samandjack.net

Story Notes: Season/Sequel Info: Third season, between "A Hundred Days" and "Shades of Grey"

Spoilers: A Hundred Days, Shades of Grey

Notes: Yes, it's *another* story about "A Hundred Days," the episode that launched a thousand fanfics! By now, it's hard to believe that there's an angle that hasn't been covered, but this story would not leave me alone, so here's my take on it. And thanks to Ann, DHD, and Vicki for beta reading. This one's for the Nebulites, in gratitude for our wonderful discussions, both on and off topic.


General Hammond looked around the crowded commissary and smiled. The Edorans had returned to their planet, Colonel O'Neill had returned to Earth, and base personnel had finished cleaning out the extremely crowded barracks where the refugees had spent the last three and a half months. A celebration was most certainly in order, and he was pleased to see that almost everyone looked to be enjoying themselves at the party.

Of course, they probably weren't in the mood for any interruptions at the moment, but that was one of the joys of being the senior officer, he reflected. You could do as you liked, and everyone else had to pay attention, whether they wanted to or not.

"May I have your attention, people?" At the sound of his raised voice, the many voices around the room fell silent, and his subordinates turned to listen. He raised his glass. "It's taken a lot longer than we expected, but we have accomplished our mission, returning the refugees to Edora and bringing Colonel O'Neill home. If you'd asked me a few months ago whether or not I believed it could be done, I would have said no. But the SGC doesn't like to leave team members behind. Well done." Airmen began to cheer and talk again, only to quiet down as he raised his hand once again. "Most of you contributed in one way or another to the success of this mission, but there is one person here without whom nothing at all would have been accomplished. She worked herself into the ground on this one, and if the Nobel Prize Committee had the proper clearance, I'm sure they would have loaded her with honors by now. She'll just have to settle for our congratulations, instead. Will you raise your glasses to Major Samantha Carter for a superb scientific accomplishment?" He took a small sip of his scotch and soda and smiled at the Major, who was looking somewhat embarrassed at the attention. "That's all, people. Enjoy yourselves. You've earned it."

An airman turned up the music again, and soon the room was filled with the sounds of laughter, boasting, and the occasional groan as someone dropped a glass or plate. Hammond made his way to the table where SG-1 was relaxing. He smiled once again at Major Carter, noting the dark circles under her eyes and her generally listless manner. "Major. You'll be ready for your departure?"

Carter nodded respectfully. "Yes, sir. I've packed what I need, and I have the schematics for the particle accelerator."

"I know that the Tok'Ra will be just as impressed as I was. Have a good trip, and tell Jacob I said hello."

She brushed her bangs out of her eyes, and smiled wearily. "Yes, sir, I'll be sure to do that."



* * * *



Jack was well into his third beer, and feeling less pain than before. If he could get enough alcohol into his system, maybe he could forget the look on Laira's face as he had walked away from her. "You're going to see the Tok'Ra?" he asked Sam incredulously.

"Yes, sir," she answered crisply. "I have a few days of leave, so I'm going to visit my father, and I'll also be teaching the Tok'Ra how to build their own particle accelerator."

"Ah!" he grumbled, frowning at all gathered around the table. "I've been gone for three months! I want to get back to work, and you're going on leave? Great work ethic there."

Daniel raised an eyebrow. "Well, Jack, you might have had time off, but the rest of us were busy while you were gone. Sam deserves a break before she falls over with exhaustion."

"Hmph. So we're giving technology to the Tok'Ra. What about the Tollan? Are we going to share stuff with those arrogant bastards?"

"I believe General Hammond said that if they did not possess the technological capabilities to devise their own, they could hardly expect us to share with such an inferior race. He did not, however, say this to their faces." Teal'c's normally impassive face bore the slightest hint of a smile.

"Particle accelerator," Jack mused. "Sokar had one of those, didn't he? How'd you manage to build one, Sam?"

Sam looked at him coolly. "Sir, you've told me countless times that you don't like listening to all that science talk. I'd hate to suck all the fun out of your evening." She stood gracefully. "Besides, I have to be on my way."

Daniel smiled at her. "Be sure to get some rest, and tell everyone we said hello."

Teal'c inclined his head. "A safe journey, Major Carter."

Jack said nothing, and Daniel and Teal'c glared at him. "What?" he asked, looking up from peeling the label from his beer bottle. "Oh, yeah. Have a good trip, Sam. Have fun playing house with Marty."

Sam stood very still. "What did you just say, sir?" she asked in an icy tone.

Jack sat up a bit straighter. "I said, Major, that I hope you have fun spending quality time with a man who likes to pretend that you're his dead wife." He returned her glare.

Sam looked at Daniel, who was staring at Jack in frank disbelief. "It must really be great to be able to say nasty things to people without having to ask permission to speak freely, don't you think, Daniel?"

Jack leaned forward, his elbows pressing against the table. "Ya think? Permission granted, Major. Knock yourself out," he said sarcastically.

"Fine. Colonel O'Neill, I respectfully request that you keep your drunken mouth shut when it comes to my personal relationships. You know *nothing* about Martouf and me. And recent events would suggest that if anyone around here likes shacking up and playing house, it would be you."

"What?" he snarled.

She glared back at him contemptuously. "Permission to leave, sir?" Without waiting to hear his answer, she turned on her heels and stalked out of the room.



* * * *



Daniel was typing a report into his computer when he heard a loud knock against his office door. "Come in," he said, absently.

"Hey, Danny." He looked up to see Jack slouch into an extra chair.

"What do you want now, Jack?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe an explanation of what the hell is going on around here? First Carter blows up at me and stomps away, then you and Teal'c slink off like I've got terminal BO."

Daniel looked at him steadily. "You really don't know? I'll tell you the problem, Jack! We worked our asses off for months to regain contact between Earth and Edora, and you act like you couldn't care less."

"I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life there, Daniel," Jack defended himself.

"You thought we'd just give up on you. Just like that?" Daniel accused. "Tell me, Jack, when has SG-1 let you down before, huh? I'd really like to know what made you think that we'd leave you behind."

"It's not that.... oh, hell." Jack rubbed his eyes. "Three months is a long time, Daniel! And Laira... the Stargate was shut down. There was nothing that the Goa'uld would want with Edora. It was a safe place."

"C'mon, Jack! The Goa'uld are out there, and they believe that any human they come across is their slave! We're just servants for them, or hosts if they feel like it. Do you honestly think that there is anywhere safe from them? That if you could find some spot isolated enough, that they'd cease to be a threat? Or if the society is peaceful and primitive enough, they'll leave them alone? It didn't work that way with my wife!"

Jack sighed, and shrugged apologetically. "I'm sorry, Daniel. It's just.... aaaah! I spent so long waiting for the SGC to come get me, and then, if I was going to be happy, I had to accept that I was stuck on Edora for good."

"I see. So all the work that Carter did, you wish she hadn't? You'd rather that over half the population of Edora had been stuck on Earth until the Tollan could arrange a year-long journey for them?"

Jack shrugged his shoulders. "Carter's always coming up with something."

"Oh, yeah. She just snapped her fingers and invented something that the Tok'Ra and the Tollan can't make for themselves." Daniel turned away from his computer in disgust. "Jack, she worked harder on that particle accelerator than anything else she's ever done, and you didn't even bother to thank her for it. You walked away from her, then later decided it would be lots of fun to insult her. If I were her, I would have taken a swing at you."

"She'd never do that." Jack mumbled, sliding further down into his chair. "I'm her commanding officer."

"And a damned lousy friend, don't forget that."

"Well, she has you as her champion, Danny, so I won't worry about it. Are you going to be president of her fan club, too?"

"Go to hell, Jack."

"Nah, I've been there. Didn't like it very much."

"And as I recall, Sam saved our sixes there, too."

Jack looked up. "Teal'c helped."

Daniel resumed pacing back and forth. "Go wallow in your misery somewhere else, Jack. I'm not in the mood to listen to you sulk because we came back for you. For three months, I actually missed you, and right now I believe it's a classic case of absence making the heart grow fonder!"

"Hell, I should just resign my commission and go back, then, don't you think? It will make Laira happy, and she appreciates me!"

Daniel snorted. "Yeah, go back to Laira. That's a brilliant idea."

Very low and cold, Jack asked, "Be careful what you say about her, Danny. She's a fine, honest woman, and..."

"Honest?!" Daniel laughed, keeping the desk between them. "Laira? Good God, Jack, she was almost responsible for Teal'c's death!"

"The hell you say!"

"When you activated your radio to find Teal'c, did you have to adjust the volume?"

"What does that have to do with -"

"Did you? Did you have to make any adjustments to the radio at all?" Daniel challenged.

"No. I turned it on, and it worked just fine. So what?"

"We were transmitting for over two hours, Jack. I calculated the time differential earlier. Even if she had only caught the tail end of Carter's transmission before the particle generator shut down, she would have heard Carter loud and clear. Then, she *waits* a few hours before telling you that she thought she *perhaps* heard a fucking voice? If Teal'c hadn't made it to the surface before he ran out of oxygen, there was no way back for him! He would have died, either from suffocation, or if Carter had to open the Stargate again. And all the while he was digging himself out, Laira had to struggle with whether she wanted to tell you that your team, your *friends* were trying to contact you. It was more important for her to keep control over you than to see the rest of her people again? And that's the kind of woman you want to go back to?" Daniel shook his head. "Go ahead, be my guest, Jack. Bon voyage."

"Daniel, you're not being fair, here. We wanted to have a child. I could have finally had a family again, in a place where there were no guns, no Goa'uld, nothing that could have put my family in danger! You can't expect me to be happy at having to give that up!" He shut his eyes, remembering the feel of Laira's warmth in the middle of the night, curling up beside her, safe and calm.

"Go away, Jack. I'm so sorry we couldn't leave you in your safe haven to shirk responsibility, but Sam got you home, the Edoran refugees home, and invented a piece of technology that will strengthen diplomatic bonds with our allies. General Hammond was right, if the rest of the world knew what she'd done, there wouldn't be room in her house for all the awards she'd get. But she didn't almost kill herself with work for any of that. None of us did. We didn't do it for the Edorans, the Tok'Ra, or any awards or service commendations. We did it for you, because we couldn't leave a friend behind without trying our hardest to rescue you. And you're an ungrateful bastard, Jack." Daniel scowled, then turned back to his computer screen. "Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out."



* * * *



"Enter."

Colonel O'Neill walked into General Hammond's office and stood at attention. "You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Sit down, son. Tell me, how does it feel to be back?"

"Honestly? These past few days have been really weird, sir."

Hammond looked at him with a neutral expression. "Really? How so?"

O'Neill shrugged. "Sir, I thought that I was stuck on Edora for the rest of my life. I'd come to terms with the fact that my life had completely changed, and then, just as I was beginning to be happy with my new life, my old one comes knocking. It's been, well, disconcerting, sir. I've managed to piss off every other member of my team."

"They worked very hard to bring you back," Hammond informed him. "But some misgivings on your part were to be expected, I suppose. And I'm sure they'll forgive you in time."

"Maybe. Major Carter's not speaking to me anymore than is necessary at the moment. Can't really blame her. Or Danny. He's mad at me, too."

"Major Carter is an outstanding officer and a fine woman. She also accepts people as they are. I'm sure it hasn't escaped her notice before now that you're not always a very nice person." Hammond informed him acidly. "She'll forgive you in time, and so will Dr. Jackson. Friends try not to hold grudges against each other, Colonel."

"I hope so, sir." O'Neill fidgeted in his chair. "Was there anything else, General?"

"Yes, Colonel, there is. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to keep your friends angry at you for just a little while longer."

"What?" O'Neill leaned forward in his seat as Hammond pulled a file from a desk drawer.

"Colonel, the information you'll need is in here. A brief summary would be that we think there's a mole somewhere in the SGC." Handing the file over, Hammond's brow creased in frustration and anger. "A few of our allies, such as the Asgard and the Tollan, have reported thefts of their technology in the past few months, and evidence points to some of our own as the culprits."

O'Neill shook his head, and glanced through a few pages. "Oh, for crying out loud! You mean, someone we work with has been stealing from our allies? If those alliances fall through, any Goa'uld who wanted to take a shot at us would probably succeed! I mean, yeah, the Tollan are arrogant and obnoxious, but they do have their uses." He closed the file. "I'll read all of this later. What's my assignment, General?"

"We're assuming that this operation isn't just contained to the SGC, but probably is linked to other sections of the military. We've set up a meeting on Tollana four days from now. You're to be incredibly rude and insulting towards the Tollan, break off the meeting, and steal some of their technology on the way out. When you return to Earth, I'll kick you out of the SGC, and into retirement. Then, we sit back and see if whoever's in charge of this gets into contact with you."

"Bet you a hundred bucks that Maybourne's involved, sir."

"I wouldn't take that bet, son, I don't want to lose my money so easily. But you've done Black Ops before, Jack. You know the drill."

"Yeah. Infiltrate, assess, blow the whole thing open. Sounds like fun.... well, except for the part where I have to keep my team angry at me."

Hammond raised his eyebrows. "From what I've seen and heard, Colonel, just keep behaving like you have been and they won't suspect a setup from a mile away."

"Yeah? It's been that bad, sir?"

"If I hadn't needed you for this job, Jack, I would have put you on leave and told you not to come back until you could show a little gratitude for your team. Why, Major Carter -"

O'Neill raised his hands in surrender. "Daniel gave me the lecture, General. I owe her one. I guess after all this concludes successfully, *if* it does, I need to sit down and apologize."

"That would be a good idea, son. You don't abuse your subordinates, especially on a team like yours. That'll be all, Colonel. You read up on that file, and be ready. Dismissed."

O'Neill stood. "Aye, sir." He walked to the door, and turned to leave. "Maybe I could take her fishing, sir? Think that would help?"



The End.




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