Becoming Their Counsellor
Well folks, after not posting for a ridiculously long time I am back. This story is in my Counsellor series, the previous one which is an introduction is called Becoming Her Counsellor which I recommend that you read first. There is also the story simply titled, The Counsellor which is number 4 in the series so you don't have to read that one before this one. I kept getting ideas, only they were out of sync with each other. I will post the 3rd in the series very soon entitled, Doing Her Job so you won't be left waiting. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this AU set around the events of Divide and Conquer but not from Jack and Sam's point of view, although I have put them as the main characters as they form the backdrop to the story. It will be great to hear what you think, please no flames, thanks.
Katie Woodman had now been in and out of Cheyenne Mountain for more than six months. She continued to work at the high school during the day but would be at the base after school and some evenings. She'd spent much of that time working with Cassie, but Teal'c had also taken to visiting her. Some of the Airforce personnel also felt themselves drawn to the civilian counsellor rather than the base shrink, especially as anything said to Katie was private and confidential, whereas anything said to the base psychiatrist was a matter of record.
After Cassie's declaration to Katie at school six months earlier, when she'd blurted out her real place of birth, Colonel Jack, as Katie liked to call him, had made Katie sign some National Security forms. She'd then accompanied the group back to the base where she'd seen firsthand exactly how Cassie had come to Earth from another planet. The Stargate had amazed her, as she assumed it did most others.
The first time she'd seen it working she'd almost fainted, although, of course, that hadn't been on her first visit. She'd been forced to sit through a gruelling interview with one General George Hammond and it had been made very clear to her that Cassie had seriously screwed up by revealing her history to an outsider. However, Katie had held her own and, by the General's own admission, it was this that had given her the official position as Cassie's counsellor at the SGC. She'd been fully vetted and had then been given an ID that would get her onto the base whenever she needed it.
Katie would usually go to the base after school with Cassie a couple of times a week. The General had made it very clear that if Cassie needed to discuss her past or any issues relating to the base, then that conversation had to take place on the base. It made sense, therefore, for Katie to be given an office, which she'd decorated herself, making sure that none of the walls were painted grey – there was only so much one could take, after all.
Katie had slowly developed relationships with the tightknit community that existed in the mountain, in particular with SG-1. She was often invited to BBQs at the Colonel's and Janet's homes and Cassie was responding well to having someone to talk to outside her family. Fortunately, there had been no lasting damage following Cassie's outburst. No one had found out about it and now Katie was able to help others who needed to talk to someone.
It hadn't taken Katie long, however, to work out that something was very wrong in the mountain. The majority of the team members were single, which she'd found surprising but not anything to worry about. At least not at first. Then she'd realised that, even after she'd been there a few months, all the single people were still single and, while she wasn't married herself, she had at least dated during that time.
Many things came to a head one fateful week when the President was planning to visit the base to sign a treaty.
SG1SG1SG1SG1
Cassie flung herself onto the bean bag in Katie's office. It was Wednesday night, one of their regular SGC nights, and Katie watched as the young girl went through her normal relaxation routine. First she'd sit down, grab a magazine from the selection Katie had left on the table, then finally get up and get a can of soda from the fridge. After all that she'd settle back down again before telling Katie what was on her mind at that moment.
"Do you think I could meet the President?" Cassie asked, sitting once more on the bean bag with her Mountain Dew.
"From what I've heard he's flying in to meet some Tok'ra chief and won't have time to see anyone else."
"That's a shame. We were studying him in social studies last week."
"What did you learn?"
Cassie smiled and blushed. "That he has a gorgeous 18-year-old son!"
Katie smiled back, enjoying the fact that Cassie was so comfortable with her. Then the klaxons suddenly went off and both women jumped slightly.
"Damn! I'm never going to get used to that," Katie mumbled.
"Mom says you do, although she always assumes the worst, that someone's injured, so it's hard for her."
"I imagine it must be. She doesn't go through the gate much, does she?"
"No... Well, a couple of times, but not like Uncle Jack and SG-1."
"I've never asked you..." Katie sat down on the sofa, having grabbed a drink for herself. "Why do you call him Uncle and the rest by their names?"
"Well, Janet obviously became 'Mom', although I think Sam wanted the job. But Sam already has nieces and nephews so 'Sam' suits her better. Daniel, I think, is going to become 'Dad' someday so I don't call him Uncle, even although he is one to me. And Teal'c and I don't really hang out that much. But that's why Jack is 'Uncle Jack'."
Katie tried to work her way through the explanation. Some of it made sense but she really didn't have an answer to her question. "Sorry, Cass, it's been a long day. Mind running that past me again? Actually, leave everyone else out and just focus on Jack."
Cassie looked up at Katie from the bean bag, confused that she'd been found confusing, and then sighed. Katie smiled; all teenagers felt adults must be a bit dense as they always needed extra explanations.
"Well, when I first got here I wanted to see everything and I'd go out with Mom and Sam and Jack. One time I went to the park with my dog and just Jack. While we were out some old person asked Jack if I was his granddaughter. I nearly fell over laughing at the look on his face. Anyway, he said no, he was my uncle. I didn't know what an uncle was, we didn't use that word on Hanka, but I waited until the guy left before I asked. Jack told me an uncle was either the brother of your mother or father or a close friend, and that's what Jack was. I asked him if he could be my father and he got this really weird look on his face so I knew I'd said something wrong. He said he already had a child and that he loved me but he wanted to be my uncle and not my dad. But he said we'd still do all the fun things we could together. When I got home Mom told me about Charlie and explained why Jack would prefer to be my uncle. I liked the idea of having an uncle so it kinda stuck."
Katie thought the conversation said as much about Jack as it did about Cassie and she realised that the Colonel had a lot of hidden layers. She'd read his file about his wife and son but it was an area of conversation that Jack had never brought up in Katie's presence and she doubted whether he'd spoken to anyone about his son.
"Do you still spend a lot of time with Jack and Sam on your own?" Katie had quickly discovered that the emotional explosion that had affected Cassie six months earlier had stemmed from SG-1 having disappeared on some hell planet for days and the whole base being taken over by aliens, thus Cassie had been left out of the loop of their lives.
"I missed them when they were away and the gate was lost but at least I had Daniel to annoy in the infirmary." Cassie laughed as she remembered all the fun she'd had annoying the poor archaeologist who'd been confined to the infirmary after having had his appendix removed, but then her smile slowly faded as she admitted, "But I'm glad I come here more often now 'cause they seem to get restricted to base more than they used to."
"So, as a roundabout answer, you're not spending much time with them outside the base?" Katie looked directly at Cassie and held her gaze until Cassie finally shook her head and looked away.
"No, I'm not."
"Well, we'll just have to remedy that, won't we?" Katie said as she smiled conspiratorially at Cassie.
Suddenly, an announcement came over the tannoy. "All personnel who've been off-world in the last month should report to the gateroom immediately."
"Looks like there's another crisis brewing," Katie stated matter of factly.
"Yeah," Cassie agreed, jumping up, "But, on the positive side, if they're all in the gateroom then the queue for pie'll be really short. C'mon!"
Cassie pulled Katie up and out into the corridor. It had become their tradition to visit the commissary at the end of their sessions and, while Katie felt much more could be said today, she thought cake or pie might help loosen Cassie's tongue.
SG1SG1SG1SG1
Katie and Cassie had been sitting in the commissary for more than 2 hours before one of them finally raised the topic of the elephant in the room. SG teams had been arriving in dribs and drabs, always as a team, always talking in hushed voices so as not to alarm any other teams. However, the fact that worried both Cassie and Katie was obviously the same.
"Where's Mom? It's way past time to go home."
Katie was getting concerned herself. In every other meeting she'd had with Cassie, Janet would join them here and then she'd take Cassie home. That would usually have happened about an hour ago, if not earlier. It was the fact that Janet hadn't tried to find them that was the most worrying. The conversation from the next table sent chills down her spine.
"I can't believe she's dead."
"Did the machine really make her shoot herself?"
"Seems so. Pretty shocking, if you ask me. I'm glad we've been off rotation. Thanks for that, Cawdor. Your broken leg might have just saved us all."
"Lieutenant!" a strong voice admonished, "You heard the General. No idle gossip."
"Sorry, Sir."
That conversation was bad enough but Cassie had now turned to see Daniel coming in through the door. "Daniel, what's wrong?" she asked, sounding like the scared little girl she was.
"Cass, your mom told me you were here." Daniel sat down at the table they'd occupied for the evening.
"Is she okay? She didn't get shot, did she?" Cassie asked, terrified and trying to hold back tears. She had obviously overheard the same snippet of conversation that Katie had.
"No, it wasn't her," Daniel replied gently.
"It was Sam, wasn't it?" Cassie stated, tears welling up in her eyes.
"No, sorry, no, everyone's fine… well, maybe not totally fine..."
Katie tried to cut through the rambling that Daniel was famous for. "Daniel, before you manage to completely scare Cassie, perhaps you could get to the point without causing any further alarm."
"Sorry. It seems that we've been under attack from a memory-altering device, only the people don't know their memory has been changed." Daniel sat back and looked around. "Can we go to your office, Katie? The General authorised me to tell you the next bit but not everyone else."
"Uh, sure… What about Cassie?"
Daniel looked at Cassie as if he'd forgotten she was there. "It's fine. Hammond said she should know, too."
The three left the room, much to the annoyance of the others in the commissary, who'd all gone quiet so they could hear the report from a member of the top team. They made their way in silence to Katie's office.
Once safely inside both Cassie and Katie turned on the archaeologist. "Okay, Daniel. Spill!" both females said at once then smiled at each other.
Daniel fiddled a little with his glasses then launched into an explanation. "Well, you see this technology seems to have the ability to make someone hurt someone else or, if you fight against it, it'll make you injure yourself. So, one team was confirmed as having been affected and, well, SG-1 had the tests last as it was believed that we hadn't had a chance to be compromised. Only… well... it seems that… well..."
"Daniel, for cryin' out loud, spit it out!" Cassie finally yelled, sounding very like her uncle.
"Jack and Sam have been compromised," Daniel admitted bluntly.
"Both of them?" Katie asked.
"Yeah. General Hammond wants you to spend time with them if you're able. He says that he'll call the school and get you time off like he arranged with the Principal when you first came on board."
"Okay, fine. Are they hurt at the moment? Is that why Janet isn't here?" Katie asked, very concerned, not only concerned herself but also worried about how this was going to affect Cassie.
"No, physically they're fine but they're restricted to base for the time being. Janet has to do the autopsy on another woman who wasn't so fortunate. She wants me to take Cassie home and stay the night. Hammond wants to see you to fill you in."
"Can I see Sam and Jack before I go?" Cassie asked, gathering her things.
"Sure, I'm sure they'd be happy to see you," Daniel replied, smiling at Cassie. He turned to the counsellor. "See you later, Katie."
Daniel and Cassie left the room, leaving Katie to wonder what exactly you said to people who'd had their memories changed and could possibly kill themselves. They certainly didn't teach this on any course she'd ever done.
SG1SG1SG1SG1
It had been a disaster, an unqualified disaster. Well, at least that was how Katie was filing it. Capital D for disaster.
She'd counselled Sam and Jack through the idea of being a Za'tarc. She'd consoled Cassie when Janet had planned to sedate them. She'd then sat and listened to Sam and Jack reveal serious feelings for each other. And now she was on her way to the General's office after having been summoned to give him her 'professional opinion' on the last few hours which, by the way, had included Sam having to kill her former symbiote's mate. Definitely a huge D for disaster and, if Sam was anything to go by, it could be cross referenced under H for heart-breaking.
Katie pulled herself together outside Hammond's office, ready to be involved in a critical conversation but not knowing what to expect behind the closed door. Katie usually got on well with George Hammond. Most of the time they'd spent together was in a formal way, discussing Cassie's situation. However, on two very significant occasions, she'd spent time with him while the base had been facing crises of 'misplaced' members of SG-1. After these two occasions they'd begun forging a friendship out of respect, as George had shared his worries over whoever was missing at the time, and his concerns over his own granddaughters as well as Cassie, whom he thought of as a third granddaughter. However, despite this, she was not unaware of the General's temper and his ability to reduce inept members of his command to quivering wrecks if they'd made a mistake. Katie, therefore, took a deep fortifying breath, knocked confidently, and waited.
"Come!" The brusque voice of the General propelled Katie to quickly open the door and enter. It didn't take a genius to realise that General Hammond was not a happy camper. He was reading a file that was really making him mad. His eyes were bulging and his forehead was getting redder. It took all of Katie's will not to laugh and make a comment worthy of Colonel Jack.
"You asked to see me, General?" Katie asked, deciding to go the formal route rather than using his first name, which had become the norm when they were alone.
It was as if the heat had suddenly been removed from the room. "Yes, Miss Woodman... Katie." The General tried to get his anger under control and continued in a tone barely above frosty. "Firstly, as Jack and Sam's friend, I'd like to thank you for not reporting the incident in the observation room while the President was on the base."
"Uh... okay..." Katie replied warily, realising the other shoe was about to drop.
"As their CO, however, I'd like to know…" Hammond paused before bellowing, "Why in the whole of creation you didn't report this immediately!" His face was red again and the vein she had heard the Colonel discuss was pounding in his forehead.
However, Katie knew how to stand her ground. "General, as you well know, my contract is to only help Cassie. Anyone else I help I do on my own time."
"Well, Miss Woodman, that's about to change. I can't trust something like this to MacKenzie. He'll have them in Leavenworth before they even try to speak. No, you'll have to do. You'll have your new contract by the end of the day."
She'll have to do? That rankled with Katie, especially when she'd believed that the General thought more of her than that. "Thank you for that stellar endorsement, General," Katie said sarcastically, "But what exactly do you want me to do?" she asked, her tone now as cold as the General's had been.
Hammond's face turned even redder, clearly angered by her tone, and Katie wondered if her irreverence had gone too far.
"I want you to find out if the damn frat regs have been broken!" Hammond spat out.
'Well, that's going to be an interesting discussion,' Katie thought. However, she didn't say that out loud. "General, I really don't think you have anything to worry about."
"Really? I've read Dr Frasier's report and I've seen the footage. You've heard what they admitted?"
"Yes, but, having seen that, I know that the frat regs haven't been broken. There was too much tension in that room for any act to have been committed," Katie theorised, knowing deep down it was true.
Hammond was going even redder, his anger subsiding but embarrassment taking over at what Katie was insinuating. "But they still feel what they feel for each other!" he sputtered.
"Yes, General, but you and I both know that the frat regs are at least blurred by many teams here."
Hammond looked aghast as if he hadn't even considered the possibility, "No, they're not. No one on this base flaunts the laws of the Air Force!" he defended his personnel.
"Oh, come on, General. Each team's a family. The whole base is filled with dysfunctional families who care about each other far more than they're supposed to."
"The teams are not dysfunctional!" Hammond took hold of the one part of Katie's sentence that he could.
Katie was on a roll. "Yes, they are. Or what do you think happened with SG-8 last week, huh? It's not normal for a team to spend 24/7 together when they're not on duty but none of them had anywhere else to be. You saw them at the hospital after the mishap with the hockey puck. They care more about their team mates than other military personnel do."
Katie calmed a little. Seeing that General Hammond was now actually listening to her, she pointed to one of the chairs in front of the desk. "May I?" Hammond vaguely waved in the general direction of the chairs in acquiescence. Katie calmly sat down and began to speak to the General as the friend he'd become rather than the commander of the base. "They're lonely, George, almost every damn one of them. The social that Janet, Sam and I organised for the 4th of July was proof of that. It was off base, they could bring whomever they wanted, and three-quarters of your command turned up and stayed for the whole day – alone. I spoke to them, George. They hadn't left family behind, they didn't have kids wondering where daddy or mommy was, they'd come alone because they are alone. Their team is their family." Katie paused briefly, letting it sink in. "And SG-1 is exactly the same, if not worse. I've been here six months and could count on one hand the number of times Sam or Daniel have left the base after a normal length working day, let alone gone on a date. What did you expect to happen? Sure, if Sam were in love with Daniel or a member of another team it would be easier but unlikely."
"What do you suggest?" Hammond asked the question that Katie hadn't even slightly expected.
"Uh… well… uh… I'd say get rid of the frat regs, but I'm sure that's not an option."
Hammond sat back in his seat. "Sell it to me."
Katie sat and stared at the General questioning whether he was serious or not, finally after a short silence she decided to just answer truthfully. "Okay… well... if, somehow, members of the same team could date then they'd have to realise how serious a step it was. There'd have to be discussions between the couple and the team and everything would have to be out in the open so everyone knew what was going on. I'd suggest a system of counselling when all team members could meet with someone and air any problems. It'd have to be someone out of the chain of command so all felt their feelings would be heard." Katie continued to think through what else would be needed.
"I'd encourage more socialising on the base. Perhaps this would allow teams to mix and relationships to form outside teams. Even friendships would be a good start. Switch rotations at times to ensure that all teams have a chance to mix and get some of the wives, husbands and families together that are off the base. Get someone to coordinate things, maybe a small team. I think it would improve the personal lives of people who work here and, even if you can't get rid of the frat regs, the other stuff should go ahead."
"Why should our personnel be treated differently than on other bases, Katie?" Hammond asked very calmly.
"Because if you don't, George, the only other option I can see is breaking up SG-1... and possibly SG-8... and definitely SG-9. And I suppose SG-5, although theirs is a slightly different reg, if you get my meaning. You know that the situation here is a lot different from any other Air Force base."
George cleared his throat. "So, what do you think, Sir?" he asked, looking at the red phone on his table.
"She makes a very good case, George. Good job it was what we discussed, too."
"Yes, Mr President."
"I'll fax you the new regs for the SGC from the plane. Need to know only, George. We don't need idiots like Kinsey getting word of this."
"No, Sir."
Katie sat, very unsure of what had just transpired in the last few minutes. She was pulled from her shocked state by someone calling her name from far away.
"Miss Woodman, Miss Woodman… Katie?"
"Huh?" Katie looked up at General Hammond but he wasn't the one speaking.
"Katie, how would you like to be the counsellor you described for the SGC? I'm asking you to serve this country in a very unique way."
"But I have a job, Sir," Katie responded to the President's request.
"I know, but, after I speak to the head of the district school board, I expect you'll be able to work at the SGC."
Katie was stunned and couldn't even formulate a reply.
"Katie," Hammond added, "What you proposed is the right thing for this base but it will only work if you take the job. I've seen how the personnel treat you, the conversations you have when they don't realise they're having them, the change in Cassie and, most importantly, the insight you have into people whom you've only just met. The base needs you, I need you, and the President is asking you. Will you be our counsellor?"
Katie's eyes shone with tears at the compliments paid to her. She could do nothing else but simply nod and reply, stunned, "Yes, Sir."
AN: Thanks for reading. I am also in need of an English speaking Beta, preferably someone very good at catching grammar mistakes, if you are interested please PM me as I can't get in touch with my old one (if you are out there I would be happy to work with you again).