AN: My stock manager agrees. Our boss' boss is a yutz. lol. We also agree the constant review of staff is wasteful and pointless. It takes away from actually managing them and teaching them to provide better customer service because it focuses on ONE aspect of their job and I keep getting told make them robust but ONY focus on this one thing... Ok lets do a logic exercise here... how robust can you make comments on meeting or exceeds or falls behind in getting customer sign ups... If you guessed very little without making it VERY fluffy... you guessed right. This guy just really needs to learn how to listen to what his people actually need from him instead of acting like he thinks he's the finger of god. He's TERRIBLE at listening. It won't get him the results he wants just dictating this is how things are. He needs to look at those top stores doing better then us and if THEY are struggling with paperwork too perhaps it's because the paperwork is burdensome.

Chapter 3

Rob, Brian, and Mike sat together swapping stories about their recent missions off-world and trying to figure out where Frank was. All three of them hit roadblocks on where their friend went off to. Assuming he was stationed somewhere exotic and in their line of work… likely alien. General Hammond assured them on his last visit before his retirement that he was alive and well but nothing else.

"Something else I noticed…" Mike commented. "A few days after Frank left, that engineer friend of his packed up her lab and was gone in a couple weeks too. You know the little one, Schultzy."

Brian and Rob smiled. They all knew their large friend was sweet on her but where could they both have gone for so long? It had been nearly a year now with no word from either of them.

Rob mumbled "Lucky bastard!" which made Brian laugh.

"Look, fellas," He said, still chuckling. "That big lug deserves it. At least he can officially join the married club."

They all laughed at that. While they were still chuckling over Frank's presumed fate, Walter walked into the R&R room they were loitering in. "Swampy, Daddy, Frothy. General Landry needs to see you." He announced with a small, concerned frown.

The three, now being addressed by their call signs, knew something was up. They followed Walter back to Landry's office without asking any questions of the smaller man. One of them knocked on the door and upon hearing "Enter", the three Seals filed in while Walter hung back.

"Dev Group reporting for duty, Sir." Daddy snapped with a quick salute.

"We are on a tight time schedule." Landry said, without preamble. "We have intelligence that General O'Neill has been kidnapped."

There was sudden and absolute silence in the sparse office. Concealing their shock, the three Seals looked at each other wondering how the hell did that happen?

"Any idea where he is, sir?" Frothy finally asks.

Landry tapped his pen absently on his desk blotter. "We do. After some satellite work Lee or Siler can explain to you better than I can, due to General O'Neill's rather unique physiology, we think he's in the bunker under the Greenbrier." He pauses. "We think… we are certain the person responsible blames Jack for the death of Colonel Frank Cromwell a few years back."

Confusion crosses their faces and Landry motions the men to join him in the briefing room outside his office. "Follow me."

Once they are all seated, Landry continues. "A few years ago, we had a team off-world studying a collapsing star. Unfortunately, it started collapsing a lot faster than our science team predicted and the team was lost. When we tried to sever the connection to the Gate on the planet they were on," Landry looked at his notes thoughtfully. "The increased gravity on the other side of the Gate caused by the black hole locked it open." He picks up the remote for the TV at the end of the room and fiddles with it for a moment. "This is a video of the briefing describing how we managed to shut down the Gate and quite possibly save the entire solar system." Landry said as he hit start.

Thirty minutes later, the three Seals nodded. Only Frothy really grasped what Sam had explained in the video but the end result was enough. Jack had saved the world with Cromwell's help but someone with limited data knowing the grudge Jack had against the other man might have concluded otherwise.

"When do we leave?" Daddy asked.

"Right now." Landry told them. "A plane is waiting for you at Peterson to take you to Andrews. I want you all to remember these are most likely current or retired special ops soldiers so let's take them alive if we can and if we can't, we need to be discreet as possible. This is still a fully functioning hotel for the wealthy who have no idea they are playing shuffleboard on top of a top secret bunker."

"We understand, sir. Any suggestions on non-lethal options?" Frothy asked.

"I do." Landry said with a smirk. "See the Armory Sergeant. Remember those Goa'uld weapons you trained on?"

"Those Zap guns?" Swampy asked.

Landry nodded. "The same. Zats. One shot stuns. Remember that. And get going, seamen." He told them gruffly.

"Aye Sir." The three Seals said together.

Jack sighed. He hated that he lost track of time in these situations… especially when Sam wasn't there with her mental internal clock. They had fed him if you could call it that. He'd shared half of what little he'd been given with the dog as they hadn't bothered to bring her anything. He'd figured out he was a 'she' by her constant attempts to gain belly rubs he couldn't supply because his hands were bound. Hell, he'd had to beg to be unbound long enough to use the can and had three hooded figures with guns trained on him the entire time. The dog had peed on the floor next to the bucket they had provided him in solidarity.

The first guy as Jack was coming to think of him had only shown up the once when he first arrived. He hadn't been questioned. Whoever this guy was… he wasn't exactly forthcoming with the details to his goons either. When Jack tried to ask what the hell this was all about, they had laughed and said money.

Except it was never really about money. The first guy had insinuated revenge was somehow involved. Revenge for what? Most of the people Jack had killed over the last decade or so hadn't lived on this planet. The few that had wouldn't be missed by their own mothers.

The room, such as it was… reminded Jack of an empty parking garage without the lines. Probably a basement for some large building. One big enough that a lone older man yelling his brains out wouldn't even be noticed. And deep enough underground that no one had been able to just beam him out… if he'd had his doohickey which, of course, he didn't. It was on his dresser at home because he was told not to play with it by his wife.

Jack's thoughts wandered to his family and hoped his absence was noted immediately and Gracie was in the safe house. The kids were probably okay. There was no reason to go after Bub or his boy other than to hurt him but if they had any of them he'd already be tied to a chair and forced to watch them being tortured. They might want Sam but good luck with that he thought with dark amusement. Hell good luck grabbing the kids for that matter. All their experience and none of their age to get in the way.

His fuzzy companion whined.

"Yah… I'm hungry too." He agreed with her. "Hey!" he yelled. "Can I get some food? I'm starving here!"

He was answered only by silence.

"Hey. kidnapper guys! Can you hear me? I'm starving here!" He yelled again.

Still nothing.

The dog let out a gruff moan of displeasure.

"You and me both." He agreed with the dog.

Jack levered himself up off the cold concrete. "This is going to pay hell with my ass if they don't at least give me a futon." He mumbled and walked over to the door trying to work the kinks out. "Hey!" he yelled again and kicked the door repeatedly. "I'm hungry!"

His furry friend barked.

The door finally swung open and Jack almost stumbled through it but a pair of meaty hands shoved him back on his ass. "You'll eat when we decide you'll eat." The man growled.

"Look no one wants to explain why I'm here but if you wanted me dead I'd already be dead. It's been since yesterday. Starving me for a confession won't work. That's been tried already."

"The boss already knows what you did. Go sit down before we shoot your kneecaps."

Jack frowned and acted like he felt defeated. "Look I'd take a sandwich. Half a sandwich. I'm not picky." He asked in a piteous servile voice.

His guard blocked the door but turned and said something quietly to a companion in the other room. "Good thing you aren't picky." He said with a laugh. With that, the door boomed shut.

Jack went back to the middle of the room, changed his mind, and headed for a wall opposite of the pee bucket and slid down the wall. The small brown and white dog joined him, looked up at him with soft pleading brown eyes and whined.

"If you're saying this looks like the plot to an '80s adventure show… you're right. I just wish I had a paperclip." Jack said with a sigh as he put his head back and closed his eyes.

The little dog sat down and laid her head on Jack's outstretched leg.

"I can't believe my dad is going along with this." Sean said from his window seat on the company aircraft Mac had given him to use for this particular adventure. They were heading for Jack's last known location which was the DC area. It was unlikely they, whoever 'they' were had taken him very far.

"Well, he knows the truth for starters, Sean." Sammy said reasonably. She had Sean's computer in her lap and was busily typing something into a program.

"What's she doing?" Sean asked the boy who was his father's cousin… but wasn't.

"My first guess is writing an algorithm that will track naquadah through GPS." Jon told his cousin.

"Got it in one." Sammy mumbled as her fingers flew over the keyboard.

"Yah but—"

"He's smarter than he pretends to be. Ask your dad." She said absently.

Sean looked from Sammy to Jon. Dad had never mentioned either of them before now; yet had told him they could both be trusted to be exactly what they claimed to be. Sean's head hurt. "I still don't get how you two managed to ditch school."

"Mare told Principal Pete my uncle was in the hospital. He knows Jack is married to Sammy's aunt." Jon said with a shrug.

"I don't envy the extra homework you two will get." Sean mumbled and looked out the window.

Jon snorted in amusement.

"What's naquadah?"

Sammy and Jon exchanged a look. Jon shrugged slightly. Sammy nodded.

"That's creepy." Sean pointed out.

"What is?" Jon asked with a perplexed frown.

"You two just had an entire conversation in about three seconds and neither of you said a word."

Sammy and Jon grinned at each other. "It's our superpower." They said in unison.

"Great. I hope your other superpower is beating up kidnappers." Sean groused.

"It kind of is." Sammy admitted.

Jon just grinned wider.

Silence, other then Sammy's tapping, filled the cabin for the rest of the flight until it landed at DC's Dulles International. The sweeping architecture was at odds with the somber mood of the three young companions. Jon was now frowning thoughtfully and Sammy had Sean's computer carefully cradled in her arms.

Sean had been greeted with deference as Mr. Malloy which had made him sigh a bit. Sammy and Jon had all but been ignored but that was reasonable, they looked like a pair of young teenagers. Especially Sammy.

Once they were in the car Mac had rented them, Jon peppered Sean with questions. "So do you have any idea who, why, or when this started?"

Sean shrugged. "Dad got a call that someone wanted a lot of money for Uncle Jack… and I mean a lot of money."

"Good to know my ass is still worth something." Jon quipped. Sammy elbowed him in the ribs.

"Dad told me if Aunt Sam wasn't available." Sean made quotation marks as he said the last word. "To find Doctor Jackson and gave me an address and a phone number but he wasn't home and no one at NORAD would tell me how to contact him."

Jon nodded. "And let me guess… you tracked down Sammy's movements and assumed she was Sam shacking up with some other guy."

"It crossed my mind." Sean admitted.

Jon nodded. "I could see why you might think that. My sorry ass isn't much to write home about."

Sammy just glared at him. "Stop it." She said darkly.

Jon shrugged. "So did they give him any details? Contact information?"

"Got the standard 'don't call us' routine. They were bouncing the signal off a series of satellites so dad couldn't get a fix on it but we assume they have him here in DC."

"Or nearby." Jon agreed. "It's probably not the Trust."

"Why do you say that?" Sean asked curiously.

"Because they would have tried to grab Gracie not me… or actually, they might have tried to grab me, just me, me not the old man me." He reasoned out.

Sean gave Sammy a 'did that make sense to you' look.

Sammy just shrugged. She was still annoyed about the current 'I'm worthless' hang up Jon was having. She had no idea what had brought it on this time and she intended to find out.

"If I was going to guess at it, they have him underground so we should focus on buildings that are at least three stories tall and have a basement of some kind even if it's a parking garage." Jon mused out loud.

"So who has a grudge against Uncle Jack?"

"Not may people that are still alive to talk about it." Jon said thoughtfully. "Probably not anyone in DC though. Senators don't usually stoop to kidnapping unless they are really desperate."

"Because that's never happened." Sammy grumbled.

"Yah but he's dead."

"We assume."

"Not even a snake can survive space for more than a few seconds. Remember what happened in the cryogenic lab?"

Sammy shuddered. She still had nightmares about Hathor trying to implant Jack with a Goa'uld. "I'm not likely to forget that mission."

"You and me both. Anyway, they can't survive being frozen. Makes me want to toss them all in a lake in the winter."

"Well, it does make sense that they abandoned the… ah… facility in Antarctica because of it. They are lizards after all."

"Either of you want to fill me in on what you're talking about?'

"Are you kidding? The old man is going to kill us for talking about us let alone… that." Jon said, flailing his hands in exasperation.

"Okay… but it's really hard to follow your conversation when you talk in code."

"Oh, trust me it's even harder when we just say it." Jon said cryptically.

"Great." Sean said in mild annoyance. "That's just great. Does any of this have to do with the case?"

"Once we get to the hotel room and have a stable internet connection, I can see if we get a blip." Sammy said.

"Is it going to ignore us?"

"Probably not." She admitted. "So I have it set to ping any naquadah signature not just the closest."

"Good girl." Jon said approvingly which made Sammy roll her eyes at him.

"What's this naquadah stuff you keep mentioning?"

"It's a metal." Sammy explained. "Most of our team was exposed to it. Once it's in your blood stream, it's a lot like lead. It stays around."

"I got all As in chemistry and I've never heard of naquadah." Sean said dubiously.

"That's because it technically doesn't exist yet." Sammy supplied.

"Run that one by me again?"

"It's proprietary military intel. No one but the people who work with it are supposed to know about it." Sam said.

"Great. Real life vibranium." Sean muttered.

Sammy tilted her head.

"Marvel comics, super lightweight metal alloy. Pretty much comic book Naquadah." Jack told her.

"Sounds more like trinium." Sammy said.

"That's a period of three years." Sean said as he turned the car.

"Depends on who you ask." Jon muttered, not bothering to correct his cousin regarding the word trillium.

Sean shook his head. "This is the weirdest conversation I've ever had." He admitted to himself.

"I can't say the same." Jon muttered, his chin in his hand as he stared out the window thoughtfully.

Sean glanced at the boy using the rear view mirror. He supposed it had to be odd planning to go find yourself like this. Even dad never had existential crises this bad. He pulled into the hotel loading area by the front door. "I'll go check us in." He said simply.

Sammy nodded as he tossed her the keys and got out. After he was out, she turned to Jon and said firmly, "I'm not an insurance policy." Before he could answer her, she was standing outside the car, staring absently at the hotel doors.

Jon and Sammy started to unload the car together in silence. Sammy was angry at him. And Jon knew he'd screwed up but didn't know how to fix it. Things were already tense enough with the drama at school and Sammy trying to take their relationship a step further before he thought either of them was genuinely ready for right now. He was making things worse trying to emotionally distance himself from his worry as he was pushing Sam away too. That wasn't his intention.

Jack was, unfortunately, very good at being an ass until he pushed people away. He knew this yet he still did it every time he was unhappy anyway. Jon was able to separate himself mentally and emotionally from his older self most of the time but stuff like this made it all creep back in. Especially the self-doubt and putting a shell over his emotions part. What if the reason they had grabbed Jack was to get to Sam in the first place? That meant he and Sammy were walking into a trap… which would end their cute little high school charade real quick. And he had the sudden realization that his fear of losing her was what was motivating him to push her away in the first place. Jon huffed out a sigh. 'Way to go idiot,' He admonished himself with a scowl.

Jon walked into the lobby following Sammy to hear Sean's voice go up an octave in incredulity. "What do you mean full?"

"I'm terribly sorry, sir. We can put you and your guests up in a double but the hotel is overbooked. You are lucky your company got a reservation at all."

"Sean, it's fine. We'll… muddle through." Sammy told him quietly.

"But…"

Sammy just shook her head. She didn't want to share a room with Jon alone right now. She didn't like him when he was in this mood and they needed to focus on finding Jack anyway.

"You're sure?"

She nodded emphatically.

"All right, we'll take the room." Sean said with a sigh. The thought of sharing with these two didn't exactly excite him. He'd worried he'd have to deal with horny teenaged versions of his dad's cousin and wife, but instead apparently he was dealing with moody hormonal versions. Sean wasn't a fan of moody teenagers when he was a moody teenager.