Chapter Two

SG-1, with the exception of Colonel Jack O'Neill, had been waiting in the Embarkation Room for the last twenty minutes. Even Daniel had never been that bad, and he seemed to be perpetually late for everything. But, as in Jackson's case, this wasn't annoying; in fact, it was the complete opposite.

It was very worrisome for all involved.

Daniel had told the General, Carter and Teal'c about his attempt at a talk with Jack the day after it happened. While it seemed odd and wrong after the mission they'd just been on, no one elected to do anything other than watch for other signs.

Of what, even Daniel wasn't sure. Without knowing what happened back on Scartella, how was he—much less anyone else—supposed to make a diagnosis?

That thought had kept him from worrying too much about things…

…until a week and a half had gone by without hearing anything from the Colonel.

With a two-week break from off-world missions—given to the team due to the unusual nature of their mission to Scartella, and the talks still going on with that planet—Jack hadn't been around the base much. He didn't really see the need to after various mission reports had been written up. And even then, even while the General liked having the reports in on time, it only served to offer more evidence toward whatever was ailing Jack.

Just then the doors slid open and Jack came walking in slowly, all geared up and ready to go.

"Onward," he said, gesturing vaguely toward the stargate that was now starting to spin to life.

Daniel took immediate note of the Colonel's appearance. Dark circles revealed just how many sleepless nights he must have had lately, and his uneasy squinting raised doubts in Daniel's mind as to what exactly Jack was up to last night.

He said nothing. He didn't want to appear on the other side of the 'gate, inside of the Abydonian temple, in a fashion made of fighting and arguing.

"Chevron three encoded."

"Are you alright, sir?" Major Carter asked.

"Yeah, fine. Just a little tired," he offered, hands resting in his pockets. "Sorry about being late."

"It's alright," said Daniel as he continued to take inventory of the Colonel's condition as inconspicuously as he could. He looked slightly paler than normal, the shade of color someone turned after being sick.

"Can I help you?" Jack asked, noticing Daniel's scrutiny.

"No, never mind." Daniel looked elsewhere.

"Chevron seven, locked," Walter informed them.

"SG-1, you have a go. Enjoy the feast."

"We'll try to bring you back some of their moonshine, sir," Jack shouted.

The General smirked. That was the Jack he remembered. Maybe things were okay after all, and two weeks ago was just a fluke.

Intuition told him differently.

"Let me get this straight," Carter said.

Daniel had pulled her to the side and, in the midst of the chaos that was an Abydonian celebration feast, managed to get her alone for two seconds without Jack knowing.

"You think he was hung-over when he got here this morning?" she continued.

"Why not? You saw him. Besides, this wasn't technically a mission. We wouldn't have been screened medically before going through the 'gate. Not when we seemed fine and were checked out two weeks ago after the mission to Scartella."

"So he drinks," she said, trying to shrug it off as if it was nothing. "Most of us do."

"Sam, I don't think it was for leisure. Have you seen how much he's had here?"

Sam peeked around the corner just in time to find Skar'ra offering the Colonel another round.

"Daniel…"

"Sam, whatever happened on Scartella is still bothering him!"

"Obviously," she snapped at him, eager for him to get on with his point.

"He's going to be completely drunk by the time we leave for Earth—we're due back in four hours."

"General Hammond knew—"

"No, Hammond didn't know any of it. None of us do. We've got to force him to tell us what happened."

"We're not going to force him to do anything, Daniel. So if you'll excuse me…" Sam trailed off, turning from the archaeologist and aiming to join the meal once more.

"Sam, we're not supposed to consume alcohol before missions or trips through the 'gate. Who are they going to blame if this ends badly?"

Carter, despite knowing that Daniel was more than likely correct, didn't want to think about it. After all, just as he'd said, they would be back in a few hours. And so unless Jack drank himself into oblivion—something the Abydonians probably wouldn't even allow happen in the first place—things would be okay.

Well, relatively so. This re-evaluated thought crossed her mind when she returned to the circle they had made on the floor where the group was laughing, eating and drinking.

Eat, drink and be merry. The saying echoed in her head but it didn't give her that much comfort.

Even less so when Teal'c came beside her and asked, "Should we not discourage Colonel O'Neill from consuming any more alcohol?"

So Teal'c was also on the "worry about Jack's alcohol consumption" bandwagon. Not that she wasn't either, but the Colonel could surely hold his own.

"We'll keep an eye on it, Teal'c. That's really all we can do," she said before going to take a seat in the circle with everyone else.

Across the way, Daniel gestured with his eyes to Jack, reminding her once more of the issue. She rolled her eyes, signaling for him to drop it.

That is, of course, when all hell broke loose—when she wished she took Daniel's words of worry with more than just a grain of salt.

"Jaffa! Jaffa!"

A young man came running into the room of halfway drunk Abydonians and SG-1. He was exhausted from the sprint and fell to his knees ten feet away from the group.

"The Jaffa are here! Apophis is also present!"

"What?" Carter heard the Colonel hiss in question.

"Word has spread of our arrival," Teal'c supplied. "I believe it would be pertinent to leave."

"Agreed. It'll end badly, sir," she directed toward the Colonel.

"Bring 'em on," was all O'Neill had to say about it.

"Excuse me, sir?"

"Jack, if we stay this'll turn into a bloodbath before they take us prisoner," Daniel said.

"We're staying, end of conversation."

"Sir!"

"They have no reason to die because of us being here."

"The Jaffa will come through peacefully."

"That is doubtful, Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c argued. "They are mostly likely just on patrol."

"And so finding us here will just cause a riot that will end in a shootout," Daniel finished for the former First Prime.

"Then a shootout it is."

Jack stood now and walked the short ways to where his vest and gun sat poised against a pillar. Carter followed him over. He turned to her and glared.

"What?"

"Sir, Daniel's right. We can't let this happen. We need to go back to Earth before they get here."

In truth, Jackson was already starting to clear the group of Abydonians away from the stargate so they could get it running without anyone being swallowed by the kawoosh. They couldn't stay to fight a losing battle when there were so many innocent bystanders to be caught in the crossfire, especially not the people of Abydos who the team had come to know so well.

"We're staying!" Jack shouted. "That's an order, Carter. Now get to it."

"Sir, will all due respect, I disagree."

Jack stopped flat out and stared Carter down. Sam tried not to waver in her stance but she knew what he was doing was wrong. They couldn't ask these people to risk their lives for them, and Jack obviously wasn't in the right frame of mind. And the Abydonian moonshine definitely wasn't helping the matter any.

"Major," Jack warned.

Whether they were good friends or not, on the "record" all that mattered in a circumstance such as this was their military ranks… and what Carter was about to do was anything but enjoyable. The Air Force was going to just love this part of her report, of that she was sure.

"Sir, you are not in a healthy frame of mind. Whatever happened on Scartella is still affecting you greatly and the rest of the team agrees," she said firmly, though inside she was a wreck. "And so with full respect of you and your position, Colonel O'Neill, I am relieving you of duty. You are unfit to make decisions right now and the weight of this one could mean the difference between a peaceful patrol and bloody battle."

Daniel and Teal'c, from where they stood, couldn't hear what exactly Sam had said but from the enraged look on Jack's face, they figured it out.

"She didn't…" Daniel started.

"I believe so," Teal'c said.

"Oh this is going to be fun."

"Indeed."

"Yes ma'am, Major," Jack said,

saluting for a quick second, and then hurried to the DHD to dial the 'gate. He was completely and fully in the red on his anger-meter but would wait until they were back at the SGC to deal with it. Until then, it appeared the Major was calling all the shots.

"Daniel! Teal'c! Get ready to go through."

This time when SG-1 came back early, the General knew better than to be solely curious of the reasons. This time, it wasn't the anger-filled yelling that alerted him to a problem with the team but the look on Jack's face when he stepped through and onto the ramp first.

He was pissed and could, it appeared, just barely walk in a straight line.

General Hammond walked through the doors to the gate room seconds after the other three-fourths came through the stargate.

"Carter! What the hell was that?" Jack demanded.

"I'm sorry, sir."

"You don't have the authority to—"

"Teal'c and Daniel aren't military, who the hell else would have done it?!"

Jack took a step toward her then and Daniel did the same, though his movement was more intended to be protective than aggressive.

"I was and still am in full capacity of my faculties, Major!"

"Like hell you were, Jack!" Daniel interjected.

The Colonel's glare switched to Jackson, who wasn't ready for the rage it held. "Stay out of this."

"Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c said. "If you become more violent I will have to—"

"You too!"

"Sir—"

"If you ever do that again, Major, I will—"

"Colonel O'Neill!" the General shouted, finally deciding to enter the fray.

Following the course of the conversation, what security personnel were present in the room also stepped forward, planning for the worst though they knew it probably wouldn't get that far.

"Sir," Jack acknowledged but didn't otherwise move his line of sight from Carter's blue eyes. This time it wasn't with attraction and endearment, though, this time he was nearly out for blood.

"What happened?" Hammond demanded harshly.

"Carter decided to relieve me of duty."

The General was confused. It was supposed to be a celebration, not a mission, last he checked.

"Major?"

"Apophis must have been somewhere on the planet or nearby. His Jaffa must have informed of our presence. Rather than have a peaceful patrol turn into a gun-fight, I thought it was best to leave."

"And Colonel O'Neill thought otherwise?" Hammond asked.

"He wanted to stay and fight a suicidal battle."

Hammond looked to Dr. Jackson and Teal'c for confirmation of Carter's story. They nodded but didn't say a thing.

"What other grounds for that act did you have, Major?"

"Colonel O'Neill was close to being fully intoxicated, sir, and therefore in no position to make decisions pertaining to potential combat and collateral damage found in innocent Abydonian lives."

"She had no more right than I did to make those decisions!" Jack countered.

Hammond turned to Major but she answered before he could ask the question saying, "No, sir. Not more than maybe half a glass worth of it."

"That is such a— That still doesn't mean she—" Jack directed his attention toward the General then, seething. "Permission to be dismissed, sir?"

"Permission granted. Go."

Once again, Jack threw this vest and gun toward an airmen waiting to take them both and stormed off. SG-1 and the General watched him go in a terrified confusion.

"Sir, I—"

"Regardless of what Jack says, you did the right thing, Major," Hammond assured her.

She wasn't so sure.

Daniel laughed once. "I'm not sure how much you actually remember of it but Sam didn't much like relieving you of duty than you did. We were just worried for you, Jack. The Scartellans are going to pay for this. Even still… why didn't you just tell us what happened? What made you act like that? What made you get so angry and depressed so quickly, within hours?"