A/N: Thank you all for reviewing again. I appreciate it.
It seemed to be a popular question to ask me what I got for Hanukkah: a radio teddybear (that's right! It's a stuffed animal that has a radio inside it), vanilla rum, a sweater, a poncho, slippers, a scarf, Jennifer Government, and a day calendar. Not exactly everything I wanted. I asked for season 1 of SG1 on DVD...but my birthday is on the 21st so I still might get it...possibly...
Jack stood at the briefing table, not sitting down just yet. He'd been called in two days ago when someone looking like Ra had come through the Stargate. It felt like a lifetime ago. He'd been sitting on his observation deck, looking at Sam's favorite spots in the sky as he wished she was there.
Now he was here. Recalled to active duty after retiring when he got back from Abydos. Hopefully this would be just as short a stint – like Hammond had said.
"Where's Captain Carter?" Hammond asked, turning to one of his subordinates…Samuels, Jack though was his name.
"Just arriving, sir," Samuels replied. Jack's eyes scrunched up a little. No way it could be his Sam Carter. Carter was a common enough surname in the military.
"Carter?" he asked anyway.
Hammond looked at him; "I'm assigning Sam Carter to this mission."
Jack was perplexed. Sam would have told him if she was being assigned here, right? Right? "I'd prefer to put together my own team, sir."
Hammond shook his head, "Not on this mission, sorry. Carter's our expert on the Stargate."
Hadn't Sam mentioned something about a secret project she'd been working on? He'd heard her mumble 'Stargate' in her sleep sometimes when she'd been too drunk or tired to go home.
Jack wrote down a note to himself on a notepad. Somehow all this had reminded him that he'd promised to take Sam out for Italian when she was in town next. "Where's he transferring from?" No harm in assuming it's a man, right? Right?
"She is transferring from the Pentagon." At the sound of the voice he knew so well, Jack looked up. When he met her eyes, they exchanged smirks. "I take it you're Colonel O'Neill," she saluted like a proper soldier, "Captain Samantha Carter reporting, sir."
Jack smirked as Kawalsky made some remark about her name and the two bantered back and forth. He'd have to talk to the general about this.
When Sam had found out who was going to be her commanding officer, she'd flipped. Beg as she might with her godfather, George Hammond, or the president himself, she couldn't get them to back down. She was stuck with what she had been told to do. And if she didn't do it, she'd go to jail or worse.
Sam's palms sweated nervously as she waited in the elevator for it to get down to the level she needed. She was not in a good mood. Only the remote possibility that it was her Jack O'Neill that awaited her kept her grounded.
Her alarm clock hadn't gone off that morning, and then she'd barely had enough time to shower and change before she had to catch her flight. The damn plane had been delayed in leaving from the Pentagon because of too much air traffic and what awaited her when they grounded in Colorado Springs was even more bad luck: she had to wait half an hour for her transport car to arrive. To make everything worse, she'd had to endure a chauvinistic driver who thought she should be pregnant, bare-foot and in the kitchen and wasn't afraid to let it be known all the way to the base.
Needless to say, Samantha Louisa-May Carter was not in a pleasant mood when she'd arrived at the base. It didn't help matters much when she'd been introduced to Ferretti and Kawalsky. Chauvinistic pigs.
During the briefing all Sam could think when she looked at Jack was, I really need to talk to Uncle George about this.
After the briefing following Hammond's announcement of the SG teams, Sam and Jack stayed behind when everyone else filed out of the room. Hammond waited until the doors had closed behind the last person then turned to his goddaughter and the very insubordinate Colonel, "In my office. Now."
Inside the office, Hammond stared at his two most important assets in this assignment. "Well? What's wrong? Don't like your assignments?"
Sam was the first to speak, glancing at Jack first she said, "No, sir." She paused – man this was a lot harder than she thought it was going to be. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"
"Granted, Captain. Now tell me, Sam, what's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, per se, sir. It's just that I would like to be transferred off of SG-1 and onto a different team." She looked at Jack, and he looked back both willing the other to know how deep their emotions ran.
"Sam, why?" Hammond asked. He was quickly realizing that this was the time for Uncle George, not General Hammond.
"Because our personal relationship runs too deep for us to remain CO and 2IC on the same team, General," Jack said in a tone that commanded finality.
George Hammond looked at both of the officers before him. He was surprised and proud that both of them had come forward with this now, instead of later. How detrimental could it have been if they had waited three, two or even just a year to tell him this?
"How so?" he asked calmly. There was a reason both these officers were put on the same team. The powers that be needed the two on the same team. Perhaps there was a way around taking Sam Carter off the team…
"As you well know, I've been living with the Colonel's ex-wife for the past year, sir. And, as you also know, we've known each other for years prior to being stationed in the Springs together a few years ago. I'm sure my father told you about the run in I had with three of his officers when I was nineteen?"
George smirked; he'd had his suspicions that the Jack O'Neill mentioned by his friend was the same man sitting before him now. Now those suspicions were confirmed.
"Anything else?" he asked with a façade of calmness.
Jack nodded, "Yes, sir. We've been dating for the past eight months as well." Sam shot him a look that asked if that was what they were really doing and Jack's replying look confirmed that it was if that was the way she wanted it. Sam smiled in a positive answer.
"I can't do that, Sam, Jack. I respect you both a lot for coming forward with this now. But the president has expressed his strong preference that you are both on the same team. There's nothing I can do on the matter. I'm sorry."
"I hear Africa's nice this time of year," Jack said seemingly out of the blue.
Sam caught his drift immediately while it took Hammond a while to do so. "Yes, I've always wanted to see the Sahara in person." Sam grinned impishly at Jack, "On one of those five year tours the locals give out sometimes."
"Really? I haven't heard about those. Do tell," Jack and Sam were playing everything up perfectly just for the General's presence. These two knew how to get what they wanted.
Hammond finally cracked under the pressure of what the two were implying, "Okay! Fine. I'll bring your ultimatum to the president. Just don't do anything rash - yet. Promise me that."
"We promise," Sam and Jack said together in light voices.
Hammond sighed, shaking his head, "You two have rubbed off too much on each other. Dismissed." After the two left, Hammond picked up the phone on his desk, "Get me the president, immediately."
"Hello, General. What can I do for you?"
General Hammond cleared his throat, trying to find the right words in which to explain this to his superior. "Well, sir, this concerns Captain Carter and Colonel O'Neill."
"Jacob's daughter and that CO you gave her? What's wrong? They not getting along?"
"No, sir. Nothing like that – Sam wants to be transferred to a different team so she'll be free to carry on a personal relationship with Colonel O'Neill. Sir?"
"In one word: no. In four words: no the hell not! We need them on the same team, General." To say the president was pissed at this request would be the equivalent of saying a tsunami is a little water.
George sighed; he felt a large headache coming on. "Sir, I'd expected you'd say that and that's what I told them."
"What did they say?"
"They said that Africa seemed nice this time of year and so did a five year tour of the Sahara, sir. They meant it, sir. I've no doubt that both of them would resign and move to Africa if they had no other choice and want to be together."
"Shit. George what the hell did I do to deserve this? Don't answer that." The man sighed heavily, resigned to what he had to do. "I want you to keep this thing between them silent for as long as you can – I'll work on figuring something out."
"Sir? What if we just give them what they want? Put Captain Carter on SG2 and let the two teams work jointly on most if not all of their missions?"
The response was instantaneous, "Do it."
A/N: See? I told you it would only be by the book until the pilot was over. Everything from now on is fair game.