609 Allegiance

Jacob and Bra'tac could not keep peace between the quarreling Tok'ra and Free Jaffa. The enmity between them was deep and abiding and centuries if not millennia old. Who did they call on to broker peace - the great patient diplomat Jack O'Neill.

Although they hated one another the current problem proved to be a saboteur who was exacerbating the animosity between them.

Jack had just come back from Jonas' homeworld where the three nation states were ready to go to one another. Here Earth's allies Tok'ra and the Free Jaffa were at one another's throats. Earth wasn't too peaceful itself. Was there any hope for a peaceful future?

Jacob was sitting on a pile of crates filled with supplies for the refugees of which Jacob was one. Jack O'Neill ambled over to get Jacob's perspective on the animosity between the supposed allies. Their chat started with the alliance of the allies and migrated to Jacob's alliance with his symbiote Selmak.

"When I first met Selmak she was in a bad way, as was I."

"Yeah, I remember."

"And thank you by the way. She thought she was going to die with her host. She wasn't ready to give up the fight but ready to go with Saroosh. Both of us...all three of us were expecting to die. Sometimes you're ready to pack it in and life gives you another choice. You know how that is." It wasn't a question, Jacob knew Jack's history.

"Yeah." O'Neill stared off to the Jaffa exercising in the field.

"I'm sorry about Kanan." Jacob heard Jack huff. "He did the wrong thing for the right reason. I'm sorry I was there for you Jack. I'd have lent you Selmak."

"Wouldn't that be like wife swapping?"

Jacob laughed, then reflected and asked "You don't blame Sam, do you?"

"No. No. She didn't do this. Carter just tried to save my life, for that and only that, I'm grateful." Changing the awkward subject Jack asked "How's the leg?"

"One of the advantages of a symbiote - better." He patted his leg.

Jack grimaced.

Jacob now tried to access O'Neill's alliance with his daughter. Jacob was no fool, he knew his days were numbered. He was blessed with the oldest of the Tok'ra with it's advantages and disadvantages. Both he and Selmak have been given this fleeting, by celestial reckoning, second chance. So in this time allotted he wanted to know if his daughter was cared for. He was well aware this was her life and her decisions and he will be shut down if he interfered. But he was a father and he loved his daughter and wanted the best for her. And he thought he was sitting beside that man.

"I wonder sometimes if she should be in the lab and not on the front lines." Jacob said.

"You and me both. But more often than not she's the one to pull our bacon out of the fire."

"I've wondered if she too by the book?" Jacob asked.

"No better soldier, maybe too good. Ya know, Jacob, I've worked with guys that would tell me to go fuck myself to my face. Not Carter."

"You think she's too subservient?"

"Maybe in the beginning, hopping up every two seconds and 'siring' me to death. No, now she manages occasionally to tell me I'm an idiot in the most diplomatic way."

Jacob grinned. "Do you think I'll have any more grandchildren?"

Jack looked aghast at Jacob, the former general. The same man who looked as those he wanted to dismember O'Neill the first time they met for being so casual around his daughter.

"Shouldn't you ask your daughter or son?"

"I'm asking you."

"The only influence in her life I have is to make sure she comes back from every mission in one piece, if I can. And to help advance her career."

"Work should be the only thing that defines her life."

"She's brilliant, Jacob. She has determination, drive, loyalty and the respect of everyone she has ever worked with. I'll protect her with my life but I won't interfere with what she wants." When Jack closed his mouth he realized he probably said too much considering the smirk on Jacob's face.

"Jacob, you know I'm her commanding officer. You've heard of chain of command and the regulations."

"When you go through some of the things I have and at my advanced age" Jacob was still smiling "you look at a lot of things differently, a different perspective. Life throws us a lot of curve balls. You have to be open to the unexpected."

"Every day."

"You know Jack, when you put on civvies you should remember to take off your armor."

Jack knew exactly what Jacob was driving at but this was hard for him to do. Perhaps he was still protecting himself from the aftermath of his divorce and the loss of his son. He has been Carter's superior for five and a half years. He feared she'd do what he wanted over what was truly her choice. He didn't want his feelings for her to be an anchor around her neck holding her back from what she wanted and from her true potential.

This mission gave O'Neill a lot to think about, never mind the animosity between the Tok'ra and Jaffa and an invisible assassin.