AN: Short short note today as I am going to have to get myself off to work basically right now. I put in a 12 hour shift yesterday and then slept for 10 hours. Fun times.

A bit of a wrap up here for everyone and some not exactly surprising news for Jack. Don't forget this story about Jack picks back on the other side of Enemy Mine in Home Fires which I'll start putting out over the weekend. Frank and Lynn have finally joined the cast of the Fate series as main characters. For anyone who caught something odd a few stories back... no Lynn was not the pregnant lady the minis commented on. Those are other characters from the Puddle Jumping series and you will just have to wait for that timeline to catch up to Fate :P

Chapter 8

Jack wasn't fond of the necessity of the crutch he was using but it beat using a cane or a walker like an old man. "Lieutenant." He greeted his secretary.

"Sir." She said brightly. "You have a debriefing with the DOD at ten hundred and ah… sir… there's someone waiting in your office." She said hesitantly.

"Oh?"

"Yes, she says she needs to speak to you right away actually. It's regarding her assignment on Atlantis." His tall, broad shouldered secretary told him.

"Did she give you any information?"

"Only that it was urgent to speak to you, sir, and that she preferred to answer to you directly. She's been waiting for word of your recovery for a few days actually." His secretary admitted.

"All right, Kim. I'll handle it." Whatever the hell 'it' was though Jack could guess. He'd expected her the day after his kidnapping and after he heard from Carter. Other than hearing his wife's voice, Jack didn't want to think about that conversation. He'd all but lied to her by glossing over things so she wouldn't worry. He realy hated lying to her but well, he hated the inquisition more. He turned the knob on his office door cautiously, almost afraid there was a booby trap. He was greeted by familiar back of a petite woman who had clearly been pacing while she rehearsed what she had to say. She whirled around at the sound of the door.

"General O'Neill." She said with what Jack almost thought he'd never hear in her voice because it was trepidation and Lynn Schultz wasn't actually afraid of anything and certainly not him.

"What brings you to DC early, Major?" He asked her with a smile.

"Uh… being late actually." She said cryptically.

Jack closed the door and eased himself across the room to gingerly sit down in his leather chair. "Have a seat, Lynn. There's no reason to be formal with me." He leaned his crutch against the side of his desk. "What's on your mind?" He, of course, already knew the reason but clearly it hadn't occurred to Lynn that Sam would have sent him a heads' up ahead of the weekly scheduled data burst.

Lynn let out a very long and nervous sigh as she sank into the chair across from him when he waved her to it. She tented her fingers as she put her elbows on the desk and her chin plopped into her entwined fingers. "I screwed up, sir." She admitted to him.

"Oh, I'm sure it's nothing terrible." He told her, gently.

"Well… no, it's not but it is." She elaborated but Jack was no closer to knowing what was going on than when he opened the office door.

"Lynn…. just tell me. You know I don't bite." He said with a twinkle in his eyes. He'd known her for a few years now. She'd worked as part of his wife's staff at the Cheyenne facility a few years ago and been promoted to being scientific liaison for Atlantis for her singular ability to dumb down the scientific progress the team stationed in another galaxy made to a level even hillbilly congressmen could grasp.

"Oh, I really screwed up this time, sir." She said nervously. "You see… we thought we were okay but it turns out I made a mistake or the dose was off or, oh hell, I don't know…"

"Lynn." Jack finally said sharply.

"Sir?"

"What's going on, Lynn?" He finally asked her very pointedly, leaning forward slightly even though it caused him a great deal of discomfort to do so as his ribs were still bruised.

Lynn looked everywhere but at her commanding officer. "Um…. Well… I'm pregnant." She finally admitted.

"It's Frank's, isn't it?" Jack asked.

Lynn gave him a perturbed look. "Why does everyone keep asking me that?" She snapped. "Of course it's Frank's!" She said waspishly.

"Just making sure. All right, I can't bend the gate travel rules now that we know. You're grounded from Gate travel until your maternity leave ends and you can complete a mission ready physical."

"I know, sir."

"For now, I'll list you as inactive duty. You have a lot of personal time banked, Shultz, take it." He suggested.

"And do what with it, sir?"

"Hell if I know. I usually go fishing or aggravate my wife. How is she by the way?"

"A tad annoyed with me, sir." Lynn admitted.

Jack just chuckled. "She's only annoyed that she has to find your replacement, Lynn. She's secretly elated for you… assuming you want this child."

Lynn's hand flew to her stomach protectively and she gave him a shocked look.

Jack chuckled before she got further than opening her mouth to protest. "Congratulations. You'll make a great mom. I'll see what I can do about finding you an assignment planetside to accommodate you."

"Sir… if you wouldn't mind… I really don't have any idea what I'd do with that much leave. Is there anything light duty I could do until the baby is due?"

"I'll see what I can find, Lynn." Jack told her with a kind smile. "How does Frank feel about all this?"

Lynn sighed and bit her lip. "He's happy about the baby, but he's not terribly happy about us being stationed apart now. They aren't going to let me go back and bring the baby with me are they, sir."

"Fraid not." He admitted. "I wouldn't ask you to leave your baby home either. I'll figure something out." He said, hoping she understood he was on her side with this one. He'd had to go hat in hand to the president for him and Sam to get married. He could certainly try to ease the way for the Squid and his third favorite geek.

"Thank you, sir."

He gave her an amused grin. "I don't leave my people behind, Major."

"No sir." She agreed.

"All right, go home. If you need a place to stay for a few weeks, you can stay at my place in the Springs. Lieutenant Anders can give you the security codes and such. I'll warn the housekeeping crew I have a guest."

"You don't have to do that, sir…"

"Ah! Stop that. You're Sam's friend, you're my friend. I also know your condo is being leased out right now. It takes a while to kick out a renter. Stay as long as you need to."

"Thank you, sir, that's very kind of you."

"Don't mention it." He looked amused. "Especially not to Danny."

She chuckled ruefully. "Yes sir." Vala had wanted to 'borrow' Jack's house for some time and Jack had flatly refused, figuring she and Daniel would use his bathtub for the kinds of kinky things he didn't want anyone but he and Sam doing in it.

"All right, I have an ass kissing session to get to so they can chew my ass out for falling for a cheap trick. Go home, Schultz…. And make sure you call his team so they can take care of you."

Lynn nodded vigorously. Frank's team would make a point of making sure she was safe and eating her vegetables. She gave him a slightly watery smile for his understanding but all Jack did was make a shooing motion with his hand as he picked up the phone on his desk.

"So how did you knock out the guards?" A Colonel asked Sean in a bored voice.

"Well it was easy really. The base has a full medical unit including surgery and Jon said they have to keep all the medications up to date so I grabbed some fentanyl, remifentanil, and carfentanil, mixed them together and suspended them in ethanol so they would dissolve. Most military grade surgery centers keep aerosol pumps on hand in case the staff have to mix their own disinfectants on the fly. All they had to do was point and shoot." Sean said with a shrug.

"And the explosions?"

"Oh, they weren't real explosions." Sean dissembled.

"Elaborate." He was told by the dry impersonal voice debriefing him.

"Well, as I said it's a fully stocked base so some empty soda bottles, a bit of peroxide, dish soap, and yeast makes a pretty good low grade bottle rocket." He said with a shrug. "Aim it at some pipes and it's going to make all kinds of racket without really damaging anything."

There was a sigh from the other end of the table.

"Are we done now?" Sean asked.

"You will forget the location of the bunker you found General O'Neill in. In fact you will forget the incident ever happened. The Phoenix Foundation will be generously compensated for your continued cooperation.

"Yes sir." Sean said with a serious nod.

"Go on. Get out of here, kid. Send in the other two."

Sean nodded again to the man across from him. "Thank you, Colonel Mitchell."

"See you at the old man's BBQ." Cam said with a frustrated shake of his head.

"Yup." Sean Malloy agreed. He got up and headed for the door.

"Oh and Sean…"

"Yes sir?"

"Next time your dad gets a phone call like that… I don't care if they do tell you we're unavailable. Break in if you have to. You scared poor Swampy half to death with those bottle rockets of yours. He thought he was back in Nam." Cam lied. Swampy wasn't even old enough to have gone to Nam.

Sean chuckled. "Yes sir." He walked out the door and looked at Jon who was sitting next to Sammy and holding her hand between his. "You're up."

"Me?" Jon asked.

"Nah, he seems to want to see both of you at the same time."

Sammy frowned and shrugged at Jon.

"I guess I'll see you guys at the BBQ?"

Jon flashed him a grin. "Wouldn't miss it."