AN: I'm going to apologize right now if I miss any typos in the author's note. Apparently I am the Siler of my job because last night I managed to scratch my cornea while setting clearance tickets. How you ask? Because apparently since I can't see up close with my glasses on I took them off then proceeded to pull a sheet upward and directly into my left eye. Did I mention that's my good eye? There's still two of everything. *SIGH*

Chapter 15

They flew back to Colorado on a military cargo run that night. Not much of their belongings were salvageable anyway and they had accomplished their mission. Lonnie returned with them in spite of her cover being blown and a new security detail installed as Gracie's 'nanny' pro tem.

Sam's anxiety telegraphed to her infant daughter who fussed the entire flight. Lonnie offered to take her but Sam waved her off. "I never did actually get your real name you know, Agent Canfield."

"Sorry, ma'am. It's Claire." The woman they had all known as Lonnie said contritely.

Sam just nodded. She needed to thank her but she knew Jack would be the one who did that. Sam bit her lower lip with worry but no one was paying any actual attention to her except Claire.

One of the SF's wheeled Claire through the SGC entry points until they reached the guest quarters on 26. "Sorry Clair, I have to drop you and Gracie off here. There's still baby supplies in the guest quarters they had Colonel O'Neill confined in and I'll have someone bring you a clean change of clothing too." Sam told her.

Clair sighed. "I'm sorry Sam. I genuinely thought the target was you."

"It's all right." Sam told her, handing Gracie to the other woman after the SF wheeled her into the guest room. "They should have changed the sheets if you want a nap. I need to go report in. I'm sure General Hammond will want to debrief you once you are settled. I need to go talk to Harm." She said and walked out of the room.

Sam found Gibbs already briefing Harm on the latest incident.

"Were you in on it too?" Sam asked Harm.

"I knew they had assigned you security. That's SOP for this kind of thing now. Maybourne was the one that came up with inserting a bodyguard as the nanny. They would have switched out anyone you picked for a plant by the way."

"Great." Sam says sarcastically to him.

Harm gives her a sharp look.

"I'm not complaining. She saved Gracie's life. But you could have told me."

"We weren't sure who their informant was. Neither you nor Jack knew about the insertion for that reason. You can't slip up if you don't know. Maybourne told him after they were away." Harm told her.

Sam sighed. She got it… it was just…

"Unscheduled wormhole activation." Walter's voice cut into their conversation.

Sam went immediately into work mode and headed for the Gate room at a jog, leaving Harm behind.

"What have we got, son?" Hammond asked Walter.

"It's SG-1 sir." He said with a relieved smile.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Open the iris."

"Yes sir." Harriman said and busily coded the open sequence. A moment later a very tired looking Jack walked through with Teal'c and the last of their prisoners.

"Oh, hey Carter. Where yah been?" He said with a tired grin. His smile fell when he noted her anxious expression. "Carter?"

Sam just shook her head though.

"Colonel O'Neill, you appear to be missing a couple members of your party." George cut in.

"Yah… about that… the Tok'ra apparently wanted to have a little chat with Harry."

"They do know he's still under arrest here right?"

"Yah, Dad didn't seem to care about that part much." Jack admitted.

Hammond sighed. "Have what's left of your team checked out. Briefing in an hour. I assume you will be ready then as well Major?"

"Yes sir." Sam told him. She was wearing civvies but that was easily corrected.

Hammond nodded and waved them all out of the Gate room.

The SF's grabbed the Trust operative from Teal'c rather ungently and pulled his resisting form out as well.

Jack walked over to Sam. "Carter?"

Sam shook her head and walked out of the room, refusing to meet his eyes.

Jack half jogged half limped after her. "Meet me in my office after my physical. I need to grab some… stuff."

"Yes sir." She said, her voice was hollow with unshed grief.

Jack sighed. He knew he wasn't going to get her to talk to him out here in the hallway so he continued on to the elevator then held it for her until she joined him with a soft sigh. He watched her out of the corner of his eyes, concerned that whatever it was she was too upset to just tell him. "Dad was mad at the council but not us." He told her finally, trying to break the ice.

"He wasn't?" She asked him, surprised enough to comment finally.

Jack shook his head. "He was a little mad at me, but he understood why we handled it the way we did. He knows sometimes the only way to protect the people you love is to break the rules." He smiled a little at her but his expression turned to concern when her face crumpled. "C'mere." He muttered before grabbing her into a tight hug. "Sam… talk to me." He told her gently.

Sam just shook her head though, sniffled and drew away. "After your physical sir." She said in a shaky voice and forced herself to stand at attention as the elevator doors slid open.

Jack gave her a hard look, sighed and left. "My office." He called over his shoulder.

"Yes sir." Sam said firmly but Jack recognized her tone more than anyone else. She needed much more than a hug.

Half an hour later she was in his office as ordered. The CMO told him he needed surgery on his knee which he'd been expecting but had left him in a sour mood. "All right. Spill it." He grumped at her while he dug through the contents of one of his desk drawers.

That was all it took for Sam to finally burst into tears and plop into a chair. "Jack.. I'm a terrible mother. Gracie was almost kidnapped because I left her alone with just a nanny while I went looking for clues about a murder."

He looked over at her sharply. Her face was in her hands and she had laid her elbows on his desk. "How is that your fault?" He asked her simply.

"Jack, your daughter could have been killed and it's my fault!"

Jack just shook his head though. "No. It's Kinsey's fault and when I tell him the dirt I have on him he's going to leave me alone finally." Jack said with venom. "He's going to leave all of us alone this time."

"But you're the person he was after anyway."

"Yah… I kind of figured."

She shook her head hard. "No, Jack… you were the key all along. The witness was you."

"What?"

"He's been after you all this time because you saw him help Bauer bury that girl."

Jack stilled from his search of his desk. "That was him?!" He said in alarm.

"You didn't know?"

"No, I didn't know. I got the hell out of there as fast as I could transfer away. Lost an assload of credit hours for it too, but it was better than waiting around to see if I was next."

"The guy we talked to said he saw you had gotten a letter and acted spooked after."

Jack nodded slowly. "He sent me a piece of my uniform I'd ripped off when I was running back to my buddy's truck." He said softly. "It s pretty clear what the message was."

Sam nodded slowly. He had just been a young kid. Like her, he'd graduated early so he could join the military at seventeen. Of course being told by a judge he could volunteer or go to jail hadn't helped matters. A thought occurred to her. "When did Harry tell you?"

"When I freaked out the night I realized Gracie was their real target."

Sam sighed heavily. "What have we done, Jack? She's never going to be safe from them."

Jack drew her up out of the chair and wrapped her into his arms before touching his head into her shoulder. "We don't have to slay the dragon, Sam, just poke its eyes out." he explained.

"What if it doesn't work?"

"It has to, Sam. It has to." His arms tightened around her.

"So this whole thing is about an almost thirty year old murder case?" Hammond asked them.

"Yes sir." Sam said.

"Bauer made it look like he was punishing Jack to get to Sam, Sir, but in reality he was always the target. With him put away for several years, he didn't have to worry about Jack finally remembering the events of that night." Harm said.

"Not that my testimony would have been worth snot, sir. Everyone involved that would remember would also remember how intoxicated I was and that not everything I was on was technically legal… sir." Jack coughed a little and had the decency to look embarrassed about his behavior in his late teens. "It, um, it was the sixties, sir." He mumbled.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that last part, Colonel." Hammond told him with a stern look but there was amusement in his eyes.

"Yes sir." Jack said crisply.

"All right. I'll handle the fall out for this situation… Or rather Sergeant Gibbs will." Hammond said decisively.

"You don't want him prosecuted, sir?"

"I do, Commander Rabb, but prosecuting Kinsey will be much more problematic. I'm arranging a meeting with President Hayes this week. I want Sergeant Gibbs' people in position before I attend that meeting."

"Wire tapping, that sort of thing?" Gibbs asked.

"Whatever you think is necessary to get the evidence that Kinsey attempted to warn him." Hammond agreed.

"I had looked forward to General Bauer being arrested on base." Teal'c complained.

"You and me both, big guy." Jack said.

"We'll all watch it on the evening news, son." Hammond said with a warm smile. "Far away from his ability to cause us any trouble here."

Sam grinned. "I have a couple reporter friends from my DC days I could tip off, sir." She suggested.

"I find this solution agreeable." Teal'c said with amusement.

"No one deserves public humiliation more than that shady no good rat bastard." Jack agreed.

"Then it's decided." Hammond said and dismissed them.

As they filed out Jack pulled out his cell phone and sighed. "Carter, turn your phone back on."

"Sir?"

"Cassie is blowing mine up with texts because you won't answer her."

Sam winced and grimaced in embarrassment

"She's just going to stalk you until you give her answers, Sam." He reminded her.

"Yah… she gets that from Janet you know."

Jack laughed. "Yah she does." He got up and walked out of the briefing room whistling Frankie Valli's 'Your Just Too Good To Be True'.

Sam blushed bright red at Hammond's amused smile. "Excuse me, sir." She said and fled the room.

"Cass, I'm not ignoring you…. I know… I know… Cass! I KNOW." Sam tried to get a word in edgewise but Cassie was on a roll and much like her adopted mom there was no stopping that train until she was finished. Sam sighed. "All right Cass. I promise…. yes I mean it this time…. yes… no… The pink ones…"

"Unscheduled wormhole activation." Walter's voice intoned over the general PA.

"Cass, I have to go." She hung up abruptly and set her phone down to head to the Gate room.

Moments later, Jacob Carter walked through the Gate alone.

"Did you lose something, Jacob?" Hammond asked him.

Jacob pretended to look around in confusion. "Nope." He told his oldest friend. "Hi kids. Did you miss me? Where's my baby granddaughter?" He asked Sam and Jack who were standing together but professionally distantly so.