Classified Mission Cookies

It was quiet at the moment in the infirmary so, her own paperwork mostly caught up, she took the file about the skin disease on PS4-9B3 to the office Cam and Colonel Reynolds shared instead of sending a med tech with it. She didn't spend a lot of time in the command offices, meeting with the chain-of-command and officers either in the infirmary, the briefing room, or in her father's office, but her father-boss had repeatedly reminded her that as CMO, she had access to the entire base. She wasn't sure what she needed it for, but it was Air Force regulation. Or something.

She raised her hand to knock on the half-closed door of their office, then jumped as Colonel Reynolds stepped out before she could.

"Sorry, Doc," he said, catching her file before it fluttered to the floor. "Are you here for me?"

"Ah, no. Colonel Mitchell, actually," she said as her heart calmed down.

"He's inside," Reynolds told her. "If anybody asks, I'll be in Dr. Lee's lab. Pray for me."

She laughed and promised she would, then knocked again. "Colonel?"

"I'll let you in if you promise me one thing," Cam said, looking up from his computer screen.

"And what's that?" she asked, leaning against the doorframe.

"If we're the only people around, like we are now, you call me Cam."

Considering that for a moment, she nodded. "Fine. But I am still in the hallway so technically someone could walk by… so amend it to no ranks or titles in open public spaces either?"

"Fair." He grinned and waved her inside. "Close the door so we can drop the ranks and titles."

Carolyn shut the door and held out the file as she approached his desk. "You wanted to attach my report on the PS4-9B3 skin disease to the full SG-1 report. I think we've found a treatment for the disease. It's not a cure, but if they use it, it could eradicate it by stopping the spread. So if PS4-9B3 has something worth trading for, you can offer that."

"Good." He slid her file into the larger binder for that planet. "They've got a microbe type thing that Science thinks could cut down on plastic waste on Earth so the deal might get made on that. I'm just waiting on Jackson's report and then I'll turn it in."

"You'll probably need a medical team if you turn over the treatment, to show them how to make it and how to use it."

"I figured." He switched off his screen and pushed his chair back to stretch. "You want to go off-world again, don't you?"

She knew she looked guilty, and she grinned because she didn't care. "Do you blame me?"

"Not a bit," he laughed. "It won't be for at least a week or ten days, though, because General Landry is off for a long weekend and SG-3 has a treaty negotiation off-world so I'm in Earth-bound and in command then unless something catastrophic happens."

Mercifully, Carolyn thought, General Landry's long weekend was a trip to San Francisco with her mother and nothing that she would be expected to be part of. "I'm working this weekend too. Let's not test fate and mention catastrophic possibilities, alright?"

He crossed his fingers and got to his feet. "Good point. Anyway, I need a break from writing performance evaluations. Want to get something to eat in the mess hall?"

She did, and waited in the hall while he locked down his computer, made sure Reynolds' was locked, and then used his key card to lock the office door. "Do you ever feel like you've been given far more responsibility than you should have?" she asked as they walked down the hall.

"Every damn day," he laughed. "What about you?"

"Also every damn day," she agreed. "Can I ask a question?"

"Another one?"

"Sorry," she said, though she was not. "Since you command SG-1, why is Colonel Reynolds second-in-command to General Landry instead of you?"

Nodding at the airman who stood at attention when he passed into the more common area, Cam shrugged as they turned toward the elevators. "Three reasons, I suppose. One, he's got seniority at SGC. Two, SG-1 is the flagship team with maybe too much public face, as it were, in the galaxy to cut back early. And they know Teal'c, especially, might not stay if the makeup changes much. And three, my personal favorite, I don't want to be second-in-command."

Carolyn was glad the elevator was empty when it arrived, and pressed the button for Level 22. "You know they're grooming you for command, right?"

"I do know that. I also know that with my bonus pay, which will translate to bonus pension, I can retire at twenty years or a little earlier if I want to and be fine." He chuckled and shook his head at the look on her face. "I'm not saying I will, just that I figured out my options. And it turns out a benefit of the titanium in my leg and back and the spasms is getting to have that option."

"Options are always good," she said as the doors hissed open into a much busier hallway. She tried to think of who she could ask what bonus pay had to do with his injuries from Antarctica, and wondered if she should ask anyone at all. Shaking that off, she got in line at the buffet in front of him in the busy mess hall. "Looks like chicken a la king or lasagna. And cookies for dessert, but I can't look at cookies the same anymore."

"Come back to my office later," he whispered, leaning close under the guise of reaching for a small bowl of salad. "I found a new recipe for double chocolate cherry cookies."

Carolyn hoped the airman who slid a piece of lasagna onto her plate didn't notice her grin.

Cam knocked on Carolyn's office door later that evening, an hour after he was technically off-duty and dressed in civilian clothes. "Just wanted to let you know Jackson hasn't given me his damn report yet but it was due so I turned the rest in to General Landry, Jackson can add his later," he said when she looked up from her screen. "The general said he'll recommend we offer the deal."

"You had an entire binder without Daniel's report," she said in surprise, "and he read it already?"

"No. Asked me to summarize my recommendation," he admitted, his hands behind his back as he leaned on the doorframe. "He said he'll read it later, but that he'll send it now to the Pentagon with his endorsement of what you and I say."

"Good." She clicked to print the thing she'd been working on and slid it into a file in the tray on her desk. "I never made it back to your office."

Cam glanced over his shoulder and saw the infirmary deserted save for two nurses in a far corner stocking a cabinet. "I know," he said, stepping into her office and setting a plastic container on her desk. "I deliver."

Carolyn got up and called to the nurses that she and Colonel Mitchell were discussing a classified mission, then shut him inside her office.

"Dr. Lam!" Cam laughed as she opened the container. He couldn't believe she'd just done that, and it was a breath of fresh air. "I don't care if they know that I bake cookies."

"I don't want to have to share, unless they're bad," she said as she bit into a cookie, "which… oh my god they are so good. Definitely not sharing."

He liked to think he wasn't flustered over her enthusiasm and enjoyment. "They're not very healthy, you know."

Carolyn opened one eye. "Do I look like I care about that?"

They shared the cookies between the two of them and were on the last bites when Daniel opened the door without waiting for a response to his knock. "Classified mission discussions, huh?" he asked with a smirk as they brushed crumbs off their lips.

"No, we finished that," Cam said, sounding mostly normal as he swallowed. "We'd moved on to discussing how frustrating it is when people we work with never turn in their reports on time."

Daniel rolled his eyes. "I gave my report to Landry."

"Still late, Jackson."

"What can I say? I was doing something more interesting."

Cam shook his head and shared a look with Carolyn. "How does someone get three PhDs and keep the same job for a decade-plus if they are so easily distracted?"

"They almost flunk core classes as an undergrad, then get to do what they actually want."

"And they make themselves invaluable at their job?" Carolyn finished for him.

"Thank you, yes." Daniel grinned. "You see, Cam? She understands the secret of my success. Just remember back to when you begged me not to go to Atlantis and stay on SG-1 instead. If I irritate you, you've got no one to blame but yourself."

Carolyn almost spit water out her nose laughing at the look on Cam's face. "I'm sorry."

He made a face at her, playing along with their teasing. "Did you come here for a reason, Jackson?"

"Yes. To tell you I turned in my report so you can quit sending me passive-aggressive reminders about it."

"Until next time you're late."

Daniel winked at him, then said he'd see them in the morning.

"He's got a date with Vala," Carolyn said when he was gone. "That's why I'm here late, because she was asking me for advice… like I've got a lot of experience with dating or something."

"No?" He stood up because she had, to swap her white coat for her jacket.

"No. Medical school and avoiding the drama that would come with introducing anyone to my Air Force general father and somewhat stereotypical Asian businesswoman mother seemed like… a lot." She unlocked her desk drawer and grabbed her handbag, slinging it across her body. "What about you, girlfriends at every base?"

A little relieved Vala hadn't told her about Amy Vandenburg and the class reunion, Cam laughed and shook his head. "It's Navy pilots that have girls in every port," he said with a wink. "And no. I was kind of hyper-focused on pilot-specific things then between the war, the crash, and this… who has the time?"

Suddenly overcome with awkwardness at the turn in conversation, and very much regretting having mentioned Vala and Daniel's date, Carolyn blew out a breath as they left her office. "Anyway, I hope they have a good time."

"Me too," he agreed. He rode the elevator to the surface with her, then walked her to her car. "How do you have a better parking space than me?"

"Isn't that your spot right there?" she asked, pointing to the sign that had his name on it two spaces away from hers.

"Yes, but still."

Carolyn unlocked her car and dropped her bag inside. "How should I know, anyway? I don't even know why my spot isn't in the civilian section of the lot."

"Oh, I know that. It's because as chief medical officer, civilian or not, you can relieve anyone of command so you're technically in the chain-of-command."

She wondered why no one had ever mentioned that to her, though she knew she could relieve the commanders of duty. Deciding it'd probably been in some nuanced and dull explanation of things when she took the job, she shrugged it off. "Good point. And it sounds like you have your answer as to why you have to walk, what, ten extra feet to get into the mountain."

"A valid point," he agreed. "See you tomorrow, Carolyn."

Carolyn and her mother were watching a cooking competition show later that night when her phone buzzed with a notification.

"Work?" Kim asked, glancing up from the crossword puzzle she was doing.

I just realized you left your dress at my apartment the other night. Carolyn bit her lip and considered just how much of a lie to tell. "No. I left something at my friend's place that night I had dinner with you and dad. They found it."

"Your dress," Kim said, a smile playing on her face. "I mean, what did they find?"

Carolyn's cheeks felt hot. "How did you know?"

"You told me I could use the washer and dryer but left a load of laundry in the dryer." She put down her pen and looked up. "Unless there's something else going on, I imagine that whoever has your dress is currently missing a pair of men's pajama pants and an Air Force t-shirt and sweatshirt."

To buy time figuring out how to respond to that, and what her mother would probably say after that, she answered Cam's message. I know. I came home in your clothes. Which my mother found…

"You could just answer what you know I'm going to ask," Kim prodded gently but firmly.

"He's not my boyfriend," Carolyn blurted out. "He's a friend. We had pizza and beer and made puzzles." She was going to keep the cookies private.

"Those were the important plans you put off that night?"

"No, those were the plans I made when you and dad were being all… teenager-y."

Kim reached out and hugged her daughter. "I am sorry for that, Carolyn, and I promise that won't happen again."

"You're happy he's back in your life?" she asked, feeling like a child again.

"Immensely."

Carolyn kissed her mother's cheek. "That's all that matters. I'm sorry I got childish about it."

"Don't be. I'm not sorry that I'm mother-ing about your happiness… and that you came home in a man's clothes without your dress."

Carolyn put a pillow over her face and groaned.

-

Notes: Thanks to all who have liked this little story of mine! I hope you're liking it still and I'd love to hear your thoughts! I still don't own anything either!