General Jack O'Neill paced his office loudly enough that his assistant could hear it in the next room. The occasional exclamation wafted through the door and Fran wondered what had got him so riled. There was nothing in the paperwork on his desk to cause this level of frustration and nothing particular in the pipeline. The last time the General had paced had been when SG1 was late back from a mission to a warring planet, but even then he had spent more time trying to get information than anything.
Suddenly the door flew open and the General emerged to stand in front of Fran's desk.
"Sir?"
He looked at her with his head tilted, considering her. A frown crossed his face and he seemed to change his mind and turn back towards his office.
"Is there something wrong, sir?"
"No, Sergeant, I just thought, it doesn't matter."
Fran could see that whatever it was did matter and matter a lot.
"Would you like some coffee, sir?"
He laughed, "Not sure that more coffee will help me think. Beer would be good, but not on duty. I shouldn't be thinking about this now anyway. I am sure there is plenty of work for me in that pile of papers on my desk."
"Anything I can do to help, sir?"
He hesitated then gave her a wicked grin that transformed his face into that of a small boy up to mischief.
"Can I ask you a question, a non-work related question?"
"Yes sir"
"You're a woman."
"So I believe, sir."
He laughed and shook his head at her, "Give me a break, I was trying to set the scene here. What I meant was that I need a female perspective on something personal."
Fran found herself smiling at him, "Would this be anything to do with Saturday, sir?"
"Yes, Valentine's Day – the ambush for unwary men. Now, I've been married, so I do have some idea of how important these things can be, but I am pretty sure that flowers or chocolates would be wrong for," he hesitated looking almost shy so Fran took pity on him and finished, " for Colonel Carter, sir?"
At the surprise on his face she grimaced "I can add two and two together, sir, and I can be very discreet, but I think the 'who' is an important part of the question."
Jack rolled his eyes.
"'Who' is the whole point of the question." He seemed to have got over his reluctance to confide in her and was almost keen to talk. Still, it must be difficult in his position and as far as she knew it was a relatively new relationship and people were always keen to talk about a new relationship. It was probably a relief.
"Not that she doesn't like flowers and chocolates, Daniel and Teal'c have always given her that kind of thing, but I wanted something a bit more….."
"Personal?"
"Yeah, something which shows a bit of thought. Only I have thought and thought and nothing springs to mind and I just wondered if you could help with a suggestion. I know you don't know Sam but…"
"Leave it with me, sir, I'll have a think. Now, you have another meeting in half an hour so maybe you could look through the mission reports before that."
"You're a slave driver, Sergeant, but if you can come up with anything then I will clear my desk by the end of the day."
As he left Fran laughed to herself. Sure, he would clear his desk as she had the suspicion that he had plans for the weekend and would keep on top of the paperwork to ensure he could leave promptly on Friday. Of course she had noticed the regular requests for a lift on whatever transport was flying to the vicinity of Cheyenne Mountain and she had not been deluded enough to think it was purely to visit former colleagues. Apart from anything else, colleagues did not put that kind of expression on a man's face when he came back into work and the General had scrupulously not mentioned the colonel's name when he talked about visits to SGC, which told its own tale. She was a sucker for a romance and secretly, very secretly, thought the General was rather attractive for a man his age. She could see the appeal and would do everything she could to help things along. All else aside, her boss was much nicer to deal with after his weekends away and if oiling the wheels made her job easier then she was all for it.
When Fran came back after lunch there was a pile of papers on her desk with a note on top. It said 'Kept my side of the bargain, hope you managed to come up with something.'
It was much later that her superior returned from another meeting, looking tired and a bit dispirited.
"I suppose you've managed to fill up my in-tray again while I was out?"
"Not full, sir, and a lot of it is …."
"Trash?"
She kept a straight face with some difficulty "Inconsequential or routine, sir."
"Yeah, trash."
"I did some asking around at lunchtime and may have an answer to your Valentine dilemma."
"Oh, my God. You asked around! What 'let's take a straw poll on Jack O'Neill's love life'?"
"No sir, of course not. I did say I was discreet. There were some geeks from the science department there," she cringed as she heard herself say the word geek and wondered whether that would get her into trouble. After all, the man's girlfriend was not only a scientist, but a gifted one at that.
"Hope that didn't put you off your lunch."
"Sir?"
"Lunch with a bunch of scientist is a short cut to indigestion. All that technobabble spoils the food." He caught her look and laughed. "Yeah, I know, and there I am looking for a present for one of them. In her defence I must say, for a scientist she can explain things so well even I can understand them and she has done some pretty amazing things with all that techno stuff."
"Lunch was as good as it gets here. Anyway, the conversation turned to Valentine's gifts so I just nudged it a little and before they knew it people were coming up with gifts they would like or thought someone would like. I thought I had the answer at one point, only it turned out that Colonel Carter had written part of the book the scientists were raving about."
"Sounds about right. Not sure there are many people in her field who know more than she does. If most of it wasn't classified she could have written a score of books."
"That's what I thought. So then I thought what hobbies?"
"Not much time for hobbies at the SGC. Anyway she doesn't always see work as work. I've known her sit up half the night playing with alien technology for the fun of it. When I went fishing she and Daniel would hole up with artefacts and exchange interesting facts about them."
"So what about fishing, sir?"
"Fishing?"
"Yes, get her a book about fishing so she can share it with you."
"Fishing isn't something you read about. You just do it."
"No sir, you just do it, but I imagine Colonel Carter likes to research things before she does them."
"And a book about fishing. Yeah I can see where you are going with this, but it could seem selfish."
"Ah, but that's not all. I know you said you were being discreet, sir, and I can understand it must be tricky given where she works, but I assume her friends would know?"
"We haven't exactly announced anything to the SGC, but SG1 and a few others know or have probably guessed. It is impossible to stop gossip in such a closed environment and I have been visiting the mountain a lot."
"So how about a discreet piece of jewellery? I had a look online and found a lovely fish pendant. Friends would presumably know it was from you, but others wouldn't."
He stared at her.
"I spent all this time wracking my brain trying to think of something and it takes you all of lunch to come up with something. Sergeant, you're a marvel. Can I get the pendant in DC?"
"Yes sir, the details are here and the shop is on your way home."
General Jack O'Neill stepped lightly into his office, a far cry from the heavy footed man of the morning. Saving the world he could do, but Valentine's Day was a whole different thing.