AN: So observations on my boss's boss. This, mind you is the swell fella that wants us to blow sunshine up his nethers. I already noted he likes to micro manage dumb things. Yesterday he shows up for his monthly here's how much your store that is 2nd in the district and 4th in the company for sales stinks today. We have a problem with our stock team not using their locating system. It's a BIG problem. Arguably there is supposed to be someone dedicated to that job by itself and she doesn't have enough staff so everyone has to do it themselves so it tends to not get done. This is a problem I have pointed out to my boss and have repeatedly told her we need to prioritize and even offered to work on it personally. Mostly because it effects MY staff and myself the most when I go to pull online orders. Anyway he's 100% why I've been spending ALL night doing the inventory job because it's not getting done during the day like it's supposed to because he won't push back on our company policy regarding staffing during busy times. I can't have an on call employee nor can I staff to need. Actual need not the company's idiot policy of barely enough. I can't wait until EVERY complaint we get is not enough staff. Then I can point at it and say THIS is my problem. He's so focused on playing at controlling everything that I get one version of how to run my shop from an actual expert CEM and his version. I laugh. We are supposed to have these monthly meetings to talk and share ideas and stuff... but apparently not implement them like focusing on the problem people and not worrying about people who do their freaking jobs. Oh he DID concede two points. If I'm off for 2 days and the staff trashes my previously 5 star repair bench then we need to talk to my part time assistant CEM who I did not choose and whom I would not have chosen. The other point that I was clearly NOT doing my paperwork... but when pointed out how much higher my numbers are from six months ago in ALL the stuff my paperwork is supposed to be focusing on... it's because I'm doing the work not the pencil pushing. Then again I'm supposed to focus on specific things but be robust. There's not really a lot you can say about the specific thing UNLESS you pad it with the 100 other things they also need to be good at for those customer service scores to improve the way mine have. Micromanager can kick rocks. He has no idea how passive aggressive I get with guys like him. He's terrible at communication and honestly, almost 100% of what I get out of my staff is working with them with THEIR communication style and not expecting them to conform to mine.

Can you tell I'm annoyed by the guy? lol.

Chapter 2

Sean was mystified. There was no one home at either address. When he called the Base main line, he was informed neither Colonel Carter nor Dr. Jackson was available even when told who he was and why he was there. "Now what? He asked himself from the inside of the rental car outside a local Chinese take out. Sean settled on if he were his dad, what would he do? Head on to DC alone? Possibly. Figure out why he couldn't find his own family? More likely. He'd need an internet connection. Best bet was go park in front of Jack and Sam's house and borrow their signal from the driveway. So ten minutes later, that was exactly what he was doing while he absently bit into an eggroll. His third so far.

His brows furrowed, perplexed. There was a Sam Carter in the area making purchases, but her address didn't match. The house was listed as being owned by one Wilson Amos, retired Marine sergeant. Was his aunt running around on his uncle? That might be an uncomfortable conversation. Not having figured out any better options, Sean pulled out of the driveway, brushing the grease on his fingers off on his pants absently.

Fifteen minutes later, he pulled up in front of a tidy grey brick home with yellow siding and green shutters. Odd place to cement a tryst. Sean pondered. But it was the address so… may as well check it out. He got out of his car and walked up to the wide covered porch to knock on the door. A few moments later, a fatherly looking man opened it and looked at Sean in confusion.

"I'm looking for Sam Carter." Sean tried with an authoritative air.

The older man gave him a piercing look. Too old to be high school. He frowned. "What do you want?"

"It's about Jack O'Neill." Sean said, hedging his bets that she was just staying with a friend for some reason as the guy had on a wedding band.

"Sammy!" he bellowed over his shoulder. He retuned his gaze to Sean. "SGC?"

Sean shook his head. "Phoenix. My dad sent me."

The man frowned at him. "What's going on?"

"That's something I need to discuss with Sam."

A gangly teen tripped lightly down the stairs and stopped halfway down with her hand on the banister. "Sean?" She asked in soft surprise before continuing down the stairs. "How did you…"

"He says he's here about Jack?" The older man informed Sammy.

"Oh my god, what happened? Is he okay? I need to call Jon." Sammy said in quick succession.

Sean shook his head trying to figure out how this kid knew him. "Excuse my French but who the hell are you?"

Sammy huffed out a sigh as she looked away. "Sam Carter... or… well, one of them…"

"What?"

"I'll call Jon." The man offered.

"Thanks, Uncle Wil. You may as well come in, Sean. I can probably explain everything but there's going to be a wait."

"How are you Sam Carter?" Sean asked her, stepping inside the house as the man named Wil walked away flipping open his phone.

"It's complicated." She hedged. "I take it Uncle Hank gave you the run around?"

"Uncle Hank?"

"Hank Landry. General at SGC."

"Oh… no… I never got that far. Some pencil pusher wouldn't let me talk to Daniel Jackson or anyone else that might be able to help." He admitted.

Sammy huffed. "Bureaucrats. Walter must have taken a day off." She huffed. "Want some coffee or are you stuck on tea like your dad?"

"No, coffee's fine. Who's Walter?"

"Walter Harriman. Pretty much runs the base." She told him as she led him to the kitchen and waved him to an oak chair as she checked the coffee pot. "Mare must have drank it all again." She muttered and dumped the grounds and reached above her to grab a filter.

Wil had circled back and headed upstairs to his den. "Jon?" He said in a low tone when the boy finally picked up his phone.

"Oh hey Wil, is this super important? I'm kind of at work." His words were punctuated by a grunt as though he was lifting something.

Will pinched the bridge of his nose. "Who's Sean?"

"Bub's kid. Knocked some girl up in college. Didn't know about it until the kid was in his twenties. Why?"

"Because he's here looking for Sam and it's about Jack." Will waited while the boy cussed at length. "I'll clock out and be over as soon as I can. Don't let him leave. Carter knows not to fill him in."

"I don't think he's going to tell us anything unless we read him in." Wil pointed out.

Jon sighed. "You're probably right. I'll call Bub and see if the kid can be trusted."

"Jon, he's older than you." Wil said, chuckling at Jon's use of the word 'kid'.

"Only technically." Jon growled. "I'll be there as soon as I can. Keep him occupied and don't let him leave."

"Yes sir." Wil said in wry amusement.

"Very funny, Sergeant." Jon said and hung up. What in the hell was going on, he wondered.

Jon dialed his cousin's private number.

Mac looked down and saw his cell phone ring with an unfamiliar number. He frowned in concern. Was it the kidnappers? Sam? Jack's Sam? He picked it up. "MacGyver."

"Bub, I don't have a lot of time. What the hell is going on? Why is Sean at Sammy's house looking for Sam?"

Mac blinked. "Who is this?"

Jon sighed. "Did Jack tell you about the clone?"

Mac's eyes narrowed. "How do I know this isn't some kind of trick?"

"Well, first of all," Jon drawled, his tone sarcastic. "Who besides me calls you Bub? Secondly, how's old man Harris's palomino? Does your ass still hurt where he threw you into that cedar tree?"

"How did you?"

"Because I was there, remember? And I specifically warned you that horse wasn't broke yet no matter how much you got along with horses."

"Let's assume you are who you say you are…"

"Right." Jon said shortly. "Sean showed up at Sammy's house. He said it was about Jack. I can explain who she is but only if you think clearing him later isn't going to be a problem."

"Whoa, whoa… slow down, who's Sammy?"

"Sam's clone."

"They cloned her too? What the hell for?"

"An insurance policy mostly. Look, the old man will explain it to you later. Right now I need to know the kid can be trusted with knowing this stuff because if he can't, I'm sending him packing."

"He was looking for Sam. Jack was kidnapped. I got a ransom note yesterday."

"Shit." There was a long pause while several more muffled 'shits' were strung together. "How the hell did he manage to get himself kidnapped? Sam is going to kill him."

"Yah, well I'm a little worried about that. They say they want money but I can't find any info on these people yet which means they aren't in the business of kidnapping."

"Which means when they get what they want, they will probably kill him anyway. Is Gracie safe?"

"Yah. Her handler took her to a safe house as soon as I contacted her about the ransom."

"This never would have happened if Sam was here." Jon grumbled.

"Where is she?"

"Definitely not here." Jon said, refusing to give details over an unsecured line. "I'm pulling up to the Amos' place. I'll call you if I need to check anything else."

"Why was Sam given the run around at the SGC? He couldn't get through to anyone."

"Probably wasn't home and Walter must have actually taken the day off." Jon mused. "I'll call." He said and hung up.

Jon got out of the aging compact he'd bought and walked up to the garage code panel and typed in the access code. The door rose and he was greeted by a fretting Sammy.

"Jon… Jack's been kidnapped." She gave him that thank god you're here look and he drew her into his arms, knowing she needed his physical reassurance without her even asking He held her for a short moment until he knew she was steady again.

He nodded and hugged her tightly again, this time for his own reassurance. "Bub told me. We'll get him back, Carter." He mumbled into her neck. "We'll get him back."

"Gracie?"

"Is safe. Her handler took her to a safe house as soon as Bub called her."

"Thank God." Sammy sighed.

Jon nodded. "I suppose I should introduce myself to my very confused 'cousin'." Jon said, with a dry chuckle.

"I've been putting him off and trying to get him to tell me what's going on." She admitted.

"Bub says we can trust him. The old man will probably be pissed at me but I'm going to read him in as far as what involves you and me and just kind of fudge the rest."

"I don't care if Jack is pissed. It's more important that we get him back. Why isn't the government doing anything?"

"I don't think they know where he is or who took him." Jon admitted as they walked through the mud room to the kitchen. "Sean." He said simply to his dark haired cousin.

Sean looked at Jon thoughtfully. "And you are?"

Jon gave the man everyone but family called Sam a self deprecating smile. "You probably aren't going to believe me… but I'm Jack O'Neill." He shrugged "More or less."

"Mostly less." Sean said with a perturbed frown.

Will snorted in amusement which caught him a glare from Jon but the boy flashed him a quick smile before turning to Sean again. "I talked to your dad. This is fairly complicated and Sam can probably explain it better but you only need the abridged Reader's Digest version." Jon was making no attempt to even act like a seventeen year old kid. He needed to get Sean on board with this as soon as possible. Jack's life might hang in the balance and he just couldn't do that to Sam. Either Sam.

Sean frowned. "Okay, what the hell is going on?"

Jon snorted in amusement. Sounded like Bub. "A bunch of years ago, Jack got tangled up in a top secret military project – one your father knows quite a bit about. He met Sam Carter then captain during that project. After a great deal of effort put towards ignoring and otherwise avoiding their feelings for each other. they eventually got married. You already know that part. During the project, they came in contact with some people with way more advanced tech than ours."

Sean frowned thoughtfully. "The Swiss?" he said mockingly.

"These guys make the Swiss look like nobodies. Let's just say the tech was alien... very alien."

"Wait… as in little green men aliens?"

"Grey." Sammy and Jon muttered together.

Sean looked from one to the other. "You guys are serious."

"Like a heart attack. Anyway, one of our little grey buddies got really invested in saving his people from some genetic problems and decided to experiment on me for a week."

Sean gave Jon the hairy eyeball.

"Yah… probably that too. I'm trying not to think about that part. Anyway they sent me down to replace him but because his buddies did something to me genetically instead of me coming out a middle aged guy, I showed up as a fifteen year old kid."

Sammy snorted in amusement.

"No giggling, Carter." He admonished her.

"Sorry… sir." She said and giggled helplessly.

"I have lost all control of that situation." Jon lamented as he pointed at Sammy.

"I see that." Sean said deadpan.

"Anyway… I was supposed to die of organ failure in a few weeks after I was made but you know how the old man is. He's pretty much a sucker for kids and Carter was giving him the 'please Jack' look so he caved and made our buddies keep me alive."

Sean looked thoughtful. "So you're a clone?"

"Yap, with all his memories up to that point."

"And all his bad habits." Wil added.

"Those too." Jon agreed pleasantly as though he was proud of said habits.

"So where does she come in?"

"She's an insurance policy." Jon told Sean.

Sammy glared at him.

"What? You are. No matter what bullshit Jack used on Sam, ultimately you're his insurance policy."

"That's not very gracious, son." Wil admonished him.

"Her job is to keep me in line and exist in case something happens to Carter." Jon said. Heedless of Sammy's glare.

"Why though?" Sean asked.

"He thinks it's because I'm a 'national treasure'. But it's not. Jack talked Sam and the Joint Chiefs into cloning me because he knew you could handle a lot of things but not having me in your life wasn't going to be one of the ones you handled well. You were moping. Whatever crap he told the Joint Chiefs to get them to go along with the idea has nothing to do with his actual motivation so you can stop being an insufferable ass." She said sharply to Jon.

"I know myself, Carter." He argued back.

"Do you? Are you so certain? Because I was there for that conversation… and you weren't." she reminded him.

Wil cut in as the children were busy fighting. "Sam agreed to be cloned and the result was given a foster family as a cover." He said indicating Sammy. "They usually get along better than this but Jon gets argumentative when he's worried about people he cares about and there has been some other things going on in their lives." He said in a reasonable tone to Sean.

"Okay… so he's a clone of Jack and she's a clone of Sam."

"Correct." Wil said, continuing to ignore the bickering teens.

"Okay." There was a beep from his pocket. Sean frowned as he read the message. "From what Dad has learned, Jack is still probably in DC or nearby since we know he wasn't here in the Springs. And there's no sign of him since yesterday. We also know that he missed a JC staff meeting and they're keeping his absence a secret to not alert his kidnappers." Sean told them. "What we can't figure out is who or why Jack was kidnapped." He looked at Jon speculatively. He'd bet a buck their problem was sexual frustration. "But you might know."

Sammy tore her eyes from the glare fight she was having with Jon. "That's why we're going with you." She said matter-of-factly.

"Oh no. I'm not taking a couple of teenaged kids into an operation. Not happening. Dad would kill me."

"Except we aren't actually teenaged kids. I'm in my fifties, she's in her early forties and we only look like kids." Jon said.

"Yet you are both in high school." Sean reminded him.

"A cover so no one looks twice at us. He might be able to get through without being drafted for boosting cars this time." Sam added.

"Pardon?" Sean looked confused.

"You said you wouldn't tell anyone." Jon reminded her in an injured tone.

"No, Sam said she wouldn't tell anyone. I'm not Sam."

"Evidently." Jon said with a frown.

Shortly after sending the texts to Sean, Mac's phone rang but this time he recognized the number. He'd been called from it many times before. "Phoenix Foundation. MacGyver speaking."

"Would you like to explain to me why one of your people is beating down my door, Mr. MacGyver?" drawled the man on the other line.

"Uh…. Who is this?"

"General Hank Landry. The man who runs the base your people were trying to get an invitation into." He grumped.

"General Landry," Mac said solicitously. "The man calling you was Sam Malloy, my son, because he was looking for Dr. Jackson."

"Why?"

"Because Jack O'Neill has been kidnapped and yesterday I received a hefty ransom call about it." Mac explained.

"Kidnapped? Why hasn't the Pentagon notified us?"

"I have no idea, General Landry. I'm not even sure they know. Or they do know and they're on radio silence."

Landry took the phone away from his ear and cussed for a few moments to himself. When he brought the handset back to his ear, his face had gone from annoyed to concerned. "Tell me everything you know." He demanded.