Chapter Eight

Hammond stepped forward, his anger actually focusing on Janet first. "You're not telling me they've been putting me on this whole time! Major Carter's service record is spotless. You can't tell me she would willingly participate in something like this!"

"Not the whole time, sir, no." Janet took a step back from Hammond, daring to glare at us once again. "There was a foreign object in both of their heads yesterday." She folded her arms over her chest and stood her ground as she faced him. "As far as I can tell, sir, their return trip to 884 was entirely successful and they should be back to normal."

Carter was still wrapped in my arms, but I was fairly certain that was only because neither of us felt like drawing attention to ourselves. But then Carter squeaked, in a very un-Carter-like squeak. "That's not possible."

The fury of both Doctor Frasier and General Hammond focused on her and she pushed back against me. I kept my arms around her, not because I wanted to hold her at that moment, really, but because I figured they were far less likely to attack if I used Carter as a shield.

"Come on, there's got to be something horribly wrong with me, at least." I wasn't sure what good my protest would do, but it seemed like a better idea than standing there and waiting for someone to yell at me.

After a moment, Carter turned her head to look back at me. I saw terror and confusion and sadness and bewilderment in her eyes. She was shaking as she pulled away from me and slid off the bed. She started to back away from all of us, the shock more apparent every moment that her mouth remained hanging open.

And like the idiot I was, I opened my mouth again, thinking that it would help. "You're wrong. It still feels good to touch her." I squeezed my eyes closed, desperately wishing I could un-say what I'd just said. I heard Carter's uncharacteristic whimper before I heard the telltale sound of her boots retreating from the room at a dead run. Fight or flight. Apparently Carter opted for flight.

Ignoring Janet, because I figured she wasn't all that mad or surprised at what she'd witnessed, I faced General Hammond. I realized something as I looked at the man I'd come to respect in the years I'd been under his command - he was as human as the rest of us. He had a wife and children and grandchildren. He knew what it was like to love someone. He understood far more about Carter and I than I'd ever thought; far more than I actually did right then since I was still flabbergasted by what had happened.

"Can the court martial wait for a few minutes, sir?"

Hammond's face, which had been bright red with fury and rage and wrath, held no reproach for the first time in two days. He angled his head toward the door Carter had scampered through moments earlier. "Go. But we're not done here."

I nodded, ducking my head in acknowledgement and smiling in gratitude. Then I hightailed it through the door. "Carter!"

I searched everywhere I thought she would go before I reluctantly starting asking people if they'd seen her. The first ten people I bumped into hadn't seen her and I got the distinct impression they wouldn't have told me if they had. Being paranoid, I decided to try people I knew, because at least I'd know if they were lying to me. I tried Teal'c first, assuming Carter would try some reverse psychology thing on me - like I'd assume she'd go to Daniel so she'd try to hide from me by going to Teal'c. I was pretty sure Teal'c was being straight with me when he shook his head and said he hadn't seen Carter all day. I headed for Daniel's office next.

Daniel was at his desk, reading a dusty, old book that was at least four inches thick. He looked so engrossed in it when I peeked in the door that I actually felt guilty disturbing him. But as I turned away, I noticed his glasses. They were lying on the desk next to him. I looked back at him and watched as he hastily picked them up and immediately when back to his book.

"Ah, yes, that's much better." His tone was so stilted that a deaf person could have picked it up.

"Daniel?" My voice held more warning that he deserved since he obviously was trying to keep something from me.

Daniel looked up as I approached and I watched him quickly decide, as I'd watched him do a million times, that I could beat the crap out of him. "I haven't seen her, Jack."

I raised my eyebrow and took another step toward him. "Seen who, Danny?"

He nervously glanced at the floor and then back at me. "There's only one person you're ever looking for with that look on your face. I haven't seen Sam. She's not here."

I looked around the room which was perpetually covered with dust regardless of how many people traipsed in and out every day. It was rather obvious that Carter wasn't there. But it was also rather obvious that Daniel was lying. I smiled at him, knowing full well that I tended to terrify people when I was smiling and angry at the same time. "Daniel, where is she?"

"I don't know, Jack?" As he spoke, with his words involuntarily turning into a question, his eyes darted back to the floor again. I'd known Daniel for a lot of years and I knew, when he felt threatened, he usually looked for an escape route. So I knew he was lying about having seen Carter and I knew there was no trap door behind his desk.

I didn't even say a word. I looked him in the eye and nodded toward the door. He clenched his jaw for a minute and then mutely nodded, evidently more afraid of me than of Carter. He paused as he passed me and I knew he was trying to find something threatening to say to me to warn me off if I was going to hurt her. "It's ok, Daniel."

I waited several minutes to be sure he was gone before I slowly approached his desk. Carter was there, exactly as I'd suspected, sitting with her knees drawn into her chest and her head down. I stared at her, unable to speak for a moment. She didn't appear to be crying and I decided that was a good sign.

"Are you hiding from me or Hammond?" I pulled Daniel's chair out of the way, unsure whether I should sit in it or join Carter on the floor.

Carter looked up at me, her eyes wide and full of emotion she didn't know how to hide anymore. "I don't know. Both of you, I guess."

I smiled gently as I sat down in front of her, hearing my knees crack in a most unforgiving way. "And you thought Daniel was a good enough liar to cover for you?"

She cracked a smile before her eyes darted back to the ground. "I'm going to have to have a talk with him about that."

"I'd rather you had a talk with me." I reached out, letting my hand slide against her hair and along her cheek before I pulled her chin up to face me. "For the record, you really are that soft even without a chip in my head."

Her face colored red as she tried to turn away. I brought my other hand up to cup her face, effectively stopping her from hiding again. She silently pleaded with me to let her lick her wounds in private before I made her talk, but I wasn't about to let her run away again.

"You know, he let me come after you."

Confusion temporarily replaced the embarrassment. "Daniel?"

"Hammond."

She groaned. "Dad will be so disappointed with me when he finds out why I was court martialed."

"First of all, I don't think he'd be surprised." I let my hands drop from her face as I shifted around to sit beside her. "And second, I don't think there's going to be a court martial."

"Because you've convinced Togar to erase General Hammond's memory?"

I grinned. "I hadn't thought of that, but it's an option I'd like to keep in reserve." I reached out for her hand, but I stopped before I actually touched her and set my hand on the floor. As brave and fearless as I let on to be, the truth was that I was terrified she'd only been so receptive to me because she thought she'd be able to get out of it.

Her quiet whisper shook me because of how sad she sounded. "You're not going to retire, are you?"

"Wasn't planning on it." I shook my head. "There might be some changes though."

"What kind of changes?"

My nerves were acting up, making me well aware of how Carter must have felt when she'd run out of the infirmary. My eyes were on the door of Daniel's office, wondering how quickly I could get out of there. Then I felt her hand close around mine and I knew there was nowhere I'd rather be. "I think Hammond understands. I think he'll let us work something out." I turned to face her and found that she was staring right back at me.

Slowly, she nodded. "So we're ok?"

I grinned cheekily as I leaned toward her. "I seem to remember someone saying they loved me."

She grinned back. "I seem to remember someone reciprocating."

"Then we're good." I kissed her softly. It was a chaste, sweet, short kiss. Not like they'd been in the previous two days, yet somehow better. Because it was real. We knew it was real. And we didn't have anything to hide behind. I sat back, smiling as I stared at her. It was hard to believe it was finally happening.

"Colonel O'Neill, please report to General Hammond's office." Walter's voice over the intercom made me wince.

Carter bit her lip. "I thought you said he understood."

"I thought he did." I shrugged. "Besides, it would appear that he only wants to talk to me."

"Major Carter, please report to General Hammond's office."

Carter winced as well. "We're still in a great deal of trouble, aren't we?"

I laughed involuntarily, the way I always had in church as a kid that pissed my father off to no end. "Yeah, I'm afraid so." I stood up, ignoring my knees as they cracked again on the way up. "You want to sneak out? I'll tell him I couldn't find you. I'll even get Teal'c to say he saw you leave a while ago."

"Not Daniel?" Carter giggled as she stood up with me. "Might as well face the music."

I squeezed her hand for a second before we left the relative safety of Daniel's office. "Maybe it won't be as scary if we're in there together."

Carter grinned, making me forget how anything could be scary at all. "I won't be scared. I'll be too busy trying not to laugh because you'll be smirking the entire time."

"I will not be! I've been in the Air Force since you were in junior high, Carter. I know how to keep a straight face while I'm being reprimanded."

"Then I don't have to remind you that you shouldn't be smiling like that when we walk in there, right?"

Carter started to laugh and I joined her. It was certainly going to be interesting to try and explain to Hammond that we really hadn't noticed the chips were out of our heads because touching each other was apparently that fantastic all the time.

According to Carter, Hammond blasted us for our unprofessional behavior for a good hour, but I didn't hear two words of it. I spent the entire time contemplating the fact that I could kiss Carter any time I wanted. And judging from the way Carter cracked a smile every time Hammond turned away from her, she'd been right about me smirking the entire time.

The End

AN: Ok, so I didn't lie exactly... this is the end. But I've decided to write an epilogue which should be up in the next couple of days since I have another idea that I'm desperate to get started on. Please let me know what you think. And thank you to those guys who stuck with me. I've found that writing is helping me keep from dwelling on the bad things that have been happening. It's much better to live in my happy little imaginary land with Jack and Sam and various others!