A/N: As always, thank you for the reviews. I love hearing what you all have to say!
Spirits
HAMMOND:
SG-1, you have a go.
[They all three turn to leave.]
O'NEILL:
Sam…
[Carter stops and turns back to face O'Neill.]
CARTER:
Colonel?
O'NEILL:
First command?
(she nods)
Cool.
CARTER:
I'll do my best, sir.
O'NEILL:
I know you will, Captain.
CARTER:
Thanks.
[She grins, then looks at General Hammond, gives a quick nod and leaves, closing the door behind her. O'Neill smiles.]
Jack relaxed his head back onto the pillow. The thought of Carter leading the guys made him smile once more. He knew the whirlwind of feelings that were going through her now, though his first command was long ago. He frowned at the thought that he wasn't exactly in the age vicinity of Daniel and Sam, it still baffled him that he was mature enough to be a Colonel. He mentally shook that thought away and thought of his team once more. He felt confident that Sam would do a great job, he only wished he could see it. But, if he was able to go along and see it, she wouldn't be in command. 'Ah what a conundrum' he dozily thought. 'At least Daniel and cam are going', he shrugged. Usually Daniel's need to film every blade of grass and piece of rock was an annoyance, especially when he'd unintentionally capture SG1 conversations in the background. Daniel had once accidentally leaked a pretty embarrassing conversation to the General that consisted of Jack interviewing Teal'c on the effects of having a symbiote in the bedroom. Thankfully, since then Daniel had been more vigorous in checking the background noise in his tapes before handing them to Hammond. Naturally, Jack had been with Daniel a lot of the time when listening to them. He quite enjoyed the vetting process because he liked listening to them all interacting, whether he was present in the video or not. It was not only entertaining, but it made him notice things. He'd also sometimes hear Daniel voice a frustration to Sam about him, but he didn't mind that. He actually quite liked that the team was at a point where talking about each other was done in a familial sort of way. Jack had also become perfectly attuned to the team's just-arrived-at-a-planet voices and their tired-but-refuse-to-sleep voices.
As he led there, his mind played a rough montage of memories from recent missions that amused him. He wished he could have gone on the mission with SG1, but he also knew they were in great hands. He wondered if Captain Carter had actually learnt anything from him other than the occasional sarcastic comments she was beginning to offer, but then he realised who he was worrying about. He didn't need to worry. She'd figure it out.
Jack found himself in the commissary in need of some energy after what he felt was an unnecessarily long briefing. He finished eating the crusty mush that claimed to be pie and got up to leave, grabbing two pudding cups on the way out. Sometimes Jack would leave pudding in Daniel and Sam's spaces because he knew they had a strange practice of skipping meals in the name of work. Unlike Carter, a lot of the time Jack would later discover that the food left for Daniel was untouched. Though he knew the predominant reason why Carter ate hers was because Jack would usually order her to, which she'd respond with an appreciative smile and a "yes, sir."
Jack found his second in command hunched at her desk, glaring into her computer.
"You know, that's not gonna do your posture any favours Captain." He said as he entered.
She sat up confused and blinked a couple of times, her eyes were clearly adjusting to real life. "Colonel!" she greeted. "Is everything alright, sir?"
"Yes. Though today was a bad pie day." He says, almost solemnly.
"Well sir, isn't every day?" Sam replied playfully.
"Ah! No actually. And I don't appreciate the negativity from somebody that's only tried it once."
"Actually, I've had the commissary pie a number of times sir."
He rolled his eyes. "Speaking of the commissary." He threw her a pudding cup; her reflexes kicked in and she caught it before realising what she had actually caught. "Think of it as a celebratory desert."
"What's there to celebrate, sir?"
"Your first command of course." He said, sincerely yet upbeat.
"Ah, yeah I don't think it was necessarily a success sir."
"Well we're all alive, aren't we?" He casually said, leaning on her desk, opposite her.
"I suppose."
"Look Carter, first command or fiftieth, missions never turn out the way you plan. From what I've heard, know of you, and seen, you did a fine job."
"From what you've heard? Sir, the SGC was literally overrun by-"
"Doesn't matter Captain, it's done with. Now pat yourself on the back and eat your pudding cup." He'd learnt that it was sometimes easier to nip her spiralling in the bud before she ended up analysing every detail of every thing.
She slightly frowned and took a moment to think. She smiled and looked up at him, "Yes, sir."
He smiled at the response and tapped the table. "There's a pain in the ass archaeologist somewhere in need of a pudding cup too. So, I better go be a good delivery boy." Sam nodded in amusement at him.
Jack then turned to leave but stopped himself, he focused on her and in a sober tone added, "Think about how the mission went: the logistics, decisions made, and people involved. What went well, what went not so well. And then think about what you can take from those things into future missions to make them more efficient and make some form of attempt to avoid any major mistakes." Her eyes were glued to him. "That's all you need to do right now. Look, I know I don't outright teach a lot to you about all this. But if you do have questions or want to go over post briefing thoughts in more depth- if that is even possible" he lifts his finger jovially, alluding to the depth that they go into in their briefings. "Then you know where to find me."
Sam was slightly stunned, everything the Colonel had said was an assumed given. But she deeply appreciated him saying it to her. Though her response was short, it was filled with great gratitude. "Thank you. That means a lot, sir."
"Anytime." They held each other's looks for a split second, Jack then broke the seriousness with some silliness. "Anyways, like I said. Pain in the ass archaeologist. Pudding! Must deliver."
She laughed, "Yes, sir."
Jack quickly found himself waltzing into Daniel's workspace.
"Hey Jack." Daniel greeted, not looking at him.
"Daniel." Jack put down the pudding cup. "I come bearing gifts." He paused. "Well, a gift."
Daniel glanced at the pudding cup and internally smiled at the gesture, "thanks Jack. I'll get to having that, just at the moment I'm a little busy as I'm trying to work out whether the people of-"
Jack ignored him. "What you reading?"
Daniel, knowing Jack's distraction tactics, pushed the book away and looked at Jack. "What do you want?"
"I was wondering if you needed any help going over your tapes?"
"My tapes?" Daniel said confused.
"Yes, tapes."
"As in tapes from the recordings I make?"
"Yes Daniel, as in tapes from the recordings you make." Jack said, obviously.
"What? Why?" Daniel asked, utterly confused.
"Well for starters I wasn't on the mission. Also, it's my job to know what we find when we go off world. I am second in command of the base you know."
"Um, okay." Daniel conceded, unconvinced. "Here." He handed Jack the tape, suspicious of his friend's intentions. "Since when have you been interested in my archaeological findings?"
"Daniel I've seen hundreds of these tapes with you, I don't know why you're making a deal out of this." Jack replied dismissively.
"I'm not making a deal out of it. I assumed you sit with me while I go through the tapes because you're either bored or you're trying to make sure I don't give General Hammond an incriminating recording."
Jack felt like the direction of the conversation was going to provide them with ample opportunity to snowball it into an argument, he decided he was too tired for another pointless bickering session with Daniel.
"Why don't I come back later?" Jack suggested.
Daniel wanted to agree but decided not to. He knew the reason why Jack was around so much wasn't solely to annoy, but because- though Jack claimed not to- he loved company. Well, selected company. And if Daniel was honest, he'd become accustomed to what Sam referred to as 'Colonel O'Neill's daily drop ins.'
"You know what, I wasn't really getting anywhere with this anyway. I do have one tape that I was going to use in my report that I haven't gone over yet, if you'd like we can watch it now?"
Jack huffed, with his hands in his pockets. He tilted back and forth on his heels and shrugged, "Well if you've got nothing else to do, then I suppose."
Daniel rolled his eyes at Jack and then picked up the pudding cup.
"Hey, thanks for the pudding."
"Yeah, whatever." Jack casually waved off as he sat down.
They began to watch recording of the clan crest found on PXY-887. The two of them sat in comfortable silence listening to Daniel's voice explain the history of the people, while Teal'c and Sam could be heard discussing the terrain in the background.