Chapter 7

The next morning, Sam woke up in her own bed, with no recollection of how she had gotten there. She remembered spending the evening with the General, no Jack, she corrected herself. The General was the hard, unreadable soldier, Jack was the loving, emotional man that had been her anchor since her father had died.

She looked at the stand beside her bed and noticed a note in Jack's unmistakable scrawl.

Carter-

You fell asleep on me last night, so I put you to bed. I'll lock up on my way out and have already turned off your alarm. Come in whenever you wake up or not at all-just call Walter if you're not.

I know that we didn't talk about what I originally came over for but something tells me that this was more important. My only advice right now is to give yourself time. Time to deal with Jacob's death and time to think about what you want to do rather than jumping into a decision. Know this, regardless of what you decide, I'll always stand behind your decision.

Sleep in Carter, that's an order.

J. O'Neill

Sam looked at the clock on her bedside which read 9:00, which was significantly later than what she usually slept. She was slightly angry with Jack for shutting off her alarm and deciding she needed to sleep, but relieved at the same time that he was looking out for her. Sam could admit to herself that she needed the sleep. The previous evening had been emotionally draining as she remembered many of the events of her time at the SGC.

The fact that a vacation with Cassie had preceded the recall of those memories, had meant that the vacation had not been as relaxing as what they had originally planned, but the time with Cassie had been necessary. It the rush of events over the past year, Sam realized that she had neglected the young girl, something that her and Jack were going to need to discuss as the girl's legal guardians.

In the meantime, Sam was going to go for a run, take a shower, and pick-up some lunch to share with her teammates before going into work. But first, she was going to call Jack.

"O'Neill."

"Sir, I just wanted to let you know that I'll be in time for lunch today. I've got a few things to catch up on in my lab," Sam stated.

"They could wait," Jack objected.

"They could," Sam agreed, "But I need to do something that gets me headed back towards normalcy."

"And playing with alien doohickeys is the best way to be 'normal'," Jack casually added which made Sam smile and work to contain a giggle, which she guessed was his original intent.

"What a strangle life we lead," Sam observed. "Anyways, I thought you might want to know and maybe inform the guys that I'm bringing lunch in from that Chinese place you and Daniel like so much."

"I'll let them know. Call me when you get here," he ordered before hanging up the phone.

Sam just smiled and went on her much needed run.

----

It was almost lunchtime when Sam pulled into her reserved parking spot on base. Not quite as good as the General's spot, but it was better than several of the full bird Colonels simply for the reason she had been there longer-and was the expert on the Stargate. It was much more likely that she would be getting a call in the middle of the night that required her immediate attention than several of the team leaders, and the fact that she was now the leader of SG-1 gave her a little more justification for what had long been her parking spot.

Right now, she was grateful for the fact her spot was so close to the building. Not only did she have her normal amount of paperwork and her laptop, but a couple of additional bags filled with what she hoped would be enough food to feed all of SG-1 and the General, who they really considered to still be a member of the team, even if he didn't.

Several of the guards at the checkpoints looked like they were going to say something to her, but the scowl on her face stopped them. Sam arrived at Daniel's lab to find everyone already there, like they had been expecting her.

And they were nice enough to at least take the bags with the food out of her hands as they greeted her.

They cleared some room on one of Daniel's lab tables and began distributing the food.

"Thanks for bringing lunch Sam," Daniel said, "I really wasn't looking forward to whatever was the special of the day."

"Think of it as my way of saying thank you for being such a wonderful friend and a down payment towards future requests," Sam responded, waving off his gratitude.

Luckily, no one pushed the issue so it didn't take long for them to digress to work related conversation.

Once lunch was over, Sam walked to her lab with the General who was carrying several file folders of translations for her, courtesy of Daniel.

"There's a meeting for all team leaders at 1400," Jack said as he sat the folders down.

Sam looked at him and gave him the glare. "What would you have done if I hadn't decided to come in today? Told everyone that I was taking the day off? I need to be there for those meetings. They're part of my duty as a team leader."

"Who doesn't really have a team," Jack claimed knowing that he was going to upset her, "Which is what I wanted to talk to you about. What do you want to do about SG-1? I can give you pretty much anyone that you want for a new team or let you have free reign of the labs for the time being, only going into the field when you want or need to," Jack offered.

Sam sighed and realized that there would be no easy way to deal with this and that she shouldn't be angry with him for not telling her. He had probably known she would come into work unless he ordered her not to and she did need to make a decision. "How soon is Teal'c leaving?" she asked.

"Beginning of the week," Jack responded as he picked up one of the things lying on her lab table, one of the safe ones, left there specifically for him to play with.

Sam exhaled. "That's soon."

"Yeah."

"Don't suppose I could put off deciding?" Sam requested.

"Sure, but if you don't make a decision, Teal'c will leave and you'll have people lined up at your door and I'll have a million requests for people to transfer to SG-1," Jack explained.

"True," Sam admitted, realizing that he was right. "Guess we say that Daniel and I are going to concentrate on our specialties for the time being, after all, I am going to busy with the new ship here pretty soon. It doesn't make sense to put together a new team only to have Daniel leaving in six months and me being gone for a lot of that time leading up to that."

"So I tell them that the team is being put on long term stand down?" Jack confirmed.

"Yes sir," Sam responded.

"Good, then let's go to this meeting," Jack suggested holding the door open for her and then pulling the door to her lab shut behind him.

----

The meeting went surprisingly well, and Sam had to admit that there were going to be some advantages to being out of the mission rotation, like not having to train the new recruits.

"The next batch of recruits arrives tomorrow," Jack reminded, "And SG-15 will be doing their training."

Sighs of relief and triumphant smirks were seen all around the briefing room table as the various team leaders were relieved that it wasn't their turn.

But the new leader of SG-15 was going to object to this. "Sir, I thought that SG-1 was next on the list for that duty," Lieutenant Colonel Joe Huey objected.

"They were," the General admitted.

"Then why isn't Colonel Carter's team going to do their part, or is she not feeling up to it and needs to take some vacation time again," the man reasoned aloud.

It took all of Sam's control not to respond with some smart remark, and judging by the look on Colonel Reynold's face, the General's official 2IC, she wasn't the only one.

Sam was sure that if an alarm signaling an off world activation hadn't sounded, she might have still done something that she would later regret.

It seemed the General knew that and with a glance, told her to take care of things in the control room while he continued the briefing. So Sam rushed off to open the iris for an SG team which was returning safe and sound, right on schedule, and with Walter's help, was able to advise them that their briefing was scheduled at 1600 hours.

By the time she returned to the briefing room, Huey was still throwing her evil looks, but she refused to let them bother her, and instead focused her attention on the General of who was reminding everyone of several changes in policy, including the fact that they were now searching for their fourth new CMO after the death of Janet Fraiser, and he was almost begging the men to be nice to whomever they got next because "the paperwork for all these transfers is killing me," he claimed, which resulted in chuckles from much of the group.

Dixon was the one who brought real laughter out when he reminded Jack, "This is another case of do as I say and not as I do, General."

"For cryin' out loud," Jack said which brought a few more chuckles from his audience.

The team leaders were starting to pack up their folders, though they had yet to make any real moves to leave, waiting instead for Jack to dismiss them, as they had reached the end of the listed schedule.

"One last thing guys," Jack said sparing a glance at Sam as he continued. "Teal'c has decided to leave SG-1 and return to the Jaffa." Whispered conversations began around the table as everyone tried to discuss this news, but Jack interrupted them as he continued speaking, "And Dr. Jackson has already requested to be on the next ship to Atlantis, both of which Colonel Carter and I have approved."

Again, whispered words could be heard all around the table, and again, Jack continued speaking, "Along those lines, SG-1 has been removed from the mission roster until the fate of the team can be decided as Colonel Carter will be making frequent trips to Area 51 to work on the new ship. For the time being, SG-1 will not, I repeat not, be doing any field work as a team, and for that reason, no effort will be expended to try and find new members for the team, at least until after Dr. Jackson departs. I'm sure I can count on you to pass the message to your teams that requests for transfers to SG-1 will not be accepted or even available and will just be a waste of time." Jack sent a stare around the table that reinforced his last statement. "Dismissed gentlemen."

Colonel Huey was the first one out the door, Sam noticed as she stood up and watched the General stroll to his office. She turned to leave, only to have Colonels Reynolds and Dixon fall into step with her.

"Don't let Huey bother you Sam," Dixon said, "He's too new to understand how things work around here."

"I'm surprised Jack didn't take his head off," Reynolds added.

"What did he do?" Sam asked unable to resist the chance to find out.

"Told the man to shut his trap and told him that he was welcome to takeover your projects any time that he wanted, not in that language of course, but that was the gist of it," Dixon answered.

Sam huffed, "I'm sure that his words were much more colorful than that."

"They were," Reynolds assured her. "He also said that you had a private life outside of the SGC that was no concern of his, and if he had a problem with it, Huey should take it up with him in private."

"Is there something going on besides the normal craziness?" Dixon asked calmly, not really pressuring Sam for an answer as they entered the empty elevator, more just willing to lend an ear.

Normally, Sam wouldn't say anything, but if there was one person outside of her team that she would talk about this problem with, Dave Dixon would be the man, after all he had children of his own. "Cassie's been having a really hard time lately," she admitted.

"Ah. That explains things," Reynolds stated.

"What?" Sam questioned as the elevator began to slowly move towards the floor her lab was on.

"Normally you do a pretty good job of hiding your emotions and you don't ever stay away from work for a long time, but ever since you've come back from vacation, I could tell something was bothering you," Dixon explained.

"Any suggestions?" Sam asked, looking at the experience parent for any advice.

The man shook his head and patted Sam on the shoulder, "Yeah, get some regular hours and be home every night for her, but that's not something that you can control when you work here."

"Thanks," she said as she walked out of the elevator, already contemplating the man's words and starting to think that the transfer to Area 51 was looking better all the time.

It didn't take long for Sam to forget about her conversation though as she became involved in several reports from other scientists about devices they were working on, and as she began to fiddle with a device of her own.

She didn't even notice the passage of time until she sensed the General walk into the room and pick up one of the devices she had left sitting on the lab table. She directed her attention away from the simulation she had been running on her computer and to him, before he broke something. She carefully pulled the device out of his hands and replaced it with a yo-you which she kept on hand for times such as these.

"Is there something I can help you with sir?" Sam asked.

Jack paused in his attempt to 'walk the dog' and stared at her. "Well, I just want to point out that it is 1800 hours, and you're still in your lab. I'm sure that you haven't eaten since lunchtime and you still have several boxes of stuff to unpack at home, which I'm offering to help with since I have a free evening."

Sam looked at the clock and realized that he was telling the truth about the time, and surveyed her lab, which was much more organized and less crowded than it had been a few hours ago. She didn't have any pressing projects right now, and she was hungry. "Are you offering to feed me or do I need to cook?" Sam questioned in return as she started working on cleaning up the pile of papers and folders she had finished with and putting them in her out box.

Jack didn't have to think about letting Sam cook; it was common knowledge that she couldn't cook. "I'll pick up something from the deli on the way your to place," Jack offered. "Meet you in 45 minutes."

"Deal," Sam accepted.

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