Well, on with the story and I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and find it worthwhile to send me your thoughts on it, whether you liked it or didn't!
Ninety minutes later they were back in the conference room. "So Jack, what's on the agenda for the next few days?"
"Well sir, we'll have you come back tomorrow in the morning to brief you some more on what to expect on traveling through the gate. We'll-"
"We get to go through that thing?" Robbie asked with a grin on his face.
"Yes sir. We're scheduled to take you all through the day after tomorrow to take a look at our Alpha Site and meet some of our allies," Jack explained to them.
"What's it like?" Robbie asked.
"You used to be a fighter pilot right, sir?"
"Yeah, I flew Tomcats for the Navy."
"Then you'll love traveling through the Stargate!" Jack promised him.
"Why can't we go through tomorrow afternoon?" Ryan asked.
"Because you're coming over to my house tomorrow night for dinner," O'Neill supplied.
Jack and Cathy looked at their old friend, "Andrea, care to explain?"
"Yes sir. Mr. Van Damm, General Hammond and I thought you might enjoy having dinner with General O'Neill. And it's my understanding that Sarah Mills and her current husband, Greg, are leaving for Europe the day after tomorrow."
"Don't tell me you're starting to do things without my knowledge too now?"
Jack spoke up and bailed the Secret Service agent out, "I told them not to tell you, I wanted it to be a surprise!"
"You know I don't like surprises Jack!" Ryan reminded him.
"I know," he smugly replied.
Ryan shook his head before looking over at the head of his security detail and whispering, "Let's not try and make a habit of this, okay?"
Andrea nodded, "Yes sir."
"Thanks though."
"Your welcome," she quietly replied.
Ryan then looked up at everyone else, "So what time is dinner?"
"It's at six o'clock… Mr. Vice President, Mr. Secretary, I'd be honored if you'd both join us tomorrow night for an informal, yet formal, grill out tomorrow evening," Jack O'Neill told them.
Both men looked to the President and saw that he would be happy to have them there as well before accepting the invitation. "Excellent!" Jack cried out.
The Next Night Jack O'Neill's home
"I can't even remember the last time I grilled out!"
Jack O'Neill looked at his friend and current commander in chief, "That's a shame… You really should do it more often, you know that you'll lose your touch if you don't do it often!"
"Don't I know it… Hell, Cathy and I had to almost fight just to serve breakfast for our selves!" he informed him.
O'Neill reached out with the tongs and began to turn one of the many shish kabob skewers spread out on his grill. After a moment of silence, he seriously asked him a question, "How is the job?"
"Hard! I can't believe people fight for this job… One of the most annoying things is that I can't even do any of my own work or research! That's what I loved about being an analyst, it was like solving a puzzle… Now, someone else does all that for me and I just get the highlights and have to make a decision on it!"
He nodded his head in understanding, "I know what you mean…"
President Ryan looked over at Jack O'Neill and nodded his head, "Yeah, how did you become a General? Didn't you promise yourself that you would never sit behind a desk?"
Jack chuckled, "Yeah I did… I hate sitting behind that desk and watching all the teams go through and do all the exploring… It's no fun worrying about your teams…" At that moment, Sam and Cathy Ryan walked out to the patio carrying trays of vegetables (for Teal'c) and hamburgers for the small children (the First Children and General Hammond's granddaughters). "And it's all her fault," Jack exclaimed as he pointed the tongs at Sam Carter.
"What did I do this time, sir?" she asked as she set a tray down and helped Cathy with her tray before holding out a few beers to both men.
"Bully me into taking Hammond's old job."
"For the record sir, it was Daniel who mentioned that you could do whatever you wanted," she told them with a smile.
"Yes, but I couldn't leave you guys with someone much worse in charge, now could I?"
Sam shook her head, "You're not going to let me live that down are you, sir?"
"Not anytime soon," he told her as he turned back to the meat on the grill. "Oh and Carter, probably not a good idea to put the First Lady to work!"
Sam opened her mouth to speak, but Cathy beat her to it. "Trust me she didn't! I had to practically order her to let me help her out."
Jack Ryan nodded his head and smiled at his wife. "Don't you hate doing that Cath?" He then looked at both Jack and Sam to explain, "Sometimes we just want to feel like normal people again!"
"And if they don't get it, they order the rest of us to treat them like normal people," Robbie chimed in as he walked up to the group. "Do you remember that time in your office where you forced Andrea to sit down, ordered me to call you Jack and enjoy myself or you'd have Andrea shoot me?"
Ryan chuckled, "Yeah I remember… Sometimes a man just needs to feel like a man, and not the President of the United States."
"And having a relaxing night at a friend's house is just that…" Cathy commented.
"How do you guys know the General here?" Robbie asked.
"Sarah and I were very close friends back in college. Jack and I got to know him after he married Sarah and he was stationed at Andrews."
Sam looked over at her CO, "When were you stationed at Andrews, sir?"
"Wouldn't you like to know!" Jack told her with a smug grin.
She just stared at him while Cathy laughed. "Sam, don't you ever want to just wipe that smirk off his face?"
"The Air Force doesn't look too favorably on assaulting Brigadier General's, ma'am!" she told her in a round about way that she would love nothing more at times.
Cathy turned and began to lead Sam away, "Well, I know his boss, and I'm sure we can maybe bend the rules a little… No one should have to suffer, as I'm sure you have, working with him for… What? How long have you worked with him?"
"Ten years, ma'am."
Cathy turned to look at Sam before looking back at her husband and friends, "Oh dear God, I'm so sorry! Jack should give you a medal!"
The three men watched the two women walk off as Cathy continued to laud Sam for her perseverance.
"She definitely deserves a medal!" Jack Ryan added as he continued to tease his old friend.
"More than you know, sir! And not for just putting up with me!" he quickly added. "She's the smartest person I've ever known and one of the best soldier's."
"Hell of a combination," Robbie commented.
"Oh yeah… She can ramble with the best of them about her little doo-hickey's and then come up with a way to save the planet."
Ryan shook his head, "You know, for as much work with the CIA as I did, it all pales in comparison to what you guys do here! It's hard to fathom that while I thought I was doing something important by bringing down the Columbian drug cartel, I had no idea that the fate of our existence was at stake and being defended from Colorado Springs!"
"And I used to think flying Tomcats was an experience, I'm betting that it'll be nothing compared to what we do tomorrow!"
"It is pretty exciting," Jack agreed.
"So how many times have you guys saved the planet?"
Jack O'Neill shrugged, "I don't know, but Carter's definitely leading the race of coming up with ideas to save the planet."
"Like what?"
"Well, she once had this idea to take a meteor through the planet by jumping into hyperspace…" he told them as he turned the skewers.
Both men's eyes went wide as their mouths opened in shock. "She flew a… meteor through..? How did she know it'd work?"
He shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know… I just know that most of her ideas work and she comes through in the clutch…" He went on to tell them stories of her other ideas that had saved them, and other planets, many a time.
The President and Vice President looked through the patio windows and saw Sam speaking with Tony Bretano. "Damn!" Ryan whispered.
Robbie then turned to O'Neill, "You make sure that we don't ever lose her, you hear?"
Jack looked up and into his house as his eyes sought out Sam. She happened to look up at the same moment and they both shared a small smile with each other. "I don't plan to, sir." 'I don't know what I'd do if I lost her…' Jack wondered to himself.
TBC