#4 in the Life's Little Problems Series
Color Outside the Lines
A Little!Danny fic by: Maj. Cliffhanger
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Part 21
Col. Dixon glanced up from where he was sitting with his wife in the Officer's Mess and frowned as he listened to the announcement over the base PA system. "Attention: Lt. Col. Carter, Dr. Jackson and Jason Dixon, please contact base security immediately," the voice ordered in calm and measured tones. "Repeat: Lt. Col Carter, Dr. Jackson and Jason Dixon, please contact base security immediately."
Kate Dixon frowned sharply as well, feeling her blood run cold. "Dave..?" she asked in sudden concern.
"I'm sure it's nothing," he assured her, reaching across the table to squeeze her hand while he used his other hand to turn the wheelchair aside. "I'll check it out," he promised even as he dropped her hand and hurried to wheel himself to the nearest wall-mounted phone. Not surprisingly, she followed and handed the receiver down to him before he could lever himself out of the chair to get it. "Press 3," he told her.
A few moments later, he was connected to base security. "This is Col. Dixon," he identified himself. "Why was the announcement concerning my son, Col. Carter and Dr. Jackson just placed?"
"Apparently, Col. Mitchell is having difficulty locating them, sir," the operator answered. "Have you seen any of them, sir?"
"No," he answered. "Col. Carter was supposed to escort my son to the Officer's Mess half an hour ago but hasn't shown yet."
"It's possible they were simply delayed somewhere, sir," the man replied reassuringly. "We're still awaiting their response. I'll have an SF contact you as soon as we know where they are."
Dixon nodded subconsciously. "Carry on," he ordered simply and hung up. There was nothing else he could do.
"Well?" his wife asked in obvious concern.
"Cam needs to talk to them about something," he answered obliquely. No reason to worry her just yet. She hadn't met Cam before but Dave had talked about him enough that she knew who he was, both as a fellow officer as well as their new neighbor and Danny's guardian.
"He needs to talk to Jason?" Kate asked in surprise.
"Jason was with Col. Carter." Dave shrugged and turned his chair back to the table they'd been sitting at before. "You remember, she was the one who said that rocket science was easier than learning how to bake at the pot luck last year."
Kate nodded pensively as she followed him. "I know who Sam is," she assured him easily, displaying a familiarity he wasn't aware of. "Are they missing?"
"No," Dave quickly assured her, glancing over his shoulder as he maneuvered his chair back into place. "No, just ... Cam didn't know where they were." True enough: he didn't know why he had this nagging feeling all of a sudden that something was wrong - but he did. And that feeling was rarely wrong.
Damn.
That SF standing duty by the door had blasted-well better come over here and tell them everything was fine or there were going to be problems. He smiled at his wife and glanced at his watch. Ten minutes, he decided mentally. More than enough time for Sam and the kids to contact Security and Security to contact the nearest SF.
* * *
CMSgt Walter Harriman shook his head in confusion. "I can't make heads or tails of this," he complained, trying yet another algorithm to clean up the signal they'd gotten through the gate.
"That's because the filter coefficient has to be adaptive," Carter told him - or tried to. Neither of the men working on the problem could hear a word she said and she was forced to the simple expedient of trying to will them to understand it. Straightening when neither Walter nor the communication's specialist who was working with him could see the slight variance in the output that was so obvious to her, she threw her hands up in exasperation. "Why do I even try!" she sighed.
"She hates it when she can't fix something," Danny whispered to Jason. The two boys were sitting on the floor off to one side, just trying to avoid having people walk through them.
Danny, and everyone else around him, suddenly paused as an announcement asking him, Sam and Jason to all contact Security came over the base PA system. Sam turned to where they were sitting and winced, apparently realizing she'd pretty much ignored them for the last several minutes. Abandoning her futile attempts to communicate with the technicians, she quickly returned to the boys.
"They're beginning to realize we're missing," she told them as they scrambled to their feet again. Jason was frowning and so she offered him a reassuring smile, probably figuring he was more confused and worried than Danny. "It won't be long before they figure everything out."
But the six year old was more worried about something else. "Who's Dr. Jackson?"
"Uh...." Sam glanced down at Danny and the two of them exchanged startled looks. Neither of them had even noticed the obvious mistake Security - or more likely Mitchell - had made. Danny watched as Sam hastily plastered a smile in place and turned back to Jason. "He's ... a guy who works here," she offered quickly. "I was supposed to meet him after I dropped you off with your mother and father."
But Jason was still frowning, this time at Danny. "Why didn't they ask for Danny to call Security?" he asked suspiciously.
Apparently, Sam decided the best defense was to play stupid. "I don't know." She shrugged and quickly changed the subject. "Why don't we head up to General Landry's office. We'll be able to monitor anything and everything they're doing from up there."
Jason frowned at her again, but this time it was more in confusion. "How?"
"Everyone will have to report to Gen. Landry as to what's going on."
"Not that!" Jason scowled and waved it aside. "How do we get up there? Those two generals used an elevator last time and we just hitched a ride with them. What do we do this time?"
Danny suddenly frowned in thought as well. "Why aren't we falling through the floor?"
Sam blinked and glanced down. Obviously that wasn't something she'd thought of before. Frowning, she stamped her foot and they watched it sink into the cement. She quickly withdrew it and gingerly set it down again. Jason, who'd been watching her, decided to test it too. He suddenly jumped in place, with both feet. He too sank into the floor several inches before Sam and Danny grabbed him and pulled him free.
"Don't do that!" Sam quickly admonished him, obviously frightened by what could have happened - not that Danny thought she was sure what that was.
"Why not?" Jason asked.
"This is the bottom level," Daniel quickly told him. "There's nothing but rock below us."
"You might get stuck," Sam added.
Danny frowned down at the floor. "Why can we touch it and nothing else?" he wondered aloud, distinctly feeling a fairly solid surface beneath his feet.
"I think it has to do with mass," Sam answered.
He glanced up at her in curiosity.
"You know how it feels whenever we walk through something; like a door or wall...."
Both boys nodded.
"It doesn't always feel the same, does it."
Again they nodded. "The thicker and bigger something is, the harder it is to pass through!" Danny suddenly realized.
Sam nodded. "Exactly. I think that's why we can walk around without falling through the floor. There's obviously some sort of overlap between the two dimensions. If there wasn't, we wouldn't be able to see or hear anything either. We probably wouldn't even know we were out of phase because it would be like we were somewhere else entirely."
"What about the elevators?" Jason asked. "Their not big and thick. Why can we ride those?"
Danny blinked, impressed the other boy had noted that.
"Despite their relative size, they do have a lot of mass," Sam answered. "Metal is much denser than concrete. Whereas it might take a foot or more of concrete to support us, it might only take a few inches of steel."
"Then we probably can't take the stairs," Danny decided, gesturing back to where the staircase behind them wound up to the level above and Gen. Landry's office.
Sam shrugged. "Give it a try," she suggested.
Danny walked over to the stairs and tried to grab the railing first, only to have his hand pass right through. Then he tried to step on the metal grid-work of the first tread. Once again, his foot barely encountered any resistance and passed through back to the floor.
"Not enough mass to provide sufficient resistance." She nodded, satisfied with the apparent evidence supporting her hypothesis.
"So how do we get up stairs?" Jason asked again, pointing upward.
Sam smiled. "We hitch another ride."
* * *
"What do you mean they're 'missing!'" Jack was instantly on his feet.
Mitchell found himself taking a small step back and even Teal'c, beside him, straightened in concern. The lieutenant colonel swallowed around a tight throat and forced himself to glance down to where Landry had remained seated behind his desk. His expression was no more welcoming. "We've checked everywhere we can think of, sir," he assured them, "and they're not responding to any attempt to contact them."
"Did you call up top to make sure they hadn't signed out?" Jack frowned irritably. If Carter had taken the boys off-base without letting anyone know ... but there was no way she would do that without some sort of serious compulsion or duress.
"Yes, sir," Mitchell answered readily. "The guards haven't seen them, and I'm also told Carter's car is still here."
Which didn't mean a lot, Jack knew. If Sam needed to get the kids off-base without signing out - she could - but there had to be a reason. More likely, the three of them were stuck somewhere or, hopefully, tied up watching some 'fascinating' gizmo or thingamajig and hadn't heard the base-wide announcements asking them to contact Security.
That last was heavy wishful thinking, and he knew it. The mole they knew they had on the loose could just as easily be behind this.
He sighed.
"What about Security footage?" Hank asked.
Mitchell nodded. "Already got our guys on it. They're starting with the kids' last known location and--"
"--Let me in there Sergeant, or I swear to God you'll be coughing up your balls tomorrow morning!" The sudden sound of a woman's raised voice in the hall outside Landry's office interrupted him. The soft but insistent murmur of a male voice answered her, followed by a rather distant but sharp, "Kate, don't!"
The four men exchanged surprised looks.
A muffled but clear request of, "Ma'am, please--" was answered by the sound of ensuing chaos.
Jack winced and hurried to the door. "For crying out loud...." He swung the door open in time to see the guard stationed outside Landry's office sail through the air to land flat on his back, the victim of a picture perfect Jujitsu Koshiguruma hip throw.
"Freeze!" he snapped sharply, the order more for the surprised sergeant than Kate Dixon who was straightening away from the dazed man. She'd taken him by surprise, but Jack knew he was a fully trained security specialist who was quite capable of taking her down - or at least giving her a run for her money. If he remembered right, she was supposed to be a third degree black belt, so the boy might just be in over his head.
"Hello, Kate," he greeted her cordially as both combatants froze and glanced at him. He smiled and gestured back at the office. "Would you like to join us?"
She paused to glance down at the prostrate sergeant, then up at her husband as he finally rolled to a stop beside the SF. "Sorry, sir!" Dave offered quickly, obviously winded from his attempt to keep up with his wife. "I tried to--"
"--Where's my son!" Kate demanded sharply, in absolutely no mood to discuss anything else.
Jack waved Dave's attempted explanation aside and gestured to the room behind him again. "That's what we're trying to find out, Kate. Come on in."
Awarding both the fallen SF and her husband an irritated glare for having tried to stop her - and Jack a gracious nod for having the sense not to - she daintily stepped over the prone sergeant and calmly entered Gen. Landry's office.
Dave was shaking his head in mixed chagrin and disbelief. Jack's shrug and amused smile assured him not to worry about it as he opened the door farther for the wheelchair bound man to join his wife. He glanced down at the SF who was beginning to lever himself upright again. "'You okay?" he asked simply.
The man offered an embarrassed blush. "She took me by surprise, sir. I--"
Jack again waved the explanation away. "--Are you okay?" he repeated more firmly.
The sergeant paused to offer his abused right arm where she'd grabbed and twisted it a little shake, but nodded. "I think so, sir," he decided.
"Good," Jack nodded. "If she'd meant to hurt you, she would have. Next time, remember that looks can be deceiving - especially around here."
With that parting piece of advice, he dismissed the SF from mind and turned to deal with the much more pressing and dangerous issue of one Mrs. Kate Dixon in full very pissed-off Mama Bear mode.
* * *
"Wow! Did you see that?" Jason exclaimed in delight as his father followed his mother into the room.
"Yeah...." Sam again pulled him aside and suddenly she found herself standing halfway in the wall. Cold chills ran up and down her spine, telling her to move. "I think it's getting a little too crowded in here," she decided.
"Wait!" Jason suddenly hollered as he felt himself being pulled through the wall. "No! I want my mom! Mama! We're here! We need help! Mama!!!"
Sam had to drop Daniel's hand to deal with the suddenly struggling boy. "Jason. Jason!" She grabbed him by both shoulders to keep him from running back through the wall and likely through several people in an attempt to touch his mother or otherwise get her attention. Sam didn't think such an action would actually hurt him, but she wasn't taking any chances.
She held tight. "Look at me, Jason," she ordered him firmly. "Look at me!"
He stopped and offered her a rebellious glare. She had one chance to make her case and only one. "I know you want your mom--"
The door of the office suddenly opened again to reveal a frowning Kate Dixon. "Jason?" she called, glancing up and down the hall.
"Mom!" he shouted, breaking free only to run through his mother when he attempted to hug her legs.
"Kate?" Jack O'Neill appeared beside her.
The SF who had regained his feet came to attention but eyed 'Kate' uncertainly as she gave the otherwise empty corridor another pensive glance. She offered it a small shake of her head. "Sorry." She turned back to the office. "I thought I.... Never mind."
"No!" Jason shouted again even as the two turned away and the door closed once more. "Mama!"
Sam once again had a firm hold on him and wasn't letting go. He struggled for a short moment but then suddenly seemed to wilt. Turning back to Sam, she saw he had tears in his eyes. "She knew we were here," he claimed. "She knew!"
Sam couldn't see how that was possible, and yet....
Danny was nodding. "I think something like that happened to me too when I went out of phase last time," he explained. "I remember Teal'c opening his door and looking around for a second, but he still couldn't hear or see me."
It was Sam's turn to nod. "We went over that during the debriefing after we got you back," she told him. "You were pretty sure it was triggered by strong emotions."
Jason's eyes suddenly lit with hope. "So we go in there and jump around and shout and get really upset and they'll know we're here!"
Sam was shaking her head. "They won't know anything, Jason," she corrected him gently. "The most we'd do is confuse them."
"She's right," Danny agreed with Sam. "They don't even know we're out of phase yet. Once they do, then they'll figure out a way to reverse it."
"How?" Jason demanded plaintively.
"I don't know," he answered his friend, "but they will."
"You don't know that!" the other boy argued, frowning fiercely.
Sam actually laughed at that. She couldn't help it! "Ah, Jason," she offered in amusement. "We've been in a lot worse situations than this before," she assured him. "Trust me: they'll figure it out."
"What if they don't?" he demanded.
"They will!" she promised firmly, refusing to let herself believe anything else. "If not ... then we'll just have to figure it out ourselves!"
"But we can't touch anything!" he protested.
Sam wagged her eyebrows in answer. "It wouldn't be any fun if it were easy!" She grinned unabashedly.