When Fraiser came home, Cassie was in her bedroom. She wasn't really all that surprised about that, though; even in the best of times Cassie spent a lot of time in her room. She had a TV in there, and a computer, and all the other necessities of life, so it was hardly arduous, after all. But there was food in the dog's dish, and dishes in the drainer, so it was obvious that she hadn't spent all day in her room.

"Cass?"

She came to the door of her room, warily looking out into the hall where Janet was standing. Janet ignored the look.

"Are you hungry?"

She shook her head.

"I had a sandwich."

"Then we're going to have a late dinner," Janet told her. "I have some paperwork I need to get finished, and I thought I'd bring it home with me."

"That's fine." She went back into her room, closing the door silently behind her, and instead of scowling like she would have, Janet simply went back into the kitchen and made herself a snack and took about an hour to just relax a bit and spend a little time with the dog, since Cassie wasn't making an appearance.

When she was ready to start her paperwork, however, she went back to Cassie's door, and knocked lightly.

"Yeah?"

"I'm going to start my paperwork…"

"Okay."

"Why don't you come out and keep me company?"

There was a pause, and Janet smiled, knowing Cass was weighing her options and debating whether to decline or not.

"You can help me with the data entries."

It wouldn't be the first time – although Janet didn't often bring her paperwork home with her.

Cassie sighed, inwardly, but she figured it was going to be that or listen to her mom try and convince her to tell her what had happened the night before, still – and she'd pretty much do anything before she did that. She came to the door and opened it, more or less reluctantly, although Janet opted not to notice it.

"Okay."

Medical records for the people in the SGC were strictly confidential, and Janet guarded her patient's privacy like a lioness guarded her cubs, but the data entry parts of the records were hardly sensitive material, and it was a lot easier to transfer the information from charts over to her computer files if she had someone reading off the information, and Cassie was usually the one who helped her. Originally, it had been a good way for them to spend time together; something that Cassie could do that would make her feel like she was helping – which she was. Now they did it because it was almost a tradition; if Janet had data entries that she couldn't get finished at work – and emergencies always took precedence of course – then she'd bring it home so Cassie could help her.

The two of them went to the kitchen table, and Janet pulled out her laptop while she handed Cassie a thick stack of papers.

"Start with line A, okay?"

Cassie nodded, and waited for Janet to get ready before she started reading off numbers.

After a half hour or so, she figured that Cassie had had a chance to lose some of the wariness she'd started with, and then Janet went in for the kill. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

"So… what did you do today?"

Cassie looked up from the paper she'd been reading from, but she couldn't see anything wrong with the question.

"Went for lunch with Sam…" That much her mom would already know, of course. "…and did some homework, read a few chapters of that new book…" Brooded…

"Pretty easy day?"

Cassie nodded.

"How about you?"

Janet made an exasperated sound that she didn't really mean.

"I had a long day. Three SG teams needed checkups, Private Alverez was released from the infirmary today, and I signed Ian Brooks' medical transfer papers."

"What?"

"Private Alverez was released today," Janet repeated, although she knew that wasn't what Cassie had been asking.

"What do you mean about Ian?"

"They're transferring him back to the Air Force Academy and needed my medical authorization to do it. Because of the gunshot wou-"

"Why are they transferring him?"

Janet shrugged.

"Colonel O'Neill wouldn't tell me…" she said, "But I'm pretty sure it has to do with credibility. He's very angry with the Cadet right now, and Sam told me that he doesn't think he can trust Ian anymore, because he obviously couldn't trust him with you for one night."

"What?"

Janet gave Cassie an odd look.

"You have to be able to trust the people on your teams, Cassie. You know that. Colonel O'Neill trusted Ian, and he blew it last night. So he doesn't trust him anymore and he's going to have him transferred back to-"

"That's not fair."

"It's Colonel O'Neill's decision to make."

"But Ian didn't do anything…"

"He won't tell us what happened," Janet told her, reasonably, although she was secretly pleased with just how well her ploy was working. "You won't tell us what happened, so we don't know-"

"He didn't-"

"We don't know that."

"I do!"

Cassie was in a real panic. She couldn't believe that Jack had turned on Ian so quickly and for such a little reason. But of course, she knew what Jack was capable of, and knew his hot temper, knew how protective he was of her and believed it, even though it was insane. She couldn't even imagine why Ian hadn't said something to protect himself – except that he was probably just protecting her, too – or thought he was – and Cassie couldn't let him ruin his career before it even got off the ground just so he could protect her. And she couldn't allow it to happen, just to protect herself from embarrassment over what had happened.

She couldn't. It wasn't right, and it wasn't fair for her to let him take the brunt of her stupidity.

"Ian didn't do anything, mom…" Cassie repeated, suddenly flushing and unable to look Janet in the eye. "It… I did…"

Janet had been silent while she watched a dozen emotions roll over Cassie's very mobile and expressive face, and had waited, knowing that if ever she was going to find out what happened, this was going to be the moment. When Cassie started speaking, Janet had to bite her lower lip to keep from allowing the triumph to show in her own expression. As Cassie started speaking, however, stammering and faltering over her words, Janet's smugness turned into chagrin, and then mortification – not only with Cassie for what she'd tried to get Ian to do and how she'd tried to do it, but with herself for how she'd treated Ian, who according to what she was hearing, hadn't deserved any of the things she'd said or done… or thought…

"Oh, my God…"