Chapter 9: Trouble

General Hammond wasn't quite sure what to do. He'd made the trip down to Sam's lab to inform them of the decreased amount of rumors and thank them for a job well done. When he saw their compromised position he'd had half a mind to just leave and pretend he didn't see anything.

They were under orders to act like they were dating, after all, and as responsible Air Force officers they must have had some legitimate reason for their behavior. However, there were no other people in the immediate area to put on such a show for, and the two were quickly overstepping the boundary of appropriate base behavior even if they hadn't been a commanding officer and his second in command.

As it was, O'Neill and Carter were standing at attention in front of him, both slightly disheveled and looking like two cadets being brought up on charges, which was probably about how they felt.

"When I suggested this little endeavor this was not what I had in mind," General Hammond said loudly as he paced in front of them.

Neither one made a move to defend themselves, wishing instead that the ground would take pity on them and swallow them up, putting them out of their misery, but no such kindness seemed forthcoming.

On the other hand, no matter how embarrassed they might have felt, both knew that they couldn't actually get in trouble for their actions. Hammond himself had suspended the fraternization regulations for them, after all. However, they also knew that pointing this out for the General in his present mood wasn't a particularly good idea. In any case, they were more worried he would call of the experiment. Now that they'd finally started a relationship they were loath to loose the one reason for its existence so quickly.

"I am well aware that you've had feelings for each other in the past," Hammond continued, "but I trusted you to be able to handle this professionally. Apparently I was wrong."

They did feel bad about that. He trusted them with his life just about as much as they trusted him with theirs and betraying that trust was just after betraying anyone on SG-1's trust, at the top of their list of things not to do. However, it was a bit naïve on his part to assume that they would be able to stay completely professional, and probably bore the mark of a man who'd been married for the past 30 years.

"There are reasons we have these kinds of rules," Hammond ranted. "I can't in good conscience send to into a potentially hostile situations knowing your judgement may be compromised."

He had a point there, but seemed to forget the part about how he knew they'd had 'feelings for each other in the past,' and they couldn't count the times that reality had made the difference between coming back alive and well or in a body bag. Still, vaguely acknowledging that the feelings were there, then leaving them in a room was a far cry from actually acting on them.

Hammond seemed to have run out of arguments, so he said, "Would you like to explain yourselves?"

"Yes, sir," Jack started slowly, but gained speed quickly. "You see, we were in here working, completely professional..."

"Then we heard a couple people coming down the hallway," Carter interjected.

"So we, you know, did what you suggested," O'Neill said, deliberately trying to be vague and spread the responsibility around a little.

"Then I suppose things started to get a little out of hand," Carter said softly.

"And...um..."

"Yeah..."

"I think you know the rest, sir," Jack said finally.

Hammond looked them both in the eyes, searching for any evidence that they hadn't told the whole truth, even though he knew it was mostly pointless. These people were trained to trick lie detector tests, well, most of them, a brief once over wasn't going to tell him much. And he didn't much feel like asking the Tok'ra for their zatark detector.

"It won't happen again, sir," Sam said glumly.

"Damn right it won't," Hammond snapped, perhaps a bit more forcefully than he intended.

So this was it, then, he was going to make them call it all off and make everything go back to the way it was before. When this all started they'd thought it would be easy, that seemed so long ago. Now they could hardly even remember how it was before. They'd have to figure it out all over again.

"I came down here because I wanted to thank you for a job well done, it seems that the rumors have been decreasing like we'd hoped," Hammond said. "Everything in me tells me to call off this experiment, for everyone's sake, especially yours. But I also know that doing that would only add fire to these rumors again; therefore I am going to allow you to continue. However, you are under strict orders no to let this get out of hand again. If you do, then the punishment will be swift and severe. Understood?"

"Understood, sir!" they chorused.

Hammond gave them one final look and left. Sam sat down in the nearest chair, shaking slightly. Jack wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her and tell her it would be all right, but he knew he couldn't. She suddenly started typing furiously on her computer, mumbling something about making up for lost time.

"I think I'm gonna go back to my office," Jack said. Sam merely nodded, so he cast one final lonely look at her, and left.

Sam stared dully at her computer screen; any facet of being productive had dissolved as soon as Jack left. She knew deep down that the General was correct in his decision, but she was spending less effort acknowledging that than trying to ignore the part of her that wished Jack would come and sweep her up onto his white horse so they could ride off into the sunset together and live happily ever after.

For that matter, she couldn't quite figure why that idea was putting up such a fight in the first place, she knew that the white picket fence way of life was merely an illusion, and she'd been valiantly attempting to avoid any serious relationships since she'd figured that out, with one unfortunate exception, of course, which had only made her run faster.

Sam was deep in thought when Janet stepped in. It took several attempts before the Doctor was able to get Sam's attention, which made her a little concerned.

"What's up?" Janet asked, sitting down across from her friend.

"Nothing," Sam replied, fighting off a sigh. "Work stuff."

"Right," Fraiser said, "Anything to do with your and Colonel O'Neill's little mission?"

"No," Sam lied. She didn't really want to talk about it at the moment.

Fraiser, however, wasn't about to take that for an answer. "If you think I've going to believe that you obviously haven't been playing enough poker recently. Now I notice the Colonel's not in here."

"He said he was going to his office," Sam sighed.

"Why?" Janet pressed. When Sam looked like she wasn't going to answer, she added, "Out with it."

Sam knew there would be no avoiding it so she explained about the entire fiasco with General Hammond. Janet hung on her every word. Not only was she concerned about Sam as her doctor and her best friend, but she also had some interest in the base's celebrity couple, only without the taste for the tall tales of the base grapevine.

By the time Sam finished her story she looked exhausted, so Janet held off on the advice and suggested that Sam go home and get some rest instead. Naturally, Sam attempted to resist, saying she was fine and that she had a lot of work to catch up on, and naturally, Janet threatened to make it into an order. Sam said that she could crash for a couple of hours on base, then get back to work, and Janet insisted that she go home, now.

There was little arguing with the Doctor once she'd made up her mind, but no self-respecting workaholic ever gave it up without trying to debate with her. When Sam asked if Janet was planning to take her own advice and go home as well, she mumbled something about SG-7 being in a potentially hostile situation then asked if she needed to get an SF to escort Sam to the surface. She stopped trying after that.

Jack didn't go to his office. He considered the commissary briefly, and Daniel's office, Teal'c quarters, the control room, the infirmary even, but found himself checking out at the surface instead. He didn't go to his car either; he simply wandered out of the tunnel into the cool October night.

He hadn't expected this to be that difficult. Carter first and foremost his second in command, they were professional, co-workers, Air Force officers, or so he kept telling himself.

As much as he wanted to throttle him, they had whoever started these rumors to thank for allowing him and Sam to be together, although at the moment that seemed more like a bad thing.

Why did this have to be so twisted? What cruel fate decided that the only person he'd ever truly been happy around since Charlie died was also the one person in the world he wasn't allowed to be with?

Then again, General Hammond hadn't ordered them to stop; he'd asked them to continue to a lesser degree. So where did that leave them? Could they really live with themselves and each other knowing they could only go so far without destroying themselves?

He knew Sam would rather err on the side of caution, she had her work to fall back on and distract her from her feelings, at least on the outside. But she wasn't really that much of an ice queen.

Jack sighed and gazed up at the sky, watching the stars come out. Them an idea struck him, and excellent brilliant idea, even for him, and if it worked, these issues could be resolved once and for all, and those rumors too. He ran to his car and drove home, this was going to take some planning.