Name: Get Carter
Part: 1 of 3
Pairing: Sam/Jack
Feedback: Please do feedback! With each of my stories I try to explore areas I haven't previously experienced, and this one is no different.
Notes: Despite appearances, this is NOT a cross-over or a parody. Just wanted to make that clear.
Thanks to: HTaft, who has unwittingly become my new beta!
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and the characters are the property of MGM et al. There is no infringement intended and no profit made.
Part 1
Get Carter
Gunfire from all sides; echoes ricocheting off the curved walls of a domed room. Thousands of tiny explosions did their best to smother the all-important orders issued from one officer to another. They drowned the vital information exchanged from soldier to soldier, scientist to scientist. Daniel wasn't even in here anymore. Somehow he'd ended up outside, down behind the barricades beside Carter; a zat in one hand, a nine millimetre in the other. Teal'c was outside, too. Constantly on the move, the Jaffa warrior sought vantage points from which to offer support to his Tau'ri comrades. SG-9 and SG-22 were out there with them, giving it their best.
And he should be out there too, dammit, but someone had to co-ordinate this defensive.
"Colonel!" A young lieutenant was rushing towards him, almost tripping over himself in his urgency. "Captain Rhea just radioed in, our position is about to be overrun!"
"Negative, Lieutenant!" O'Neill barked over the din. "We can't let those snake-heads get a hold on our dugout, do you understand me? We won't let them!"
"No, sir, we won't, sir!"
"Then get back out there!"
"Yes, sir!"
O'Neill span on the spot towards the tiled pit at the centre of the room. Once upon a time it had been smooth and cool and gleaming; now it was blemished with scorch marks from the Jaffa scout party that had found them here. A couple of scientists had sustained minor injuries; Daniel's hair was singed thanks to a close call with a staff blast. It was a miracle no-one had been more seriously hurt.
"Harman, I want good news!"
"Can't give you any right now, Colonel," the scientist yelled back. "The darn thing still won't respond to any activation attempt and the device Major Carter rigged up is ready to go at any second!"
Jack didn't bother to mute his curse. He looked around for free hands. Apart from Major Harman, SG-22's second-in-command, O'Neill was the only officer in the room; the rest were outside in the line of fire. The men and women here were civilians, scientists, working desperately on the archaeological and technological find of the century. It had all started out so promisingly; he should have known it would lead them to disaster.
"Wow, Jack, it's really heating up around here! How would you guys phrase it? Oh yeah – the situation is escalating! How's that for military lingo?"
"I told you to keep the hell outta the way, Colburn," Jack growled, rounding on him. "In case you hadn't noticed, our butts are on the line here and we can't afford you screwing up our chances of staying alive."
"Oh, but Jack, I couldn't miss out on all this – this – this action!"
Ferdinand Colburn Jr., the most irritating man in the galaxy – and Jack O'Neill had seen enough of the galaxy to know that statement wasn't hyperbole. Presently, the man beamed a smile at him, bouncing happily on the balls of his feet.
"What do you think this is, some kind of game?" Jack snarled. "People, good people, are risking their lives outside those doors." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder violently. "The only reason you're not out there with them is that I know for a fact you'd jeopardise their safety by doing something unimaginably stupid. It's got nothing to do with Daddy's precious influence keeping you secure, so if I were you, kid, I'd damn well do as I'm told. Now stop wasting my time."
He shoved the lanky twenty-something aside at the same moment sparks erupted in the pit. Cries of alarm added to the already deafening layers of sound that filled the room, and as O'Neill looked, he saw that Harman had pulled a female scientist out of the way just in time.
"What the hell was that?" O'Neill demanded as the smoke cleared.
"Overload, sir!" Harman exclaimed; there was a definite note of panic in his voice. "Major Carter's buffer just short-circuited from the energy build-up – Colonel, if we don't cut the power, the naquadah in the core is going to explode and take us with it."
"What?" O'Neill yelled. "That thing's our only chance of staying alive here, Major!"
"I understand that, Colonel, but without any kind of buffer…"
O'Neill didn't wait for him to finish. He turned back towards the only man in the room who wasn't staving off their imminent demise and bellowed, "Get Carter!"
Unfortunately, that man happened to be Colburn.
He gave a goofy grin. "Hey, isn't that a movie?"
O'Neill couldn't believe it. He actually could not believe it. Staring, he found the man was standing there, just standing there, an inane grin slapped across his face. Then Jack realised something else: he was waiting for an answer.
There wasn't time to rage; there wasn't time for Jack to say anything to convey exactly how infuriated, incredulous and incensed he felt at that moment. With a passionate anger in his eyes, O'Neill raised his sidearm.
The smile vanished from Colburn's face.
"Um…"
"Don't. Just… don't." Jack's voice was dangerously low and yet Colburn caught every word in utmost clarity. "Get. Carter." He clicked back the safety, the threat raw in his eyes.
And at that moment Daniel stumbled in through the doors, hastily bandaging his left hand. "Jack!" he called, "Sam sent me to ask–" He stopped. Having been concentrating on his burnt hand, he hadn't noticed the scene at first; now he was confronted with Jack holding their civilian guest at gunpoint.
"Whoa, Jack, what's going on?"
Before O'Neill could offer a vicious reply, Major Harman cried, "The buffer won't come back online! Colonel, we have to cut power!"
"Negative!" Jack yelled. "Daniel! Get Carter!"
The archaeologist did not hesitate: he knew a crisis situation when he saw one. Moments later he returned with Sam hot on his heels. She had no time to question what her commanding officer was doing: Harman beckoned her over urgently – "Major! The core buffer disconnected itself!" – and she ran to join the desperate work in the pit.
"Jack–"
"Don't bother, Daniel." He lowered his weapon and nudged the safety back into place before turning to watch his second-in-command in action. She was giving orders in that way he loved: with knowledge that gave her authority, with urgency that made her impossible to dispute.
"How's our line of defence holding up out there, Daniel?" he asked without taking his eyes off Carter.
"Not so great," Daniel admitted. "Reed's in a bad state and Morris got injured pulling him to cover. They're closing in, Jack; I don't think we can hold them off for much longer."
Jack fixed his gaze on the alien device Sam was handling and cursed it.
"If Carter can't get that thing to work, this whole place is gonna blow anyway," he said grimly; "then, we'll have nothing to worry about."
He turned so suddenly Colburn jumped again. He had been backing towards the wall and now he froze, but O'Neill wasn't interested in him – he strode straight passed the pale youth. Once outside, O'Neill ran up the bank and threw himself down on the ground where Carter and Daniel had abandoned their positions. Teal'c was there, firing steady shots from his staff weapon, scattering and disrupting their enemies' advance.
Jack didn't speak a word. He just fired round after round, taking down row after row of Jaffa, not allowing any thought, fear or hope to arise in his mind. He concerned himself solely with the next wave of the advancing army. They just kept coming.
And then Carter was beside him and his thoughts rushed back into being; he tried to stem their flow but they were just as loud, just as insistent as the never-ending gunfire that rattled around his ears.
"I've bought us some more time," she told him as he paused to reload, voice raised over the noises of battle. "Daniel's helping with the translations."
"Good," he called back, taking aim again. Then: "INCOMING!"
Carter's head went down but Jack could see it wasn't going to be enough; he grabbed her vest and rolled with her sideways; he felt the force of the explosion and it caused them to slip back down the muddy slope towards the building, debris pelting them from above like vicious rain.
Jack raised his head and found Sam breathing heavily in his arms. He had clutched her close to protect her from the blast and the pressure of her body against his ensured his shortness of breath.
"Y'alright?"
Despite everything, she endeavoured to smile and suddenly he realised he really didn't want to let her go – but he had to.
"Yes sir," she nodded, shaken, "thank you."
He risked a brief smile and a moment later they were back on the ridge together, Teal'c alongside them, fighting for survival. Suddenly Daniel was there too – "We managed to get the symbols to correspond! Major Harman is activating the device now!" – and Jack's sense of balance was restored. Colburn's ignorance meant nothing now. O'Neill was here with his team, hope unfolding in the building behind… but it wasn't over yet.
He barked out an order and around the ridge soldiers obeyed, aiming their fire so as to drive the Jaffa in to close ranks. This was a risk – the Jaffa had a chance to regroup and press on up the hill with more success – but no-one questioned him.
He waited as the others continued to fire around him. Then he unclipped something from his belt – their last grenade – and hurled it into the crowd of enemy soldiers. The effect caused instant disarray.
"Colonel!"
Carter was pointing back towards the building. A dramatic pillar of light rose upwards out of the domed roof, a forceshield arcing out over the circular ridge surrounding the building; then a sudden pulse swept across the valley and the entire army of Jaffa was destroyed.
"So that's what it does," Jack mumbled. A smile curved Sam's lips; she had tried to explain the device's function numerous times but the Colonel just hadn't been listening.
"Jack!"
Jack turned and sighed loudly as Colburn burst out of the dome building. "Jack!" he cried again, "we… we've got to go! It's… it's gonna…"
Clambering up the hill, Colburn was too breathless to speak properly; he panted heavily as he came to a halt in front of an impatient O'Neill.
"What? It's going to what?"
"Explode!" Major Harman shouted from below: "get out of here! The impulse blew all the circuits, all the controls!"
"Colonel," Carter added earnestly, "there's no telling the extent of the explosion with these kinds of energy levels."
"Everyone – move! Now!"
No-one stopped to think; no-one stopped to ask how they were supposed to break through the force shield trap they had made for themselves. They just ran. Soldiers and scientists fled side-by-side from the building, skidding down the bank into the valley. Harman supported Morris whilst Teal'c had Reed flung over his shoulder. After that, the journey back to the Stargate was consumed with the blur of panic and adrenaline, and no-one was quite sure how they got through the shield at all. Carter and Harman speculated, but no-one really knew.
They rendezvoused with Captain Rhea's team at the Gate and made it through before the blast hit. Once home, the four teams were so washed over with the sudden relief of safety that they lingered, dazed, at the bottom of the ramp. Morris and Reed were rushed to the Infirmary; the others followed on the prompting of General Hammond.
At first nobody said a word. Then, slowly, the realisation of their victory began to take effect. The Jaffa army had been annihilated but they, the good guys, were home and dry. Someone laughed at a nurse's joke about their blood pressure; his team mate joined in with the banter; then the whole Infirmary was suddenly crowded with conversation, full of the wonder and light humour that characterised their relief.
Jack alone didn't speak. He sat on the edge of his bed, forming a mental barrier around himself, a purposeful isolation from the rest of his men. As soon as his medical was complete, he stood up, grabbed his jacket and left the room.
Sam watched him go. It worried her that not a word had been spoken between them since they had leapt through the Gate, side-by-side. She remembered him so close behind, urging her passed the DHD and into the event horizon. She cast her mind back further and remembered him on the ridge, mowing down row after row of Jaffa. She remembered him as they tumbled down the slope; remembered herself landing unhurt and secure in his arms.
Sam caught Daniel's eye with an anxious look. Teal'c, too, shared in their moment of concern, but the three members of SG-1 were soon swept back into the others' jubilation as SG teams 5, 9 and 22 began to sing a very earnest victory song.
----------
They didn't see O'Neill again until the debriefing. Daniel had made an attempt to find him, and the fact he was unsuccessful could only mean Jack didn't want to be found. His late appearance in the briefing room elicited a sharp reprimand from Hammond, but when Jack didn't answer the General allowed the briefing to continue without further reproach. It was a matter to be dealt with later.
The briefing was carried by Captain Rhea and Major Harman, with contributions from Carter and Daniel regarding the device. Teal'c also gave his tactical assessment, commenting on the Jaffa's archaic tactics. It was therefore likely, he said, that they were dealing with a fairly inexperienced minor Goa'uld who had been seeking the device as his way to power.
O'Neill was the first to rise at the completion of the debriefing, but Hammond was quick to call him back.
"A word in my office, Colonel."
Sam waited for Jack to slide a look back to the rest of his team, but the wordless exasperation never came. Instead, he stuffed his hands into his pockets and followed the General into his office. The door was closed.
Daniel stood with a slight frown. "Something we're missing?" he guessed, rounding the end of the table slowly to join Sam and Teal'c with a perplexed glance towards the General's office.
"Yeah, apparently." Sam was watching closely as Hammond gestured for Jack to sit. O'Neill declined. "I don't understand it. All our primary mission objectives were achieved."
"And it's not like we lost anyone, either," Daniel added. "Doctor Fraiser said Lieutenant Reed is going to be fine and Captain Morris would already be up and about if she hadn't ordered him three days' bedrest."
"Then perhaps the outcome of the mission is of little significance," Teal'c suggested in his deep, wise tones; "perhaps there is another matter with which O'Neill is concerned."
"Maybe," Sam sighed. They had seen Jack like this before, and his black moods always had their root causes; unfortunately, he never volunteered that information willingly. "Daniel, how was he after you left the Infirmary?"
"I didn't find him," Daniel replied with a bewildered kind of shrug. "I tried all the places I could think of. I thought maybe he'd gone back to his quarters after a shower or something. I was knocking on his door for ages; I guess he was ignoring me."
That was not a good sign. When Jack didn't want to be disturbed, everyone knew about it -- he would rather shout it from the rooftops than hold his silence. Sam would have expected Daniel's insistent knocking to have provoked some kind of response: a glare from the doorway, a yell from inside. Even now his responses to the General seemed too few.
If he was hoping to keep withdrawn from his team, though, he would be disappointed. They knew him too well to allow his silence to pass them by.
----------
George Hammond's gaze was fixed squarely on the man in front of him. There were few that would not wither beneath that stern glare, but Jack O'Neill seemed to have perfected the art: jaw set and expression blank, eye line secured on an invisible spot on the wall straight ahead.
It was one of two reactions the General had been anticipating.
The first had been an animated denial of everything, permeated with small truths and reluctant confessions that would eventually culminate in something close to the full story. The second had been this.
Of course, as soon as O'Neill had entered the debriefing, it had been obvious to George that he was dealing with Reaction Two. He had prepared himself accordingly, adamant that Jack would not leave his office before a suitable response passed through his pursed lips.
"Have a seat, Colonel." George gave a gracious gesture towards the chair on the other side of his desk.
"What's he said?"
The demand hung in the air over George's desk.
"Enough to warrant a few questions, Colonel," George replied after a moment. "I'd like to know what happened out there and why you didn't contribute anything to the debriefing."
"Harman and Rhea debriefed you," Jack answered. "There was nothing for me to add."
"No threats to a civilian life?" Hammond challenged. Jack's expression didn't alter and George considered the moment before saying, "Sit down, Jack."
This time the invitation was an order and even in his obstinance Jack found it irrefutable. He sat, slumping down low in the wooden frame. His eyes peered out at the General from beneath a darkened brow.
"I spoke to Ferdinand Colburn," George told him. "You may have noticed his absence from the debriefing. He is currently in the Infirmary, being treated for shock."
Again, no response. George leaned forward and clasped his hands on his desk. "He appears to be under the impression that you threatened to shoot him."
"I threaten to shoot a lot of people."
"With a drawn gun, Colonel!" Hammond's voice was suddenly a lot sharper. His eyes were narrowed slightly, scrutinising every visible reaction on Jack's face. "He is not one of your officers to discipline -- he is the son of one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff!"
"I don't give a damn whose son--"
"Neither do I, Colonel, but let me tell you something: his father sure does. You threatened to mortally wound a civilian under your protection."
"Under my protection?" O'Neill repeated, his stony-faced mask finally vanishing. He was now sitting straightened up in his chair, fierce defiance in his eyes. "Since when does my team act as a bodyguard on some kid's sight-seeing tour of the galaxy?"
"He was your responsibility."
"My team is my responsibility!" Jack answered back, rising abruptly from his chair. "Every mission he has been on he has put my team at risk!"
"Sit down, Colonel."
Slowly, anger smouldering in his deep coal eyes, Jack lowered himself back into his seat. Hammond allowed him a moment to seethe, then said,
"Colburn and his father want a formal apology."
"Then Colburn and his father can go straight to hell."
"In that case I'm sorry, Jack," George sighed. The regret in his voice was wholly genuine. "I have no choice but to take disciplinary action. You are hereby suspended from duty until further notice. You are not under arrest but you must remain in Colorado Springs. Is that clear?"
Jack looked at him for a long time. Then, slowly, calmly, he nodded. He got to his feet, and a moment later strode out of the door and into the Briefing Room, where the rest of his team waited. Sam took a step towards him -- "Colonel?" -- but he passed her without so much as a token glance.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed that, and I hope you'll stick with the story through the next two parts. In the second chapter, Sam, Daniel and Teal'c try to talk some sense into a resolute Jack O'Neill...