So General Hammond, General Carter, and President Hayes all walk into a bar.
All right it's the oval office, but Hayes immediately breaks out the nice brandy, and that's the important part.
The President says, so General Carter, I hear you got one of them snakes in you.
General Carter says yeah, but she prefers the term Tok'ra, and Selmak has a bit of a laugh as the President falls over himself apologizing.
Finally they say they were kidding.
Selmak does the eye-glowy bit because she likes showing off, and then takes the opportunity to extend greetings from the Tok'ra, and then General Carter wastes no time in suggesting that the President just call him Jacob.
Then Jacob asks Hammond about his new job, and they talk shop for a while, and the president has a slight giggling fit when it hits him that they're talking about actual honest-to-god aliens, and that he just refilled the glass of one such alien.
George and Jacob take it in a stride, and start comparing notes about their reactions when they found out they weren't alone in the galaxy. The president finds this funny as well, and they all have a good sentimental chuckle about how much simpler life used to be.
Finally Jacob gets around to asking how his daughter's doing, because even though he saw her not two days ago he still needs to ask.
President Hayes seems a bit surprised, perhaps because he hadn't yet connected the famous Colonel Carter with General Carter. To be fair he only read about him two days ago. There is a lot of Cheyenne mountain paperwork to go through. The President's only human. Forgive him this one crucial slip.
Hammond says, as far as he knows she's doing fine, but General O'Neill is really the one to ask now, and they both shake their heads in fond astonishment that he ever got promoted.
The President starts to get a bad feeling about this. He mentions oh so casually that he's heard some pretty hair-raising tales about the now General O'Neill and his former 2IC.
George and Jacob exchange a sidelong glance, and George immediately jumps in saying it's really SG-1 that the stories are about, and you can't just assign blame or praise to the two military members.
Jacob just sits there, looking like he swallowed a live Goa'uld and he doesn't like the way it's going down.
Hayes backs off, saying he was sure it was just that slimeball Kinsey blowing things out of proportion as usual, and George relaxes a bit but Jacob still looks like whatever Hayes refilled his glass with is trying to crawl back up his throat.
He's right to appear so, because then the President leans back in his chair studies his nails and asks just to be clear of course, and you know I don't really want to do this, but they are careful aren't they?
And Jacob slams his glass down on the desk so hard, that Liberty's scales jump right out of her hand and land on the carpet with a tiny golden noise, and he says very calmly that they don't have a damn thing to be careful about.
George's face tightens up, and he proclaims, in his best general voice, that General O'Neill and Colonel Carter have always adhered to the utmost example of professionalism. Selmak quickly steps in to keep a straight face on her host, because two of the men and the only alien in that room, are very aware that General Hammond is lying through his teeth. While they've never done anything, Sam Carter and Jack O'Neill have done enough to make Kinsey start to look like the honest man he most certainly is not.
Hayes, to the amazement of the two other men and the alien, actually cracks up, and says that's good because he's got this idea, you see, about the good General's retirement plan…
Jacob starts to look like he's enjoying the taste of whatever it was he choked down before, and he wouldn't mind another if it wouldn't be too much trouble.
So General O'Neill, Colonel Carter, Dr. Jackson and Teal'c all walk out of a bar.
All right it's O'Malley's, but the two military members each had a beer, and Teal'c had a ginger ale, and Daniel had a Shirley temple, and that's the bit, which has absolutely no relevance to our story.
Jack's says he's got an early flight tomorrow. Daniel mumbles something about having a good time in Washington, and Jack gives him the look that says are you kidding me? Teal'c smiles and solemnly promises not to do anything that General O'Neill would not approve of in his absence.
The people with doctorate degrees and the general who pretends to be stupid but really isn't crack up, because everyone is fully aware that Teal'c is lying through his teeth, only when it's among friends it's called joking.
Carter asks him to say hi to her dad, even though she saw him two days ago on his way through the mountain. Jack promises to do so, and Carter gives him that special glowing smile, that she can get away with at the moment because she's thanking him for a favor he's promised to do her.
Let it never be said that General O'Neill and Colonel Carter act as more than just friends.
Close friends.
In Washington, two of the most powerful men in America and one semi-renegade alien and Air Force General duo raise their glasses in a toast. George bends down to retrieve Liberty's balances, but Selmak jumps in and tells him not to bother, they're safer where they are.
It seems Jacob's just realized that he might wind up with Jack as a son-in-law.
((Well this ended in a completely different way than where it was going, which is glaringly obvious, but what's a girl to do? I don't know if it's clear, but Liberty is the little statuette on Hayes' desk that Weir was fiddling with in Lost City. Seemed a bit tipsy to me. I less-than-three any and all reviews!))