"You'd better take it, Colonel," Hammond said. It wasn't like Nate would just call Jack at work on a weekend to see how the weather was in Colorado, after all. "Use my office."

"Yes, sir."

O'Neill headed into Hammond's office, and picked up the phone, hitting the blinking light that told him the line he needed.

"O'Neill."

"Jack, it's Nate."

"Hi, Nate. Why do I get the feeling you're not calling to ask how Sam and the baby are?"

"How are Sam and the baby?"

"They're fine."

"Good. Do you know where Ian is?"

Jack frowned, wondering if Nathan Brooks had some kind of internal radar that told him when his son was in trouble. The man had an uncanny knack for calling when Ian was in a bind.

"Yeah, Nate."

"I want you to put him someplace safe, Jack – someplace deep in that mountain of yours – until I get there."

"You're coming here?"

"I'm on the plane, now."

"What's going on, Nate?"

There was a hesitation, and just when Jack had decided Brooks wasn't going to answer him, Nathan spoke up.

"I can't talk to you on this line. It's not secure. Just do what I told you Jack. Put that boy of mine so deep that even his mother couldn't find him if she wanted to."

"But-"

"Goddamn it, Jack, just do it. And meet me at the Airport at 6:20 your time, because that's when my plane lands."

The phone went dead, and Jack knew it was to keep him from arguing any further. He frowned, and set the phone back in the cradle, and then walked out into the briefing room once more.

"What was that about, Jack?" Daniel asked, wondering at the odd look on his friend's face.

"Nate's on his way here."

"What?" Hammond asked. "Why?"

"I don't know for sure. He wouldn't tell me. But he's worried about Ian – he told me more or less to pretty much hide him, and that's saying something for Nate…"

Hammond frowned. He knew Nathan, too – although not the same way Jack did. Jack and Nate went back to their Special Forces days, while Hammond hadn't met the man until after he'd been promoted to General, and had transferred over to a Washington job. He knew that Brooks had a lot of political connections – although the man himself hated politics and politicians. He was always willing to use those connections if he needed to, though, and Hammond wondered if maybe he'd gotten wind of what was going on with Ian.

"Ian's not going anywhere right now – not according to Doctor Fraiser – so that shouldn't be a problem." There was no place more secure than the SGC, after all. At least he used to think so. Then he woke up that morning and things were suddenly all messed up.

"When's he going to be here?" Daniel asked.

"Around 6:30. He asked me to be at the airport – which means he's not on a military flight."

Which was just as odd, because the older Brooks didn't have a problem hopping a military flight whenever he needed to. Meaning he didn't really want the military to know where he was?

"Then we'll break off this particular discussion until he gets here – just in case he knows something we don't."

Hammond wasn't positive that he was right, of course, but he needed time to stop and talk to the President, in any case, and there was one SG team due in that afternoon as well.

That was fine with Jack. He wanted to check on Shawn, anyways, and then see how Ian and River were doing. Obviously, there wasn't a lot of need to keep River under guard in the SGC anymore, but they still wouldn't allow him to wander around – and Jack wanted to see how long it would be until Fraiser was planning on letting him out of bed.

"Go check on everyone, Colonel," Hammond said, standing up. "And let me know if there's anything I need to be aware of."

"Yes, sir."

Jack and Jaffer headed for the door, with Teal'c, Daniel and Jack (the dog) right behind them.

OOOOOOOO

Sam was in the infirmary – which was pretty much where Jack had expected to find her. She was sitting on the edge of Shawn's bed, and Jack smiled when he saw the look on his son's face. Shawn was not happy to be stuck in bed when as far as he was concerned, he was fine. The arm ached, but it wasn't debilitating, and in a sling like it was there wasn't even any pressure on it.

The scowl faded when Jaffer hopped up onto the bed beside him, though, and the black lab flopped down, his head resting lightly on Shawn's belly. Sam smiled at the difference in Shawn's expression, and then smiled a hello to Jack, who came up behind her and put his hand on the small of her back in greeting.

"How's it going?"

"Shawn's pouting."

"I am not."

Sam's smile grew, because even his voice sounded a little pouting.

"Fraiser won't let you up?"

"She wants to run some tests," Shawn replied.

"Well, she outranks you, young man," Jack said, sitting down next to Sam with a relieved sigh as he took some weight off his injured leg. "So do what she says."

He sighed, but nodded – it wasn't like he had a lot of options, anyways.

"Don't worry, Shawn," Sam told him, loving how very much Shawn looked like Jack – especially when he looked disgruntled – which wasn't often. "Janet said she's not going to keep you here overnight, so you can come home with us for the night."

Shawn smiled. That would be a lot better than going back to his empty dorm room – since he knew Doctor Fraiser had every intention of keeping River that night and maybe longer – and answering questions from the other cadets about Hayden's absence.

"Thanks, Sam."

"Yeah. You can change diapers," Jack said, grinning.

Shawn's smile grew.

"I'd love to Jack, but my arm is a little sore… and I'm not sure I'd be able to do it…"

"Hey…"

"You wouldn't want me to drop a messy diaper, would you? Just because my poor arm can't handle the-"

"All right. All right."

Geez. No one ever wanted to help change diapers. Everyone liked holding the baby, but man, the minute he started stinking, they were so quick to hand him back to mom and dad…

"I'm going to go check on the others." He looked at Jaffer, who had already closed his eyes and was half asleep. "Yeah… you keep Jaffer occupied for me… he's so hyper, that he'd probably end up getting kicked out."

Sam and Shawn smiled, and Jack left them, and headed for the other side of the room where he'd seen Fraiser when he'd entered the infirmary.