Ten minutes after O'Neill and the others left the safe house, Major Allen Clay released himself from the basement cell with the key the retired General had given him and headed upstairs, afraid of what he was going to find. The General had seemed so satisfied and almost smug when he'd come down to the basement and the basement was sound-proofed, so Clay wouldn't have heard a shot if they'd shot Kinsey – which he was sure they had. There was no way they had left him alive. They wouldn't dare, would they?

What he found was worse – far worse – than what he'd expected. Kinsey was alive, lying sprawled in an indignant heap in the middle of the living room floor. Clay looked around the beat up room as he hurried over to the Vice President, wondering what they'd done to do so much damage to the room, and then when he looked at Kinsey he wondered how they'd managed to do so much damage to him without killing him.

"Sir!"

Kinsey whimpered, and Clay wondered what was wrong with him that he was trying to hold his testicles so tightly. No doubt that Bastard O'Neill had shot him there – like he'd threatened to shoot Clay. When the Major carefully moved Kinsey's hands, however, there was no blood seeping through the Vice President's boxers. Only the reek of urine and shit.

"I'll call an ambulance, Sir..." He said, standing up.

"No!"

Kinsey tried to raise an arm, and moaned softly at the agony lacing through his arm.

"Sir?"

"You can't let them come here, Major... I don't... want to have to explain..."

Ah. Clay realized he was trying to save his own ass. Even as shattered as it was. If the cops came here – and they would once people saw what kind of shape Kinsey was in – they'd check the house, and find out just what kind of secrets the place held. Kinsey would be facing questions he didn't want to face – and so would Major Clay.

"What do you want me to do, Sir?"

"Get me to... a hospital... we'll say I had a car accident..."

Yeah. A car accident would explain the broken bones, but there wasn't very much blood, and no bruising on his torso or firmness of his abdomen that signified any internal bleeding as near as Clay could tell.

"I'd have to move you, Sir..."

"No shit..." Kinsey wasn't so far gone that he couldn't comment on how fucking utterly stupid that response was. How the hell else was he going to get him there? Stupid Major.

Clay flushed.

"I'll make splints, Sir. Just hold on..."

OOOOOOO

It took him a long time to do it, and he was as careful as he could be, but Kinsey screamed in pain more than once while the Major immobilized his arms and legs as well as he could and then improvised a stretcher using an ironing board that had never been used before but had come with the house when Kinsey bought it. He put the Vice President into the back of the van – which luckily didn't have any seats, and then had to run back down to the basement to retrieve the keys to the vehicle from his pants.

"Don't you worry, Sir," Clay said as he started the engine, looking down at Kinsey as he did so. "We'll get you taken care of and then O'Neill and that General are going to pay. I'll figure out where my men are – or get a new squad – and we'll take both of those bastards down for what they did to you."

"O'Neill didn't do it," Kinsey said, weakly.

"That Brooks guy, then."

"He didn't do it, either," Kinsey said. "I'm not going anywhere near either of them again, major, and if I hear even a peep that you are thinking about it, I'll have your ass in a crack so quickly you won't know what's happened. Do you understand?"

Clay looked down at Kinsey again, amazed by the fact that he'd managed to say all that with one breath – as much pain as he was in. Then he was equally dismayed by what he'd heard. Not go after them? Of course they should go after them – after both of them. He knew where the kids slept now. Next time he wouldn't use dart guns.

"But, Sir-"

"No, Goddamn it!" The Senator's face was alive with anger, now, and Clay knew it was directed at him, and he recoiled from it. "You do what I tell you, Major, or I'll kill you myself."

He didn't understand it. Didn't understand any of it. But he nodded. What else could he do? The Vice President didn't want him to do something, and for God's sake, he wasn't going to do it.

"Yes, Sir..."

"Good." Kinsey relaxed a bit – as much as a man with such injuries could – and closed his eyes, trying to ignore how much he hurt. "Now, get me to a hospital, and think of a good accident story."

"Yes, Sir."

OOOOOOOOOOO

They dropped Dotty off at her house first, and Jack told Nathan he'd be right back as the two got out of the car, with Jaffer right behind them. He walked her up to the door, noticing that her car was in the driveway – although James' wasn't. So she hadn't driven that. Which made him wonder how she did get to the safe house. And reminded him that he needed to get hold of Thor, as well. But not until he was alone – or at least, not with Nathan. There were already enough people who had seen things they weren't supposed to see.

He wasn't worried about the soldiers; he could tell them pretty much any story to make them think they'd passed out or something and had ended up in the cells they were in. The cadets, on the other hand, were another story entirely. That would take some thinking – and fast.

"Are you going to be all right?" He asked Dotty as she stopped to pull her house key out of a little invisible pocket in her blouse.

She nodded, and gave him a tremulous smile.

"I will, Jack. Thank you."

Jack nodded, as well, and took her hand for a moment.

"Thanks for not letting me kill him, Dotty. Your way is better in the long run, I suppose."

"It is better, Jack, trust me. And this way you won't have the taint of retribution on your soul."

"What do you mean?"

She shook her head.

"It'd take too long to explain. Just trust me, okay?"

He nodded again. He didn't have time to try and talk her out of an explanation, anyways. He had to get back to the SGC and check on things there.

"Are you still coming over for Thanksgiving dinner?"

"Of course. Don't forget; we'll have River with us."

"I'll make sure Sam knows."

Sam would know, though. She never forgot anything.

"Get going, Jack, before your friend decides to leave you here."

He grinned and said good-bye, and turned and headed back for the Jeep. Jaffer nuzzled Dotty cheerfully for a moment and she gave him a quick hug, then the black lab took off as well, chasing Jack down and beating him to the Jeep. They'd missed breakfast, after all and he was hungry!