General Jack?
By
Barbie

Rating: PG-13

Classification: SJ UST/Romance

Season: Season 8 possible spoilers

Summary: Jack has a couple of questions for Carter.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and places are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret Productions. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment, not monetary purposes, and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously unrecognized characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Brig. General Jack O'Neill was the name on the desk plate in his new office. As he looks at this and the big leather chair that he has loved for years, and realizes that this office is now his. Shaking his head the first thought that entered, "Man did they blow it this time! Do they even comprehend how much I hate doing paperwork? And I am in charge of ALL the paperwork on this base - wrong move on their part! As he enters the office scratching his head thinking, now to find someone to do it for me?"

"Lt. Col Carter to the control room." Sam jumped upon hearing her name announced while inside of another piece of alien technology.

Grumbling as she untangled her long legs from the position she was in. Since when does time off include being paged to the control room? I actually thought I would be able to unravel this mystery with my down time. I should have known better.

Hurrying to the control room, she found General O'Neill pacing the room with a very concerned look on his face. "Ahh - there you are Carter, I paged you and you didn't answer. Shaking his head as he continued, "Sorry for the interruption. Even though you should be off base on your down time, you do know that when you get leave you are supposed to leave right?"

"General... (Shaking her head and snickering as she says), with all due respect... I will NEVER get used to calling you that, what seems to be the problem? Please tell me that you didn't break anything in the short time you have been in command," her eyes getting even larger than normal as that horrible thought ran through her head. Jumping to the nearest computer terminal and turning to Sgt. Davis she asks: "You didn't let him touch any of this did you?"

Sgt. Davis looked on with laughter in his eyes, "do you think I would do something like that? It would take us months to fix anything he might break, and we can't be that long without the gate. After all, your father is due back anytime now."

"Carter... do you really have such little faith in my abilities?" His eyes dancing with laughter and something more as he looked into her deeply concerned eyes.

"Which abilities are we referring to here Sir?" Sam replies with a saucy smirk on her face and fire dancing in her eyes.

"Yes, well... never mind about that... the reason I had you paged... follow me please."

As they make their way to his new office, concern deeply etched on Carter's face wondering what could be making Jack miss the prime opportunity to get the upper hand on her in front of everyone.

"Sir, what's wrong, you seem very confused and concerned? Is there someway I might be able to help?

"Yeah, about that.... Carter why would they go and promote an inherent screw up like me to General? Yeah I have kicked lots of alien ass over the years, but GENERAL O'Neill? That's one of the greatest oxymoron's of all times, outside of military intelligence or IRS helpdesk"

"Sir, what is really bothering you?" Laughing at his rant as he tries to continue.

"Carter I now have control of one of the most advanced, albeit well hidden bases on our planet. Heck, half the people at NORAD don't even know what we do down here. And the thought that keeps running through my mind is: Shouldn't I know how to operate every piece of equipment here as well as I can field strip my P90?"

Relief flashes across Carter's face -- she nods, "Yes Sir, but you do... don't you? What is it that you feel you can't handle?"

"Carter - outside of the two really important times you will remember... the black hole incident, which by the way Cromwell thought you were really hot and very smart, and when I fed all those new gate coordinates into the computer, I never touch a computer on this base. Heck, if the Pentagon ever found out that you actually complete all my reports for me as a favor, I doubt that they would have even considered promoting this dumb ass of mine"

"Well Sir, I still don't see the problem here. If you wanted to learn about the computers the perfect place to do that would be MY office. And yes, even though you didn't know that you had an office prior to your promotion, you know very well where my office is since you spend the majority of your time there having me complete your reports. So... do I need to pencil you into my calendar for lessons?" Barely able to suppress the laughter bubbling up as this picture flashes through her mind.

"Well, that's just the problem Carter." Wagging his eyebrows at her. "I am not sure if I will be able to stay focused on the assigned topic of study if I am alone with you in your office. You know how I shut down when you start your techno babble."

"Sir, you have never had trouble in the past when it came to focusing on me, why would you find it difficult to do at this point in time?" Sam was getting into the game Jack seemed to be playing.

"Ahh Sam, I really think that it should be quite evident to you by now. After all think about it, he is the base commander and he has always had this 'thing' for you." Daniel replied with a smirk on his face. "At this point he could probably do whatever he wants and not have to worry about it!"

"DANIEL" Sam giving him the look of death. Turning to look at Jack she replies, "You know that can never happen after all we would be breaking so many of those coveted regs, Sir.

Letting out an exasperated sigh Jack queries, "Can someone please explain to me the purpose of those regs anyway? I mean you serve with the same team over and over again for the past, forever, and you aren't supposed to have feelings for them? "

Sam's face is screwed up into an almost question mark at this point as she is interrupted by Daniel's remark.

... "Yeah right like that doesn't happen all over this base anyway. Are you guys totally blind? Do those same rules that the regular air force live by really apply to us here so well hidden away?" Daniel says with a half smirk to his face. Remember how easy it was to tempt Jack in the past. "That's gratitude for you, how many billions of lives and worlds do you have to save Sam before they cut you some slack?"

Indeed DanielJackson, your powers-that-be have some strange ideas of what is permissible and what is forbidden. One would think that they make them just to frustrate their most loyal warriors.

Sam couldn't help herself continuing where Daniel had left off.... "Sir, you do realize that with this promotion you have a secretary right? If you get too overwhelmed you could just have your secretary complete the reports for you."

"Ahhh Carter what's the fun in that? I wouldn't be able to frustrate you then."

"Sir? Jack, you do know that I have loaded all of your reports onto your laptop, so that you would NEVER have to touch the base mainframes. Therefore, you can do all your work without crashing anything on base. You have checked it out haven't you?"

"Carter -- since when do I have a laptop?" Again pacing and scratching his head exclaiming, "I'm not getting my memos."