In the end, Jack does his job.

Blending in with people like Harry Mayborne is easier than he thought. In a way, Jack knows, it's like being a teenager: he's pissed off, irritated, impatient, and willing to ignore rules to do what he wants to.

Mayborne is what Jack might have turned into once, a long time ago.

So it's easy to convince him.


Jack's aware that the news he's "retiring" to Edora, presumably forever, will be taken by most of the SGC as confirmation that he never wanted to come back to Earth in the first place.

It'll be taken by Carter as something much worse.

If he'd had any idea the nightmare that was waiting for him in the form of this undercover op, he would never have kissed her in the first place. The timing couldn't have been worse.

Hell, he shouldn't have kissed her anyway. He knows that. But there was just something about her, the combination of strength and vulnerability he knows so well, and he couldn't help the overwhelming, desperate urge to kiss her. And when she responded so willingly, so soft, so pliant, he just sort of…snapped.

As he grabs the few things he's taking with him, Jack forces his mind back to the task at hand. The better he does his job, the sooner this will be over.

It's dizzying, turning from three months of pastoral farmhand labor to an interplanetary espionage plot. He's no saint, but least on Edora, he had the option of being a decent guy.

Daniel, Teal'C, Hammond, and even Janet are in the Gate room when Jack walks up the ramp. Edora lies on the other side.

He doesn't know if Carter's watching or not. He doesn't stop, doesn't acknowledge his former teammates, just walks through the Gate without a backwards glance.


Sam hovers in the control room, watching Jack O'Neill walk through the Gate to Edora, away from her forever.

When the wormhole closes behind him, she turns and flees to the comfort of her silent, empty lab before anyone tries to talk to her.


Makepeace is perfectly civil and reasonable.

She hates it.

But she knows she has to take initiative in keeping SG-1 in some kind of workable harmony. Teal'C is too dignified to be openly hostile, but he's also too honest to pretend he has a great deal of respect for Makepeace. And Daniel…well. The good thing about Daniel – his earnestness – is also the bad thing about Daniel. He's never been good at hiding his feelings.

Despite the sick feeling in her stomach that hasn't really abated since she watched Jack O'Neill leave without a real goodbye, Sam knows the importance of holding the team together. They have a real capability to do good, and right now, that's the only source of comfort she can find.

It'll get easier with time, she knows. Teams have to gel, and everyone deserves a chance.

It's not Makepeace's fault.


Mayborne's rebels are scrappy, determined kids who are almost too young to know better. Jack doesn't hate them. They're not beyond saving.

(But seriously. Stealing Asgardian tech? – off planets they know are under Asgard protection? It's a whole new level of stupid.)

When Newman mentions a mole on one of the SG teams, Jack breathes an internal sigh of relief. Finally. They're getting somewhere. Hammond was particularly anxious about this, and the fact that they're telling him about it so quickly is a good sign. If Mayborne doubted his loyalty at all, they'd never have spilled anything about their guy on the inside.

Volunteering to deliver the stolen teach himself is a risk – he doesn't want to appear too eager – but no one bats an eyelash, so Jack grabs the Asgardian enemy-zapper and heads through the Gate.

As it turns out, he barely has time to hide the thing before the Gate starts to power up behind him. Jeez.

Cutting it a little close there, Mayborne.

From his hiding spot, Jack watches as SG-1 comes through the wormhole. Great. Just great. It would be SG-1.

When Carter appears, though, he can't suppress the sudden, involuntary reaction, the tightening in his chest. He's seen her like this – fatigues, cap, gear – more times than he can count, but right now it's agonizing, because as far as she knows, he's an asshole who took advantage of her, screwed over the entire team, then turned around and marched off to roll into bed with a woman he's known for a few months.

The sense memories flooding over him are sharp and vivid and entirely unhelpful. He's here to do a job; this is not the time or place to be remembering the soft, supple curves of her body against his, the heat of her mouth, the little hum of pleasure that escaped her when he bit her lip, the tight, hot pressure of her thighs pressing –

He grits his teeth.

Not now.

It's almost a relief when Jack sees Makepeace go for the stolen tech he's just hidden there. Not that he would have suspected anyone on SG-1. Teal'C is too honorable. Daniel is the worst liar in the galaxy. And possibly several others. And Carter – she's too fiercely, obstinately straightforward to take the cheater's way out of anything.

But this is what he needed: the name.

SG-1 leaves, and Jack takes a deep breath, dialing the coordinates back to Mayborne's base.

Almost done.


They're barely back through the Gate when Hammond marches into the Gate room with what looks like an entire platoon of SF's, armed to the teeth. Sam frowns, looking back at Daniel and Teal'C; they look as confused as she feels.

Makepeace cocks his head. "Ah, General? Something wrong?"

"Stay put for now, SG-1," Hammond orders them. "We've got a few loose ends to tie up."

Behind them, the Gate rumbles to life again. "Incoming wormhole." Harriman's voice sounds hollow over the Gate room speakers. "Receiving Colonel O'Neill's IDC."

Sam freezes.

But he's never coming back.

"Open the iris," Hammond says.

"Ah – General?" Daniel's voice is a shade higher-pitched than usual. "What's going on?"

Hammond turns back to them. "Well, that's going to take some explaining. But rest assured, you'll get all the answers."

As if on cue, Colonel O'Neill emerges from the shimmering blue surface. Sam swallows hard.

And then someone else comes through, and another person, and another, and she and the rest of SG-1 are left to stare.


Jack cuffs Makepeace's wrists with a particular sense of satisfaction. Trying to use SG-1 to steal stuff? What an asshole.

He probably doesn't even use beer to grill.

Chancellor Travell walks in, and as Hammond explains the whole plot to a bewildered Daniel, Teal'C, and Carter, Jack lets out a sigh of relief. If he never has to do this again, it'll be too soon.

But given that it saved Earth's alliances with the Tollans, the Nox, and the Asgard, he can't bring himself to deny the fact that he had to do it.

As the scope of the situation becomes apparent, Carter's look goes from thunderstruck to wary, and for the first time since he deliberately pushed her away, she actually speaks to him.

"So you set that whole thing up on Tollana in the hopes that the mole would think you were one of them and approach you?"

Her voice is clear, even, but her eyes are blazing as she stares at him, and Jack can hear what she's very pointedly not asking in front of everyone else.

So how much of this was a lie?