Chapter Eleven

When Sam awoke the next morning Jack was gone. Again.

'What is with that man?' She wondered sleepily, crawling out of his bed and scanning the room for some sort of clothing.

Unfortunately, she and Jack hadn't made it to the bedroom fully clothed last night, having shed their clothes somewhere in the vicinity of the living room.

She decided that now was as good a time as any to go through Jack's stuff. Rationalising the invasion of his privacy by telling herself she'd already seen his life, she might as well have a look through his underwear.

Having located an old Air Force Academy t-shirt of Jack's Sam made her way out of the bedroom. Once she reached the hallway that led to the living room she could hear Jack's voice.

"Yeah… uh huh… no… I'll be there… I'm not sure… why?"

Sam walked into the living room to see Jack standing with his back to her. He was holding his cellphone to his ear and talking into it in a low voice. Knowing he wouldn't have called anyone this early, she wondered how it had woken him and not her, and then remembered that offworld he was always the first to awake at any sound. She figured his senses must be on high alert now that Pete had escaped.

Jack looked delicious to Sam. He was wearing jeans again, probably the same pair he'd worn the past two days, and had rushed out of the bedroom without a t-shirt. His hair was mussed, and his constant running his hand through it wasn't improving the situation.

Jack was still talking into the phone. Sam gave in to temptation and crossed the room to him. As soon as she moved Jack spun to face her. His features harsh. They softened once he saw who she was.

His features softened even further when he saw what she was wearing. His jaw dropped open and he stopped talking. On the other end of the line she could hear Walter's voice, "General O'Neill? Sir?"

Sam nodded to the phone in his hand and Jack raised it once more to his ear, "Uh… yeah. I'll be there soon. In an hour." He said, not taking his eyes off Sam, "Maybe two. O'Neill out." He snapped the phone shut.

"Where'd you find that?" He asked.

"Laying around." She replied.

"Laying around, huh? C'mere."

Sam went willingly into his arms. "That the base?"

"Yeah. We have to go in." he said.

Sam leant back to look up at him. "We?"

"I'm not leaving you here." He told her.

Sam shook her head. "I promised Cassie I'd take her out." She said.

"Sam…" Jack began.

"I'm going, Jack. You can't stop me." Sam's tone softened, "We'll be fine."

Jack nodded, sulkily. "I could order you, y'know." He said.

She laughed and walked away.

"Where're you going?" Jack asked.

"Shower." She said.

Sam shed the t-shirt in the bathroom and stepped under the hot water.

Suddenly the shower door opened and Jack stepped in.

"Jack! What are you doing?" She asked, laughing.

"Conserving water." He answered.

"Quite the environmentalist aren't you? You'll be telling me you recycle your beer bottles next."

Jack laughed and reached for the shower gel.

Sam was struggling to keep up with Cassie as the young woman marched around the mall.

"Sam, what's with you today?"

Sam yawned, "Just a bit tired, Cass." Sam replied.

"Late night, huh?" Cassie asked cheekily. "Mom would be proud."

"Cass!" Sam said, scandalised.

Cassie merely shrugged and moved on into the next shop.

When General O'Neill arrived at Cheyenne Mountain he was greeted by a grinning SF at the security post.

"Something wrong Airman?" Jack asked, as he flashed his ID.

"No sir!" The Airman seemed extremely happy about something. Jack shrugged and walked to the elevator.

Everyone he met en route to his office was grinning madly at him, and no one asked him to sign anything.

When he spotted Sly Siler and Airman Wood grinning at him from a corner in one of the corridors Jack finally yelled, "Okay! What?"

The sergeant and airman said nothing in response, just kept grinning. Jack was about to interrogate them further when Daniel appeared.

"Daniel!" Jack yelled exuberantly in greeting.

"Jack, shh." Daniel looked tired.

"Dear me, Dr Jackson," Jack said, clapping his friend heartily on the back, "hangover?"

"Jack!" Daniel yelled, then groaned when he hurt his own head. "Yeah, kinda." He smiled weakly.

They had reached Jack's office and entered. Jack sat down heavily in his chair. "So, wanna explain why the entire base look like they're on happy pills this morning?" He asked Daniel, who had taken a seat opposite him.

"Uh… that." Daniel said evasively.

"Daniel?" Jack asked.

"They kinda heard about… you and Sam." Daniel said.

Unexpectedly the O'Neill temper didn't explode. "And this makes them… happy?" He asked.

"Yeah. Well most of them. Siler and Walter are probably happier than most." Daniel said, rubbing his sore head.

"Why?"

"They had a book running on you-" Daniel stopped, realising what Jack had tricked his hangover-addled brain into admitting.

"Nice." Jack said. "You get anything?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I had you down as retiring first. Teal'c made out okay, though."

Jack laughed, "Sorry Danny."

"That's okay," Daniel said, smirking, "JJ."

"Daniel…" Jack warned.

"Why did you never mention your family?" Daniel asked.

Jack frowned at his friend's abrupt gear change. "We don't talk anymore."

"I can't imagine having a family and not wanting to talk to them." Daniel said.

"You saw what my father's like." Jack pointed out.

"Yeah… I guess. You don't think maybe you'd get along now?"

"Nah, I haven't changed and neither has he." Jack dismissed the subject. "Right now we should concentrate on finding Shanahan."

"Well, no one heard anything overnight, it's like he just… vanished. General Hammond's gone back to Washington to see about getting more people on the case…"

"I know, we spoke this morning. I'd feel better if we were doing something too."

"Me too. I hate the idea of that-" Daniel was clearly very angry with Shanahan.

"Whoa, Daniel. You okay?" Jack was puzzled with Daniel's reaction.

"Yeah, it's just the way he treated Sam and Cassie. Then he tries to shoot you." Daniel said, still angry.

"Daniel, lots of people try to shoot me." Jack reminded his friend.

"What if he'd succeeded? What if we'd lost you? It would have destroyed Sam, Jack."

"I know." Jack said softly. Last night, when she thought he was asleep, Jack had heard Sam crying quietly.

/"Hey, what's up?" He'd asked.
"It's just… what if Pete had shot you? You'd be dead because of me." She'd said between silent sobs.

"He missed, Sam. We're still here." He'd soothed.

"I don't think I could stand to lose you, Jack, not now."

"You won't. I promise."/

"Yeah, just be careful." Daniel was saying, "I don't want to be the one that has to tell Sam you got yourself killed, and neither does Teal'c."

"Point taken." Jack said. "Where is Teal'c, anyway?"

"Commissary?" Daniel suggested, looking at his watch.

"Let's go. You look like you need a coffee."

The men stood and exited the office. "But I swear…" Jack said, "The next person that gives me that stupid smile…"

Sam had finally managed to drag Cassie into a coffee shop. The teenager had just gone to the ladies when:

"Hey Sam!" Shanahan sat down opposite Sam.

"Pete!"

"Uh-uh. Don't even think about screaming or anything like that. I'll shoot you and the alien kid."

"What do you want?"

"Come with me."

"You're out of your mind!"

"Maybe. Come on Sam." He took her hand and yanked her roughly to her feet.

"No!" She hissed.

"If we're still here when the kid gets back, I'll shoot her." Shanahan said.

"You wouldn't dare. This is a public place."

"Wanna stick around and find out?"

Sam allowed Shanahan to lead her out of the crowded coffee room.

When Cassie got back to the table, moments later, she found Sam gone, their shopping bags were still leaning against the table legs and Sam's coffee was half-drunk.

She looked around, then pulled out her phone and hit the speed dial.

When the phone was answered she said, panicked, "Put me through to General O'Neill, please, tell him it's Cassandra Fraiser."

The woman on the SGC switchboard was new, and took pride in her job. She wasn't going to let just anyone speak to the General, he was a busy man.

Cassie lost it, "Get Jack O'Neill on the line now!" She yelled, her tone a combination of her mother's doctor voice and Jack's command tone. The other people in the coffee shop looked around at her. "Tell him Sam Carter's just disappeared."

Jack and Daniel jumped out Teal'c's truck before it stopped moving. Several airmen jumped out of the van that had been following and stood back, in case the General wanted anything. Cassie ran towards Daniel and Jack. She reached Jack and practically flung herself into his arms.

"She was just gone, Jack, just gone."

"Its okay, kid. We'll find her." Jack wished he felt as confident as he sounded. Teal'c joined them.

"How long was Sam out of your sight for, Cassie?" Daniel asked, once Cassie had released Jack.

"Two or three minutes. I went to the bathroom. God, I shouldn't have left her on her own!"

"Not your fault Cass." Jack said. His cellphone rang. He flipped it open, "O'Neill."

Once Pete had gotten her to the car park, and safely away from Cassie, Sam had begun to struggle. She had managed to give him a black eye before Pete finally brought out the nine-millimetre he had stolen and hit her with it, knocking her out.

When she awoke she was in a dimly lit room. It looked like the room had once been an office. Sam was chained to a desk. The desk was bolted to the ground. She groaned.

She heard Pete speaking from somewhere else in the place. His voice had a slight echo to it.

"Hey! O'Neill! How you doin'?" Pete sounded happy, joyful even. "Yeah… that. I know you'd probably like to shoot me about now, Jack. Can I call you Jack? … Good… Yeah, I've got her. She's right here… No she can't come to the phone. She's a little tied up, pardon the cliché! … Well gotta go… wouldn't want you tracing this now, would I? Call you later, Jack."

She heard Pete click his cellphone closed. She heard him walk into the office she was tied up in.

"Hey Sam."

"Go away."

"Sam, come on, is that anyway to speak to your fiancé?"

"You're not my fiancé anymore, Pete. Let me go and you won't get hurt." Sam said calmly.

"Oh please, O'Neill's an animal; he'll shoot me whatever happens now. You should see some of the stuff in his file! So," Pete clapped his hands together, and squatted down beside Sam, "Seeing as how I'm dead anyway, I can pretty much do what I want, Sam." He reached forward to stroke her face.

Sam turned her head away forcefully. "Get away from me." She growled.

Pete laughed and left the room. "I'll leave you to think about it for a bit, okay babe?"

Jack looked up to see Cassie, Daniel and Teal'c looking at him. "Shanahan." He growled. "He's got Carter."

Daniel noticed his friend had slipped into command mode, and with that the use of Sam's last name had resurfaced.

"Where is he?"

"If I knew that, Daniel, we'd be there." Jack snapped. Then, gentler, he said, "Sorry."

The four thought for a moment.

"Is there no way we can trace ColonelCarter?" Teal'c asked.

Both Daniel and Jack's heads snapped up. "Cellphone!" They both said.

"Cassie, did Sam have her cellphone with her?" Daniel asked.

Cassie thought a moment. "Yeah. In her skirt pocket. We were gonna catch a movie after coffee so she turned it on silent."

Jack turned and yelled "Somebody! Here! Now!" About five of their escort came running up.

"The power of a General, huh?" Daniel murmured to his friend.

"You better believe it." Jack muttered back. "Right, I want you guys ready to triangulate the position of Colonel Carter's cellphone."

"Sir, it needs to be receiving a constant signal in order for us to-"

"I know that." Jack held up his own cellphone. "That's why you're gonna call it. Let me know when you're ready." The men nodded and rushed away.

Jack looked up. While they had been talking, several local reporters had turned up, plus the police force.

Jack grabbed Cassie's hand and strode towards Teal'c's truck.

One reporter broke through the surrounding crowd of Airmen. "General O'Neill? General Jack O'Neill? Is it true it was your second in command at Cheyenne Mountain that was kidnapped? Is it true that you are having an affair with said second in command?"

Suddenly Teal'c loomed up in front of the reporter. "You will go away." He said, calmly. It was a statement of fact. Teal'c took the man's notebook and stood passively, arms crossed, until the man was led away by the airmen who escorted them.

Jack, Cassie and Daniel had climbed into the car. Teal'c followed them in and slammed the door.

"Thanks, T." Jack said tiredly.

"What do the press want with this?" Daniel asked.

"Are you kidding?" Jack said, running a hand through his hair. "AF General and his second in command?"

"You've got presidential permission."

"They don't know that." Jack said, nodding his head out the window.

"Yeah, but, how did they know to be here?" Cassie asked.

"PeteShanahan." Teal'c said.

Jack nodded gloomily.

There was a knock on the blacked-out window, Teal'c rolled it down.

It was one of the airmen that comprised their escort. "We're ready, sir."

Jack handed the man his phone. "Number's in there, Lieutenant."

"Yessir." The younger man said, taking the phone and walking back to the equipment van.

"You okay, Cassie?" Daniel asked the young woman, who was pale.

"Yeah, I'm just worried about Sam." She said, not sounding like the confident young woman Janet Fraiser had raised.

"Its okay, Cass. We're gonna find her." Jack said, putting his arm around her and pulling her close.

Sam was laying on the cold floor, she'd passed out again.

'Damn,' she thought, 'concussion.'

Dimly she realised her skirt pocket was vibrating. She couldn't reach into her pocket to answer it, she realised.

But her phone wasn't a flip phone. If she could wriggle around enough she could hit the answer button on the leg of the desk.

Sam wriggled for all she was worth. The vibrating stopped. Sam prayed she had hit answer, rather than end.

Straining her ears she heard static on the line, due to the fact that her signal was slightly disrupted because of the building she was in. She sighed in relief. She had hit answer.

Now she only had to hope that it was someone tracing her, and not her dry cleaning lady calling about her dress uniform.

There was another urgent knock on the window of Teal'c's truck.

Teal'c rolled it down to be greeted by the same airman.

"Sir!" the young man all but yelled into the truck, "We've got a trace!"