Where You Lead
Colonel Jack O'Neill sighed as he opened the next folder in his pile. How exactly had he gotten talked into this again? Oh yeah, Hammond had ordered it. Across the commissary table from him, Major Sam Carter finished with the folder she had been reading and traded it for one of his completed folders. She started taking more notes. He was going to kill Major Griff. Ok, so first he'd have to let him get well enough to leave the infirmary, then he was going to kill him. Griff's team was supposed to be responsible for this new batch of recruits, but they had conveniently picked up a bacterial infection on their last mission, and had promptly been quarantined. Luckily it had turned out to be treatable and not communicable, so now they were resting comfortably in the infirmary. Or they would be until they were well enough for O'Neill to exact revenge. Because now SG1 had to take the four recruits off-world to give them their indoctrination into gate travel. At least three members of SG1 had to. He'd have to add Jonas and their temporary teammate Captain Wilson to his list of those to be punished later.
Most of SG1 was supposed to be on downtime, since Wilson had requested leave to go to his sister's wedding and Carter was supposed to be off working at the Pentagon on a real Deep Space Radar Telemetry project. (Which was pretty ironic when you thought about it) But Carter's conference with scientists from Russia , NORAD and NASA had been postponed a week, and SG1 had been put back in the rotation. Then SG4 had asked to borrow Jonas to help with translating some ruins found on their latest mission, and he had gated out to meet up with them. Hammond probably would have let the remaining three get some leave in if Griff's group of screw-ups hadn't all come back contaminated. Now he, Carter and Teal'c would be stuck babysitting for the next four days.
He looked across the table at Carter who was earnestly studying one of the recruit's files. They could be at home, just the two of them, still snuggled under the covers as it was a cold rainy spring morning. He'd be waking her up by nibbling on her neck, and she'd be trying to ignore him but failing miserably. Doh! Better get his mind back on the personnel files before he was forced to drag her off to their quarters and complete that little fantasy. As if she could read his mind, (and he was pretty sure most of the time that she could) Sam looked up and raised an eyebrow.
"Let's finish these and go review them with Major Griff. *Then* we can take a break," she said with a grin.
Yep, Griff definitely owed him big time.
Four hours later they were ready to meet the recruits who were alternately excited and anxious to be going out with the three most experienced SGC members. The new group consisted of two Captains and two Lieutenants. The Captains had each been recruited due to their science backgrounds. Shulman was a geologist, and Polen had a background in physics. O'Neill looked them over as he entered the briefing room. The Lieutenants looked like kids, especially the one female, Becca Hallerman, who reminded him a bit of Cassie. Man he was getting old.
As the three members of SG1 entered, the four recruits shot to their feet and stood at attention until O'Neill waved them back into their seats. After introductions were made, he sat back and observed as Carter reviewed the MALP data for the planet they would be going to. Unknown to the recruits, the planet had been visited several times before, and had been deemed perfectly safe. The ruins had some interesting finds, and there were trace elements of naquada in the soil. Enough to get a reaction when the soil samples were taken, but not enough to get excited about. It would be a 5 hour hike to the ruins, where they would set up camp for two nights, giving the recruits an entire day to record the writings on the walls, and learn to take soil samples. They would get to try out their wings a bit, and on the third day they would hike back to the gate. What could go wrong?
Late the next morning the seven gathered at the base of the ramp preparing to move out. O'Neill rolled his eyes in Carter's direction as he watched the recruits awkwardly finish buckling and strapping their gear. Sam had to hide her grin by turning her back and pretending to adjust her pack. Her CO might be dreading this trip, but she was planning on thoroughly enjoying herself while she helped him put the greens through their paces. It had been a long time since she had been able to relax and enjoy a mission. Besides, she always loved seeing new recruits as they interacted with the Colonel for the first time. He was such a natural leader that if the young officers had any merit at all you could watch as they began to blossom under his command. She knew that she had certainly done so, and she had learned many field and command skills under his guidance. These four didn't know how lucky they were to have this opportunity to watch and learn for one of the best.
Finally O'Neill signaled Sgt. Davis to dial out, glancing over to make sure that everyone was clear of danger. He didn't need to worry. Four bodies automatically backed away from the gate as soon as it started to spin. As the last chevron was locked and the wormhole was established with it's familiar kwoosh, all four jumped.
"Ok, kids. Let's move out. Teal'c, take point. Carter and I will bring up the rear," O'Neill ordered.
Teal'c nodded and stepped through the gate. O'Neill watched to see which of the recruits would move up and assume the leadership of the group. He wasn't surprised when Shulman stepped forward and the others followed him through. As the last two of the group vanished he adjusted his cap and strode up the ramp with Sam at his side.
"After you, Dorothy," he waved her ahead.
Sam shook her head and smiled. "No pushing, Sir," she commented as she stepped through.
On the other side the two paused to take in the condition of their team. Teal'c was scanning the area. The other four were in various degrees of discomfort. Polen and Hallerman were bent over fighting the nausea. Shulman looked a bit green but was recovering nicely. Rodriguez merely looked slightly disoriented. He smiled at O'Neill's surprise.
"My mom likes to cook spicy. I have a caste iron stomach," he acknowledged.
"Five points to Rodriguez, Carter," the Colonel noted.
Yes, Sir," she replied as the recruits looked over confused.
Sam just smiled. They would figure out the Colonel's system quick enough. Do something right, and get 5-50 points awarded. Do something wrong, and get 5-50 points deducted. The one with the most points at the end of the mission would get the best recommendation. She had already given Shulman 20 points for being the first one through the gate.
"Ok, campers, let's start hiking. Can anyone tell me what direction we should be going?" he quizzed.
"The MALP showed that the ruins were 10 clicks to the east, Sir," Hallerman piped up reciting what they had heard in the debriefing. O'Neill held up 5 fingers to Carter who awarded the points.
"And which way is east?" O'Neill asked adjusting his sunglasses.
The two lieutenants had their compasses out and were looking at them in confusion. Each needle pointed in a different direction. Captain Polen had slung off his P-90 and was standing it on end to use the shadow from the planet's sun to determine direction.
"No magnetic poles here, kids. Carter used the sun's path to set directions, remember?" O'Neill said, signaling Carter to deduct 5 points from each. "Polen, which direction?"
The Captain pointed in the correct direction and O'Neill gave him 20 points. And so their day went. They hiked, they took breaks for lunch and later for drinks and power bars. O'Neill, Carter and Teal'c made sure they had a chance to chat with each of the recruits individually for a bit, and the Colonel occasionally threw out a question. How far had they traveled from the gate? How many hours of sunlight did they have left? Had they spotted any signs of wildlife? Sam enjoyed watching him, taking in all of the traits that she had grown to love. As much as he might complain about the endless trees, he was in his element out here.
She was also amazed at some of the questions he was throwing out. Things he normally would have pretended to not know or understand he was effortlessly quizzing the recruits on. He was such a big fraud. He retained so much more of what was discussed in briefings than he ever would admit to. He had to. It was important information he needed to keep them all safe. He picked that moment to look over at Carter and seeing her look of amused accusation he shrugged in embarrassment at being caught out. He knew he was in for it when they got back home. Of course she would give up all pretenses of being upset with him once he kissed her to apologize. And she would definitely be blackmailing him to keep this knowledge to herself. She spent a lovely few minutes dreaming up appropriate forms of payment from him.
They reached the ruins with an hour of sunlight left. O'Neill had the two Captains pick out a good spot for their camp. They had brought two tents, one for SG1, and one for the recruits. Teal'c, Carter and O'Neill quickly had their tent up and gear sorted. They started a fire and got out the MRE's for dinner and then sat back to watch the show being enacted by the four trying to work together to put their tent up correctly. At one point the tent collapsed on top of Lt. Hallerman. Carter tried to hide her laughter by diving behind her CO, but he reached behind to give her a quick tickle in the ribs making her laugh harder.Teal'c looked from Polen and Shulman who were trying to sort out the tent to Carter who was still laughing and raising an eyebrow he lamented, "Scientists!" causing O'Neill to collapse in laughter. When he and Carter had regained their composure they good- naturedly argued over how many points to deduct for the tent fiasco. Later as they sat around the campfire having dinner O'Neill assigned the night watches.
"So, how many hours of darkness do we have left?' he asked.
"This planet has about an equal number of hours of light and darkness, about 10 hours each," Lt Hallerman answered. "So we have just over 9 hours until daybreak," she concluded, gaining herself 20 points.
"Ok then, we will have three watches of 3 hours each. Carter, Teal'c and I will each take one in that order, and one or two of you will join each of us. You can divvy up as you wish," O'Neill explained.
The night passed uneventfully, and Carter and O'Neill were able to get a few quality hours of sleep in the middle of the night. Although they adhered to their no fraternization off-world rule, they had found since their marriage that they slept the best when they were close enough to hear each other breath, or to reach out to one another if they were restless. That night, on a planet that they knew was safe they each slept peacefully for the three hours Teal'c was on watch with Captain Polen.
The next day was spent letting the recruits explore the ruins, recording writings and artifacts found. O'Neill noted that if they were going to use these ruins again for training they were going to need to bring back some of the artifacts as just about everything of interest would be back at the SGC after this trip. Captain Shulman spent most of his time with Carter analyzing soil samples. She also made sure that each of the others was familiar with the proper way to take and store samples. Teal'c and O'Neill mostly were busy keeping a sharp eye out to be sure none of their novice explorers touched anything that they shouldn't. It was about two hours before sunset when the unexpected happened. There was a subtle rumbling like far off thunder and then the ground started to shake. Rocks tumbled down from the tops of the ruin walls.
"Take cover!" O'Neill yelled and as he hunkered down next to a sturdy short wall, he automatically began to account for each of his charges to ensure they were in a safe position.
He turned to Carter and Shulman last, just in time to see his worst nightmare unfold. The Captain was heading for a hollow in one of the walls that would protect him from any falling debris, but Carter saw a pillar begin to topple right into his path. She dove to push him out of the way, and took the brunt of the top third of the pillar as it hit her left side. Luckily her momentum as she fell and rolled took her away from the final resting place of the heavy stone. O'Neill saw her come to rest on her right side, unmoving, and with her left arm hanging at an odd angle. The ground had barely stopped shaking before he was rushing to her side.
As the dust began to settle, O'Neill was already bending over Carter checking her pulse even as he turned to see Captain Shulman rise to his feet gingerly cradling his left wrist. Thank god, her pulse was strong and steady. He automatically began running his hands over her to check for other injuries, and he tried to look around to see if everyone else was alright.
"No one else is seriously injured, O'Neill," Teal'c reported as he and the rest of the recruits came to stand nearby. "Captain Shulman may have a broken wrist."
"Sit down Shulman. I'll look at it when I'm done with Carter," O'Neill said noting that the Captain looked a bit pale. To keep himself and the others from panicking over Sam's condition he began to explain what he was doing in a calm voice. "Carter's breathing ok, but she's unconscious. The first thing to do before we try to move her is to ensure that there are no neck or back injuries and to check for any bleeding that needs to be stopped. I'm not finding anything serious other than a gash on her head, and her left shoulder is definitely dislocated, so it should be safe to turn her onto her back. Teal'c, get me one of the thermal blankets to put under her. This will help keep any dirt out of the few scrapes that she has."
They laid the blanket out under Carter and turned her onto her back which caused her to moan and open her eyes.
"Carter! Are you with us?" O'Neill asked trying to check her eyes for signs of a concussion or other head injury.
"Hurts like hell, Sir," she said blinking into the sunlight.
"Where, Sam?" he asked, relieved that she was conscious.
She paused for a moment and then gave him a rundown. "Left shoulder is the worst, although I think I cracked a few ribs, too. Head's pounding a bit. Everything else seems to be functioning."
"Ok, I'm going to need to put that shoulder back in place, and check your ribs. You have a few cuts and scrapes that need to be cleaned up too. Do you think that you could sit up so we can get your jacket off?" he asked.
"Get me to the tent, Sir. Then the t-shirt can come off too," she suggested.
O'Neill nodded and Teal'c swooped in to gently lift her. He carried her to the tent where Hallerman was already waiting holding open the tent flap.
"Do you need me to help, Sir?" she offered.
O'Neill nodded. "Thanks, Lieutenant. If you can help me get her undressed I can take it from there."
Teal'c left the tent to find that the others had helped Shulman over to camp and were sitting him down. I couple of minutes later Hallerman joined them.
"While it is still light the samples and artifacts that are to be taken back to the SGC need to be packed away," Teal'c advised.
Captain Polen and the lieutenants turned to head back to the ruins to get the gear but paused as curses started emanating from the tent.
"God damn it, Sir. Could you just get it the @#$& over with?"
They heard O'Neill murmur something in return and then they moved off looking slightly shocked. Teal'c sat down next to Shulman to keep an eye on him.
"She probably saved my life," he whispered.
"Indeed," Teal'c replied calmly.
"How do I even begin to thank her for that?" Shulman asked shaking his head.
"Major Carter was doing her job. A simple 'thank you' will be sufficient," Teal'c replied. Then he added with a quirk of his eyebrow, "I have however noticed that Major Carter is fond of flowers."
Soon the others were back and set to making a fire, and getting the evening meal together. O'Neill came out of the tent with the med kit and set to work on Shulman's wrist.
"Carter dozed off. I'm going to let her sleep for an hour and then wake her up to get her something to eat," he explained. "Shulman, I think this is just a sprain, but you'll need x-rays when we get back.
"I will keep watch over Major Carter," Teal'c announced, rising and heading to the tent to watch over his teammate.
"How is she?" Shulman asked in concern.
"She'll be fine. She is going to be stiff and sore tomorrow. She will probably need help getting back to the gate," the Colonel said, knowing she would hate it, but that she would never be able to hike for five hours. Besides, it would be good practice for this group to have to work together to get their injured back.
"We could make a stretcher. Then we can carry her when she gets tired," Polen offered.
O'Neill nodded, and Rodriguez and Polen headed out to find the sturdy branches they would need before the light totally failed. They were back minutes later, and they sat with O'Neill as he gave them tips on making the stretcher as strong as possible. After a few minutes he could tell they had something on their minds.
"Spit it out boys, what's the problem," he inquired.
"The Major's not going to get in trouble for swearing at you, is she?" Polen asked, as the other two drew near to hear the response.
Of all the things he had thought they would question, that one was a surprise. "Of course not. Considering that I had to practically stand on her shoulder to get it back in place, I thought she was quite restrained. I may limit the time she spends with the Marines when we get back though," he assured them.
The group smiled in relief, and their smiles grew as they saw the Major exit the tent supported by Teal'c.
"Carter, you feel up to eating?" O'Neill questioned her.
"Yes, Sir. The smell of food actually woke me up. But first I need to, um, take a walk," she said blushing.
Jack took over from Teal'c and supported her until they were far enough away from camp. He helped her undo her pants, and the turned his back to give her some privacy. When she announced she was done, he went over and helped her finish redressing. Before they started back to camp he pulled her into a quick hug.
"You gave me a scare today, angel," he said as he kissed her forehead.
"Mm, sorry about that. But I'll be fine," she replied leaning in for a quick kiss.
"I know you will, because you are going to be getting a ride back to the gate tomorrow. No arguing in front of the kids," he ordered.
She wanted to argue, but knew she really would be feeling worse tomorrow. "Compromise? I'll let you guys carry me when I get tired, but I want to walk part way."
"If you feel up to it tomorrow you can walk for ½ hour at a time. No more," he agreed. "Now let's go get you something to eat before one of those youngsters decides to come see if they can help."
She leaned on him as they turned to head back, but couldn't resist ribbing him a bit. "Afraid they will catch you hugging your 2IC, Sir?"
"Got to keep up my reputation as a hard ass," he quipped.
"They have no clue we are married do they," she said. "I wonder what they think about you undressing me twice today."
"Hey, I was a perfect gentleman both times! Besides they were more concerned about your little outburst," he teased.
She had the grace to blush, and then paused as if considering her next words. She was sure he would be embarrassed, but it was something she had always wanted to tell him.
"You always have been a perfect gentleman you know. I've always wanted to tell you how much I appreciated that. Right from the very beginning you would tease me, but you never embarrassed me or made me feel uncomfortable. And you never took advantage of any situation," she told him.
Sure enough he looked embarrassed, which she found adorable. "Of course *now* I look forward to you taking advantage of me," she added wagging her eyebrows at him and making him chuckle.
They arrived back at camp and sat down to eat. Jack automatically positioned himself behind Sam so she could lean on him if she needed to, and he could reach round her and hold her food for her while she ate one handed. Teal'c placed a drink between her knees where she could reach it with ease. Lt. Hallerman took all of this in. She was suddenly aware that Captain Shulman must be having similar problems trying to eat, and she moved over to sit next to him, grabbing his MRE so he could dig in with his uninjured hand.
"Thanks, Lieutenant," he said with a smile.
Sam noticed this exchange with approval. This batch of recruits was learning the importance of teamwork quickly. But then they had the very best as a role model. She hoped that when Jack finally did decide to retire from SG1 that Hammond was smart enough to keep him at the SGC in a training capacity. Half of the SGC teams owed a lot of their field skills to emulating him whether they realized it or not. She certainly had had enough conversations with the other women on the teams to know that they all felt grateful to the men on SG1, and especially to Jack O'Neill, because the way he treated Sam with total trust and respect was held up as the example of how to treat women in the field. It was part of the reason that he had always struggled to keep their relationship totally in line, as much as he might have wanted to cross that line. They both knew that they had the added burden of setting the standards for the unique command structure that was the SGC, even more so now that they were married.
As soon as she was finished eating, Sam's eyes started to drift shut. Teal'c lifted her and took her into their tent, removing her boots before he settled her into her sleeping bag. Then he went out to supervise the clean-up of the campsite so they would be able to leave as early as possible the next day. O'Neill was trying to figure out how he wanted to assign watches with Carter out for the night. Captain Polen promptly volunteered to take one watch with Lt. Rodriguez. Captain Shulman assured the Colonel that he was perfectly capable of taking a watch, but O'Neill wanted him to get some rest, and not try to stay awake with painkillers in his system. So he gave Polen and Rodriguez the first watch, and Teal'c the second. He and Hallerman would take the last watch, which would give him a chance to get the packs organized for the hike back. Carter's would need to be redistributed. He was planning on giving a slightly heavier pack to Hallerman as he would not be able to take a turn carrying the stretcher. The rest of her things would be distributed amongst the other packs, but should not make that much of a difference.
In the morning, Shulman was given the task of keeping Carter busy and out of the way as the rest of the group broke camp. He took the opportunity to thank her for her quick actions the day before. As Teal'c had predicted, she insisted that she was just doing her job. The hike back took almost 8 hours. Carter did insist on walking for ½ hour after each of their breaks. And while it didn't speed them up any, it did give the others a rest from being stretcher bearers. Even with the early departure, they were an hour late getting back to the gate, and Hammond was just trying to contact them as they drew near, so there was a medical team waiting for them as they returned to the SGC. Now three hours later all but Carter were ready for the debriefing. Major Griff, looking miraculously better joined them, and couldn't resist ribbing O'Neill about *breaking* one of the recruits the first time out, pointing to Shulman's newly casted wrist which had sustained a hairline fracture.
Hammond had talked to the Colonel before the briefing and had gotten word that Carter would be fine. O'Neill had also told him that all four of the recruits had performed well, high praise from him. So the General had sat back in the briefing and enjoyed the excited recounting of the mission, only asking an occasional question, and noting how the four seemed to have bonded during the three days. As much as he hated having two officers come back injured, it seemed to have taught the recruits some valuable lessons.
Later, Hammond made his way down to the infirmary to check on Sam himself. When he arrived, she was sitting in civilian clothes, left arm in a sling, obviously just waiting to be released. The four recruits were gathered around her with a huge bouquet of yellow roses.
"So we have four more in the Sam Carter fan club I see," a voice spoke from behind him.
"You should talk Jack, aren't you the president of the club?" Hammond asked with a chuckle. "Honestly, I felt really bad explaining to the four that she wouldn't be put up for a commendation for saving the Captain's life."
"Did you explain that we had to stop doing that unless she saved a billion or so at a crack? Even then she wouldn't have room for all of the medals," Jack said shaking his head. He certainly had lost count of the number of times she had saved his sorry ass.
"You know it will be noted in her record, and it will probably help her next promotion go through faster. You are going to lose her soon as your 2IC," Hammond warned.
"Maybe sooner than you think if she has her way, Sir," Jack said with a smile.
Hammond sighed. He wasn't surprised. He had a bet placed in the pool himself as to the arrival date of the first baby O'Neill. It would be too bad if Sam didn't get a command soon though. She had been trained by the best and he was looking forward to seeing her in action. Then a more positive thought hit him. If Sam did step down from SG1 to get pregnant she would spend more time in the lab. They could definitely use her there full time. And it would mean he could get at least one more junior officer trained under O'Neill before he decided to retire. Maybe two if he worked this right. He was already seeing results from just having Captain Wilson on the team for a few months. And if he could get the timing right, maybe Carter could come back to take over SG1 when Jack retired. Of course he had no intentions of actually letting Jack go easily.
There would always be more recruits to train and he knew just the man for the job.
The end.
Story Notes: Email: jackiesfic@aol.com
Season: Season 6, after Full Circle
Sequel: Part 16 of the In Demand series Previous parts are: In Demand, Momentum, Epidemic, See Jack Run, Classified, Prelude, Discoveries, Under Surveillance, T-Ball, Homerun, Good Things, Tell Her, Bad Days, Batteried, and Bliss
Spoilers: None
Archive: SJD, yes. Anyone else, please just ask.
Author's Notes: Sorry for the delay in getting this out. It kept wanting to turn into an epic. I finally got my muse to focus and actually end the darn thing. I swear the next part is going to be out faster. (I'd promise but it's easier to break swears than promises)
As always feed back craved!
Season: Season 6, after Full Circle
Sequel: Part 16 of the In Demand series Previous parts are: In Demand, Momentum, Epidemic, See Jack Run, Classified, Prelude, Discoveries, Under Surveillance, T-Ball, Homerun, Good Things, Tell Her, Bad Days, Batteried, and Bliss
Spoilers: None
Archive: SJD, yes. Anyone else, please just ask.
Author's Notes: Sorry for the delay in getting this out. It kept wanting to turn into an epic. I finally got my muse to focus and actually end the darn thing. I swear the next part is going to be out faster. (I'd promise but it's easier to break swears than promises)
As always feed back craved!
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc, are the property of their respective owners. Any original characters and plots are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended. ... [ read more ]