Jack tapped his fingers against the wooden surface of the briefing room table and suppressed another groan of frustration. The briefing was not going well. Across the table, Dr. Fraiser, who had been relieved to come share her findings, gave him a sympathetic look. A video screen showed the curled up sleeping figure of Sam, the restless one of Daniel and the wary awake one of Teal'c, as he watched the physician, tech, and airman that where in the infirmary in Colonel O'Neill and Dr. Fraiser's absence. Several scientists, military experts, physicians, and archeologists were all in attendance, asked there by General Hammond in an effort to figure out what had happened to his premier team.
Unfortunately, the group of experts hadn't done much except argue and drive O'Neill crazy. All he wanted to do was get away from the room full of geeks and get back to his… well… kids. He frowned, and drummed his fingers some more.
So far, he hadn't been able to tell them much anyway. He honestly didn't really know anything. He'd brought back the videotape, which the group had immediately fallen upon like a pack of vultures, only to meet with bitter disappointment. Fast-forwarding through to the point immediately prior to the transformation had revealed that Daniel had merely been filming the runes. There had been a distinct humming sound notable on the tape just prior to the event, and then sounds of pain. The picture had jerked, as if the person holding the camera were moving suddenly, and then Daniel had dropped the camera. The angle the camera had fallen did not provide any useful footage, and the sudden screaming had made everyone in the room go pale until someone had muted the volume. One or two brave souls in the group had volunteered to take a closer look at the tape to see if other clues could be found, but somehow, Jack didn't think they'd find anything of use on it.
Hammond was reluctant to allow anyone to directly study the room until they could determine what had triggered the transformation in the first place, and while Jack didn't particularly like the answer; he saw the sense in it. Unfortunately, since Jack hadn't been in the room, he had no idea what might have caused the machine to go off. Of course, if he'd been there, they would have a considerably different problem on their hands. Jack's fingers changed tempo, causing Janet to cast him another glance, and with a supreme act of will he forced his fingers to stop, until they gravitated to his pen on their own volition and started fiddling with it.
The arguments flew back and forth, and Jack didn't see much point to any of it. So far, the only thing he'd seen of any use to come out of the briefing was the concession by Hammond to an all-volunteer mission to retrieve the gear he'd been forced to leave behind outside the temple. Jack had even volunteered to go back to lead it, but Hammond had seen how the kids had become so attached to him and had said he would ask for another leader, but would keep him in mind if no one stepped forward. Jack nodded, accepting the decision.
Hammond let the scientists and experts drone on for another ten minutes before he finally called a halt to the meeting, much to Jack's relief, and gave duty assignments, assigning a team to continue studying the video, Dr. Jackson's notes, and any telemetry on the alien device, as well as the data that would be retrieved with Major Carter's equipment from the follow up mission the next day. Another group would be studying the effects on SG-1, and Jack frowned at the thought of his team being used like lab rats. Hammond must have caught his look, and tried to look reassuring. Jack knew it was necessary, if his team were ever to be returned to normal, but they looked so small, and so innocent, that it brought out every protective instinct he'd ever had.
The General dismissed the group, and Jack stood up, moving to follow everyone out when Hammond stopped him. "Could I talk to you a moment Colonel?" Jack frowned, his anxiety to return to his team warring with his respect for the General. Sensing his hesitation, Hammond spoke again. "This won't take long, Jack," he said, his informal use of Jack's fist name making Jack blink. Jack followed the other man into his office, pushing the door shut and waiting until Hammond had taken a seat, sitting down when the General indicated he do so as well.
Jack watched as Hammond folded his hands together, his brow creased as he studied his desk a moment before looking up, and meeting Jack eye to eye. "Colonel." He paused, and started again, "Jack, I'm not going to lie to you. I thought I could never be surprised by anything that walked through that gate, but today, you surprised me when you brought back something I hadn't seen in more than," he took a breath, "over twenty-five or so years at least. And we've seen quite a few things come through that gate. Jack, I'm at a loss, and the military doesn't exactly come equipped with a protocol to deal with this sort of thing." Jack blinked, he'd known the General was going to talk to him about his team, but he'd had no idea he was in for such an open conversation. General Hammond took another deep breath. "Look, Jack, I probably shouldn't even mention this, but I had to notify my superiors about what happened, and, well, lets say that some of them felt that SG-1 should be turned over to other entities for, let's just say, to evaluate the possibility of replicating a similar event." Hammond's voice held a note of disgust.
Jack's hands balled into fists and his face went red. "Absolutely not, I hope you told them exactly where to shove their proposition! Because if you didn't, I'll tell them to stick it where…" Hammond made a placating gesture and Jack realized he was halfway out of his seat.
"I have made it perfectly clear that we will do no such thing. As far as I am concerned they are still members of this command, and fall under my authority. Colonel, I will do everything, and I mean everything, in my power, to make sure that your team does not come to any harm while they are in their present state, do I make myself clear?" Hammond met Jack's still angry gaze, and Jack realized he was still half out of his seat and with a thump, he sat down, still angry but he pulled the anger in under the surface.
"Yes sir," he ground out.
"Good. I wanted to let you know where things stood. I also intend to use all the resources at our disposal to find a way to return SG-1 to normal. That said, I have already sent messages to the Tok'ra and the Asgard." Jack nodded in satisfaction. "And now that leaves the last concern. Clearly, they don't seem to possess their adult memories. As you know, Dr. Fraiser said further testing would be needed to confirm just how much they recall. We should definitely question them at some point to see if they remember anything at all that may help us." Jack nodded, and Hammond continued. "So that leads me to ask Colonel, how involved would you like to be in this investigation?"
Jack looked at the General, almost surprised the man had to ask. "Sir, I, I want to be there for everything, as much as I can sir. They seem to trust me. Anything that I can do to help, they're my team, my family even, and, well, I'd do anything for them, sir." Jack raised his head and looked the General in the eye, jaw set, determined. He wanted Hammond to know where he stood. Hammond looked at him, and Jack met his gaze unblinking. After a moment, Hammond nodded, satisfied.
"Very well Colonel O'Neill, as of this moment I'm removing you from the mission roster. Consider it your current duty assignment to be special attachment to SG-1. Just remember you aren't alone, let me know if you need anything, anything at all. This has got to be a difficult time, Jack." Hammond's voice was surprisingly gentle as he switched back to the informal first name, his voice full of understanding, and Jack nodded.
"Thank you sir, I understand," Jack blinked suddenly a few times, not wanting to wreck his image of being the hardened Air Force Colonel. Things were happening so quickly. He'd never expected Hammond to be so accommodating, and suddenly he realized just how lucky he was to have such a CO.
"Well then, Colonel looks like you have some kids to go look in on." Hammond said, a twinkle in his eye.
Jack smiled, standing. "Yes sir," he answered, suddenly snapping off a perfect salute, which Hammond returned, just before Jack stepped out of the room, his steps light for the first time since coming back through the gate. With Hammond's support, a weight Jack hadn't even known had settled on his shoulders had been lifted off, because now he knew that the General would be looking out for his team, his kids, no matter what the coming days would bring.
The General shook his head as he watched O'Neill depart, again thinking over the day's events. Indeed, just when he thought he'd yet to be surprised by what came through that gate, something even more awe inspiring walked up and patted him on his baldhead. Hammond stroked his baldpate in remembrance, and then wondered just what had happened to his hair over the years.
A/N: Some of you were saying how you haven't read any good SG-1 as kids fanfics, so I just wanted to share a few of my personal favorites. All except the last one can be found by searching at the site here, and the last one I originally read at Heliopolis but can't find it there now, but it is also at Gateworld, who also has a search engine. The first two fics are by my betas, nicely written and a lot of fun, both are Sam focused, but have a lot of great team interactions. Shoelaces is still a WIP, and is a Daniel focused and I think the author has taken a pretty unique approach to the problem of whether or not to keep the memories (speaking of which, the four fics deal with the problem of the kids keeping memories or not in a variety of ways!). Little Kid Diplomacy shrinks all but Teal'c, and its just a very sweet story, talk about wanting to take little SG-1 home! Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy these fics as much as I enjoyed them, there are more out there, these four just happen to be my top picks because I think they deal with the kid problem uniquely, are well written, and have a nice balance of team interactions.
Nine by SG1-Fanfic
It's Great to Be Eight? By jannissima
Shoelaces by
jennamajig (WIP)
Little Kid Diplomacy by Jingles (can be found at
Gateworld)