Old Friend
by Sheryl Rieling
This old guitar taught me to sing a love song
It showed me how to laugh and how to cry
It introduced me to some friends of mine
and brightened up some days
and it helped me make it through some lonely nights
Oh what a friend to have on a cold and lonely night
This old guitar gave me my lovely lady
It opened up her eyes and ears to me
It brought us close together
and I guess it broke her heart
It opened up a space for us to be
What a lovely place and lovely space to be
This old guitar gave me my life -- my living
All the things you know I love to do
To serenade the stars that shine
from a sunny mountainside
I love to sing my songs to you
Yes, I do, you know
and most of all to sing my songs to you
The crisp, late fall evenings were always the best as far as Colonel Jack O'Neill was concerned. The nip in the air coupled with the crystal clear air always made him feel like he was home again. Sitting on the deck of his grandfather's cabin, listening to the sounds of nature as it went about its winterizing chores, oblivious to his presence in the midst of it.
In Colorado Springs, the closest he'd ever come to recreating those special moments were the times when he sat on his deck and divorced himself from the sounds and lights of his neighborhood. The five wooded acres behind him allowed him that luxury and once again he congratulated himself on the wisdom of purchasing them before agreeing to close on the house. It allowed him a buffer zone. A small bastion of silence in an otherwise circus-like life.
As if on cue, Jack's beeper began chirping. With a sigh, he pulled it out and looked at the illuminated display. Daniel. Call him right away. Didn't these people ever hear of taking it easy? Resigned, Jack climbed to his feet and ambled into the house. Before he could reach the phone, the beeper chimed again. This time it was Carter. Call Daniel right away. Why did they always do things in pairs? He dialed the phone one-handed as he shrugged out of his Jacket, switching hands and shoulders as his manipulations required. As soon as the phone rang it was picked up. Jack could almost feel the snap of Daniel's excitement through the phone line.
"Yeah, Daniel. What's up?"
"Jack! Captain Michaelson came back from 582 with the most amazing things. You have got to get here!"
Jack sighed. It was always urgent. "Daniel," he asked, rubbing his eyes, "Are you sure you need me there for this?"
There was a sound of shuffling and Jack heard the phone being handled.
"Sir?"
"Carter?"
Daniel was calling in the heavy hitters. He fumbled the phone and grabbed at right before it would have slid off his shoulder, but not before he heard Daniel tell Carter, "Just get him here, Sam!"
With a sigh, Jack said softly, "What's so amazing that you need me there? Have you guys ever heard of time off? Do you ever take yours?"
Sam's voice bristled with he now knew to be veiled exasperation. "Sir, if Daniel's right about this, you're going to want to be here. It's a huge development, sir."
"I'm on my way."
As he replaced the phone on the switch hook, Jack took one last look around his room. He had been looking forward to his downtime. There was a novel sitting on his coffee table that he'd been dying to read for a long time. "This had better be monumental, Daniel." He said to the empty room. Switching off the light, he palmed his car keys and headed for the garage.
~ o ~ o ~ o ~
Twenty-five minutes later, Jack strolled into Daniel's lab, looking around with interest. It was standing room only. People clustered around the center work-surface, two or three deep, straining to see over each other's shoulders. Jack cleared his throat and the crowd parted enough for him to elbow his way to the front. Carter and Daniel were bent over a group of artifacts, heads together as they quietly discussed the relevance of them.
Standing next to Jack was Major Simon Bailey, the latest addition to SG-2. Bailey was one of what Jack called, "The New Air Force." Cerebral and degreed, the young Major was a scientist as well as a Soldier. As far as Jack was concerned, the development was good for the Stargate Program but hard on his nerves. The new officers were long on schooling and short on field experience. Despite all of his reservations, Jack liked the Major. He earnestly applied himself to his job and Jack wouldn't be surprised to see the man a light Colonel before too long.
"What's going on?" He whispered covertly.
"Artifacts from 582 are being examined."
On the table a wooden box was decorated with carvings depicting nubile women dancing around a hole in the center of the box. There were holes on either side of the box as well, smaller and less ornate, the circles appeared to be more for function and less for looks.
Daniel was examining a cylindrical piece of wood with a "t" on the end. It was hollow and Carter kept peering in one end or the other, commenting softly to her fellow scientist on the possibility that it went with the box. Daniel tried to fit it to one end and it was obvious to everyone watching that the two pieces didn't fit despite all the manipulations. Jack finally pitched his two cents in.
"They don't fit."
Two sets of blue eyes stared at him with barely disguised disgust.
"We know Jack." Daniel said blandly.
Jack bristled under that myopic stare but refused to be baited. "Well you keep trying to fit them together. Do you have any idea what it is? You and Carter seemed so excited on the phone."
Both of his teammates had the good grace to look embarrassed at the concept that they had dragged him back to work for an undetermined artifact. Carter decided to meet him head on.
"Well, sir, we thought it was a musical instrument. As you know, 582 is a world we were able to identify from the Abydos Cartouche so we know it to be a Goa'uld world, but until recently we had been unable to get the address to lock due to the Earth's alignment with…"
Jack could feel his eyes glaze over as Carter disappeared and was replaced in his minds eye with the computer from Star Trek. Where the hell was Scotty to beam him up when he needed him? With less than charitable motivations, Jack finally interrupted her.
"Carter!"
"… which is why we had to - Sir?"
Jack shook his head slightly, doing nothing to keep the exasperation from his face. "What's the bottom line?"
Daniel picked up the box and handed it to Jack.
"Jack, this is a musical instrument from a planet that had been populated by people in servitude to a Goa'uld."
"So?" Jack prompted, confused.
"So, Sir," Sam said, "The Goa'uld prohibited any kind of learning or arts that would preserve the slaves memories of their history. This instrument is decorated and there's writing on the stem."
"That's the neck, Carter." He deadpanned. When the crowd around the desk stared aghast, he gave a helpless shrug and turned to Bailey. "It is you know…a neck."
Bailey nodded at him and Jack smiled. Always keep the scientists on their toes. Words to live by. Just as Jack was about to ask what everyone was staring at, a voice sounded out from the rear of the group clustered around the table.
"Doctor Jackson?"
Daniel raised his hand to be seen above the crowd. "Here!"
Once again the crowd parted and a young airman stood before him with a specimen case. More 582 artifacts fresh from decom, doc. Where would you like them?"
Already moving, Daniel gestured to a table against the wall. Put them over there, airman." Without acknowledging anyone else, Daniel began speaking to Carter. Jack quietly kept his position as the crowd followed the two scientists across the room. Within moments he was alone.
He could hear Daniel exclaim in excitement as the case was snapped open. "Look Sam! It's another instrument … um … well maybe…."
His voice trailed off as Jack concentrated on the box and neck before him. His fingers itched to pick it up. It practically called to him but something held him back. It was that pesky little, every-time-I-touch-an-artifact-it-finds-a-way-to-bite-me-in-the-ass thing. With his luck it would probably blow up. Tuning in, Jack listened as Sam ran a scanner over the items at the other table. "Daniel, there's naquada content in this one!"
Jack tuned them out again. Those two could suck the fun out of just about anything. Looking down he was surprised to see he had picked up the neck as he listened. The "T" at the end was notched and his fingers absently rubbed over it, testing each ridge and indentation. Nothing had blown up. Maybe he could look at the box.
He glanced around the lab, making sure no one was watching. Then, with hesitant fingers, he picked up the box, running his palm across the dancing women. He drummed his fingers, almost jumping when the box gave a familiar sound. It was too soft to be heard by the others but Jack instantly recognized it. Reaching for the neck, he imitated Daniel and Carter's moves to try and attach it. Nothing. There had to be a way. Interested now, he put down the neck and picked up the box. He peered inside, holding it tilted away so the overhead light could shine into the interior. There was something on the ends by the smaller holes. Sticking his finger it, he ran it along the inside and found an edge. Then, by tugging and then twisting gently he pulled out a small hollow extension. Startled, he almost dropped it as he juggled it for a few seconds.
Jack glanced over at the group debating whether to alert them to his discovery. What if it turned out to be nothing? He grabbed the neck and brought it up to the box - it slid in perfectly. When he rotated the neck it clicked into place perfectly. Well that was easy. He tried sliding it out and the device stayed locked in place. Crap! Looking around, Jack's eyes met Daniel's over the heads of the crowd.
"What?" Daniel mouthed.
Jack couldn't think of a single thing to say. Instead, he held up the joined pieces. Carter glanced up at that moment and joined Daniel in a decent imitation of fish, so perfectly synchronized were their "Oh's."
Within moments Daniel was at his side and Jack had to admit, the guy was downright pushy when something interested him. He wondered if anyone got elbowed or stepped on during the mad dash back to the table.
"Um…Jack, did you do this?" Daniel asked as he examined the artifact.
"Yep. Pretty obvious what it is now, huh?" He truly tried to keep the shit-eating grin off his face but knew he was failing miserably.
"Sir, did you know what this was before you put the parts together?"
Leave it to Carter to make everything so complicated.
"No, Carter but it seemed logical."
"Jack, how did you know which end -?"
Why did everyone always act like he was some sort of mental midget? Even now the small crowd had gathered around the three of them and were looking at him as if he had just dropped his brains on the table. Hadn't they ever seen a guitar before? Everyone air-guitared in their underwear at some point in their life, didn't they?
"Daniel, they just seemed like they went together, okay?" When nobody responded Jack addressed himself to Bailey. "They did."
"Sure Colonel. Anything you say."
Jack had enough. This was embarrassing. He was standing in a room surrounded by his peers and scientists and they all had the same expression on their faces. A line from Little Red Riding Hood came to mind.
"Grandmother, what big eyes you have…."
He decided to beat a hasty retreat before the crowd turned ugly or worse, the floor didn't swallow him up. With a mumbled good-bye he turned, slid out of the room and was down the hall before he heard Daniel call him back. He pretended he didn't hear and caught the elevator just before the doors closed. Daniel wouldn't be able to prove he heard him. The airman in the elevator looked at him strangely and Jack smiled to himself as he pressed the button that would take him to the surface.
Plausible deniability was a wonderful thing.
~ o ~ o ~ o ~
Two hours later Jack was back on his deck listening to the forest sounds as he stared off into the blackness. As soon as he had returned he had climbed the stairs to the attic and pulled out his old guitar. The case had been so beaten up that the leather had begun to deteriorate in soft layers. It sat beside him now and his fingers felt as rusty as the catches when he finally slid the instrument into place on his thigh. His left hand found "C" and he gently strummed one hesitant sounding cord.
Sara had loved it when he played the guitar. She swore he lost at least ten years from his face as soon as he picked it up. Jack smiled, lost in the memory. Sara had been a sucker for an acoustic guitar in the hands of a horny cadet with minimal talent. Of course his rendition of Country Roads had almost ended his chances to get lucky with her. He should have known not to sing when he played. But she had slept with him anyway. Hell, she had married him anyway. Jack found his fingers automatically picking out the cords to This Old Guitar by John Denver.
This old guitar gave me my lovely lady
It opened up her eyes and ears to me
It brought us close together
and I guess it broke her heart
It opened up a space for us to be
What a lovely place and lovely space to be
Softly he began to hum the tune and allowed himself to drift off into the memory of a better time and place.
~ o ~ o ~ o ~
"Is that music?" Sam strained to hear above the crickets and frogs. She and Daniel had parked at the curb, not wanting to disturb the Colonel if he had already gone to sleep. When they saw the dark house, Sam wanted to leave but Daniel was having none of it. He had hopped out of the car and was walking around the house before she could call him back.
Coming to a halt next to the garage, both of them strained to make out the sounds of a guitar being strummed softly.
"He's singing." Sam said, a note of awe in her voice.
"If … uh … you want to call THAT singing."
She gave him a dirty look and together they listened to the sounds of an instrument being beautifully played by a person who obviously loved it.
"You know, Sam," Daniel whispered, "I was so wrapped up in the artifacts I forgot what they could do."
Sam nodded. "Me too. Funny that it was the Colonel who figured it out."
"Well, he's not exactly …um…stupid. I just never figured him for a …" He gestured at the corner of the back deck.
Sam said nothing, preferring to listen to the sweet sounds of the song.
When Daniel made to step around the garage and reveal their presence, Sam stopped him with a firm hand on his arm.
"Sam, what are you doing?"
"Daniel - shut up and just listen, okay?"
When the song finished, they stood there in the shadows as the sliding door to the house opened and closed. The lights never did come on and after a few minutes, the two friends walked silently back to the car.
"Are you going to tell him we were here tonight?" Daniel asked.
Sam shook her head. "I don't see the point. I mean, we weren't supposed to be here and the Colonel isn't the most sharing of people…." She allowed her voice to trail off.
They climbed into the car and sat there in companionable silence for a few more seconds before starting the car and driving away.
~ o ~ o ~ o ~
In a window overlooking the street, a curtain slid back into place and a weary soldier-sometimes-musician took himself to bed.
The end.