CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: THE HOUSE OF JACK
After Major Martin's capture General Hammond held a briefing for some of the SG teams and also included the CMO Dr. Farnsworth, Colonel Schmidt, and Captain O'Neill.
Hammond turned to Farnsworth and said, "Doctor please report on SGT Chang's progress."
"She came through the operation well. We repaired some internal damage. She had had some minor internal bleeding, but we seemed to have stopped that. All in all she's a very lucky young lady. I think that she can be released from the infirmary in about a week; however, I think it will be a couple of weeks before she can return to duty. Since she works at a computer I may let her do partial days before that."
"Very well, Doctor, That is good news indeed." There was a general murmuring of elation that she was doing so well. He turned to Colonel Schmidt, "Colonel, without breaking patient confidentiality, how is her emotional state, and the general morale of the women that you have talked to."
"It will take a little while of treatment before the Sergeant will begin to deal with the attack, but this is perfectly normal. Her general emotional state will improve much faster now that they have detained the perpetrator, that will also be the case with the female personnel in general. Any woman here who had been previously attacked, even if not by Major Martin, will have her emotions pertaining to the attack brought to the surface again. I will continue to maintain an open door policy, excluding times when I have scheduled appointments."
"Excellent," turning to the others in the room, he continued, "Captain O'Neill, I have a request from Area 51 to have you consult with them. I have arranged for you to have a transport flight at 0800 tomorrow. The initial period of time that you will be there will be forty-eight hours. They wanted you for longer but Colonel Schmidt thought it was a little to early for you to be away from a comfortable environment for any longer.
"SG-1, you will be going to P3X-949 to help direct evacuation from an area that expected to have major flooding. Briefing is at 0900 tomorrow; this is also expected to be a forty-eight hour mission. SG-5, you are going to P3X-114 to do a mineral survey. Briefing will be at 1330 tomorrow. This is expected to be a thirty-six hour mission. SG-6, you have a briefing at 0800 the day after tomorrow. All of these SG teams are on down time until their respective briefings."
"I wanted to say good work people on apprehending Major Martin in such a short time. Dismissed."
Jack turned to Vicky and said, "I bet you want to visit Chang before we head home."
"You read my mind," she smiled at him.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
When they got to the infirmary the Gunny, to no surprise, was their. They were happy to see that Chang had been moved to a regular bed and was out of ICU. Gunny rose when they entered and Jack said, "As you were, Santorini. So, haw's the patient today?"
She smiled at both of them, "Sir, Ma'am, I'm doing much better. I hurt everywhere but with what they give me for the pain it's OK. I want to thank you, Ma'am, for what you did."
She didn't notice the tightening of the Colonel's jaw but Vicky could feel him tense up. "It wasn't as big a deal as it seemed. I had tons of backup including Teal'c who was never more than ten feet form me at all times. The trees were full of armed Marines."
"Still, Ma'am, I'm grateful for what you did. It makes me feel a lot better that the animal who attacked me is locked up."
"Anytime, Lisa, you just get better because I need you back to work. If you need anything at all, let me know. I'll be gone for forty-eight hours but if you need to talk just call my cell phone."
"I will, Ma'am."
"Well, we're going to head out, besides Vicky being away, my team is going off world tomorrow."
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
They had stopped and picked up some Chinese take out then spent a pleasant evening watching a movie and talking before heading to bed early. Vicky woke about two in the morning and felt a little hungry so she decided to go down and grab a snack. Even though she tried to be very quite, or maybe because of it, her movements woke Jack.
When he came into the kitchen Vicky had the fridge door open and was bent down going through it's contents. She was wearing one of Jack's old t- shirts and Jack was treated to a great view of her ass accentuated by a pair of blue panties, a very small pair of blue panties.
//damn, I've seen potholders larger than that\\ He cleared his throat to get her attention and she turned around.
When she turned around she forgot how to breath for a moment. Jack was standing there wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. Sure she had seen him naked before but it had been a really long time. She let her eyes travel down his chest to his boxers and...//holy moley, I guess he really enjoyed the view\\ She smirked at him, "did you think that I was a burglar?"
He looked at her confused, "no, why?"
"It seems you brought your sidearm with you."
He actually blushed but said, "Actually I found it down here. Whacha doing?"
"I was looking for a snack but I wasn't in the mood for more Chinese."
"Ice cream?"
"Ice cream would be good."
"Sit down, I'll dish us some out."
"Ooo...chocolate."
"Not just chocolate, double fudge nut chocolate."
"You sure know how to take care of a woman." He beamed at her as he sat down and handed her a bowl and a spoon.
After they eat Vicky put the dishes in the dishwasher and they headed towards the stairs. He gestured for her to proceed him.
//yeah, he's ogling my ass\\
//damn, she still has a great ass\
They said good night and Jack went in and closed his door, leaned against it and knocked his head back against it a few times. Vicky heard bam, bam, bam and snickered. //oh yeah, still got it girl. It's nice to know I'm not the only one affected\\
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
Sg-1 had worked long and hard the nest day organizing the evacuation. They had set up camp for the night and Jack was taking first watch when Carter came out of the tent.
"Carter, what are you doing up? You have last watch."
"I know, Sir, I was having trouble sleeping." She set down beside and he handed her a cup of coffee. She was sipping on it and staring into the fire for some time before he asked, "want to talk about it?"
She was quite for so long that he thought she didn't hear him. Just when he was going to repeat the question she said, "I was thinking about...stuff."
"Stuff?"
"You know...stuff."
He was puzzle at first. "Oh, Stuff. Oh that...Carter..."
"I know, Sir. It's just with the Captain returning and..."
"You know I'll always..."
"Me, too. Now I know how you feel when I told you about Pete."
"How is old Pete, anyway?"
She smiled but still didn't look at him, "He's good. He's coming Friday and we're going to have a three day weekend together."
"That's good, maybe we can all get together and have dinner or something."
"That would be great." Maybe if she say Pete and the Colonel and Vicky all at the same time it would help her sort out her feelings. "Well, I guess I'll go back to bed. Good night, Sir."
"Night, Carter, glad we could have this little chat."
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
Friday morning a taxi pulled up in front of the O'Neill residence and Vicky asked the driver, "how much?'
"Twenty-seventy seventy-five."
Vicky looked at him horrified. Then said, "sorry, I've been living in a third word country for a really long time, I'm not used to the prices." Just then she noticed that two vehicles had gotten there just before her because Teal'c and Daniel had gotten out of one and Carter the other. She got out her wallet and gave him two twenty-dollar bills and said, "Keep the change."
The members of Jack's team had heard her and stopped to wait. She looked them over and they looked very grim. "Hey, guys, what's going on?" None of them would meet her eyes. She studied them for a minute.
//access the enemy and hit them at their weakest point\\ She reached over and grabbed Daniel by the shirt and brought his face to within inches of her own and smiled. If anything the smile made Daniel feel worse. "Daniel, what's going on?"
"Onthemissionsomeofthepeoplerefusedtoevcuateandwerekilledincludingsomechildr en."
"Damn." She released him, smoothed out his shirt, patted him on the head and said, "There, that wasn't so hard was it?"
"Well, now that you're here, we'll be going."
"I don't think so. I made backup, you're coming inside with me."
They stood at the entrance to the living room and Vicky accessed the situation. Jack was passed out on the couch; his head back and a beer bottle dangling form his hand. There were quite a number of empty beer bottles scattered around the room. She went and removed the bottle from his hand and went into the kitchen. When she returned she had a large glass of water and a bottle of aspirin, these she set on the end table nearest Jack. She then went and opened all the curtains. She stood beside the end table, bent over and shouted, "STAND AT ATTENTION WHEN I'M SPEAKING TO YOY, SOLDIER."
Jack leaped to attention from instinct but immediately sat back down, groaned and held his head in his hands. Daniel snickered until Sam glared at him.
"God, damn it! What the hell are you doing?"
"You know, it looks pretty dirty in here for a church."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Well, this is the House of Jack, therefore it must be a church."
"Huh?" He was still moaning in pain as Vicky gave him aspirin and water."
"Well, you think that you're God, so this must be a church."
Sam was royally pissed. She started forward only to be stopped by Teal'c on one side and Daniel on the other."
Jack was also pissed and in spite of the pain jumped up and glared at Vicky and yelled, "What the HELL are you talking about?"
I heard some people were killed on the planet."
"Yeah, and it's my fault."
"How?"
"Excuse me?"
"How is it your fault, Jack?" He looked at her confused and she continued, "what did you do wrong on the mission? What mistake did you make?" He didn't answer. "Did you know ahead of time that some of the people wouldn't co-operate?"
"No, but I should have."
"Why, because you're all knowing?" He glared at her. "Did you have the resources to force these people to get out of harms way?" He shook his head.
"Look, Jack, you did the best you could. You always do the best you can, but you're not God. You're a man, and extraordinary man, a wonderful man, but you're not God. You can't know everything and can't do everything. That's it in a nutshell, sometimes life sucks, you do the best you can."
"I should have..."
"No, Jack, you couldn't save them. You couldn't save Charlie. You couldn't save me."
A look of great pain came over his face but there was realization. He would always feel responsibility for his son's death but maybe he couldn't have done anything to prevent it. Vicky gathered him in a hug as the rest of SG-1 quietly let themselves out. Vicky was just as emotionally drained at Jack, that was probably the hardest thing that she had ever had to do.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
Outside the others paused before getting into their cars.
"MajorCarter, it was difficult to watch but this was a most effective method to handle O'Neill's problem."
"I know, Teal'c, but did she have to be that hard on him."
"Sam, actually she did. That was the only way to get through to him. Him getting angry was much better than him wallowing in self-pity. I have a feeling it was harder for Vicky to say those things than it was for Jack to hear them."
She shook her head and gave a rueful smile and said, "you're probably right, Daniel, but I really hate her right now."
Daniel gave her a hug and said, "that's Ok, I think she hates herself. You should go home, Pete's coming soon."
After Major Martin's capture General Hammond held a briefing for some of the SG teams and also included the CMO Dr. Farnsworth, Colonel Schmidt, and Captain O'Neill.
Hammond turned to Farnsworth and said, "Doctor please report on SGT Chang's progress."
"She came through the operation well. We repaired some internal damage. She had had some minor internal bleeding, but we seemed to have stopped that. All in all she's a very lucky young lady. I think that she can be released from the infirmary in about a week; however, I think it will be a couple of weeks before she can return to duty. Since she works at a computer I may let her do partial days before that."
"Very well, Doctor, That is good news indeed." There was a general murmuring of elation that she was doing so well. He turned to Colonel Schmidt, "Colonel, without breaking patient confidentiality, how is her emotional state, and the general morale of the women that you have talked to."
"It will take a little while of treatment before the Sergeant will begin to deal with the attack, but this is perfectly normal. Her general emotional state will improve much faster now that they have detained the perpetrator, that will also be the case with the female personnel in general. Any woman here who had been previously attacked, even if not by Major Martin, will have her emotions pertaining to the attack brought to the surface again. I will continue to maintain an open door policy, excluding times when I have scheduled appointments."
"Excellent," turning to the others in the room, he continued, "Captain O'Neill, I have a request from Area 51 to have you consult with them. I have arranged for you to have a transport flight at 0800 tomorrow. The initial period of time that you will be there will be forty-eight hours. They wanted you for longer but Colonel Schmidt thought it was a little to early for you to be away from a comfortable environment for any longer.
"SG-1, you will be going to P3X-949 to help direct evacuation from an area that expected to have major flooding. Briefing is at 0900 tomorrow; this is also expected to be a forty-eight hour mission. SG-5, you are going to P3X-114 to do a mineral survey. Briefing will be at 1330 tomorrow. This is expected to be a thirty-six hour mission. SG-6, you have a briefing at 0800 the day after tomorrow. All of these SG teams are on down time until their respective briefings."
"I wanted to say good work people on apprehending Major Martin in such a short time. Dismissed."
Jack turned to Vicky and said, "I bet you want to visit Chang before we head home."
"You read my mind," she smiled at him.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
When they got to the infirmary the Gunny, to no surprise, was their. They were happy to see that Chang had been moved to a regular bed and was out of ICU. Gunny rose when they entered and Jack said, "As you were, Santorini. So, haw's the patient today?"
She smiled at both of them, "Sir, Ma'am, I'm doing much better. I hurt everywhere but with what they give me for the pain it's OK. I want to thank you, Ma'am, for what you did."
She didn't notice the tightening of the Colonel's jaw but Vicky could feel him tense up. "It wasn't as big a deal as it seemed. I had tons of backup including Teal'c who was never more than ten feet form me at all times. The trees were full of armed Marines."
"Still, Ma'am, I'm grateful for what you did. It makes me feel a lot better that the animal who attacked me is locked up."
"Anytime, Lisa, you just get better because I need you back to work. If you need anything at all, let me know. I'll be gone for forty-eight hours but if you need to talk just call my cell phone."
"I will, Ma'am."
"Well, we're going to head out, besides Vicky being away, my team is going off world tomorrow."
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
They had stopped and picked up some Chinese take out then spent a pleasant evening watching a movie and talking before heading to bed early. Vicky woke about two in the morning and felt a little hungry so she decided to go down and grab a snack. Even though she tried to be very quite, or maybe because of it, her movements woke Jack.
When he came into the kitchen Vicky had the fridge door open and was bent down going through it's contents. She was wearing one of Jack's old t- shirts and Jack was treated to a great view of her ass accentuated by a pair of blue panties, a very small pair of blue panties.
//damn, I've seen potholders larger than that\\ He cleared his throat to get her attention and she turned around.
When she turned around she forgot how to breath for a moment. Jack was standing there wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. Sure she had seen him naked before but it had been a really long time. She let her eyes travel down his chest to his boxers and...//holy moley, I guess he really enjoyed the view\\ She smirked at him, "did you think that I was a burglar?"
He looked at her confused, "no, why?"
"It seems you brought your sidearm with you."
He actually blushed but said, "Actually I found it down here. Whacha doing?"
"I was looking for a snack but I wasn't in the mood for more Chinese."
"Ice cream?"
"Ice cream would be good."
"Sit down, I'll dish us some out."
"Ooo...chocolate."
"Not just chocolate, double fudge nut chocolate."
"You sure know how to take care of a woman." He beamed at her as he sat down and handed her a bowl and a spoon.
After they eat Vicky put the dishes in the dishwasher and they headed towards the stairs. He gestured for her to proceed him.
//yeah, he's ogling my ass\\
//damn, she still has a great ass\
They said good night and Jack went in and closed his door, leaned against it and knocked his head back against it a few times. Vicky heard bam, bam, bam and snickered. //oh yeah, still got it girl. It's nice to know I'm not the only one affected\\
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
Sg-1 had worked long and hard the nest day organizing the evacuation. They had set up camp for the night and Jack was taking first watch when Carter came out of the tent.
"Carter, what are you doing up? You have last watch."
"I know, Sir, I was having trouble sleeping." She set down beside and he handed her a cup of coffee. She was sipping on it and staring into the fire for some time before he asked, "want to talk about it?"
She was quite for so long that he thought she didn't hear him. Just when he was going to repeat the question she said, "I was thinking about...stuff."
"Stuff?"
"You know...stuff."
He was puzzle at first. "Oh, Stuff. Oh that...Carter..."
"I know, Sir. It's just with the Captain returning and..."
"You know I'll always..."
"Me, too. Now I know how you feel when I told you about Pete."
"How is old Pete, anyway?"
She smiled but still didn't look at him, "He's good. He's coming Friday and we're going to have a three day weekend together."
"That's good, maybe we can all get together and have dinner or something."
"That would be great." Maybe if she say Pete and the Colonel and Vicky all at the same time it would help her sort out her feelings. "Well, I guess I'll go back to bed. Good night, Sir."
"Night, Carter, glad we could have this little chat."
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
Friday morning a taxi pulled up in front of the O'Neill residence and Vicky asked the driver, "how much?'
"Twenty-seventy seventy-five."
Vicky looked at him horrified. Then said, "sorry, I've been living in a third word country for a really long time, I'm not used to the prices." Just then she noticed that two vehicles had gotten there just before her because Teal'c and Daniel had gotten out of one and Carter the other. She got out her wallet and gave him two twenty-dollar bills and said, "Keep the change."
The members of Jack's team had heard her and stopped to wait. She looked them over and they looked very grim. "Hey, guys, what's going on?" None of them would meet her eyes. She studied them for a minute.
//access the enemy and hit them at their weakest point\\ She reached over and grabbed Daniel by the shirt and brought his face to within inches of her own and smiled. If anything the smile made Daniel feel worse. "Daniel, what's going on?"
"Onthemissionsomeofthepeoplerefusedtoevcuateandwerekilledincludingsomechildr en."
"Damn." She released him, smoothed out his shirt, patted him on the head and said, "There, that wasn't so hard was it?"
"Well, now that you're here, we'll be going."
"I don't think so. I made backup, you're coming inside with me."
They stood at the entrance to the living room and Vicky accessed the situation. Jack was passed out on the couch; his head back and a beer bottle dangling form his hand. There were quite a number of empty beer bottles scattered around the room. She went and removed the bottle from his hand and went into the kitchen. When she returned she had a large glass of water and a bottle of aspirin, these she set on the end table nearest Jack. She then went and opened all the curtains. She stood beside the end table, bent over and shouted, "STAND AT ATTENTION WHEN I'M SPEAKING TO YOY, SOLDIER."
Jack leaped to attention from instinct but immediately sat back down, groaned and held his head in his hands. Daniel snickered until Sam glared at him.
"God, damn it! What the hell are you doing?"
"You know, it looks pretty dirty in here for a church."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Well, this is the House of Jack, therefore it must be a church."
"Huh?" He was still moaning in pain as Vicky gave him aspirin and water."
"Well, you think that you're God, so this must be a church."
Sam was royally pissed. She started forward only to be stopped by Teal'c on one side and Daniel on the other."
Jack was also pissed and in spite of the pain jumped up and glared at Vicky and yelled, "What the HELL are you talking about?"
I heard some people were killed on the planet."
"Yeah, and it's my fault."
"How?"
"Excuse me?"
"How is it your fault, Jack?" He looked at her confused and she continued, "what did you do wrong on the mission? What mistake did you make?" He didn't answer. "Did you know ahead of time that some of the people wouldn't co-operate?"
"No, but I should have."
"Why, because you're all knowing?" He glared at her. "Did you have the resources to force these people to get out of harms way?" He shook his head.
"Look, Jack, you did the best you could. You always do the best you can, but you're not God. You're a man, and extraordinary man, a wonderful man, but you're not God. You can't know everything and can't do everything. That's it in a nutshell, sometimes life sucks, you do the best you can."
"I should have..."
"No, Jack, you couldn't save them. You couldn't save Charlie. You couldn't save me."
A look of great pain came over his face but there was realization. He would always feel responsibility for his son's death but maybe he couldn't have done anything to prevent it. Vicky gathered him in a hug as the rest of SG-1 quietly let themselves out. Vicky was just as emotionally drained at Jack, that was probably the hardest thing that she had ever had to do.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
Outside the others paused before getting into their cars.
"MajorCarter, it was difficult to watch but this was a most effective method to handle O'Neill's problem."
"I know, Teal'c, but did she have to be that hard on him."
"Sam, actually she did. That was the only way to get through to him. Him getting angry was much better than him wallowing in self-pity. I have a feeling it was harder for Vicky to say those things than it was for Jack to hear them."
She shook her head and gave a rueful smile and said, "you're probably right, Daniel, but I really hate her right now."
Daniel gave her a hug and said, "that's Ok, I think she hates herself. You should go home, Pete's coming soon."