There was no doubt at all that the brown haired and brown eyed young man that was walking towards them was Shawn, Nathan decided when Jack took him into the infirmary a few minutes after the meeting with Major O'Neill. Where Ian looked very little like Nathan, Shawn looked an awful lot like his father, and there was no doubt who that was when the two of them greeted each other as Nathan looked on.
Then Jack had put his hand on Shawn's shoulder, and had introduced him to Nathan.
"Nate, this is Shawn. Shawn, this is Ian's father, Nathan Brooks."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir." Shawn said, offering Nathan his hand with a smile.
"Oh, I assure you, son, the pleasure's mine," Nathan said, shaking the young man's hand. "Although I must say, I expected to do it under different circumstances."
Shawn smiled.
"How's the doc?" Jack asked Teal'c, who came walking up with Jack (the dog) only a moment later.
"She will recover without complication."
Shawn told them the story of what happened while Nathan looked around the room curiously. He'd never actually been in Cheyenne Mountain – although he'd heard some rather interesting rumors about the place the last several years. He'd never looked into those rumors, because he was a believer in the old adage that if the Military wanted you to know something they'd tell you – besides, from what he'd heard Jack O'Neill had come out of his retirement to work the project, so whatever it was, it was in good hands.
"Have you had breakfast, Nate?" Jack asked, breaking the General out of his musing.
Brooks shook his head.
"I had an early start to my day, Jack, and didn't have time. You?"
"Nope. But I'm going to go find Sam before I eat and see if she needs anything. I was going to suggest you and Shawn head for the Commissary – with Teal'c if he's interested – and get started, and I'll come meet you there once I know what's going on."
Nathan nodded.
"Sounds like a plan." He figured it was also Jack's way of keeping him out of the way while he took care of secret stuff, but Nathan didn't mind. Shawn seemed like a nice enough young man, and if he was Ian's roommate, then Nathan wanted a chance to get to know him better anyways.
"Shawn, no stories about camp," Jack warned him, before turning and leaving the room with Teal'c.
"Camp?" Nate asked. "What's he talking about?"
Shawn smiled; looking a lot more like Jack just then, and gestured for the retired General to follow him out of the infirmary.
"Well, that's an interesting story... the first time Jack and I went to summer camp together, we had quite the adventure..." He began to tell the story, which was perfect, since it was long enough and interesting enough that it would last at least until they reached the commissary and maybe through breakfast if General Brooks showed any interest in the extended version. Besides, it was a story Shawn enjoyed telling.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Sam met Jack about halfway to the briefing room. He noticed she was wearing an amused look on her face when she stopped him, and figured that if she was amused then at least Hammond hadn't decided to hold them on charges or something for shooting Fraiser. Of course, from what he'd heard, that was as much her fault for grabbing the barrel of the gun and pulling it towards herself as it was River's for pulling the trigger. Everyone knew you pushed the barrel away from yourself, not the other direction. Maybe they'd better sign her up for a refresher self defense class...
"How's it going?" Jack asked.
"I think he's going to need a vacation by the time he's done with them," Sam said, smiling. "Ian's got him so riled up with his automatic potty mouth and absolute disregard for rank that Hammond's looking ready to explode any minute."
"That young man has a lightning quick mouth, that's for sure," Jack said, smiling. It wasn't necessarily a good thing, of course, but it wasn't the end of the world, either. Other things were far more important. "What's Hammond telling them?"
Sam shrugged.
"I'm not completely sure... but he wants to do it alone, so I thought I'd see if you wanted to go have some lunch."
"I just sent Shawn off with Nate to the Commissary. We could join them, and then when Hammond's done, he can come find us, or send for us."
Sam nodded, and fell into step beside Teal'c and Jack as they turned and headed down the corridor. She'd already had breakfast, but she was fairly certain Jack hadn't had anything yet, and if Jack hadn't, then Jaffer hadn't either, and that big dog could get pretty moody when he was hungry.
OOOOOOOOOO
"So let me get this straight," Ian said about an hour later. "You guys do research here…?"
Hammond nodded.
"Not just research, son… high tech research. On items that are so top secret, we don't even want rumors of them getting out…"
"Like Thor?" River asked.
"Yeah… what is Thor?" Ian asked, jumping on the subject. Thor had looked awfully damned real to him – way too real to be a puppet of some kind.
"He's a robot," Hammond lied, smoothly. "A state of the art animatron that Major O'Neill developed to handle the more explosive technology – and for use eventually on the International Space station."
"And you made him look like an alien because…?
Hammond shrugged.
"Major O'Neill has an interesting sense of humor at times…"
Ian frowned; he didn't buy it, and Hammond could tell from the look on Cadet Hayden's face that he wasn't all that sure about it, either. Of course, River had been out of it for most of the events, so he was a bit easier to convince than Ian, who had been there and seen everything. But it was the story he was giving them, and there was nothing that would change it – short of a Presidential order.