NOTES: Thank you to the people who continue to keep up and who continue to send feedback. I have to admit, I thought I was making Samuel a reasonably sympathetic character when I was writing this, but it appears not so much after all...
Reflections
Chapter Six
"Teal'c?"
Teal'c looked up from his copy of Sun Tzu's 'The Art Of War' and regarded Samantha Carter. "Yes, Samantha?"
"Would you initially have preferred another male team-mate when we first started on SG-1?"
He was not entirely surprised at the question, although he had not expected her to address the matter in such a direct way.
The last two weeks had not been easy for Samantha. Teal'c had watched her deal with her discomfort about her 'twin brother' and Samuel's identity and familiarity with her life. He had seen her deal with it, only to find herself facing personal concerns about her role in the SGC.
He understood the root of her concern, even if he did not share it. Samantha had always questioned her personal worth through the lens of her professional work. He remembered early moments of uncertainty, which she had covered over with military composure. The habit had remained, although it was to the credit of General Hammond and O'Neill that she had learned to trust in her own judgement and grow in confidence.
It was a difficult question to answer. There were many levels at which she was requesting an answer from him, and he was uncertain of his ability to answer them all. That did not mean he should not make the attempt.
"I would have been more comfortable with a male team-mate in the beginning," he admitted. "Jaffa females are not traditionally warriors. However," he added with gentle humour, "I have had, since then, many occasions to be glad of your femininity."
"The incident with Hathor?" She asked with a touch of bitter humour.
"An early occasion," he said. "And not all such memories are related to our work here."
Her eyes fixed upon him, her fingers pausing over the delicate connections of her current project. Teal'c returned her gaze, letting her consider the nuances of what he had said. He did not speak again, waiting for her to understand his meaning plainly.
Samantha's worth to him was as herself, not in any role she held in the SGC, or any rank that the United States Air Force gave her. Yes, her functional capability towards this base was substantial, but were she to lose all that, still his loyalty would be to her for who she was. She was valuable to Teal'c because she was Samantha. After eight years, that was enough for him.
Her greatest fear, however, was that it would not be enough for others.
Perhaps she even counted herself among those others.
At length, she looked back down at her work and her fingers once again moved over the wires and screws she was adjusting. "Sometimes I forget that I ever had a life outside of work."
"It is easy to forget such things when little time is spent outside of work."
She looked up at him, wary of the gentle reprimand of his words, then looked quickly back down at the device. "I guess I haven't been spending much time away from the base lately."
"You are more than your work, Samantha." He tilted his head. "You have personal relationships with myself and many others in this base and out of it."
This time, she did not look up from her work. Her efforts had a certain busyness to them, a concerted attempt to avoid his regard. "It's difficult to get used to him."
"It is not a situation with which we have experience."
"The replicator."
"The replicator was not you."
"Well, Dr. Carter came through the mirror."
"Dr. Carter was also a woman, even if she had not chosen to pursue a military career," Teal'c reminded her.
"And he isn't and he did," she muttered, quietly. Therein lay the crux of Samantha's discontent with herself and her fear of Samuel - a discontent that Samuel was doing little to alleviate.
Teal'c was more than willing to concede that some of the fault lay with Samantha's perception of herself and her role within the SGC. His team-mate had ever been focused on her work, sometimes to the detriment of her health and sanity, although she had eased back in recent years. Samuel's presence had caused her to doubt not only herself, but also those who gave her work responsibilities, and those for whom her value went far past what she did in her work.
Her worth could not be measured merely in what she did on the base; it was also the many things which made up the personal facets of the woman who was 'Samantha Carter' - the many things which 'Samuel Carter' lacked.
But Teal'c could not say that. Neither so bluntly nor so broadly - not to Samantha.
So he regarded her and laid one first over his heart in solemn Jaffa salute. "Samantha Carter, one hundred alternate versions of you would not have one-tenth of the esteem in which I hold you, in whatever form they came."
It was a hyperbole as the Tau'ri understood it, but there was truth in his statement. And she heard it and flushed deeply.
"Teal'c..." She bit her lip.
"Samantha?"
Her smile was small and brief, but the glossy sheen in her eyes spoke her emotions more eloquently than any words she could have said. "Thank you."
Teal'c inclined his head to her. "You are welcome."
But the memory of the force of her emotion stayed with him through that night and into the next morning.
--
The next morning, he entered the locker rooms to shower, and overheard a conversation between several officers who were already there.
"...might give him his own command. After all, she has command of SG-1. It'd only be fair."
"He hasn't proven himself, yet, Kev."
"He survived eight years of his SGC and got to Lieutenant Colonel under Jack O'Neill," 'Kev' said mildly. "How much more proof do you need? Besides, it makes more sense if the flagship team is led by a guy. Most of the cultures we encounter are patriarchal in the first place..."
"And how often does SG-1 goes out exploring anymore?" The other speaker's voice was mild. "They're more often called into the middle of some kind of intergalactic politics..."
"And we all know what Colonel Carter's solution is to that," Kev retorted.
"Blow something up for them?" A bark of laughter echoed around the walls of the locker room. "You have to admit it works."
"Whether it works or not doesn't matter," Kev said. "It would still be best for SG-1 to be led by a guy."
"Does it really matter? I mean, she's a great officer. Hammond never had a bad word to say about her and O'Neill thinks she hung the moon and the stars.
"If Colonel Carter was doing for me what she's doing for O'Neill, I'd think she hung to the moon and stars, too," came the sly retort.
Teal'c frowned as he listened to the innuendo. He had heard various opinions of his friends' relationship, but never had it been spoken in such a blatantly suggestive manner.
The second of the two men picked up on the innuendo and protested, "Dr. Jackson says they weren't doing anything before O'Neill retired."
"And how many people believe that? Besides, what does Jackson know? Samuel says that if he was O'Neill, he'd have jumped her bones years ago."
"And you don't think there's something wrong about a man thinking about jumping his own bones?"
"Hey, if my female counterpart from another world was as gorgeous as Sam Carter, I'd probably jump her, too!"
"Given your charming looks, if you had a female counterpart from another world, Kevin, she'd be butt-ugly."
"We can't all be as much of a man for the ladies as Carter, you know."
The conversation henceforth degenerated into an exchange regarding the women on base and their various attractions and detractions. Teal'c left as quietly as he had come, although somewhat more disturbed than before.
It was not the first time in the last two weeks that he had witnessed Samuel's influence exerted over the men of the base. It was the first time it had given him pause.
Daniel Jackson had postulated how Samuel's gender had changed the way his personality traits developed in him as compared to how they had developed in Samantha. Teal'c did not yet think his friend had considered how Samuel's gender might have changed the dynamics of his SGC as compared to the SGC with which they were familiar.
Samantha held the respect and trust of both General Hammond and O'Neill. Through the years, their regard had seeped down through the rest of the command - and, through their regard for her, the general regard towards the female officers and enlisteds among the military was positive. Her presence in the highest eschelons of the SGC had inhibited the conduct of more than a few men, conforming it towards what the Tau'ri considered more 'gentlemanly' behaviour.
Samuel, it seemed, had no such inhibitions, nor any wish to curb them.
And that concerned Teal'c.
Both O'Neill and Daniel Jackson had made Teal'c aware of 'locker room talk' about the women of the base over the years. While neither man had been the kind to indulge in such speculations, they regarded it as an inevitable by-product of their culture's masculinity bias and considered it harmless.
Teal'c was not so sure.
--
It seemed that the overheard exchange of that morning was merely a portent of what was yet to come for Teal'c's day. Perhaps it was because he was now aware that the base held opinions and did not hesitate to voice them; perhaps it was merely a day for eavesdropping on others' conversations.
In the commissary, his ears picked out Samantha's title as he collected his lunch. "...think it's sweet of him to offer. It's about time Colonel Carter had a chance to live her own life. And now that General O'Neill retired..."
"Now they can screw on their own time instead of base time," scoffed the other voice, male and more cynical. He'd kept his voice low to avoid being heard beyond their table, but Teal'c's hearing was still sharper than most humans realised, and an odd quirk of harmonics meant that what was said at that table could be heard from Teal'c's position halfway across the room.
Exactly what had been 'offered' was later made clear when Teal'c dropped by Samantha's laboratory and found her typing up the final report on an item of technology which she'd been studying on and off for the last couple of months.
"You have completed your study of this?"
"No," she said shortly. "But Samuel's taking over from this point. General's orders. I'm to concentrate on leading SG-1, Stargate consulting, and technology that I've specifically worked with before, such as Asgard and replicator materials."
It explained a little of the exchange in the cafeteria.
"This transfer does not reflect on your abilities with the project."
"No," she said. "But I feel as though it does. Teal'c, I've handled the alien technologies from day one of this project. It's my area and I want to keep it."
He considered the situation and decided that it might be helpful to point out something she was gaining rather than emphasise what she was losing. "Does this not allow you to spend more time with O'Neill?"
Her mouth twisted and she stared fixedly at the screen. "Well, we're not spending all that much time together right now, anyway."
Ah. That would give Samantha ample reason to find other projects into which to pour her time. It would also feed her fears that she was becoming redundant, both personally and professionally.
Teal'c was pondering his next words when she spoke again.
"Teal'c?"
"Yes, Samantha Carter?"
"Have you ever seen me...use charm to try to get my own way?"
It was a valid question, no doubt prompted by Samuel's considerable charisma. "You have pleaded your case with General Hammond and O'Neill numerous times, Samantha," Teal'c said after due thought. "I do not believe you have ever misused such an ability."
"Do you think I could?"
He regarded her. "Under circumstances where the outcome was dire," he conceded, "It is possible that you might resort to attempting to cozen someone to your thinking." The silence stretched out. "Do you believe Samuel has been doing such?"
"Everyone tries to get their own way, Teal'c," she said.
"And yet I have been trying to get my own way for eight years and you have never indicated discontent with my behaviours."
That elicited a laugh from her before she sobered quickly. "I think I'm getting too sensitive about this."
"That is possible."
She glanced at him, her eyes studying his expression. "You didn't tell me I should take it easy."
"To suggest such a thing would help neither your state of mind, nor assauge your concerns," Teal'c said.
Her mouth twisted and she looked back down at her desk again. It seemed that someone else had most unwisely suggested such a thing to Samantha Carter. Such a course of action would only have given her the impression of wishing her gone all the sooner.
"Remember the Replicator who looked like me?"
He was not likely to forget it.
Samantha looked up at him, fixed her gaze steadily upon him as he watched her. "While she was in the Alpha site, she told me that she was what she was because of me. I denied it, of course."
"But a part of you wonders if you have that potential within you."
Now she looked away. "Seeing Samuel - who's human and a lot like me in so many ways..." After a moment staring at the computer banks, she shook her head. "Never mind, Teal'c," she said, forcing herself to a reasonable calm. "I'm just being silly."
Teal'c forebore to say that there were some things Samantha Carter would never be. 'Silly' was one of them.
--
He brought up the matter of the men speaking in the locker room to Daniel Jackson later, and was a little surprised when his friend frowned. "It was just talk," he said, his face tilted forward so he was looking at Teal'c over the rim of his glasses. "Wasn't it?"
"It is the manner of it that concerns me."
Daniel gave him an odd look. "You do know that they've been talking about Jack and Sam for years, don't you?"
"Yet, I had not encountered such a disrespectful tone."
His team-mate grimaced. "Well, you can't lay it all at Samuel's feet. Since they actually got together, the base grapevine has been humming."
From the earliest days, Daniel Jackson had been one of the most reliable sources of gossip around the base. During their first few years together as SG-1, some small part of it had been because of his friend's propensity to end up in the infirmary where he overheard the nurses gossiping. In later years, as his tendency to injury decreased, Daniel had continued to associate with the nurses who relegated news to him.
"Samantha finds her counterpart's presence difficult."
Daniel considered that. "Well, I can see why she might. I mean, her job has always been very important to her."
"I do not believe that this is wholly related to her job," Teal'c said.
The other man blinked, with the slightly disconcerted half-frown that appeared on his face when he wasn't quite sure what was expected of him. "What else would it be related to? It's not like Samuel's going to waltz in and take his life back. And," he added with a slightly narrowed look, "her relationship with Jack is her business and his - they have to work that out between them. I'm an archaeologist, not Cupid."
And in that manner, Daniel Jackson appeared to wash his hands of the matter.
Teal'c was not quite so decided on the subject of his neutrality. Although Daniel Jackson might be one of the most reliable sources of information regarding what was happening on the base, his background biased him. He was accustomed to taking second-hand reports from others and fitting the situation together to form a whole. It was his specialisation.
On the other hand, Teal'c was the one who was interacting with the personnel of the base, hearing the words exchanged, and witnessing the various interactions between Samuel and the men and women of the base.
For the most part, it seemed that the male officers of the base were easy with Samuel. He made himself agreeable to them and was familiar with their ways. Some were a little more wary. Those were usually the commanders more likely to encounter Samantha in one role or another.
The female officers were divided on the matter of Samuel Carter. It was generally agreed that he was remarkably good-looking. 'Eye candy' was the term Teal'c first heard by a junior lieutenant. However, some of the older officers, who had been friends with Sam for some time were a little more wary.
--
"It's not that he's not courteous," Captain Helena Vaillant was saying as she sculpted her mash potatoes into small cliffs on her plate. "I just keep getting the feeling that he's checking me out every time he so much as smiles at me."
The commissary was empty but for this group of officers and Teal'c. Upon seeing the women, Teal'c had been prepared to take his food and leave. He was conscious that the women of the base sometimes preferred to discuss things that they did not wish their male colleagues to hear, and was respectful of that.
However, one of them had waved him over, and they had continued their conversation without any apparent break in continuity.
Captain Gina Reilly snorted inelegantly. "I get that, too." She shrugged. "He seems a great officer. The team leaders are jostling to get him on their team when he's finally released for off-world duty."
"They wouldn't give him command like Sam?"
"Probably not off the bat," Major Meridian said. "They'd want to check that he was command material first. Sam proved herself over seven years. This guy's hasn't even been here seven weeks, and the only recommendation he has is his own word. The General's smart enough to wait and see - even if he's eager enough to have a second Carter around the place."
"Well, given everything that Sam's done for the SGC, what commander wouldn't be glad of a second Sam Carter around the place? Even if he is a man."
Sergeant Westerholme grinned. "You make it sound like a bad thing."
"In case you haven't noticed, Trace, there are more than enough men around here." Captain Reilly said wryly.
"And things aren't that bad around here," Sergeant Westerholme countered with a scoop of shepherd's pie.
The young officer grimaced. "But no small part of that is because Sam paved the way with Hammond and O'Neill."
"So?"
"So what if she'd been Samuel instead?" Captain Reilly asked. "I mean, he seems nice enough, but I'm with Helena. He's eyes the women - and not in the 'sum you up and then see how competent you are' way that the officers like General Hammond and the older commanders do. At least they're willing to let us show them what we can do on an individual basis."
"And Samuel doesn't look at it the same way?"
Captain Vaillant was the one to answer that question. "Whatever the world he came from was like, I can tell you this. There were a lot less women in his SGC, and they weren't half as prominent as we are."
"God only knows what he makes of Sam."
"Does he check her out, too?"
"Of course he does," Major Meridian snorted. "Every man on base checks Sam out. Even those who aren't actually interested." She glanced over at Teal'c sitting at the table beside them. "Right, Teal'c?"
Amused that his opinion was being asked - and about such a topic, Teal'c regarded Major Meridian with a raised eyebrow. "I will not answer that question on the basis that it may incriminate me," he deadpanned.
That made the women laugh.
It was Major Meridian who brought back the matter a little while later. "It's more than Samuel checking us out, though," she said at last. "It's professional as well as personal. He's not used to us, so he doesn't trust us."
"And?"
"And you've already seen how the other officers respond to him. The younger ones, I mean, for whom the 'officer's club' is about having a dick, whether or not you have anything to back it up."
There was a hint of bitterness in Major Meridian's tone. Teal'c observed her carefully. Like Samantha Carter, Peta Meridian was one of the higher-ranked women in the base. She was not as prominent, but she was practical, capable, and just a little bit of a 'wildcard' personality. He had little doubt that such spirit would have worked against her before - as, perhaps, the spirited personalities of Jaffa women such as Ishtar had initially worked against them among the ranks of even the free Jaffa.
"So?"
"So he's got influence with the others. Things aren't that bad around here, as Tracey said, but they're not perfect either."
"In case you haven't noticed, Pete, we don't live in a perfect world," Sergeant Westerholme remarked.
Peta Meridian shrugged. "No. But something about him drags fingernails down my internal blackboard. And I wouldn't want to work in his SGC."
The conversation drifted through other topics, and Teal'c commented where he was appealed to for opinion. However, he was content to sit and consider what the women had said in the silence of his own mind.
--
"You don't do this with Sam, then?" Samuel inquired, dancing back and forth on his feet.
"I do not."
"I guess boxing isn't exactly a girl thing."
Teal'c blocked another punch and considered how Samantha would feel about being dismissed from an activity because it was not considered 'a girl thing.' He did not imagine she would be pleased.
"So how did you deal with the whole 'woman warrior' thing, anyway?" Samuel feinted one way and struck out on the other side. He moved swiftly on his feet, graceful as any Jaffa warrior in a fight, and Teal'c noted his movements and the actions that portended another attack.
He was not sure he could answer this question since he did not know how he had 'dealt' with it. They had gone out on missions as team-mates, and Teal'c had seen her strength and courage in action. Her gender had become irrelevant: her soul was that of a warrior and he respected and admired that.
"Samantha was a comrade," Teal'c said at last. "I learned to trust her, O'Neill, and Daniel Jackson at the same time."
Behind the headguard, Samuel looked a little disconcerted by the answer. "You didn't have any issue with her as a woman?"
"She has no control over her gender," Teal'c said.
"Well, no, but you were used to working with men."
"I was accustomed to working with warriors." That the warriors had been male was irrelevant. Through his friendship with Samantha Carter, Dr. Fraiser and the other women of the SGC, and through his affair with Ishtar and his observation of the women of her camp, Teal'c had learned that the warrior soul made no distinction between gender.
Neither would Teal'c.
"I suppose," Samuel murmured. He feinted again, landing a solid punch in Teal'c's shoulder. "But there's gotta be things that the girls can't do, T. Sometimes you need a guy to do the heavy lifting."
"There are times when physical strength and stamina are valuable assets in a fight," Teal'c replied. "But they are not the only contributors to success in battle."
"Yeah, brains, intelligence, and tactics," Samuel said in a manner that was not quite dismissive. "Are most of the cultures we meet patriarchal?"
"Indeed."
"And isn't it easier for the all-male teams to make contact with those planets?"
"It is."
"So why make things more difficult for ourselves?"
Teal'c blocked a blow from Samuel and retaliated with one of his own.
These were persuasive arguments, indeed. His understanding of such things was not as instant as Daniel Jackson's, nor as comprehensive as Samantha's, however he had become accustomed to the thinking of the Tau'ri in the last few years.
"The Jaffa made things more difficult for themselves in throwing off their false gods," he reminded Samuel. "And yet the results are worthy of who the Jaffa aspire to be." He would never think of the Jaffa rebellion without some small amount of pride in what he and Bra'tac had wrought.
Even beneath the protective jaw mask, he saw Samuel's mouth tug to the side. "I see your point."
They circled each other a little longer, lashing out when opportunities were presented.
Teal'c later consoled himself that the other man's success was to be expected. Samuel had an understanding of him that he did not possess of Samuel; a matter of weaknesses and blind spots, familiarity and knowledge. It occurred to Teal'c that Samuel would possess this knowledge of all who worked on the base with whom he had been acquainted in his own world.
Of course, the one person whom Samuel was most curious about was the one person that it was impossible for him to have previously possessed knowledge of.
"So, how does she cope with being 'the girl' on the team?" Samuel asked as they sat on the bench afterwards.
Teal'c eyed him. "Samantha Carter is the commanding officer of SG-1. She has always been a valuable member of SG-1."
"Well, yes." Samuel hesitated. "But before that. I mean, there had to be times when she just felt out of it. I know the girls sometimes complained of 'testosterone poisoning' on the base back home."
Yes, there had been moments when it was plain Samantha had felt very much out of the more masculine workings of the SGC. However, her situation had always been mitigated by Daniel Jackson's presence. If Samantha had experienced differentiation for her gender, then Daniel Jackson had been differentiated through his academic background, unleavened by any military experience.
He wondered what the Daniel Jackson of Samuel Carter's world was like after his experiences within the SGC.
"These questions are better asked of Samantha Carter," he said, adopting a chiding tone.
Samuel put up his hands. "Okay, okay. You don't want to tell me. Fine. I was just curious."
It seemed that curiosity was also Samuel's besetting sin.
--
O'Neill was in his usual crabby form when he met at the special training offered to the Academy graduates who were under consideration for assignment to the SGC.
The cadets were neither particularly skilled, nor particularly inept, however it was O'Neill's habit to be as 'hardass' as he could possibly be during this training. His reasoning was that they would encounter far worse out in the field, and he would rather see them learning from training than the real thing.
It was a good reason. Teal'c had heard the same reasoning from Bra'tac as he observed the old warrior's training of young Jaffa. He had even suffered under such rigours as Bra'tac's protégé, many years earlier.
Teal'c also suspected that O'Neill took a certain amount of pleasure in playing the crabby old man.
However, today was a little different.
As the newly-commissioned officers lined up at the end of the exercise, huffing, puffing, and panting, O'Neill looked them up and down with the jaundiced eye of a commander who had seen soldiers come and go and was unconvinced of the worthiness of this group. "If that had been a real situation, you'd all be dead. Anyone care to tell me why?"
One of the young men glanced brieftly at Jack, then briefly at Teal'c, then looked straight ahead. "We didn't make it back in time, sir."
"Nice try, but wrong," O'Neill said shortly. "In case none of you happened to notice, you tripped two alarms on your way through the complex. The first one triggered the deadfall that you found blocking your way back. That was why the scenario changed on you. The second one triggered a silent alarm system which alerted the owners of the complex to your presence and they dispatched a dozen guards to deal with you."
That was something of a surprise to the young officers, and not within the usual parameters of these training sessions. Teal'c didn't allow a frown to betray his surprise at O'Neill's departure from procedure, but he watched the graduates shift slightly.
"We might have dealt with them, sir," a young woman ventured.
"SG-7 didn't," O'Neill said. The young officers blinked as his words changed the scenarios from the theoretical to the historical. "The guards took them by surprise. Captain Brunswick took a shot in the head; he was dead before they got off-planet. Dr. Hutton was shot in the leg. It missed the main artery, but that tore while they were trying to escape. He bled his life out on the gateroom ramp." One of the young women winced and looked down. "Lieutenant Balwyn was more fortunate - if you can call a shot in the side fortunate. She took a medical discharge and is currently doing risk-analysis for the Pentagon, where she's not at risk of being shot at every time they give her an assignment. And their commander..." O'Neill paused and something in his jaw set steel-hard. "Their commander couldn't live with the guilt of losing his team and ate a bullet six months later."
The students all winced.
It was a grim story - one that the older officers of the SGC were not always willing to share. However, it had proven efficacious in providing the young officers with a glimpse of what the SGC might cost them - of the possibilities of life at the SGC.
The experiences were not always so grim. SG-1 in particular had a gift of being able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. But that was not always the case. Men and women had died, sometimes meaningfully, sometimes senselessly. And Teal'c knew very well that the Tau'ri preferred to be prepared for the worst, while the Jaffa training rarely allowed for anything less than the best.
"Might haves and assumptions are a very bad thing on which to rely, Lieutenant. Especially when your life, and the lives of your people depend on them." O'Neill looked along the row of trainees. "You might like to consider that during your next training session. Dismissed."
They filed out in silence, with none of the usual commiserations after a bad exercise. Evidently O'Neill's recounting of the fall of SG-7 had struck a chord within them.
"Do you not believe you were a little harsh on them, O'Neill?"
O'Neill didn't look up from his clipboard. "They have to know what's coming, Teal'c."
Perhaps they did. But Teal'c had never heard O'Neill relate that story before, let alone to the trainees. It betrayed a somewhat grim frame of mind.
He suspected O'Neill had found himself relying on 'might haves and assumptions' of late, but said nothing. Instead, he allowed himself to be engaged in a dissection of the morning's exercises and a summation of each graduate's possible value to the SGC.
It was not until their meeting was over that O'Neill broached any topic regarding the internal matters of the SGC.
"So how's Carter dealing with Samuel?"
They were ambling back out to the parking lot where their vehicles sat, and while the question was apparently easy enough, Teal'c was aware of his friend's tension.
"I believe she continues to find it difficult to deal with the presence, much as he finds it difficult dealing with hers."
He caught the grimace of his friend. "Yeah, well, another version of yourself takes a bit of getting used to."
"Samantha Carter harbours fears that Samuel's presence will make her redundant within the SGC."
"Yeah," O'Neill muttered. "I got that, too." He stuck his hands in his pockets and scuffed at the bitumen beneath his feet. "She's worrying about nothing, T," he said at last. "I mean, it's not like the SGC is going to kick her out just because she's a woman. Yes, it's mostly male, but it's not that neanderthal."
Teal'c considered his next words very carefully. While he admired and respected his team-mates and the many personnel of the SGC whom he had come to know over a period of years, it had not escaped him that there were blind spots in every organisation.
And while he was male, as Samantha had so helpfully pointed out to him during the Hathor situation, he was also a Jaffa - an alien in an organisation that valued a degree of homogenity.
"The majority of commanders, when faced with the choice between Samantha and Samuel, would choose Samuel."
"I wouldn't." O'Neill sounded very definite on that point.
"You are one man," Teal'c said calmly. "And you are not necessarily representative of your organisation or your country."
"Hammond wouldn't either."
"Perhaps it is not the individuals that Samantha is concerned about," Teal'c said. "And her fears are not without foundation in her mind."
O'Neill gave him a hard look as he paused by the vehicle Teal'c had commandeered from the SGC fleet. "Are you saying Carter thinks the Air Force would resign her in favour of Samuel?"
"Samantha Carter has experienced much sexism in her career as an officer of the United States Air Force. Although neither you nor General Hammond may have perpetrated such beliefs within her, she has experienced such things in her past and knows that they can happen. That she has not experienced discrimination during her time at the SGC does not mean she will never experience it."
"It troubles her that badly?"
Teal'c didn't say that O'Neill should talk to Samantha and find out such information for himself, but O'Neill was smart enough to understand what was suggested.
"Look, the Air Force isn't perfect. It's a long way from ideal, but most of the time it's just guys doing their best to protect what they've got. You know that, Teal'c. Hell, you've seen it in action. And nobody with any kind of sense would exchange Carter for someone else. Even a male version of her. Look, the guy not only made a backdoor into the SGC, but had the equipment set up to exploit it. Any commander with his brains screwed in straight is going to think twice about that kind of officer."
"Indeed. However, Daniel Jackson has more than once said that common sense is not as common as it should be."
"And he's one to talk," Jack grumbled. "Look, Carter's starting at shadows. She's got to know that she's invaluable to the SGC. No matter what kind of reproductive organs she has." The last phrase was muttered so softly that Teal'c barely heard it.
Teal'c was not convinced that Samantha's state of mind was the only contributor to this issue. As an alien, he had some experience of human mentality: although he was accepted within the SGC, he would never belong to Earth. In the same way, Samantha might be accepted within the Air Force as a high-ranking female officer, but she would never belong to the social groups that formed among the senior officers in the same way that O'Neill had.
There were some things that were too deeply ingrained to remove.
And even his friend was not capable of recognising that although his organisation had a claim to fairness with regards to gender, the imbalance was still significant between male and female - and possibly would never be rectified.
Dr. Fraiser, while she lived, had explained to Teal'c the concept of innoculation: the introduction of a small amount of sickness into a patient would make the person immune to the greater sickness. Although she had explained it in medical terms, Teal'c had observed that the concept of 'innoculation' could extend to other things. In this case, to the idea that the society of the country was still not one of total equality of opportunity.
O'Neill and Daniel Jackson were not immune to the idea that, because their society was more fair than others, things were fine as they were. A little sickness might be better than a lot, but Teal'c had never yet been convinced that a little sickness was not better than perfect health - not even by Dr. Fraiser.
However, he would not waste breath attempting to convince O'Neill of that.
"I believe Samantha Carter knows her worth full well," Teal'c told his friend. "That does not mean she does not welcome a reinforcement of what she knows." He remembered the momentary emotion he had glimpsed in her eyes three days ago, and knew that she had regarded his avowal as a gift and a kindness.
O'Neill's mouth twisted slightly, and he fished in his pocket for his keys. "Yeah. Well, I'll see you around, Teal'c. Remind Daniel about Monday night, will you? Oh, and I'm thinking about having a barbecue one afternoon next week. If you guys aren't offworld again. Carter should be finished the new iris program now, so there's no real reason to be keeping you guys still on base. But if you are..."
The chatter indicated that the conversation had gone as far as it was going to go at this moment.
Teal'c did not press for more. "I shall inform Daniel Jackson." He did not offer to inform Samantha. His friend recognised the significance of the omission.
"Yeah, well..." He waved a hand. "See you next week sometime."
"Indeed, O'Neill."
Teal'c watched his friend depart the parking lot of the training grounds and drove back up to the mountain. He had planted seeds for O'Neill to consider. They might grow, they might not.
But there was always hope.
- TBC -
NOTES: I tend to reuse quite a few of my SGC characters, so some of the old school readers will recognise Major Peta Meridian, Captain Helena Vaillant, and Sergeant Westerholme. They're a useful bunch of girls and I love them dearly.
FEEDBACK: is very much appreciated.