Daniel said, his worried eyes on the t.v. screen.

~*

There was laughter at a joke when a sound, a familiar terrible sound, made Jon's head snap up. "Everybody quiet!" he barked and yes, there was more.

"What is that?" someone asked.

"Someone has a gun," Jon said grimly. He carefully peeked out the door and listened, his ears automatically identifying caliber and where the shots were, one after another were being fired. He turned back to the very pale instructor. "We need to get out of here. Now."

The instructor nodded and Jon looked at everyone. "Keep silent and watch me, understood?" He glanced over to a fellow ROTC cadet, "Kyle, you take point."

"Yes, sir," the cadet said, and in another life Jon might have been amused.

Jon stepped out into the passageway where he saw other students begin to stick their heads out, "We need to get out of here," he called to them quietly. "Follow me," he ordered.

Heart pounding, he jogged to the end of the hallway and opened the door to the stairway, and everyone's ears were assaulted by the sound of weapons' fire, the sound ricocheting off of the concrete block walls, along with the screams of people he couldn't help. Jon quickly closed the door. "The other stairway, hurry!" he ordered and sprinted through the milling and scared students, opening the other doorway and nodding. The other cadet went through first and jogged down the stairs, carefully doing recon on each floor before he finally reached the ground floor and opened the door, peering out carefully.

"Clear!"

Jon waved a hand sharply and the frightened students came pouring down, the sounds of gunshots continuing even as they escaped the Engineering building. Thor on a crutch, Jon thought, how many dead? What the ~fuck~ was happening? Alien incursion, NID, homegrown terrorist?

"Jackson, cops are here!" the cadet called up as Jon herded more students out of the door and they hastily continued down the stairs and out.

Jon looked down. "Tell them the shooter is on the fourth floor!"

"Gotcha," the cadet called back and as soon as the last student and teacher ran out. Jon stayed where he was, holding the door open as swarms of cops and SWAT stormed up the stairs.

The first cop to reach him, jerked his head. "Get outta here, kid."

"The shooter is on the fourth floor," Jon said evenly. "Two weapons, handguns," he added.

"Alright, just get out of here with your classmates," the cop said, dismissing him.

~

Jon had his arms around a crying female student, never feeling as helpless as he did right then. He and hundreds of students were in the athletic field, all in shock as the campus was taken over by police, SWAT, FBI and other law enforcement entities. Through cellphones they'd finally discovered that some fucking nutcase had shot up ~his~ school, killed ~his~ classmates.

"Yo, Jackson, your backpack is vibrating."

"Crap," Jon said. He slipped out of his backpack and fished out his phone. "Jackson."

"God-damnit, next time there's an emergency you'd better damn well call me!"

Jon sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Sorry, old man. It's been a bit of a circus."

Jack echoed the sigh. His clone was an engineering student and in ROTC and somehow had inherited some of Daniel's trouble magnet status. "You're okay?"

"Yeah," Jon answered. "Let Daniel know, would you?"

"Who do you think called me?" Jack snarked.

Jon winced. "Shit. I'll call him."

"Do that, and I'm glad you're okay, kid."

"Thanks," Jon replied and hung up.

"Your dad?" the girl asked sympathetically.

"Sort of," Jon replied. He pressed a button and waited for an answer, his eyes tracking the cops and EMS.

"NORAD Command, Sgt. Ellis," the voice in his ear lied. But you couldn't very well answer 'Stargate Command'.

"Sergeant, please connect me with Dr. Jackson," he ordered.

"May I ask the nature of this call, sir?"

"It's personal, Sergeant," Jon replied impatiently. He fucking hated the newbies who were assigned to answer the phones.

"I'm sorry..."

"This is Jon Jackson. Please tell Dr. Jackson I'm on the line, please. I'll hold," John said, a hair's breadth from snapping.

After a minute there was a pop as the secure line kicked in and a worried, "Jon?"

Warm fuzzies swarmed through Jon. "Hey, Daniel. I'm fine. I wasn't anywhere near the shootings," he lied with a clear conscience.

"Thank God," Daniel said and collapsed into his chair. "I know we agreed not to keep in touch too often, but Jack and I worry."

"I'm okay," Jon replied gruffly.

"I'm glad," Daniel replied warmly. "Can I ask you a favor?"

Jon frowned. "Yeahsureyabetcha," he said.

Daniel laughed. "God, you sound just like him. Never mind, a co-worker as two cousins on campus, can you check and see if they're okay?"

"Sure," Jon replied. "Do you have names?" he asked, and heard as someone in the background gave out two names, one he was familiar with, another he was not.

"Hey!" one of the students shouted. "This girl is bleeding!"

"Danny, I've got to go," Jon said and shut the phone. He pushed around a couple of knots of students and finally came to a girl who was sitting on the ground, blood spray on her the left side of her face and holding her leg.

"Hey, I'm Jon, can you tell me where you hurt?" he asked gently. She was in shock, her face pale and her hands where he'd clasped them, cold and clammy.

"I'm not hurt," she said, her green eyes enormous.

"Uh huh," Jon murmured. "I need someone's jacket," he called and immediately a coat was handed to him which he wrapped around her torso and then laid her back on the damp ground. He looked up at one of the girls staring down at them, "Sit by her head, okay?" and watched as she did, putting her hand on the wounded girls' shoulder and talking nonsense to her.

He moved to her leg and sighed at the tight pant leg. He pulled a knife out of his boot and cut up the seam, ignoring the gasps, even as he caught sight of the sluggishly bleeding calf wound. "Need a t-shirt and for someone to get a paramedic!" he said sharply.

A t-shirt was immediately handed to him and he quickly wrapped the calf up, then bent down and lifted the girl into his arms, student's parting as he headed toward the ambulances. A policeman and a paramedic met him halfway and he gratefully transferred his burden before head back to the milling students.

Jon gave a sharp whistle to get everyone's attention. "I need everyone to make sure that you and your neighbors are okay! If you are not then let someone know, either myself or another cadet," he called out, his voice carrying over the crying and talking kids who'd just had their innocence ripped away from them.

It worked, three other injured students were found and taken to waiting ambulances and then the students who hadn't been picked up by frantic parents were allowed to head back to their dorms.

Back in his room, and after he and his roommates had assured themselves that they were all whole and well, Jon collapsed onto his bed with his laptop and picked up his phone, pressing a button.

"O'Neill."

Jon shook his head at the listing of students already known to be among the dead. "It's me."

"How are ya, kid?"

Letting out a heavy sigh, Jon leaned his head back and stared sightlessly up at the ceiling. "Wondering what kind of fucked up world we live in, to be honest."

"You know the answer to that," Jack replied, and both men's memories went to previous battles, previous wars, dead friends and dead enemies.

"I know, but these kids were innocent. It's different when you're in a war zone, you understand and accept the possibility, but not at college!" Jon replied, his throat tight when he caught the name of an old girlfriend on the list of deceased.

"You wanna come to Minnesota?"

Jon closed his eyes against the burning of tears. "Can I?"

"Get your stuff ready. I'll have a car pick you up at 6 sharp."

"Thanks, Jack," Jon said gratefully.

"No problem, see you tomorrow," Jack said and then he hung up.

Jon wiped his eyes, then checked to make sure neither name that Daniel had given him was on the list before he called him, then he began to pack.