Here we go again! I think it shouldn't be much longer now :)
M.
Chapter 21 - Amending Careers
"What did Dr. Jackson said to you that day?" Malcolm asked, leaning in his seat, curious eyes shining to them. Sam huffed.
"Daniel said my career was at stake… again."
"How come?"
"Oh, you know… politics." Jack answered.
Before Malcolm could ask him to extend himself on the subject, Sam shook her head and raised her hand to stop him from questioning them.
"The Senate knew about my marriage to the then 'Candidate O'Neill' when they proposed and approved me as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. However, as our relationship fell under the classified part of my file, it was a public secret at that level, to say something, so they didn't question it. Most of them had copies of my record and the previous full review of my career. They decided it wasn't an issue, and that I was the right person for the position."
"Until after learning who she was, they dug out her file, and my file, the blackened version of it, and some people at the press thought it was something to be reviewed," Jack added.
"They figured as my career seemed to follow his path. I only married him to advance it."
"Then, the bastards, I mean, the Senators, cleaned their names by saying they didn't know we were married and did another check on Sam's career to make sure there wasn't 'anything strange.'"
"And all that happened the day after the inauguration?"
"Yes."
"What did you do then?"
" Daniel got an idea to help us calm the masses."
2020
"I think it's crazy," Jack said after hearing Daniel's proposal.
"Think about it, Jack! You both know enough people to pull this out," Daniel added.
"I think Daniel has a point."
"You think Daniel has a point?" They both frowned, and she smiled at them. "Do you believe we can pull this out, without screwing it even more?"
"I believe," she started, "if someone can pull this out, it would be us."
"We were always pulling stuff from nowhere to save the planet," Daniel grinned, and the Doctors exchanged a mischievous smile.
2050
"It was a similar idea with yours, actually," Sam said, looking at Malcolm. "However, we couldn't talk about many things back then. You'll see, the process to declassify things it is long and needs more than the Chairman and the POTUS signature to be approved."
"But after five months of investigations and bullshit at the headlines, we found how to get what we needed."
2020
"Tell me again, why did we agree to do this?" He whined.
"We are taking the bulls by the horn. We are making it public enough."
"And that's why the public's favorite television hostess is interviewing us in our family room at the White House?" he asked even if he knew full well all the reasons behind it.
"Yup," she grinned.
"And you are sure about this?" Jack searched her eyes and caressed her cheeks. "We can always say something came up if you changed your mind."
"Your worry is always about me, huh?" she grinned and pecked his lips. " I believe I am, Jack. I am sick and tired of all the speculation about my career. There are things I won't mind having out in the open if they will allow our kids to have a normal life."
"Normal? You know that's something they won't have, don't you?"
"You know what I mean, Jack. It's not fun your kids hearing people saying 'hey your mom is a General only because she screwed your dad and had you' or something like that. It's not fun hearing all the things they are saying about marriage, not when we struggled so much to respect the regulations."
"I'm sorry, Sam. I know these last four months were awful for you."
"It sucks."
"Yep, pretty much, but Sam, look at the bright side; we've beaten worse."
"That we did," she smiled.
They linked their hands and walked out of the room. Squaring their shoulders, they entered their living room.
2050
"What we did was risky, and it was a once in a lifetime thing."
"We, without knowing, even showed some things we weren't supposed to show."
"What was that?"
"How we behaved behind closed doors."
2020
"Mr. President, Madame Chairman," Leia Smith saluted them as they entered the room
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Smith. But, it is Sam/Jack," offering her their hands, the couple shared an amused gaze as they had said all of it at the same time.
"I'm honored to meet you both, Sam and Jack," Leia said after shaking their hands. "Please take a seat," she offered, and then realizing it was their living room, she chuckled. " Well, please let me take a seat!"
"By all means," they said again at once as they all chuckled.
"So, Mr. President, you are entering the fifth month of your term. This is the first interview you accept, and I've heard it took some convincing. Madame Chairman, you will be fulfilling your second year as the Chairman in more weeks, you haven't given one interview since your appointment. And now, here it is me. Can we know why we don't see neither of you often?"
"What happened to Sam and Jack?" he pointed with a smile. "It's quite simple; you'll see, Sam and I are very private people. I am a former special-ops, and Sam, well, she is a military brat. You don't get more private than us." They grinned and exchanged a glance before they added: "Maybe our kids."
"Jack? Sam?" Daniel's voice came from the entrance door.
"Oh, excuse us," they said simultaneously and stood up to meet their visitors.
"Keep rolling," Leia said to his cameraman as they watched them exchange their greetings.
"Vala! Sam!" the women happily exchanged quick hugs.
"Space-monkey!" Jack clapped, and a whiny "Jaaaack!" followed.
"Vala," Jack nodded, and she threw herself at him. "Jack!" Besides them, Daniel and Sam exchanged a heartfelt embrace, before Sam lowered herself to her knees.
"Hi Aurora," she grinned to the kid who was wearing a Cinderella costume. " Are you a princess today?"
"Yes, Auntie Sam," the girl beamed. " Do you like my crow?"
"Yup, it's a beautiful crown, right, Jack?"
"Gorgeous," Jack quipped, making the little girl blush.
"Oh, Hunter, is it possible that you are even taller?" the young boy blushed, and Jack smiled at the exchange. They all knew about Hunter's crush on Sam.
"Oh yeah, definitely taller," Jack nodded, the boy puffed his chest proudly.
"Three, two…" Daniel counted.
"OMG! OMG! OMG! Aunt Vala! Uncle Daniel! Are you seriously taking us out?" Sasha came running.
"Hey, no running in the house!" Jack pointed, and Sasha slowed down. Behind her, Allistair and Terran stopped their running. Alex joined them soon with Nadia and Aidan in tow, shaking her head at their siblings.
"Please, tell me we are taking them to a baseball field," Alex pleaded. "Mom, Dad, I'll make sure Terran doesn't eat only candies, and Sasha doesn't get only veggies," she finished with a smile.
"And will you eat some cake?" Jack asked his eldest.
"Always," she beamed, showing the Carter smile he loved so much.
"Are you sure you want to take the whole squad?" Jack wondered as the kids grabbed their backpacks and jackets.
"Stop being such a mother-hen, Jack," Sam joked.
"Yes, Jack, stop being such a mother-hen," Daniel grinned. "Don't worry; it will be fun."
"Don't worry, Mr. President, we can hardly lose anyone with all the escorts we are having. God Bless the Secret Service," Vala grinned, making them all laugh.
2050
"We didn't notice the show was already on air. When Daniel came to take the kids, the camera kept rolling."
"They saw us greet our friends and godchildren. Prepping and saying goodbye to our kids. So there was a very familiar moment for all the people to see. It wasn't until we turned around and found the red light of the recording camera that we knew what had happened."
"Regretting that level of privacy being out there for anyone to see, we looked at each other. We squared our shoulders and returned to the interview; there wasn't much we could do to change what it had happened, so we smiled and kept going."
2020
"Sorry for the interruption, our friends promised the kids they would take them this weekend," Sam smiled.
"We will have them next weekend," they grimaced jokingly.
"Isn't that too much of a risk?" Leia asked.
"Well, it is a risk going around with eight kids; you never know what kind of mischief they can get into." Jack grinned.
"It was easier when we weren't public figures," Sam offered. "But Daniel and Vala have their escorts, and then each kid has their escort. They are probably getting a whole restaurant closed," she waved.
"So, you are not worried?" Leia asked, surprised.
"You never stop worrying about your kids," they grimaced.
"But they have been through worse; therefore, a field trip around DC, with oh so many people looking out for them, it won't hurt them."
"What do you mean by 'they have been through worse'?"
"Let me answer your question with a question. How much do you know about our past?"
"Well, the same everybody else: you are both military officers whom at some point got married, and now, you are the presidential family. So pretty much nothing."
"That only proves our previous statement: we are as private as it gets."
"It would seem that way. Now, what am I doing here?"
"After the Commander-in-Chief ball, we got some news."
"I remember that ball. I thought your speech was hilarious, and your dress to die for," Leia grinned.
"Thanks, I guess," they both said simultaneously.
"I also found nice that you presented yourself for the first time not only as the Chairman of the JCS but as the first lady. And looked the part for both, showing us how different you can be in one position or the other."
"Trust me, if Cassie and Vala weren't there. Things would be different; they were great support for me that day."
"You said the next day you got some news. My bet is the news you got was that the Senate would analyze your career, am I close?"
"Yes. They are still at it," Sam grimaced.
"But you still are the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," Leia trailed, and they both nodded.
"We discussed this thoroughly before getting in touch with you for this interview. You'll see we are in a complicated position with Sam's job. Some members of the Senate believe that my job as the President may compromise her position as the Chairman."
"As Chairman is my job to give the President and the SecDef not only my opinion but the opinion of the Joint Chiefs. To be appointed as a Chairman, your record must be excellent. Now, the Senate is looking into it again, trying to find a signal that someone helped me to get here."
"They not only are scrutinizing all her files or at least the non-classified version of those, but they still kept her as Chairman. The only way to stop the doubts at this moment is for her to retire or resign," Jack pointed out.
"Things which at the same time will affirm the notion that I am guilty of being promoted unfairly. We are pretty tied up."
"Let me get this straight; you can't defend yourself until their search is over, and you can't quit until they decide what to do with you?" They both nodded, "Am I here to defend you?" Leia squinted at them.
"No, you are here because we are tired of our kids defending us. Those kids you shouldn't have seen before, they know much more than you would ever will about the hardships of life."
"Our kids had a hard life, and now that things are finally looking up for them, they have to defend ourselves from other kids and their parents. It is getting ridiculous."
2050
"Weird, I've done an awful lot of investigation on you two before this issue, and coming here. You both were a topic in my class as an example of how to work with the press and keep a private life, and I've never seen this interview that you are telling me about."
"There was the cleaning afterward. We let it flow just enough until we fixed the situation."
"We found every single trace of the interview; we got it deleted or bought it."
"I see, did you reveal much in there?"
"Well, no, actually we didn't. We could have told Mrs. Leia Smith about aliens and all, but we just told the truth about our past, just like we did with you recently."
"I guess it was something that scared them. We knew too much; we could have talked, they didn't know what we would do or what we would say."
"But talking about those things would be against our standards. So we just talked and gave them access to videotapes."
"Of?"
"Security cameras, nothing compromising. Camera footage where the timestamps were evident, both from our early days and then from after our wedding. There was footage from the SGC, SGA, HWS, and our private lives. The 'camaraderie' is there, but that is also true for camaraderie with everyone else."
"And then again, it showed how differently we behaved around each other on base after our wedding. We weren't only living in different cities; we needed to make everyone believe we married someone else."
"If you could do this, why wait four months? Why didn't you pull it when it started?"
"We needed to pull several things at once."
"It was hard to get everyone ready to connect with us."
"Connect?"
"Yes, we set several conference calls with people who worked with us. So Mrs. Smith could ask questions herself."
"Why?"
"If they had a prepared speech, they could say we made them read it. So we gave her the freedom to question our friends and co-workers."
"Did it work?"
"Kinda'"
2020
"General Carter, your actions from Saturday was bordering treason!" A Senator hissed at her. It was the first public meeting since the investigation started, so he had to be careful with his word selection. "The footage you presented came from several military bases that are deemed as classified. What have you to say about this?"
"With all due respect, sir. I was only following orders."
"Following orders?"
"Yes, allow me to present you the evidence of it," one guy walked to the video of the room and pressed play. Jack appeared on screen; he was standing in front of Sam. She was not only wearing her blues but standing in attention. Beside her stood General Mitchel.
"It's on, Corporal?" Jack asked, "Good. General Carter, General Mitchel, at ease, Generals. As the Commander-in-Chief, I am ordering you to search for every single security footage that might help you clean General Carter's name without revealing the classified aspects of your career."
"Sir?" Sam questioned.
"You heard me, General. You can get footage from every single post you have ever laid a foot on, but it can't show anything that could endanger the base, nor can it contain conversations with classified information. Once you have them, bring them to me. Did I make myself clear, Generals?"
"Sir, yes, sir," they both roared.
"Dismissed, then."
They both turned around perfectly and left the oval room.
"I will make myself clear now: I'm not ordering General Carter and Mitchell to do this, because I'm trying to help my wife with her career. I'm requesting it because, as the Commander-in-Chief, I can't allow that our best members do nothing about defending themselves from things they shouldn't. That's all, Corporal."
"As you can see, sir. The videos made public resulted from General Mitchell and me following orders given by my Commander-in-Chief, and he requested they showed nothing that could endanger the situation of any base. The audio was cut off, and whatever conversation was left doesn't relate to classified information."
"You were ordered to search for them, not to show them for all the world to see!" another senator told her angrily
"I'm sorry, sir. I only followed orders. I delivered those to the POTUS. What he did with those was not under my control."
"Are you implying you didn't know what your husband would do with the tapes you provided him?" another one asked astounded.
"No, sir. I'm affirming that I delivered the tapes to my commander-in-chief, and he did not comment on what he was doing with them. Now, my husband and I never breached the subject of these tapes since he is not in the military anymore, and even if aware of it, there's nothing he can do to help my case."
"You talk about your husband as if he is two different persons at the same time."
"Sir, with all due respect. My husband is a private figure. My Commander-in-Chief, our President, is a public figure. The decisions he makes as one rarely have to do with the decisions he makes for the other. I'm sure you wouldn't want reports on what ribbons he had to pick for his daughters, so let's not pretend he can't separate things, as you all know he can."
2050
"But we knew it could happen; we knew that they could pull the treason trigger, so we planned better."
"Jack ordered Cam and me to get those videos, so they couldn't say it was just my husband ordering me."
"We taped when I gave her the order, and she presented it the moment treason was mentioned."
"They also called the Corporal and Cam to give their version of the facts. But it was already too late, once the people saw the footage on tv, they started to take sides."
"Our side thankfully," Jack grinned. "The one that people criticize the most is the one showing how I was coaxed to run for President and Sam's reaction to the news."
"Even if it bordered treason, that interview calmed the media."
"Then the whole affair got classified, and the cleanup happened. Finally, Sam was never bothered again."
"Since then, I was news only for clothing issues."
"I remember that time you ended up going to a school meeting on BDU's and how it became a national fashion for girls" Sam rolled her eyes
2020
"Sam, don't forget we have the first parent-teacher meeting today!" Jack told his wife.
"Yes, I know. At 1600," Sam smiled, kissed her husband, and left. Once she passed the security checkpoint at the Pentagon, she got a call from her secretary.
"Cassie?"
"Sam. There's some issue with the new cooler and some power surge that isn't supposed to be happening, the techs up there are not too sure what to do."
"Is there anyone available?"
"Well, they are all up; this was a distress call. They have been working on it since last week, and the Mockingbird is due to leave tomorrow."
"Crap," she said, entering her office and hanging her phone. Cassie smiled at her.
"Already put a new BDU set in your office, I'll contact them as soon as you get changed," Sam nodded, and 5 minutes later she was beamed up to the USAF Mockingbird, the newest ship of the fleet.
At 1530, the communication screen was on, and she got a call from Mr. President himself.
"Carter?"
"Mr. President."
"Are you where I think you are?"
"If you are thinking of Cancun or Bali. Then no, sir. If you are thinking about something called Mockingbird, then I have to say, Mr. President, you are right on," she smiled.
"It's 1530. This is a call for my wife."
"It's okay, Jack. I'll be there," she grinned.
"There's half an hour to the school, Sam. What are you doing there anyway, Carter?"
"Well, Mr. President, you'd think by now someone else could fix silly programming errors they built into the things I've programmed age ago, but no. They still can't… therefore, after a week of fiddling around what mechanical part could be the one damaged, someone contacted me and asked for help."
"So, will be I getting an excellent report telling me why the Mockingbird didn't leave on time?" Jack sighed.
"No, sir. You will get a detailed report on why I had to be called. It's 15:35, you should get going, sir," he raised his eyebrow, and Sam chuckled. "Yes, Teal'c, I'll be there on time!" She mocked him.
"Sweet!" the comm was closed, and she went out of the Commander's office and barked instructions to the tech staff. Once she was sure they completely understood everything that left to be done, she beamed herself back to the Pentagon and grabbed the Indian, which was once again parked there.
"Thanks, Cassie," she mumbled, knowing that it was parked there because of Cassie. She hopped on, speeded through the checkpoints, and disappeared down the road, arriving at the kids' school with some minutes to spare. She never saw the light of the cameras taking in her military dress.
2050
"Oh yes, the day I almost killed some techs. I got to the kids' school just in time for the parent-teacher conference, and I was in such a hurry that I never noticed the paparazzi."
"Next day, her picture was all over the place, and as she looked gorgeous with BDU pants and black t-shirt… then, it was a fashion."
"I think I never saw as many girls in BDUs before. You can laugh all you want, but even the rate of women joining the military raised after that, Sam."
"Anyway, by the end of 2021, Copper and Eve joined our family."