Thank you so much to everyone who is reading and reviewing this story!
This is a slightly more lighthearted chapter.
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His orders had stated that he should report to General Hammond's office in the Pentagon, room B3126, at 0900 on the morning of Tuesday, March 16, 1993. Jack paused outside the door to straighten the jacket of his dress uniform, and smooth his hand over his tie. His watch read 0855 when he walked into the outer office, paused and looked around.
There were five people in the office. Two female lieutenants sat at computer stations to his right. A male lieutenant occupied a third station nearby. On the left was a large desk, situated so that it guarded an inner office door; the captain seated there raised his eyes after a moment and looked at Jack inquiringly.
The fifth person was seated on a small couch against the wall near the desk. She was also a captain, young—no older than twenty-five, Jack guessed. Her gold-blonde hair cut quite short. Her head was tilted forward, eyes lowered to the periodical she was reading; he could see the smooth curve of her cheek and noted the clear, smooth texture of her skin. He noticed her legs, long and slim, emerging below her hemline, shapely ankles crossed gracefully.
She was in dress blues, and he saw more than the average number of ribbons on her jacket. One in particular caught his eye, because he had one exactly like it: the green, white and gold Air Combat ribbon from the recent Iran Campaign. Senior Aviator Wings perched above the ribbons. A pilot, then, also. Obviously she'd seen action...
"May I help you, Captain?" the captain at the desk asked, and Jack stepped forward and focused his attention on the man.
"Captain Jonathan J. O'Neill, reporting as ordered to General Hammond."
The captain—his nametag read K. Wilkes—nodded. "Yes, Captain O'Neill. Please take a seat. I'll let the General know you're here." He indicated the couch where the blonde captain was sitting.
"Thank you." Jack turned in that direction.
She raised her head as he approached and looked straight into his eyes. Her eyes were very blue. Startlingly blue. Large and beautiful, with thick lashes darker than her hair. He stared for a moment before averting his gaze. She moved over slightly to make more room as he reached the couch.
"Thank you," he said as he sat down.
She smiled the most stunning smile he had ever seen. "You're welcome." Then she went back to her reading.
The afterimage of her smile clung to his retinas. He deliberately turned away, looking toward the desk where Captain Wilkes was now speaking softly on the phone.
Jack was overcome with the urge to squirm. Was it too warm in here? He ran a finger around his collar, and stared across the room, inadvertently meeting the eyes of one of the female lieutenants at a computer, who was staring at him unabashedly. When she saw his eyes on her, she smiled—a flirtly, steamy smile. She was quite pretty, with curly dark hair and wide dark eyes. She ran her tongue slowly over her lips. He gulped and looked away. He thought he heard a chuckle from beside him, but didn't dare turn to check!
"Captain..." Wilkes began to speak, and both Jack and the woman beside him tensed. "...Carter. The General will see you now."
Jack's head whipped to the side, and he caught a glimpse of her nametag as she rose; S. Carter.
She was on her feet and heading for the inner office door. Her smile was bestowed on the aide. "Thanks, Kevin."
"You bet, Sam." Wilkes grinned widely. "He seems in a good mood today."
"He usually is, isn't he?" she laughed.
He nodded. "Usually."
She opened the door and vanished inside.
Jack stared at the closed door. Carter? Surely no relation to... No, it was a common enough name.
"Is something wrong, Captain O'Neill?"
He looked at Wilkes, then glanced away. "No... nothing, Captain. I just... uh. Nothing."
"The General shouldn't be very long," Wilkes assured him, and turned back to his work.
Jack tried to relax back against the couch. He glanced around again, only to find the pretty lieutenant still staring boldly at him. Feeling the blush rise in his face, he deliberately raised his left hand, turning it so his wedding ring showed clearly. She did not appear even slightly disappointed—not fazed in the least! Instead she lowered her head a little and looked up at him through her lashes—her very long, thick, dark lashes!—a look that said quite clearly, So what?
It was a moment before he could force himself to look away, and when he did, he realized that Wilkes was watching.
Wilkes gave a slight roll of his eyes. "Lt. Johnson!"
The dark-haired young woman took her time refocusing her attention. "Yes, sir."
"Do you need something in order to finish with that report?"
Nothing you can give me. The words almost hung in the air, and Jack was startled to realize a second later that they had not been spoken aloud.
"No, sir," she said to Wilkes.
"Then...?" Wilkes prompted.
"Yes, sir." She shot another look at Jack, and then returned to her keyboard.
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"Good to see you, Samantha!" General Hammond got up and came around his desk to give his niece a hug.
"Hi, Uncle George!" Samantha Carter returned the embrace enthusiastically. George was her favorite uncle, after all. "I just got back, and thought I'd stop and say hello."
"I'm glad you did." Hammond waved her to one of the guest chairs, and seated himself in the other, nearby, rather than retreat behind his desk again.
"How're Aunt Marty and the girls?" she asked, referring to Hammond's wife and daughters.
"They're fine. Julia has a job at a children's camp for this coming summer."
"Perfect! That sounds like something she'll love."
Sam's cousin Julia was a junior at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in social work and early childhood education. Hammond's older daughter, Melanie, was married and living in New York. Mel was nearer Sam's age and the two had been close growing up. She and her husband were expecting a baby soon. Sam and the General talked for a while about the family, and especially the impending birth of George's first grandchild.
"So have you seen your father yet?" Hammond changed the subject after a while.
Sam's expression soured slightly. "Not yet. He's unavailable today. Some sort of high-level meetings that are going to take all day. We talked briefly on the phone last night after I got in, though. He seemed pretty distracted. We're supposed to meet for lunch tomorrow, but you know how successful those arrangements usually are."
"Jacob is a busy man." Hammond commented.
"So he is constantly reminding me." There was a familiar edge in Sam's voice.
Hammond decided it was time to change the subject again! "Do you know what you'll be doing now that you're back from this last assignment?"
"No. I guess I'll find out next week. I'm to report to General West on the twenty-second."
"Warren West?" Hammond asked.
"That's right. You must know him."
"Only slightly. His specialty is weaponry. His last project was the Mars VI surface to air missile. That was four years ago."
"That was a very advanced piece of ordnance," she said. "It was used in Iran."
"Yes," he said. "West is probably on to some new weapon now."
Sam rolled her eyes. "So I may be stuck in a lab creating new killing machines."
"Come and see me if that's the case. Maybe I can get you moved over to my department."
"Now, what would I do in Security Special Ops, Uncle George?" she grinned. "At least in weaponry I'm in science."
"You'd be surprised how much scientific know-how we need to interpret some of our intel." He smiled when she wrinkled her nose in disbelief. "Well, I'm here if you need me," he promised.
"I know. Thanks." She stood up and he followed her and she leaned over to kiss his cheek. "I won't stay any longer. You've got someone else out there waiting to see you. A Captain O'Neill."
"Yes. Jack." Hammond nodded. "He's just been assigned to my office."
"Has he? He doesn't look like the office type."
"Well... he's not... actually..."
"But you can't say what he is—I get it." She laughed. "One of your aides sure looked interested in him."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. She was flirting with him from across the room."
He made a sound in his throat. "That would probably be Lt. Kerry Johnson."
"Dark curly hair. Pretty."
"That's Johnson. She flirts with every male that comes through the door."
"Captain O'Neill didn't look comfortable with it."
"I would think not. Jack has a wife and son." Hammond sounded faintly put out.
"A lot of men wouldn't let that stop them, Uncle George."
"I certainly hope Jack would. He's just been transferred here. His family's in Florida. Do you remember me talking about Major Barry O'Neill? We served together."
"Yes. I remember the name. He was killed in Burma, wasn't he?"
George nodded sadly. "That's right. Well, Jack is his nephew. I watched him grow up. We've stayed in touch."
"Okay, then." She stood and he followed suit. "I'll get out of here and let you talk to him."
They shared another hug and he walked her to the door. "Give your aunt a call," he suggested as he opened the door for her.
"I'll do that right away, sir." She smiled at him and then gave Captain Wilkes a brief grin and headed for the door. Her gaze crossed that of Captain O'Neill, who had risen, along with the rest of the staff, when the General appeared, and she sent him a small nod.
Hammond watched Samantha until she exited the office, and then glanced around the room. "Back to work, people. Jack, come on in."
After a glance at the door Captain Carter had disappeared through, Jack followed the General into his office.
"Have a seat, Jack." Hammond pointed to the visitor chair, as he circled his desk and sat down.
"Thank you, sir." Jack waited a moment until the General was settled, then seated himself.
"So, you got your orders, I presume?"
"Yes, sir, I did."
Hammond studied the younger man, who looked stiff and uncomfortable even seated. "You can relax, Jack. I'm happy to have you here. I'm pleased that General Carter assigned you to my office. I'm not sure it was his intention to please me, but it did."
Jack had to smirk at that. "Thank you, sir. I appreciate that."
"We're still friends, Jack. You haven't called me 'sir' in years."
"I've never been in your chain of command, either. Sir. I doubt if Captain Wilkes ever calls you George."
Hammond smiled. "You have a point. But in private conversation, there's no need to be formal."
"Thank you, George." He hesitated. "Could I ask a question?"
"Certainly, Jack. What is it?"
"The captain who just left? I noticed her name is Carter? Is she...?"
"Related to General Carter? That's his daughter."
"Oh."
Hammond chuckled. "She's also my niece."
"Your niece?"
"Yes. Her late mother and my wife were sisters. Was there a reason you wanted to know?"
"No. No, I just noticed the name. And General Carter is rather large on my radar right now," Jack added ruefully.
George Hammond laughed aloud at that. "Yes, I can see why that would be the case. He is a rather imposing personage, isn't he?"
Jack grinned. "Absolutely. Not unlike yourself, General."
"Me? I'm just a farmboy from Texas, son," was the reply in a deliberately broad Texas drawl.
The two men laughed together.
"Well," Hammond said a few minutes later. "I expect you'd like to know just what you'll be doing around here."
"Yes, sir. I would." When he saw the General's raised brow, Jack went on, "We're on professional ground now, sir."
"Good enough." Hammond nodded, then his expression became serious and Jack straightened. "The Air Force Security Department has several divisions. My specific responsibilities include the AFCIS and the Covert Ops Divisions. AFCIS is the Air Force Criminal Investigation Service. It's partially staffed by civilians and they investigate civilian crimes involving Air Force personnel. You won't be concerned with that unless it overlaps with your section. What I have in mind is to put you in the Analysis and Planning Section of Covert Ops. We receive a huge amount of intelligence from many different sources. Most of it is not useful. Once the useful stuff has been sorted out then we have to analyze it and determine if any action should be taken. If action is warranted, then we make a plan. That's where I want you, Jack. You'll be examining intel and determining what use we can put it to. That's going to be your job in a nutshell."
"Yes, sir."
"So. I'll introduce you to the people you'll be working with and you can become familiar with the operation. How does that sound?"
"That sounds fine, sir."
"We'll start with the staff of this office."
Hammond rose from his chair and Jack followed suit. He followed the General into the outer office, where the staff rose at his entrance.
"I wish they wouldn't do that," Hammond muttered. Then he spoke up; "People, I want to introduce a new member of our staff. He'll be working in Analysis and Planning. This is Captain Jack O'Neill." Hammond named each one of the aides in the office. "Captain Kevin Wilkes." Then the computer operators. "Lt. Joseph Leeds. Lt. Jane Parker. Lt. Kerry Johnson."
Jack nodded to each one, receiving a very broad wink from Kerry Johnson when she was sure Hammond wasn't watching.
"I'll be taking Jack to Analysis," he told Wilkes, and then indicated that Jack should precede him out into the corridor.
Jack spent the next three days familiarizing himself with the people and organization of the Analysis and Planning Section of the Security and Special Ops Department. His immediate superior in the section was Major Harold Maybourne. Jack took an instant dislike to the man's personality, but he quickly realized that Maybourne was an expert when it came to intelligence analysis. Quelling his negative feelings, Jack settled in to learn what he could from the Major.
Except for a couple of awkward encounters with Lt. Kerry Johnson, the week went quite smoothly.
