Hammond and Jack found Ian in the commissary when they went looking for him. He wasn't that hard to find; since Teal'c hadn't come to fetch Jack (the dog) and Sam had shooed Jaffer off to join him, he was in the company of both labs, who were sitting on either side of his chair watching him intently as he worked his way through a huge lunch. (And occasionally dropped them a nibble here and there).
The two men sat down across from him – mainly because there wasn't any room beside him – and Jack scratched Jaffer's ears lovingly when the lab abandoned his spot by Ian to come greet him cheerfully.
"Fraiser knows you're here?"
Ian nodded around a mouthful of stew – he'd already finished a sandwich, a hamburger and half of his fries.
"How do you feel?"
"I'm fine. Just hungry."
"So we see," Hammond replied, amused and always amazed by how much the boy could eat – especially since he was whipcord thin and could never seem to gain any weight, no matter how much he ate. "Doctor Fraiser told me she was considering releasing you this afternoon…" it was as much a question as a statement, and Ian nodded.
"That's what she told me, too."
"Thor will be here at four," Jack said, watching him almost as intently as the dogs had been. Sure enough, Ian's eyes grew cold at the mention of the Asgard, but he didn't stop eating. Sam had told him that had happened earlier, and asked him to see if it was just her imagination. Nothing imagined there, though. Ian was way too easy to read, and he had suddenly developed an intense disliking for all things Asgard, apparently.
"Sam told me."
"You going to be around?"
He looked over at Hammond, wondering if the general was here to tell him he had to be.
"Only if someone orders me to be…"
Hammond shook his head, realizing what Ian meant.
"I'm not going to. It appears that Shawn is the one that needs to be here to talk to the Asgard, not you – and since we're not going to let him off the base with them, we'll have plenty of security if the need comes up…"
"Not that we don't trust Thor," Jack added.
Ian shrugged.
"I'm going to go home if Fraiser lets me out."
Hammond nodded.
"Why don't you take some time off? A couple of days – or maybe the rest of the week. It'll probably take the Asgard a few days to figure out this thing with Shawn, and I'm not assigning SG-1 anything until they're done."
Jack wouldn't have gone offworld anyways with the Asgard working so closely with Shawn. Not after the stunt Loki had pulled with Ian.
"Really?"
Hammond nodded. Besides, after the camping trip fiasco, Ian deserved a couple of days to try and heal up. He looked fairly battered.
And from his ready acceptance of the offer, he must have felt battered, too, because Ian nodded.
"Okay."
"Only if Doctor Fraiser releases you," Hammond added.
Which she would, he was sure.
"Yes, sir."
"No rowdy parties," Jack told him.
Ian snorted, his good humor restored by the thought of having a few days off.
"There aren't enough people in this town I'd be willing to be seen with to even have a semi-wild party."
Good point.
Jack snatched a handful of Ian's fries, handed one to Jaffer and ate the rest.
"Just keep in touch, okay?"
"Sure."
OOOOOOOOOO
When the convertible pulled up to the gate, a lieutenant – who was the Officer of the Day for the day – walked out to meet it. He smiled when he saw Ian, and the cadet rolled down the window.
"Leaving early? Or do I report you as AWOL?"
Ian snorted.
"I have a pass."
The Lieutenant chuckled; passes weren't used in the SGC, and never have been – although they did use them at NORAD for the lower-ranking personnel to keep track of them. He turned and waved for the guard to open the gate, stepping away from the car.
"Have a good day, Cadet."
"Thank you, Lieutenant."
And he drove off, already making a list in his mind of things that he wanted to do and things to be taken care of.
OOOOOOOOO
"Did you see it?"
Jack nodded.
"Yeah, he's mad, all right."
Shawn frowned.
"It wasn't Thor's fault."
"Tell Ian that."
"He doesn't listen to me all that often, Jack."
"Yeah, I know that feeling."
"Can't you talk to him? We might need his help on this Asgard thing…"
"He just needs a chance to get over it, Shawn. There's not much I can do."
"But-"
"Maybe Sam can talk to him," Jack said. "But she won't be able to do it any time soon – not if the Asgard want her to help them."
"Which they will."
Even though she didn't know as much about the Asgard as Shawn did, Thor had nonetheless expressed his desire to have her there. She was brilliant, after all, and would be able to translate the data they received from whatever tests they might run – and be able to give them some insights that even the Asgard might miss. They weren't infallible, after all. They'd proven that quite nicely.
"Then it'll have to wait." Jack slapped Shawn on the shoulder, and stood up. "Come on, it's almost four and I'm willing to bet they're going to be right on time."
Of course they would be. This time they wanted something from the SCG – and they were always on time for that, weren't they?
