Chapter Ten – Lonesome

Daniel had been gone for nearly a week and a half. Jack wasn't coping. Being away from the SGC, traveling to bases in Alaska, Guam and Germany, all of that had helped. They weren't places he'd expect to find Daniel. But now he was in the elevator heading down to General Hammond's office, and his heart told him to expect Daniel to be waiting to greet him when the doors opened. If nothing else, had Daniel been here, he might have heard about the assistant Jack had tried to procure for him.

His eyes would be snapping with blue fire, and he'd start speaking immediately, repudiating the need for any such aid. His shoulders would be tense under his jacket, and Jack would want to . . .

He headed that thought off before it got too vivid.

The elevator doors opened and no Daniel. Jack walked forward, trying not to regret his friend's absence. The time apart should make things easier for both of them. They'd each have time to adjust to the new situation and find ways to cope without letting anyone know anything they shouldn't.

Jack smiled. Daniel was out working in the sun, digging up fun things. He was probably wearing one of those bandanas he wore over his hair to catch the sweat. It was a shame. That burnt almond hair shouldn't be covered, and the way it bleached in the sun was gorgeous. Images of Daniel from the digs he'd seen him on played through his mind.

Excited blue eyes, that incredible body . . . such extraordinary strength and control . . . stripped to his t-shirt and fatigue pants . . . sweaty archeologist . . . the scent of him arousing Jack's . . .

He was going to get himself into trouble if he kept this up, Jack thought, willing his thoughts back under control. Maybe he should have Carter completely take over the feeding of Daniel's fish, like she'd been doing while Jack was gone.

Hammond's secretary waved him in and he walked in to find the general waiting for him with a pile of files in front of him. "Looks like you found some good possibles for us," Hammond said. "You've talked with all of them?"

Jack nodded. "I have." They went through the stack one file at a time and Jack told him his personal impressions of each individual. One or two of them had not had the least bit of interest once he'd given them the basic spiel, but most of them were definitely SGC material.

"Good work, colonel," Hammond said. "And what about this Sciaparelli fellow? Will he be coming?"

"I'm working on that, sir," Jack said, thinking back on the brief conversation he'd had with Sciaparelli before heading off to Alaska. "I gather that he's got one more surgery to go in his treatment, and it's scheduled for Thursday of next week." Hammond raised his eyebrows. "I'm waiting for a report on how soon he'll be mobile afterwards. He may still need a cane, but apparently this surgery should make it less painful for him to walk."

"Are you sure he's up to working here, Jack?" Hammond asked soberly. "If he's that badly off . . ."

Jack shook his head. "His last posting was as office manager in a facility where dangerous and highly sensitive experiments were carried out. Everyone on the base had to be prepared to deal with possible intruders or terrorists, and they had some pretty severe lockdown procedures from what I understand." Hammond nodded pensively, his face unreadable. "And all of this was before the surgery that's supposed to make it less painful to walk."

"All right, colonel, I'll take your word for it. Now, when you said he was to be Dr. Jackson's assistant, how specifically did you mean?"

"I don't know for certain, sir," Jack said. "I don't know how much help Daniel needs personally. I do know that he has a backlog a mile long, and it's not because he doesn't work his butt off."

"Yes, I'm aware of that." Hammond pursed his lips. "I had a complaint from Captain Tolliver about the fact that I allowed Dr. Jackson to go on an extended offworld tour without insisting that he finish the translations that were piled on his desk."

"Tolliver doesn't have anything to do with translations," Jack said, wrinkling his brow.

"I know," Hammond said dryly. "And it wasn't really the translations he was worried about. It was the fact that he hadn't gotten 'his' files back in a timely manner, and when he sent someone to Dr. Jackson's office to retrieve them, they weren't there."

Jack surged to his feet. "He did what?!"

Hammond raised an eyebrow and Jack subsided into his chair a little sheepishly. "My reaction was much the same, if a little more measured," the general said with a smile. "When he'd finished explaining his need for a careful accounting of the location of all files, I asked him why he hadn't asked one of the other archeologists. He informed me that he avoids 'bothering' the civilians as much as possible, since they don't seem to respond well to his requests."

Jack blinked. "I haven't heard anything about that before."

"Nor have I. I pointed this out to him, and he stammered a bit. The long and the short of it was, since I had already spoken to Dr. Balinsky and Nyan, who is a very good observer even if he doesn't put himself forward much, I knew that some of the things Tolliver was complaining about were completely false or misleading at best."

"Charming. Is he packing?"

"No, Jack," Hammond said reprovingly. "He's a good officer, he just has a little blind spot where civilians are concerned. I explained to him in words of one syllable that I expected him to behave with the same respect towards the civilian consultants on base as he would towards one of the military officers, and that includes following procedures properly. Then I told him that Dr. Jackson had parceled out his work amongst the remaining archeologists. He got the point that if I knew that without having to call anyone, then his not knowing looked very bad for him."

Jack controlled his internal reactions firmly and nodded. "Someone should probably keep an eye out to make sure he keeps that up."

"I think Lt. Sciaparelli will be best placed for that," Hammond said. "I'll have Sgt. Perales teach him our filing systems and go over the file transfer procedures with him when he gets here." Jack nodded. As the general's secretary, there wasn't anyone better suited. "Once he knows the correct procedures, he'll be in a good position to keep things going in the right way."

"He's got a good head on his shoulders," Jack commented.

"He seems to, from what I've read in his file." Hammond smiled. "I look forward to meeting him."

Jack nodded. "All right, then, is there anything else you need from me?"

"Not right now. I'll have orders cut for these folks to be transferred and let the departments know they're coming."

"Well, then, I'll just go figure out where we can plant Sciaparelli and try to think if there's anything I've forgotten."

"Carry on, colonel," Hammond said and Jack left. After brief consideration, he went to the office of Dr. Cameron Balinsky. The door was open, so he knocked on the frame.

The young man looked up, eyes widening slightly in alarm. "Good morning, sir," he said. "Is there some way I can help you?"

Jack nodded and stepped inside. "Mind if I sit down?"

"Of course not," Balinsky said. "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong. I just have a few questions." Balinsky waited, nervously fidgeting with his pen. "If Daniel was working in a university somewhere, in a department with plenty of money and the same level of work coming through as we have here, what kind of staff would you expect him to have?"

Balinsky blinked at him. "I'm not sure I understand what you mean." Jack waited. "The same amount of work? The same level of urgency? It's not really comparable."

"Well . . ." Jack pursed his lips. "How about this. In an ideal world, what kind of staff do you think this department would have?"

Balinsky shifted nervously in his chair. "Maybe you should ask Dr. Jackson, sir," he said. "It's his department."

"Yes, I know," Jack said. "But I wanted to know what you thought."

"No, sir, I . . ." Balinsky shook his head vehemently. "I'm not going to go behind Dr. Jackson's back on something like this."

Jack's jaw dropped. "I'm not asking you to go behind anyone's back. I'm just asking you for your opinion."

"That shouldn't be hard," said a new voice, and Jack turned to see Major Dixon coming in the doorway. "Balinsky's got lots of opinions." Dixon smiled at Balinsky, but as he looked at the younger man, the major's expression changed. "Hey, O'Neill, why are you harassing my archeologist?"

"I'm not harassing anybody," Jack said, feeling somewhat harassed himself. He glanced over at Balinsky and noticed that he looked like he felt cornered. "I was just asking for some advice on some departmental restructuring."

Dixon raised an eyebrow. "Why don't you ask Dr. Jackson?" he asked. "It's his department."

"I'm looking for more than one opinion," Jack said.

"So, what does Jackson think?" Dixon asked curiously.

Jack grimaced. "I haven't asked him yet."

"Why don't you ask him first?"

"He's not here," Jack pointed out. "And all I'm asking for is an opinion."

Major Dixon gazed at him with some indefinable emotion. "Sir, can I talk to you privately?"

"Sure," Jack said. "So, Balinsky, your opinion?"

The young man pursed his lips, glanced at his CO, then said, "I've only been here three months, sir. I don't think I have enough experience for my opinion to be valuable."

Jack nodded and stood up. "Thanks," he said. "Coming, major?"

"Of course, sir," Dixon said.

Jack led him to his office and gestured for him to take the side chair. "What do you need, Dixon?"

The major stood up straight, almost at attention. "Sir, may I speak freely?"

"Of course," Jack said uneasily, sitting up straighter himself in an unconscious response to Dixon's formality.

"Sir, I don't pretend to understand what's been going on between you and Dr. Jackson, but I would appreciate you not trying to pull my archeologist into the middle of it."

Jack stared at him for several seconds, then cleared his throat. "Nothing's going on between Dr. Jackson and I."

Dixon took a deep breath, stony-faced. "Have it your own way, sir. Regardless, Cameron's just a kid. He hasn't been here long, and during the time he has been here, you haven't been very . . . let's just say you haven't been very consistent in your behavior towards his boss."

Anger surged through Jack at Dixon's words, but he forced himself to examine his reaction and control it. Thinking back, he realized that Balinsky started at the SGC just after Teal'c and Carter had figured out how to get him back from Edora. A lot had happened since then, including some damned shitty behavior from Jack towards Daniel.

Dixon cleared his throat uncomfortably. "I'm sorry, sir, but that's how I see it."

Jack looked down at his hands and slumped in his chair. "Sit, please, Dave," he said. Dixon raised an eyebrow, looking irritated. "Dave, you're right. I've been an ass, but that wasn't what this conversation with Balinsky was about."

Dixon didn't look entirely convinced, but he did sit down. "What was it about, then?"

Jack sighed. "Look, Daniel and I have come to terms. He came and . . . well, more or less reamed me a new one."

"I did notice you were being sweet as sugar for the last week before he went to 888."

Jack gave him a sour look. "I could get real cranky, real fast, major."

"No doubt," Dixon said, singularly unintimidated.

Jack sighed. "Look, I just went on a personnel survey, right?" Dixon nodded. "I found the perfect person to be the office manager for our archeology department. Daniel, being Daniel, is going to assume that any introduction of a military officer into his department is meant as a slight. I'm trying to figure out how best to fix that so it doesn't come across that way."

"Well, nosing around his subordinates doesn't strike me as the right way to go about it," Dixon replied. "Why aren't you talking to him about it?"

"Because he's offworld on a dig and I don't want to bother him," Jack said with perfect truth, though less than total candor.

Dixon nodded thoughtfully. "And with the attitude you've been giving him for the past few weeks, you don't want to get in the way of his fun."

Jack glowered at him. "Now I remember why we made you a team commander," he growled. Dixon raised an eyebrow. "Damned busybody."

"Isn't that why they made you a commander?" Dixon asked innocently.

"Why don't you go back and reassure your archeologist that I had no ill intent, hmm?"

"Sure, Jack," Dixon said, standing up. "I'm glad to hear that you and Jackson are working out your differences. The two of you make a great team."

"Thanks," Jack said. Dixon left and Jack stared blindly at the wall next to the door.

He really didn't like the implication of this. If new people at the SGC saw his recent behavior and treatment of Daniel, as typical, the impact that could have had on the military staff, particularly the younger men, was appalling. He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the desk. Not only had he screwed up his friendship with Daniel, he'd probably caused incalculable damage to relations between the civilian and military personnel on the base.

How badly could he screw things up before somebody noticed and stomped on him?

"Sir?"

Belatedly, Jack realized that he hadn't shut the door before giving way to his own demons. He sat up and gave Carter a bright smile. "Yes, major?"

"Are you okay?"

"Fine," he said cheerily. "Chipper. Peachy. Dandy."

"Sir!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, Carter?"

"Sir, you don't . . . is something wrong?"

"Nothing new," Jack replied, dropping the pretense. Carter grimaced in comprehension. He shrugged. "So, I presume you came by here for a reason?"

"Yes sir," she said. "I've done all I can with my experiments right now, and Teal'c will be back tomorrow, so if you wanted to get back into the rotation, there's nothing holding us back."

Jack nodded and resisted the urge to point out their lack of Daniel. "Let's see if Teal'c's ready when he comes back," he said.

"Sure." She was gazing at him worriedly. Jack tried to keep his expression calm and unruffled. He didn't need Carter going into mommy mode on him. "Well, I guess I'll go check on the dialing program. Walter mentioned some bugs the last time I talked to him . . ."

"Sounds great," Jack said with a grin. "Get the crickets out of those computers."

She grinned back, but she didn't look convinced. "All right, sir," she said. "See you later."

"See ya!" he replied, and Carter left, looking back at him as she went. He shelved self-pity for the drive home and started to work.

By the end of the day, he'd defined a basic job description for Sciaparelli's position. He'd have to let the man get into the job before the description could really be fleshed out. For one thing, Jack had no idea exactly what Daniel would need, and he knew what Daniel would say if he asked him. Hammond had suggested assistants more than once in the past, and Daniel had rejected the entire idea. He didn't need anything, he could manage it all on his own.