Title: "The Ex Factor"

Author: Jackie W.

Rating: PG-13

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jack O'Neill stormed through the SGC as airmen scurried to get out of his way. By the time he reached his office he was ready to rip Reynolds apart with his bare hands. Carter, insubordinate? Had anyone checked her for alien influence? Because Carter didn't do insubordinate. Well, not much, and only when it was really needed.

"What the hell happened?" he asked Reynolds the instant he spotted him. "I'm gone for two days and you have one of our best officers in a holding cell!"

"She called me a power hungry idiot, Sir," Reynolds protested.

Well that sure didn't sound like Carter. Jack sighed. "Start from the beginning, Colonel," he ordered.

Listening to Reynolds it quickly became apparent to Jack that the man had been acting like a power hungry idiot. Still, Carter knew better than to call him on it. Something else must be up with her and Reynolds had just been a convenient target for her anger. He wondered if he should get Daniel to go talk to her, then rubbed a hand across his face as he realized he was the one that needed to do it.

"And you thought that comment warranted throwing her in a holding cell?" Jack finally asked bringing Reynolds explanation to an end. "Wasn't that a bit excessive?" Then another thought occurred to him. "Do you have a problem with Lt. Colonel Carter, Reynolds?"

"No, Sir!" Reynolds replied a bit too quickly.

Damn, in all of the transitions Jack had somehow missed it. Carter was the only female team leader, and the leader of the premier team at that. There was obviously some resentment there. He thought back to the last couple of team leader meetings and realized Carter had been uncharacteristically quiet. Which meant she obviously knew that the other men hadn't accepted her yet. Crap.

"Well I'm glad to hear it. I would hate to have to transfer you because you have a problem with a female officer who has had to work twice as hard for each one of her promotions as you have," Jack told the Colonel with an icy glare. "You're a fine officer Reynolds, and I'm glad to have you as my 2IC, but I would let you go in an instant if I thought that was the case," he warned.

Reynolds didn't need it spelled out for him, and he had to admit he had been hard on Carter, dressing her down in front of the control room staff. "Understood, Sir. I admit I overreacted. I'll apologize to the Lt. Colonel if she will do the same."

"Fair enough. Get Carter the hell out of that cell and have her report to my office. Then stick around, I'll call you when we are ready for you," Jack ordered.

Five minutes later, Sam walked into his office with a stubborn set to her shoulders. Before she could say anything in her defense Jack held up his hand to stop her.

"Here is what is going to happen. You are going to apologize to Colonel Reynolds," he told her, stopping her when she would have protested. "Colonel Reynolds is then going to apologize to you, and we will put this entire matter to rest," he continued.

To his relief Sam nodded her agreement. "I'm sorry you had to be called back to deal with this, Sir."

"Don't be. It was a relief to have an excuse to escape," he admitted with a grin.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The apologies had been polite and formal. Jack was glad to have the whole mess over with, and smart enough to know that Sam had to work out her differences with her peers herself with no interference from her commanding officer. At best he would only be able to keep an eye on the situation to make sure it wasn't getting out of hand. He also knew Carter well enough to know that something else was bothering her, so he suggested since he was back in town earlier than expected that Daniel, Teal'c, Carter and he head out for a decent meal on Thursday night.

It was tough to pry Carter away. She had lost a lot more work than just the analysis had been working on when the power went out (caused by an airman cutting a main power line while he was doing some construction on a new security station on level 11). Jack had to appeal to Daniel to get him to drag her away.

"Something is bothering her, Daniel. If we get her out and relaxed maybe she will talk about it," he suggested.

Daniel doubted it, especially if what he suspected was true. He would need to get Sam alone at some point and try to subtly let her know that Jack was not back with Sara. Still, between her responsibilities as a team leader and her work in the lab, she did need to take a break, so he rounded up re-enforcements in the form of Teal'c and bullied her into leaving with them.

Sam had to admit an hour later that the break had been needed. She was just starting to feel the tension ease away when the group started talking about plans for the week-end.

"So are you and Pete getting together, Sam?" Daniel asked casually.

"Um, no, not this week-end," Sam replied, suddenly tense again.

"What about you Jack? Any plans?" Daniel continued.

"Yeah, I promised a friend I'd help them move.," Jack told them, smiling at how Sara had been so nervous asking if they could possibly use his truck to move some of her more valuable items rather than risking the movers damaging or losing any of them.

At that point Sam excused herself. She used her time in the restroom to calm her nerves again and returned to the table just in time to hear the end of Daniel and Jack in conversation.

"So you're moving Sara?" Daniel was saying. 'When's the wedding?"

"Six weeks from now," Jack replied and Sam's heart literally froze.

"Have you told Sam about Sara yet?" Daniel pressed.

"It's none of her business, Daniel," Jack said with a sigh.

Teal'c returned at that moment from the bar with another round of drinks and the conversation ceased. Sam only knew that she needed to escape. Quickly she pulled out her cell phone and put it to her ear as she approached the table, pretending to be in the middle of a conversation. She 'hung up' and turned to her friends.

"Sorry guys. There is a problem in labs with one of the experiments and I need to go back in. I'll see you all tomorrow," she assured them.

She was out the door before anyone could question who was working in the lab at that time of night.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

She spent the rest of the evening with a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream trying to figure out just what she was supposed to do now. Her desperate attempt at normalcy with Pete had failed miserably, and worse yet seemed to have driven a wedge between her and the General that was so deep that he didn't even consider her friend enough to tell her he was getting married.

Somehow, she was never quite sure how, she made it through the next day and then escaped gratefully from the mountain. Luck had been on her side as Daniel had been sent out with SG7 so he was not around to question her. The weather was so beautiful that she didn't even have to think twice before she had a small duffle packed and loaded onto the back of her bike. She headed south, in the general direction of Santa Fe, hoping that few days of fresh air would clear her mind, and sooth her weary heart.

She returned on Monday with a firm grip on her emotions. She was determined to concentrate on her career and to give romance and men in general a wide birth. Other than as friends they just weren't worth the effort.

She was seriously considering getting another cat.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Weeks passed. As SG1, with Carter at the helm, put several more missions under their belt Sam began to relax into her role and find a comfort zone amongst the other team leaders. Jack's only remaining concern was that there seemed to be a distance between the two of them now. Carter wasn't avoiding him or anything, but there was a definite wall up. He put it down to her relationship with Shanahan, which meant that any desire to break down the wall got put into the box with all of the other Carter emotions that were not allowed.

Sam fell back into the routines she had maintained before Pete with two noticeable exceptions. She now had twice as much work to do with the addition of all of the tasks required of a team leader, and she no longer flirted with General O'Neill. No lingering glances, no smiles meant just for him. Surprisingly, her relationship with Pete hadn't prevented her from doing any of that, but thinking Jack was in a relationship stopped it dead. She really missed it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was the final weekend of the summer before Cassie would be going off to college when everything came to a head. Jack had insisted that they have a get together at his place. Sam wanted desperately to find an excuse not to go, but since the party was technically for Cassandra she was trapped. Dreading facing Sara O'Neill, she almost thought about trying to bring a date, but that would have revealed that she and Pete were no longer together so she decided to go it alone.

She was surprised when she arrived to not see any signs of the past and future Mrs. O'Neill. Not only was the woman herself nowhere to be seen, there was nothing in the house to indicate that she had moved in. Confused, she vowed to pull Daniel aside later as question him. In the meantime she plastered a smile on her face and went to greet her friends.

"No Shanahan?" Jack asked.

"No, Sir," Sam replied.

Cassie looked in confusion from Sam to Jack. Then she turned to Daniel. "Why would that jerk come? He's totally history!" she exclaimed.

Jack felt a weight suddenly lift off of his heart. She wasn't seeing Shanahan anymore! Why hadn't she told them? All eyes were on Sam now, and she just shrugged.

"We went our separate ways," she explained.

But Daniel caught the warning glare that she sent to Cassie and was determined to get to the bottom of it, so later while Sam was occupied in the kitchen he cornered the teen.

"So what's the real scoop, Cass?" he asked.

She hesitated, but this was Daniel, and she knew he could be trusted. "The bastard dumped her and went back to his ex-wife," Cassie told him.

Suddenly all sorts of warning bells went off in Daniel's head. No wonder she had been so down. If she thought that Jack had hooked back up with Sara it would have been like a double punch to the gut. And he knew he'd let this go on much too long. He nodded his thanks to Cassie and headed out to the deck where Jack was grilling. Behind him he heard the teen go into the kitchen to distract Sam. She was a good kid.

"Jack you have to talk to Sam, tonight," Daniel blurted out, causing Jack to raise an eyebrow.

"I believe I have already, Daniel," he replied with a smirk.

"No, really talk. Pete dumped her, went back to his ex-wife, and she never said a word to any of us. She's hurting Jack," Daniel insisted.

"Daniel, you know I'm crap at that sort of thing. You and Teal'c would be much better at consoling her than I would," Jack complained.

"Jack, she thinks you went back to your ex-wife too," Daniel pointed out.

Jack never gave much away but just for a moment Daniel saw him pause as that piece of information sunk in. He was about to press the point when Jack's pager went off.

Five minutes later they were all on their way back to base, leaving Cassie behind to make sure everything was turned off and put away. SG2 had failed to report in, and Jack needed SG1 back with him in case a rescue needed to be mounted.

An hour after they arrived, SG teams 1, 3 and 4 were geared up and ready to go. The UAV had flown a circle pattern around the gate on P4R-880 and found a primitive village. Several members of SG2 had been spotted there, but had not responded to radio contact. Both Sam and Reynolds had pointed to the same hill as the small remote plane flew over it and had actually smiled at each other knowing they were both thinking the same thing.

"We should be able to get a good view with plenty of coverage from there, Sir," Carter had pointed out after Reynolds had nodded to give her the floor.

"We can leave two men at the gate, and position another two here on this pathway to the village to keep the way back to gate clear for us," Reynolds added.

Jack had given them the go ahead and put Sam in charge of the mission. Now she confidently took point as they headed through the gate. He watched them go with a heavy heart. It was always hard to send SG1 out without him, and knowing Sam wasn't in top form worried him even more. He'd seen the set of her shoulders when she led the teams up the ramp though.

The Lt. Colonel had been in firm control, and knew he could count on her.