*** I've picked it back up. Just don't yell at me anymore please :P ***
The blurb: They're not mine. If they were I wouldn't be on here fooling around with the canon – I'd be out there making a lovely movie or new series for you all to enjoy.
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The arrival
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The airport terminal was not overly crowded as the four members of the Carter family made their way over to the airman awaiting them. Nothing unusual about that, figured Mark. His father had been a General, and certain perks came with the job for the family, even if he did not appreciate the military entirely – or at all. And who was he kidding? His sister was probably holed up at the base doing who-knew-what and entirely 'too busy' to come pick them up. That was just the way it worked with the Air-force, wasn't it?
The airman greeted them and directed them to the vehicle that would drop them off at Lt. Col. Samantha Carter's home. The uniformed man helped them get their luggage settled and after everyone had piled in Mark Carter decided to chat up the designated driver. It couldn't hurt to get some information on the people he would likely be seeing the next day.
"So, I take it you work with my sister, Sgt. Siler." Posing questions in the form of statements usually left little room to get out of answering, at least that was what Mark was hoping.
The airman glanced at Mark, sitting in the passenger seat up front and smirked. "Yes, sir. I am stationed at Cheyenne Mountain."
"Been there long?"
"Some might say so."
"I'm sure it must be fascinating work to be done in a mountain – deep space exploration through computers and stuff..."
"It's very satisfying, sir."
"Anything fun happen? Got any stories to tell?"
"I suppose."
Mark looked at him quizzically. OK, since when were airmen trained to be as uninformative as officers?
"So you know my sister and this team of hers, then, right?" Might as well just get down to business, he figured.
"Yes, sir, I do."
Still nothing, to Mark's chagrin.
"Can you tell me anything about them? Sam's never really talked about her work."
The Sergeant smiled, "I could tell you a lot about SG-1, sir. Most of it is classified, and the rest you just, well - wouldn't believe me."
Mark just stared at him. Now he could handle cryptic, but that would imply some type of information had actually left the man's mouth.
"So what you're really saying is: they'd bust your balls if you said a word. Which means you are just as bad as any other military personnel and go for the 'love of God and Country' crap, right?"
"No, sir…" Sgt. Siler began.
"And quit it with the Sir! My family may be military but I am definitely not."
The kids were getting restless in the back and his wife laid a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down, Mark. Let the man finish. You're starting to scare the girls."
At her words, he visibly deflated. She was right. It wasn't this man's fault his father and his sister had abandoned their family. His girls shouldn't have to deal with this stress along with their grandfather's death. Seeing the man had cooled off, Siler continued with his explanation.
"Mr. Carter, I don't presume to know your relationship with your sister, but I do know some things. One of them being that Lt. Col. Sam Carter is one of the finest officers that I have ever met. She is respectful, kind, funny and damn smart. She is also part of an amazing group of people who keep all of us safe on a daily basis. I am being truthful when I say you wouldn't believe some of the stories I have on her. I sometimes don't believe them myself, and I was there some. Please, do not disrespect something you cannot even imagine. And if I were you, I would watch your tongue around any of her teammates. They will eat you alive without her there to defend you."
Mark didn't like the way this airman had spoken to him – as if he didn't know his sister was smart. Hell yeah, she was smart. But what the hell had she done that this man, who had obviously worked pretty close to her, would be this protective? He wasn't sure he wanted to find out.
"Now, if you are finished, we will be arriving shortly. I was told Col. Carter would be awaiting your arrival at her home. We wouldn't want to keep her waiting. This week has been stressful enough as it is."
This was interesting news. So Sam wasn't at the base. Mark Carter had not expected this development. He thought they would be taken up to the compound, where they would be made to wait for an inordinate amount of time. Then, his sister would come out with some awful excuse about some problem or another with a malfunctioning telescope, and he would be left to deal with two tired and hungry children in a place not designed for them. Very interesting, indeed.
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The car pulled up to the house and her nieces came jumping out into her arms. Sam had missed the two girls immensely and loved any minute she could spend with them. She hugged them to her tightly before telling them to go through to the kitchen and get some cookies she had left out. The mini-me's did not need to be told twice as they scampered away. This, of course, left the adults to the awkward hellos.
"Hey, Mark. I'm glad you came." She greeted and went to give him a hug.
He didn't reciprocate and answered shortly, "Of course, I came. He was my father as well."
Sam nodded, not wanting to start a fight so soon. It was inevitable, but the least she could do was hold it off until the girls were asleep.
"Yeah, he was. How was the flight? Did you find Sgt. Siler alright? It was a bit hectic this afternoon and the General had to send him to pick you up instead of me."
He bristled at this statement. So she had been at work. "The flight was fine, Sam. Sorry to have taken you away from your ever pressing job."
She tried to tell him that it wasn't like that, but he didn't pay any attention, just barreled into the house with the bags. Her sister-in-law put her hand on Sam's arm. "Don't worry about him. He has been really hurting about your dad. All of those old feelings are making a come-back in a big way. He almost bit the poor sergeant's head off on the ride over."
Sam nodded again. She expected this, knew it would have been too much to ask for her brother to keep a cool head. He was just like her father like that. Act first, ask questions later. She was in for it this week.
"Yeah, well, he is who he is. I've always known that. I just hope he doesn't say anything in front of the wrong people."
The woman facing her opened her eyes wide.
"Oh, Sam, he would never say anything to hurt your job. He is just mad right now."
She managed a small chuckle. If only!
"That's not what I meant Jen. At this point, nothing he could say would hurt my career or standing at the base. I'm worried about him upsetting people who can hurt him for bad-mouthing the Air Force."
Jen frowned. She needed to have a talk with her husband before the funeral.
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By 1900 hours the clothes had been pulled out of their bags and duly ironed. The girls' beds had been sorted and made. All that was left was dinner and sleep. Just as Sam was about to discover if she had anything edible in her fridge, the doorbell rang. Not expecting anyone, she asked Mark to see who it was, and quickly dispense with them. Tonight she had no patience to deal with her nosy neighbors.
Her brother came into the kitchen with a confused frown on his face, what a shocker.
"Yeah, did you see who it was?"
"Yes…, there are a couple of guys at the door with some pizzas. You didn't order anything did you?" He questioned her.
Now it was her turn to frown. The General was on base waiting for SG-7 to come back with the Tok'ra delegates. Which meant Daniel was probably too curious for his own good. And well, where one stooge went, so does his alien sidekick.
"These guys, is one of them about your height, brown hair, geeky glasses; the other a big guy, kinda the strong silent type, with a hat on?"
"Yeah, you know them? I thought you said it would be just us tonight. All that family bonding thing you wanted to do."
Sam had to roll her eyes. "Yeah, it was supposed to be just us. They're part of my team. I'm gonna kill Daniel."
She moved around him and went to let her two friends in; Mark hot on her heels. She couldn't be too mad at them. They were probably only trying to be there for her and provide a shield between her and Mark. Daniel should know better, though.
"Hey, I thought I told you no visiting after closing time?"
Teal'c tilted his head at Daniel, "Did I not tell you that ColonelCarter did not wish to be disturbed, DanielJackson?"
He bowed his head in her direction and glared, as only Teal'c can, at Daniel. The archeologist even managed a small wince. So, maybe his plan wasn't completely thought through.
"We shall leave you to your family, Col. Carter."
Daniel stopped him. "No, T, wait. Please? And look, we brought pizza! I know for a fact you have no food in this house. You were going to the store when Jack called you back this afternoon."
She made a big show of allowing him access to her house. "Alright, fine, since you asked so nicely, and brought your own food. I suppose you can stay. And there are poptarts in the cabinet. That happens to be food." She grinned, "That doesn't happen to be meat lovers, does it?"
Daniel scoffed, "What else?"
Before they could make it further into the house they were stopped by an unhappy family member. Arms crossed and doing a pretty good impression of Teal'c, with only one eyebrow up, was Mark. Sam saw the potential for WW3 and quickly crossed over and gave introductions. He wasn't even fazed by the alien who kept calling him by his full name.
Who do these people think they are? That was the first thing that went through Mark's head. Sure, they probably worked closely enough for them to know each other's addresses and not be afraid to show up unannounced, but their family was in mourning. It was just a social passé to show up at a co-workers house before a funeral and expect a good time. He wanted to know who these men were that worked with his sister, now more than ever.
Jen called the kids to the dining table and set each of them up with a slice of pizza before taking one for herself. Daniel helped Sam get cups and plates passed around while Teal'c fooled around with the DVD to get it set up for later. All the while, Mark wondered under what circumstances these men had come to know his sister's home well enough to not ask where anything was, nor feel the need to get her permission before they went traipsing through her things.
He observed the one called Daniel Jackson carefully. He was pretty well built. He would have to work out if he spent his time on a military base, but he just didn't scream military. Actually, he looked a little geeky, as his sister had said. But who knows, his sister didn't really look the type to blow someone's brains out either.
"So, Daniel is it? What rank are you? Colonel, like Sam?"
Instead of answering, his sister and the man laughed. Mark wasn't sure what the joke was and that bothered him. "What did I say?"
"I'm sorry, Mark. It's just that Daniel has about as much aversion to the military as you do. And the idea of him being an officer is actually a little funny."
Daniel pretended to be hurt, "Come on, I think I do pretty well, considering," He turned to Mark and smiled. "But, no, I'm not in the military. I'm actually an archaeologist and linguist. Sam's right. I hate the military and their ridiculous rules and regulations and bowing and scraping and red tape…it's infuriating. I just put up with them when I have no choice, and even then I don't do so well with the establishment."
Mark was now even more confused about his sister's work in that mountain.
"Archaeologist? As in dead societies? And what, you're the military representative of some native African tribe, here to learn?" he said turning to Teal'c.
Sam tilted her head in thought. "Why didn't we think of that one?" She murmured to herself.
"Yeah, Mark, something like that. But, actually, Teal'c here is the one who helps us train our men for hand to hand combat. He's the best there is."
Now that didn't surprise him, the man was pretty built after all. "So you all are part of a team? Any more members I should be aware of?"
Daniel answered since Sam had decided her pizza looked more interesting. "Right now just us. Jack used to be the leader, then he had to go and get himself promoted and all, so Sam here took over."
She nodded her head as she finished off her bite.
"Jack would be…?"
"Uh, General Jack O'Neill, base Commander. That would be the promotion he received."
That was the end of the conversations about Sam's work as they ate. And Sam was glad for it. She could face down the Goa'uld and not break a sweat, but put her brother in front of her and she didn't know where to turn or what to say.
Somehow Daniel had managed to get Mark's daughters into a conversation about their school and friends, a subject they could go on about forever. As the girls regaled them all with their own little anecdotes on life, Mark studied the interactions between the people before him. His sister seemed to be so comfortable with these men and didn't bat an eye when they moved around her home. She seemed more at ease with them than with her own family.
Tomorrow would be soon enough to find out more about them. And he had a father to bury, and people to meet and pretend to like. It could wait. He was here for another 10 days after all.
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