Tarnished Heroes
A Daniel Jackson
Stargate SG-1
Adult FanFiction Series
By
Moon Mistress
a/k/a Lisa Beth Darling

Chapter Twenty-One

Round Here
Counting Crows

Late Sunday Afternoon
Planet Earth
Flight 673 JFK to Denver International Airport
Landing at Denver International Airport

“Oh fuck me,” Todd groaned as he looked out the window. “Look at those bastards.”

Jake, Tammy and a few other classmates looked off in the direction he was gazing in and saw a whole passel of reporters just waiting to pounce on their favorite professor the second she stepped off the plane. “Nick’s here to pick her up, isn’t he?” Tammy asked in a very concerned voice. “I mean he’s in that crowd somewhere, right?”

“Beats me.” Jake said and looked across the isle at Calla who was stuffing the airlines’ magazine back into the holder in front of her. “She ain’t seen ‘em yet.” He stared out the window again. Channel 56, 9, 17 and more. “What the fuck?”

The plane taxied to a stop and the SEATBELT light flicked off. Tammy got up and caught Calla’s attention. “Hey, Prof.” Calla had been quite on the flight back and most of the class was starting to get concerned about her. “You got more media.” She said as easily as she could.

“What?” Calla sat up and looked past her. “Oh damn. Why do they even care?” She asked Tammy.

That seemed obvious. “Two men are dead, Prof.” She reminded Calla.

“I didn’t do it.”

Tammy’s cheeks puffed out as she tried to comprehend the Prof’s statement. Well, of course she didn’t DO IT. Who the hell thought Professor Jackson capable of murdering two men almost twice her size? “Yeah, I know. Still, Inquiring Minds Wanna Know, ya know?”

“Is Nicholas here?” Just a moment ago her biggest problem was sneaking out on Andy and his investors this morning. She’d told the front desk not to allow any calls up and packed as quickly as she could. Calla spent the next two hours happily getting stoned with Tammy, Todd and Jake in Tammy’s room. Andy and his friends came to her door, she heard them and they all hushed and huddled like a bunch of adolescences about to be caught by their parents playing Doctor. Andy knocked and knocked, he called out her name but no one answered him. After a while he and his friends went away. Only a moment ago, she was feeling guilty about that but now there were reporters to contend with. The last thing she needed or wanted was fame and notoriety. She wanted her husband damnit! However, Daniel was off god knew where doing god knew what and her best hope now was her son. Yesterday Calla told them Nicholas went to visit relatives and when he didn’t return by last night she told the class he’d flown ahead to Colorado and would pick her up at the airport when they landed.

“I don’t know if Nick’s here.”

“We got a plan.” Jake said from behind Tammy. “Just follow us, ok?”

The people on flight 673 JFK to Denver International began to stand up and depart the plane. As a group, the class also departed the plane into the folding boarding gate that lead to the terminal. “Just hold onto my belt.” Todd said looking behind him at the Prof. “Follow me and don’t look up.”

Tallest class members in front of her, shorter ones on the side and second tallest behind her in nice tight formation they walked out of the boarding gate as if they were one entity. The press was shouting questions at each other as they kept an eye out for their target, a small woman who was very discreetly passing them by in the middle of a bunch of young people. Grabbing bags fast as possible at the carousel they hurried through to the main gates of the airport where Nicholas was waiting.

The last person off the plane and no Professor Jackson in sight the members of the media grew irate at having been fooled and headed toward the main entryway.

“Oh you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me!” Todd shouted as he turned back and saw the swarm of reporters running down the hall. “Nick!”

Nicholas looked up at the sound of his name. What in Gods’ name? “Mom?” He’d seen the news crews on his way in and their big vans but never in his wildest dreams did they think it had something to do with his Mother. Like the rest of the class, Nick only thought the photographs and mysterious deaths of two men would only be ‘big doin’s’ here in Colorado.

The reporters were gaining. They were shouting questions and snapping photographs. Calla was still holding firmly to Todd’s belt loop as they dashed through the airport.

“Professor Jackson! Professor Jackson!” Was shouted from behind by a dozen voices. “Just a few questions. Professor Jackson!”

“Shit!” Nicholas began to run to the group of students. “Mom?”

“They won’t leave her alone.” Jake complained loudly, turned around, and held his fist up in the air. “You mother fucking assholes! Don’t you have anything better to do?!”

Tammy tried to push Calla toward her son. Todd went with her. “Let go, Prof.” Tammy tried to pry her cold hand off his belt loop.

“Professor Jackson!”

“Mom, come on, come with me.” Nick held his hand out to her. “Come on!” He ripped her hand and Todd’s belt loop away with a big tug as his arms reached out for her.

The shouts were closer now.

Nicholas shoved her through the wide doors and practically had to stuff her rigid body into the Mustang. “Here are her bags.” Tammy tossed them into the back seat. “By the way I need a ride.” She said in a hurried voice.

“Get in.” Nick looked back at the rest of the class. “Anyone else need a lift?”

“No, get out of here!” Todd shouted and the reporters and cameramen pushed and shoved their way over each other and through the doors. Todd was knocked aside.

Nick jumped in behind the wheel and sped off. “What in the name of ALL the Gods was that?” He demanded to know as they pulled onto the highway. If he and Colleen had been watching the 11:00 news instead of DVDs as they sacked out and gobbled up bowls of ice cream and tubes of cookie dough they would have seen their Mother then. “Mom, you all right?”

It took her a few moments to answer but Calla finally looked up into the loving and familiar face of her son. “Yes.” She heaved a big sigh of relief. “Thank you, Nicholas.”

From her place in the backseat, Tammy told him of their visit to the museum and how Andrew Hartley came to the Professors’ rescue.

The powerful 350 BOSS engine roared down the highway with Nick behind the wheel listening to Tammy relay the events to him. Therefore, Hartley came to Mom’s rescue at the museum and she had gone out to dinner with him after all. She promised she was going to stay in the hotel room. Later Tammy would tell him that she didn’t believe Professor Jackson returned from her casual dinner with Andrew Hartley until sometime around 2:30.

Where the fuck was Dad when you really needed him?

**

Sunday night, sitting in his brownstone in New York City Andrew Hartley watched the media circus unfold on Entertainment Access Today. On the television was footage of Calla on the museum steps and again landing in Colorado. Poor Calla she looked so dumbfounded by it all, as though she had no idea what was happening or why anyone should care. Her students were so sweet and protective. They’d been very intelligent in their plan to get her off the plane. Then there was a big brute if he ever saw one on the screen. He had dark eyes and long dark wavy hair. The reporter told him that the man was her son, Nicholas Jackson and reminded him that Nicholas, almost 18, had a twin sister, Colleen. Andrew watched Nicholas the big brute—definitely, someone to be mindful of during the next little while—hauled his mother off to a red Mustang and pulled away from the airport while reporters fired off questions. After that, still photographs of the two of them at dinner last night flashed on the screen. Andrew saw the man with the camera/cell phone but Calla hadn’t. She was laughing and touching his arm and they looked very intimate…to the casual observer.

Andrew turned to his computer and went to google.com where he punched Calla’s name into the search engine and came back with almost 200 hits. She was making a name for herself whether she liked it or not. Everyone wanted to know who she was and where she came from. Trouble was, until she married Doctor Daniel Jackson in Eau Claire, Wisconsin Calla didn’t seem to exist. Andy picked up the phone and turned the bootleg DVD with his favorite dirty little files on it over in his hand.

“Hey, Reginald, it’s Andy. I’ve got a web job for you.”

The Public and The Media had voracious appetites and someone had to feed it. Why not Andrew Hartley?

End of Chapter Twenty-One of
Tarnished Heroes
An Adult Stargate FanFiction Novel
By
Moon Mistress
Continue to
Chapter Twenty-Two