John Doe

Chapter Twenty Three

Disclaimer: The show doesn't belong to me and the characters don't, either. But, I have a few small roles in here that are mine and only mine... so at least there is that much!

XXXX

Friday Night:

They stepped out of the wormhole and found themselves exactly where they should be- the embarkation room of th e SGC. After instructing Daniel, Teal'c, and Sam to head with him to the infirmary and then to the locker rooms he took off down the hallway, reading to get his check up with Brightman or Carmichael or whoever the doctor on duty was.

A little over an hour later he found himself at the door of Sam's office, peering inside. Yep- he had been right. She was there. Working on the damned enigmatic doohickey of hers. He looked at his watch, it was almost 2230, way past time to go home. "Colonel Carter," he barked, figuring that she would respond to military mode quicker than otherwise.

She looked up at him, "Yes sir?"

"Pack it up- you're going home." he ordered, walking into the room. "Or, rather you're going to my home."

As tempting as the offer sounded Sam had no intention on leaving her office for at least five more hours. "I'm fine, sir. I can sleep in my quarters tonight."

"Colonel?" he asked, sitting down in front of her desk. "Are you defying a direct order?"

She looked up from her work, "Did you give me a direct order, sir?"

"Yes," he told her. "I did."

"You're ordering me to go home with you?" she mused. "I wonder how that would sound to a military judge and jury...."

His eyes narrowed on her, "Oh... that's just wrong."

A smug smile of triumph manifested on her face, "I swear I'll sleep, Jack. You're the one who made me go on that mission for no reason when I should have been here studying this thing but no, you wanted to go soak up the sun and work on your tan. This could be important, I need to figure it out."

"You're not going to do that when it's an hour away from midnight, Sam. I swear if you come back to my place- or even home- you can work on it all day tomorrow."

She sighed, "Fine- but only because I'm tired."

It was his turn to smile smugly, "Of course it is. Your place, or mine?"

"Both," she stated. "You go to your place, I go to mine. Otherwise, I won't get any sleep."

The grin on his face no had nothing to do with smugness, "We'll... that's kind of what I had in mind."

"My point exactly," she said, pulling on her coat. "I'll see you tomorrow, sir."

He pulled her into his arms as she tried to brush past him and kissed her deeply. "Pleasant dreams, Colonel."

After another brief kiss she pulled out of his arms, "Oh- I'm sure they will be." She smacked his backside and with a wink she left the room and headed for the surface, leaving Jack standing in her office looking cheated. With a scowl he headed for his office to gather his things and head back to his place.

XXXX

One month later

"Unauthorized off-world activation!" Davis' voice yelled over the intercom. "Unauthorized off-world activation!"

Jack sprinted from his office down the stairs into the control room and stood in front of the glass, his arms folded across his chest, watching. SG-1 had gone through the 'Gate only ten minutes prior and thousands of situations were buzzing in his mind, taunting him. This was the worst part about his job, something was wrong.

"Do we have an IDC?" he barked, not bothering to look over at the sergeant.

"Not yet...." a few seconds later he spoke again, "It's SG-1, sir."

Before Walter finished his sentence Jack spit out, "Open the iris!" and ran down to the embarkation room. The titanium iris swirled open, reveling a shimmering, blue puddle and Jack waited impatiently. Within seconds Teal'c and Sam came rushing into the room, supporting Daniel between the two of them.

"Close the iris!" Sam yelled, and it instantly closed.

"What happened?" Jack asked, taking in the blood that was seeping through the calf of Daniel's fatigues.

"The locals weren't very friendly, sir." Sam informed him, "Shot Daniel in the leg while we were retreating... some kind of automatic weapon, it looked like an old revolver, something from the 1800's."

"Take him to the infirmary." Jack ordered, although they already knew to do so. "Then get checked out, cleaned up, and in the briefing room at 0930." It was just after 0800 at the moment, so they would have plenty of time to stick around the infirmary and make sure Daniel wasn't hurt too badly. Jack himself planned to head there in around twenty minutes, by then Teal'c and Sam would be showering and Daniel would be sedated for the surgery he would undoubtedly need in order to remove the bullet. And Daniel sedated was something that Jack felt everybody should experience once in their lives. The man knew over 20 languages, and each one of those languages made an appearance... and the man never made sense.

When Jack made it to the infirmary Daniel was spitting out something in German- Jack new a little German and he distinctly heard Daniel say something about the dog being in his coffee again. The man then switched to a language that nobody in the room had the pleasure of knowing, so what he was saying went unbeknownst to everybody.

Doctor Brightman ordered him out of the infirmary while they were operating on Daniel. Jack wasn't surprised- she wasn't as strict or scary as Janet had been, but she was getting closer each day. Jack protested a bit, wanting to hear what else Daniel had to ramble about but then figured he'd better go get started on his report. Daniel would be the death of him one day, that was for sure.

At ten minutes after 0900 Sam walked into his office, not even bothering to knock. She knew Jack would be working on the report about Daniel's injury and figured he'd welcome the break. Besides, it had been awhile since they last saw each other. Before she left for the mission to P8Q-253 she had been on a week long mission to P1S-900. They only had a 20 hour period of downtime between the two missions and she had spent most of the time working on her mission report.

"Hey," she greeted, sitting down in one of the chairs in front of his desk. "How's the report going?"

He looked up from his desk and scowled, "Blah."

"That well?"

"Ooh," he sighed, "and then some."

She grinned and got out of her seat, then walked over to his desk and promptly sat on his lap, kissing him deeply. "That better?" she asked when she broke away.

"Very much so, Colonel." he replied, snaking his arm around her waist.

"I thought it would help," she supplied with a shrug.

"Oh?" he asked, "So it had nothing to do with you missing me?"

"Well..." she pretended to think about it. "Maybe... just a little bit."

"Sure," a grin stretched across his face. "A gun from the 1800s, huh?"

"Late 1800's..." she corrected. After taking in his strange look she smiled, "What? My brother's a cop... I know these things."

"Right." he chuckled. "Of course."

She swatted at him playfully, "What does it matter anyway?"

He shook his head, "It doesn't... I was just curious."

It was her turn to be incredulous, "Sure... whatever."

Pulling back out of his grasp she kissed him briefly, "I'm going to go check on Daniel."

"I wouldn't if I was you... Brightman's getting territorial."

She smiled, "Trust me, I have my ways." Glancing at her clock she sighed, "I'll be back in ten minutes."

He nodded, "And I'll be here working on my report."

"Have fun," she suggested with a smile.

"You know I will." he called after her as she left the office. Then, he went back to work.

XXXX

"The denizens of P8Q-253 were not a friendly people." Teal'c said cryptically.

"Well... yes, I figured that out by the bullet in Daniel's leg." Jack replied, "But why did you retreat in the first place?"

Sam decided that she would be better at explaining things and took over where Teal'c left off. "Upon our arrival we were met by a group of men with older looking guns. My best guess would be that they were like revolvers. When we explained that we were explores from another world and simply wanted to make contact and get to know them they invited us back to their village. What we didn't know at the time was that they hadn't invited us back to get to know us.... They were cannibals, sir."

"Cannibals?" He repeated, recoiling with a mixture of shock and disgust.

Teal'c nodded, "Indeed, General O'Neill. They consumed human flesh."

"Thank you for that description, Teal'c." Jack said with a cough. He turned to Sam, "Continue, Colonel."

"By the time we got to the village we had figured things out and I ordered a retreat. While they were preoccupied we made a run for it and they followed us, they got Daniel in the leg while he was dialing back home and then Teal'c and I helped him through the 'Gate."

Jack nodded, "Ok- this debriefing has been disturbing on so many levels.... You're dismissed."

Teal'c got up from his chair and left the room while Sam stayed behind. "We should have left as soon as we got there." she said absently, Jack wondered for a second if she was even talking to him- but there was nobody else in the room, so she must have been.

"Why do you say that?" he asked, sitting back down in his chair.

"I knew something was wrong. The looks that they were giving us... they weren't normal. Kind of like a cat with a mouse, toying with it before it ultimately has it for dinner. I knew that there was something about them that just wasn't right, I ignored it. I don't know why I did, but I ignored it."

"Sam," Jack started, "there's no way you could have known that about them. It's not your fault."

"Daniel was shot," she told him as if he hadn't already noticed. "If I had gone with my gut feeling and left then he would be alright and we wouldn't have to be on downtime until he got better."

"Don't kid yourself, Sam." he told her. "If you guys had left right away whose to say they wouldn't have just shot you all on the spot? If you questioned their intentions then it's a good thing you didn't make that immediately apparent. They could have gotten scared and killed you where you stood."

She thought it over and then sighed, "I guess you're right."

"Of course I'm right," he said as a matter-of-factly. "Now... go home and get some rest. You've been running on empty since last week."

"I'm fine, sir." She informed him. "I'll leave later."

"No, Colonel, you'll leave now." He stood up, "I'll be home around 7."

"Whose home?" she asked, too exhausted to argue with him.

"Well," he stated, "mine has fresh groceries."

That was the deciding factor. "Sounds good. I'll make something for dinner."

He made a face before he could stop himself.

"Hey!" she cried out playfully. "I can cook when I put my mind to it."

"You can do anything if you put your mind to it, Sam." He smiled, "Except cooking."

She threw her pen at him, "Fine, I'll order out."

He grinned, "I could court martial you for striking a superior officer, you know."

"Fine," she shrugged. "Court martial me. But then I'll be in jail and you'll be alone."

The grin on his face disappeared. "Oh... right."

Shaking her head she made her way over to him and kissed him briefly, "I'll see you later."

"Right... bye, Sam." She headed out the door, "And get some sleep! That's an order."

"Sir, yes sir!" She called as she left the room.

Sighing to himself he picked up the preliminary mission report and headed to his office. He had a long day of writing ahead of him.

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A/N: Ok, so I think that this story will be ending soon. Maybe around chapter 25 and an epilogue. But, I'm not sure. I'm just guesstimating, really. So... tell me what'cha think.