Chapter 12: As Time Goes By

When they entered the gate room in the SGC, yeah a lot questions were awaiting Mitchell and Vala but none of them went answered for as soon as he stepped through the Stargate with Claire in his arms, she lost consciousness and was rushed to the infirmary under heavy guard.

General Laundry also sent Mitchell and Vala to the infirmary, so they could get examined to make sure they were in good health and had no injuries while they had run off to search for Claire.

"I told we're both fine." Mitchell repeated himself for the tenth time to the doctor inspecting him.

"Well I don't know about that Mitchell, I'd say we're in dire need of a shower and clean clothes." Vala retorted from the bed behind him. "But I know you're only concerned about your girlfriend Claire." She teased him and a big grin was placed on her face.

"Claire is not my girlfriend, it's complicated Vala, I mean we have this bond thing and she's not exactly human…" Mitchell defended himself before trailing off.

Just then they heard Dr. Lam trying to calm a patient down, but the curtain was drawn so neither of them could see who it was.

"Where am I?! Who are you people?! What have done with Cameron and Vala?!" Claire's voice ripped through the entire infirmary and echoed to the hallway.

Just then the curtain was pulled back with quite a bit of force and everyone saw that Claire was kneeling on one of the beds with her arms in front of her and an energy ball glowing bright yellow in her right hand and threatening to blast the good doctor.

Obviously Claire had been unconscious long enough for them to change her out of her dirty battle cloths into one of the patient infirmary scrubs. One of the security personnel held up a Zat gun and aimed it at Claire but it only provoked her: she fired her energy ball at his hand, knocking the Zat to the ground and flew off of her bed and swung her legs at him and knocked him out cold.

The other security personnel ran over to Claire and tried to restrain her but they all failed miserably as she threw them all off of her and sent them flying all over the place. But it must have drained her remaining energy as she picked up the Zat gun with her hand and started panting heavily as she made her way to the exit.

Cameron didn't have time to go over to her or call out her name to let her know that he was right there as it all happened in seconds and so fast that his eyes had trouble keeping up with her movements.

As Claire reached the doorway that led into the hallway she was met with dozens of officers all with rifles pointed at her vital points of her body. In her current weakened condition Claire was no match for that offence.

Just then Richard Woosley came round the corner and stood safely behind all of the officers.

"Hold it right there Miss Claire, is it? You're not permitted to leave this facility. In fact you're under my superiors direct authority and you're to be escorted to a room where you'll be securely detained for questioning." He said matter of fact and waited for her reply.

"Claire wait!" Mitchell came running from behind her and skidded to a halt when he saw Woosley and the officers with their rifles trained on Claire.

"Mitchell please tell your friend that no harm will come to her if she complies with my instructions." Woosley said trying to persuade and take control of the situation as he always did.

"What are you talking about Woosley? She's not under your orders!" Cameron raised his voice at him but softened it as he turned to Claire. "Claire give me the Zat, Dr Lam doesn't want to hurt you she just wants to take care of you and make sure that your injuries heal nicely."

"My injuries shall heal on their Mitchell, you've seen first hand how fast I can heal myself. I don't just doctors with their needles or anyone for that matter in medicine for good reasons called: bad experiences." Claire closed her eyes and sighed deeply and her hands lowered and she handed the Zat to Mitchell. "But because you said, I shall do as you ask."

"Good, now Miss Claire you shall come with these officers to the room specially equipped to handle you." Woosley said with a little threatening tone underneath.

Cameron and Dr Lam accompanied Claire as she was escorted to the room where they had held Anubis' son or clone or whatever you wanted to call him. The room was equipped with a bed this time and Claire went to lay on it as Dr Lam started to examine her.

"You'll be staying in this room until my superiors figure out what to do with you." Woosley walked off heading in the direction of General Laundry's office.

They sealed the door with just the three of them in the room, all the security personnel stayed outside on the other side of the door; hands clasped their weapons tightly. Minutes passed and Dr Lam sedated Claire on the condition that Cameron stay inside the room with her through out the whole time she was asleep.

Several hours passed and the rest of SG-1 had been informed of Claire's situation with the interests of the I.O.A and what plans they had in store for her. They had yet to tell Cameron as he was occupied with keeping Claire company.

"Her DNA is 100 perfect, there is absolutely no flaws in her genetic makeup and she's not been genetically altered in any way. I'd say she was born this way with all her super human abilities and those given to her by the Ori." Lam was explaining to the General, the rest of SG-1 and Woosley in the briefing room.

"All the more reason we keep her in a safe location away from the SGC and study her. She has perfect DNA which when studied could help lead scientists to find a cure for some of the worst diseases known to the human race!" Woosley spoke highly and proudly as he tried to convince everyone. "Plus we can use her to help come up with more effective ways of combating the Priors."

"That's all fair and good but she's a human being!" Daniel protested.

"She may not be from this planet but then neither am I or Vala yet you treat me as an equal, why should she be treated differently?" Teal'c countered.

"I'm all for helping to find cures to disease but I think she'll be more valuable here in the SGC with our research teams and scientists here with all the knowledge she might possibly posses." Sam spoke logically as always.

"As long Claire remains on the site of this base she will be treated with the utmost respect. She saved Mitchell and god knows how many people by herself for many years and she managed to bring him and Vala home safely while risking her own life!" Laundry stood up and glared at Woosley. "We all owe her a lot for what's she's done to counter the Ori's assaults on worlds!"

Woosley knew when he had been defeated but his superiors wouldn't be at all happy about it.

Days passed and Claire was allowed to stay in the SGC but she had to be accompanied by a member of staff at all times. Which was annoying at first but she and everyone else got used to it as time went on.

Claire even volunteered to donate some of her blood for study but refused to give up her DNA or be tested against the anti Ori weapon because she felt that by doing so, she hadn't really escaped anything and she felt like she was only being used again.

Claire was allowed to move freely in the SGC but wasn't permitted to leave it for the time being, but she didn't seem to mind that much, she was too busy spending time with SG-1 and helping out in the infirmary, healing some of the more complicated for surgery wounds and making it so that the doctors could perform their jobs better, but she especially spent most of her time with Cameron Mitchell for obvious reasons.

It was nighttime and it had been a couple of months since Claire had travelled to Earth. Cameron had persuaded Laundry to allow her to go to the surface and watch the stars with him for a couple of hours and the General had kindly permitted it.

The two of them sat in a comfortable silence next to each other staring up at the stars as they shone brightly in the darkened sky. Claire rested her head on Cameron's shoulder and the breeze gently grazed her hair making it blow about her.

"You know I don't think I've been this content in my entire lifetime. And that is thousands of years…" Claire said breaking the silence around them.

"Only content? I'd say I'm extremely happy to sit here with you, aren't you happy?" Cameron took his gaze off the stars and took the time to take in her appearance, in the moonlight sky Claire looked absolutely stunning, her emerald green eyes seemed to light up and her chocolate brown hair looked like it had a shine to it, one he had never seen before.

"Oh I'm so happy I don't think words are enough to explain it!" Claire continued to stare up at the sky paying no attention to him staring at her. A smile appeared on her angelic face and she laughed a little bit. "Would you stop staring at me like that? You look like you're a kid again! It's been so long since I saw that face!"

"I forgot that you had been watching over me since my uncle died…you're the one who told me to talk to my cousin." He said as he lowered his closer to hers a little bit.

"So you remembered?" It was more of a statement than an actual question. She finally took her gaze away from the stars and stared back into his eyes. "But I don't think that's what's on your mind: I think the term is: when will Claire shut up so I can finally kiss her?" Claire whispered amused as she saw Cameron's face go red.

"Well are you or are you going to keep-" Mitchell was unable to finish his sentence as he was interrupted by Claire gently pressing her lips to his and kissing him passionately.

Cameron took no time in hesitating in kissing her back with equal passion. It lasted a couple of minutes and they only broke apart for the lack of oxygen in both of their lungs.

They fell back into a comfortable silence and eventually Claire fell asleep in Cameron's arms. He gently rested his head on top of hers and softly whispered in her ear:

"I love you Claire, My Guardian Angel…"

A/N: There you go the end of the story; yes it has finally come to its end. Well I hope you all enjoyed reading it! I know I certainly had fun writing it! Anyway I hope everyone had a good Christmas for those that celebrated it and I wish everyone a happy new year!