Jack O’Neill was furious.
He had spent the last two and half days in Washington D.C. with President Hayes and General Hammond fighting their desires for him to take over Hammond’s old post. For some reason the President had thought the offer of a second star would entice Jack to take the post.
Jack O’Neill had actually laughed in the President’s face. “I don’t know who you’ve been talking to Mr. President, but you have to have seen my file. I never thought I would live long enough get my first star, let alone actually get it because of the people I’ve pissed off over the years. I don’t want to move to Washington D.C. I’m pretty sure my wife doesn’t want to move to D.C. We like living in Colorado. We like working at the SGC. Our whole lives, all of our friends are in Colorado Springs. I would retire before I would move to Washington.”
“Wife?” President Hayes repeated. “I’m sorry Jack I didn’t know you were married.”
“You weren’t meant to know,” Jack said bluntly.
The President cleared his throat, clearing trying to come up with something to say. He ended up looking at George Hammond who didn’t seem the least bit surprised by this news. “You knew?” he asked, trying not to sound accusatory, but failing miserably.
“Yes Mr. President. I told you that you would have to have a real good argument for getting Jack here, and just offering a second star wouldn’t be enough,” George reminded him.
And so went the on and off discussions, fit in between the President’s other obligations for the next two days, until Jack called the SGC to see if SG-1, specifically Sam, had checked in.
When he found that they hadn’t, he just about hit the roof, and ordered them to check up on the team ASAP, while he waited on hold. He mentally made a note that Walter was never allowed to go on vacation at the same time Jack and SG-1 were not at the SGC again.
The response he got was not one that he wanted to hear.
“They’re not there sir. It looks like they took some fire at some point and attempted to gate home, but they never arrived here. We’re checking the footage from the MALP now General, do you want us to call you back as soon as we have something?” The nervous Major asked.
“I’ll stay off the phone,” Jack replied. “Call me as soon as you know anything,” he ordered. He snapped the phone shut just as the door to the Oval Office opened. A string of dazed looking school children filed out, leaving a just a tired looking Henry Hayes behind.
“Come on in Jack, I think I have an offer for you.”
Hayes’s offer ended up being pretty decent, Jack would decide later, but neither his heart nor his head was interested in listening. No, he was preoccupied with worry for SG-1, more specifically the only female member of the team.
“I’m sorry Mr. President, my mind was elsewhere,” Jack finally admitted after he realized the President had stopped talking and was now waiting for Jack to say something.
Hayes actually chuckled. “I like that you’re honest with me Jack. Most people would have tried to come up with some crap response. Basically, I want you and your wife to come to D.C. You said she was involved with the science side of things at the base, so she could serve as the scientific liaison between the SGC and D.C. I would then promote Lieutenant Colonel Carter to full Colonel and have her take over running the SGC.”
“Don’t get me wrong Mr. President, that is a great plan, there are just a couple problems. Carter is without a doubt deserving of that promotion and every other one she’s earned since arriving at the SGC. She is just going to have a real hard time being the science liaison officer and the commander of the SGC at the same time,” Jack stated, trying to keep a straight face. He wondered how this man could have not known by now who he was married to, especially if he now knew Jack was married.
President Hayes actually broke down first. “Damn you George. He was the one that suggested the whole thing!”
Jack cracked a smile. “General Hammond can be like that some times.” Not that Jack could recall when exactly, other than the time me had made Jack pay back that borrowed money plus interest from 1969, and the time… times that he had punished Jack with the paperwork or training of the newbies. So yeah, Jack guessed there were a lot of times George Hammond had shown his hidden sense of humor, and he was glad to know that that sense of humor extended even to the President of the United States.
Jack’s phone vibrating in his pocket pulled him out of his thoughts and back to the present. His wife and two best friends were currently missing. Jack took a quick glance at the display to make sure that it was the SGC calling and not some other person… though the number of people that had this number were rather limited so the chance of that happening was near zero.
“I need to take this,” Jack said, and didn’t wait for the nod that quickly came from the President. After all, Jack was the commander of the most secret base on the planet, which did entitle him to a few liberties, well that and he had helped save the planet a few times and Thor did like him best.
The news he got wasn’t good. It seemed that SG-1 had come under fire, just like they had suspected, but they had made it back through the gate as best as the technicians could tell, yet they hadn’t arrived at the SGC.
Which meant there was only like a million other worlds that they could possibly be on. It was actually slightly less than a million, because if they had ended up anywhere where they could have dialed back, they would have already. Which meant Jack was left worrying about what Sam, Teal’c, and Daniel had gotten themselves into this time.
Maybe it was time to call the Asgard and get some ‘superiorly intelligent’ help.
ooooo
It had been exactly twelve days, nine hours, three minutes, and as Jack glanced at his watch twenty three seconds since SG-1 had walked through the gate, and he had never been so grateful to see the… four of them emerge unscathed. How was it that he had totally forgotten that Mitchell had been with them? Probably because his wife was the one missing, this was the exact reason for the frat regs that had kept the couple apart for so long. Jack somehow managed to not rush down and meet them in the gateroom, knowing that Sam would appreciate it, instead choosing to use the microphone and ordering them to the infirmary for post-mission checks. He then descended the stairs and met them as they exited the gateroom.
“Get locked in a secret base again?” He joked, relieved to see them all looking really good for having been missing for twelve days, nine hours, three minutes, and twenty three seconds.
“Alternate reality,” Samantha said as she handed her weapon over.
“I thought we could only get to those through that mirror thingy that you destroyed,” Jack recalled.
“Theoretically, yes.”
“It seems O’Neill that if your Colonel Carter becomes desperate enough, she will discover a way to traverse between realities using solely the Stargate,” Teal’c explained.
Jack raised his eyebrows, questioning Sam if this was the case.
“Pretty much,” she agreed with a nod of her head. “There is a more scientific explanation involving the… but that can wait until later,” she decided under the pressure of Jack’s stare as they all stepped into the elevator.
Normally, if it had just been the four of them, Jack would have reached over and given Sam a hug, if not a short kiss- thank goodness for elevators without cameras. But this time their group numbered five, so Jack had to settle for brushing his hand over Sam’s hand and offering a small smile. They would have a short moment alone in the infirmary soon enough as the doctor checked over the rest of the team and Jack heard Sam’s unofficial report first as the team’s commanding officer. Each member of the team found their own bed, with Jack trailing Sam to the far end of the infirmary. He pulled the curtain around the bed as Sam shed her BDU jacket. He turned around and found Samantha Carter attached to his body.
“I missed you,” she whispered so quietly so that Jack could barely hear her and she was standing right next to him.
“Me too,” he whispered back and just as quickly as Sam had latched onto him, she released him and sat on the bed.
“So sir, where would you like me to start?” she asked, resuming her military façade, something that was much easier to do when she knew that she was home, and everything was going to be okay. For a time there when all of the Samanthas had thought that they wouldn’t be able to get any of the teams home, Sam had been devastated. The idea of never seeing her Jack again, of never getting to share the news that Doctor Carolyn Lam had discovered and then confirmed with the help of another reality’s Janet Fraiser. That news would have to wait until later, when they were alone though.
Sam quickly related the highpoints of their trip to another reality, not that there was that much to tell.
They went, they stayed, searched for a way home, and then they came home.
“How did Mitchell do?” Jack finally asked after hearing Sam’s initial report.
Sam shrugged and then chose her words carefully. “He’ll make a good commander once he gets some experience under his belt, which on SG-1 he’ll get pretty quick. He’ll be a great teammate and even better commander after he spends the next year trying to command Daniel and Teal’c.”
“The two of them will have- where are you going to be?” Jack suddenly realized. No matter how good Mitchell was, there was no way that he was giving command over to Mitchell with Sam around, wife or not.
Lieutenant Colonel Doctor Samantha Carter (O’Neill) smiled. “I think I’m going to take some maternity leave,” she announced.
Jack’s whoop of joy could be heard all the way in the gateroom.
Several years later, Jack celebrated their anniversary by getting ‘The Mission List’ framed and giving it to Sam. They didn’t need a reminder anymore of exactly what their plan in life was. They had two children that kept the refrigerator decorated in crayon drawn pictures, and Jack would soon find out that his own anniversary present was a third on the way.
Life was good, and as the handwritten words at the bottom of the framed page which had a place on honor next to their wedding picture on the wall, “Mission Accomplished”.
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 ]