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Jennifer emerged mid-flight and mid-shriek from the event horizon in the Embarkation room.
Landing awkwardly on the ramp she barely checked her momentum to stop herself from landing on her face in front of 20+ people. Looking sheepishly around the room her blush deepened, she was quite aware of the grace of her entrance. Complete silence reigned and everyone was staring at her, from the two teams huddled together at the end of the ramp, to the defence force manning their positions, to the control room crew looking at her through the large windows. One could hear a pin drop. Jen felt her face flame and whimpered quietly, overcome with the intense desire to hide her face in her hands. Or even better: to crawl under the ramp and not come out of there for days.
Suddenly she became very aware of the fact that she was wearing a dress, a sleeveless dress at that. Making her look even more foolish were the backpack, the tactical vest and her weapon. The trust in them that the Romans had manifested by returning their weapons still filled her with awe. As Jack had told them, the matter truly was closed for the Romans with the insult to their god having been averted.
Jack had once again proven a master tactician and leader, not even thinking of what too many other leaders would've done had they been given back their weapons: retaliate. Instead, with his leadership skills Jack had even managed to secure the SGC permission to scout and mine for Naquada, provided ecologically-friendly means would be used, for example no machinery. The Romans were smart, they didn't want their paradise on Earth destroyed, something that made Jack suspect they'd once had a comparable level of technology to Earth's, yet had consciously rejected it and gone back to the old nature-friendly way of life. Even more, it seemed the house he and Jen had spent the night in was now rightfully theirs and they were free to come and use it whenever and however they pleased. If Jack's face had been anything to go by, he was already thinking of coming back at one point.
Too bad that he and Jen hadn't had the time to change into their spare BDU's, though.
Hearing from behind a heavy thump that rattled the ramp she turned around and was faced with her husband. Jack's smug, mischevious grin met hers and she shot him a dirty look, that quickly turned into an evil one. Jen looked meaningfully at his clothes, then shot her eyes sideways. She was gratified to see that infuriating smile slip off his face as he suddenly became aware of being the center of everyone's attention.
However naked her white dress made her feel in this sea of BDUs, at least her dress was reaching all the way to the floor... Jack's tunic, on the other hand, stopped above his knees, leaving most of his hairy legs on display. She couldn't help the full-toothed evil chuckle at his expense.
This was better than any retaliation for the slap to her butt that she could ever come up with.
When Jack shuffled his feet uncomfortably for a second her smile widened.
He sent her a scowl, then took a deep breath and put on a confident face, as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
Walking past her he hissed "Do everything I do." and, giving his weapons to the Sergeant standing at the bottom of the ramp, turned his steps towards the blast-doors. "Dorothy is back in Kansas, sir." Jack loudly assured the General as the man looked on from the control room booth. "Everything's five-by-five."
Jen looked at him oddly, but he only shrugged. Everything was so un-five-by-five it couldn't be more, from them walking around dressed in Roman clothing to being married, but trying didn't hurt, right?
"Colonel O'Neill? Lieutenant Hailey?" Hammond's sharp voice stopped them as they were almost out the door.
"Crap." Jack swore to himself while Jen moaned, hiding her face with her hands. There went the possibility they could just hide the tattoos until the geeks could find a way to remove them. He SOOO didn't look forward to explaining everything to Hammond.
"Sir?" Jack turned around
"What do you and the Lieutenant have on your arms, Colonel?" The General didn't even spare a thought to their clothes, seeing SG team members return off-world wearing anything BUT their uniform was just too common. However, most of them didn't have something adorning their forearms.
"What do you mean, sir?" Jack asked innocently, while grabbing Jen by the strap of her backpack as she tried to slip quietly out of the room. If he had to be in hot water so did she. After all, hadn't they promised to each other to stick together through sickness and health and all that? They should start practicing that right away...
Especially if that meant he wouldn't have to explain by himself to an already-getting-pissed-off General that he'd married his subordinate.
Hammond narrowed his eyes "Debriefing, 30 minutes! And you better have a damn good explanation for why you went and got tattoos off-world!" The portly General turned on his heel and disappeared up the staircase to his office.
"Oy!" Jack muttered quietly to himself and ran a hand down his face. Feeling a tugging on his hand he looked down to see Jennifer still in his grasp.
The fiery young woman was glaring up at him for having had her escape thwarted. Ignoring the daggers in her eyes Jack flung an arm around her shoulders in a friendly, platonic way, thus forcing her to keep up as he directed his steps out of the room "Come on, Mrs O'Neill, lets go have a shower."
Daniel, walking behind them, snickered as an SF walking by tripped and almost planted his face into the floor upon hearing Jack's proclamation, while the stiff posture of the miniature Lieutenant tightened even more.
Once sure she would keep the correct course Jack retrieved his arm, smiling inwardly at how quickly Jennifer made sure to put a foot of distance between them. Glancing at her, he saw she was still trying to vaporize him for his quip with just the force of her glare.
Okay, so he knew his coping mechanisms weren't nearly as sensitive and/or politically correct as people would wish, but he was under stress and stress did not make for a sensitive/politically-correct Jack O'Neill. Hopefully the new Mrs O'Neill would realize that soon... Preferrably before she decided her laser sight wasn't working and would instead try a gun to to use on him. THAT was not the way Jack wanted to get out of this marriage... especially since it'd end with him dead.
Glancing at the angry gait of the little Mrs walking by his side he barely stopped himself from voicing the suggestion to apply for a private locker-shower room for just the two of them, since after all they were married... Remembering Sara hadn't really appreciated his smart-assing when she'd been angry he realized he'd have to again stop exercising a little diplomacy, if only for peace and quiet that a non-angry wife would bring.
Leaving Jen at her team's locker-room with a "See ya soon." he headed for SG-1's locker room that boasted it's own shower area. Being the premier team of the facility did have it's up-sides.
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