Encounters

Disclaimer: How many times do I have to admit to this? *sigh* I guess as many times as I post something if I don't want to get sue, huh? So, nope, they're not mine . . . if they were this would have already happened on the show.

A/N: Here's the next 'Encounter'. *shakes head* When I wrote the first one, I had no idea I'd still have ideas for it this many years later but here we are. I'm just glad you guys are still enjoying them!! I really thank everyone that's still taking the time to review and let me know you like them; it is because of you that I keep writing them - even if there's a long wait between updates!! I have to give SammieAtHome the credit for inspiring this chapter. It was her review that gave musie the inspiration for it - I actually came up with most of the plot within half an hour of reading her review. I think I wrote in most of what you wanted; I even had something like a jealous Jack - well, more like a possessive Jack - given the type of relationship I created for them, I don't see him being really jealous, but possessive is another story. I hope you like it!! For those that are following my crossover stories, I'm going to be taking a little break from writing it (I'm pretty obsessed with Criminal Minds at the moment) but I plan to start the sequel to Aliens, which is the new version of SG1 in Atlantis, sometime in mid-December. Most of you know that I'm a John/Teyla shipper but I know that some of you aren't and that ship in a story is a deal breaker. I completely understand as a John/Elizabeth ship in a story is a deal breaker for me; so, I am going to be writing two versions of the sequel. The SG1 one, with the John/Teyla ship, will still be call SG1 in Atlantis, the Bones version, which right now is titled Squints in Space, will have John, because you can't have an Atlantis fic and not have John, but there won't be any mention of him being in a relationship with Teyla. There are too many characters for me to have just one version, the Atlantis characters will show up on the Bones version but they won't be as prominent as the SG1 ones. So, for those of you that don't like John/Teyla, the Bones version will be safe. Ok, in terms of time table, this story is set before the one before - about a couple of weeks before. If you remember the epilogue for Bones, Jack told Booth that he and Sam were on their way to Colorado Springs for him to start his 'vacation', this story is set about a day before the epilogue while the one in the chapter before is set when they're already in Colorado. I'm sorry that they're out of order; I like to write them in chronological order and I'm pretty good at it, usually. But since this story was sparked by a review for the last chapter *shrug* well, you see what I mean. I couldn't have written it before because I just hadn't thought of it. I hope you're not too confused; it shouldn't be too confusing but if you have any questions just let me know!!

Encounter in Corridors of Power

"General," a voice from above him said. As he was the only general in the room, Jack supposed he'd better open his eyes. With an inaudible sigh he did just that even as he straightened up in his seat.

"Agent Barrett," he said with a barely perceptible nod, doing his best to hide a grimace. Jack knew that the other man, brain washed incident aside, was a good, loyal and capable agent. However, Jack was also well aware that Barrett had had a thing for his wife since the moment they met and had hit on her more than once – heck, all of SG1 was well aware of that. So, while professionally, Jack had no reason to have a problem with the younger man, personally he would be very happy if he never saw him again.

"How are you, sir?" Barrett asked, shifting on his feet.

"I'm fine, just fine," Jack answered. "And you?" How had Jack not known that Barrett would be here? He should have known chances were good he'd be there when he'd learned there'd be a NID representative but he'd been so preoccupied with everything else, it hadn't even occurred to him to think about it. Though, now that he thought about it, Daniel's smirk when they talked about the meeting made sense.

"Fine too, thanks, sir," Barrett replied and shifted once again so that he was standing pretty much at attention. Jack had to fake a cough and bring his hand up to hide his smirk at the sight. It was funny how even non-military people reacted to the two stars on his lapels; women seemed to preen more and men tended to straighten as if they were preparing for inspection. "You're attending the briefing too?" Barrett asked.

"I'm giving the briefing," Jack corrected him.

"Oh," Barrett nodded. He then frowned slightly, "I didn't know the briefing involved matters of interpl…" At the glare Jack threw his way, he corrected himself. "Matters of international security."

"Now you do," Jack told him and only years of being an agent, prevented Barrett from flinching at his tone. It wasn't a personal attack; the man had been an agent long enough to know not to say anything sensitive in such an open forum.

"General, you can go in," the secretary said, after she hung up the phone, cutting short what would have been an uncomfortable silence.

"Thanks Silvia," Jack smiled and got up. He walked up to the door, opened it and walked through as if he'd done it a hundred times before. Which, Barrett realized after blinking in surprise a couple of times, he probably had done. Given the importance of his post, it shouldn't have surprised the agent that General O'Neill was on a first name basis with the President's secretary and was very familiar with the Oval Office. Briefly shaking his head to dispel his surprise, the agent followed the general into the President's office. Only to find the two men greeting each other like long lost friends.

"Jack," the President was saying as they finished shaking hands. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, Mr. President," Jack answered. And Barrett had to blink again as he noticed that the General actually rolled his eyes when answering the President. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Jack," President Hayes said and gave him a look. "I do get updates on all my generals, you know?"

"I'm fine," Jack insisted but when the President continued to look at him silently, he sighed and gave in. "Ok, okay. So, I had an . . . episode. But that was days ago and I'm all fine now. I . . . I just haven't had much sleep lately – what, with this whole situation and all."

"That's not exactly what your lovely wife and Doctor Fraizer said," President Hayes argued.

"Yeah, well, they're women," Jack waved that argument away. "What did you expect? They tend to exaggerate."

"Oh, I'd love to be in the room if you ever say that to their faces," the President grinned and rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

"I already did," Jack admitted, smirking.

"Really?" the President wanted to know. "And you're still standing?"

"Of course," Jack answered, his smirk growing. "I'm not afraid of them."

"Right," the President snorted and had Barrett blinking yet again. "And the fact that they think you're sick didn't have anything to do with you walking away from that encounter?"

"None whatsoever," Jack said firmly and then grinned widely.

"You're still taking leave," it wasn't a question but it wasn't quite a statement either.

"I supposed I have to," Jack said on a long suffering sigh. "I don't really want to leave when we're in the middle of this mess . . ."

"We're no longer in the middle of it," President Hayes interrupted him. "You already took care of most of it. All of that's left now is the clean up."

"Sometimes the clean up is the most important part of an ops," Jack insisted. "I should be here to see it through."

"You've trained your people well, General," the President reminded him. "And Davis has been your right hand man for the last couple of years – before that, he was Hammond's and before that he was the liaison between the Pentagon and the SGC. He's been with the program from basically the very beginning. There's no other man, other than you, better qualified to take care of this. He'll do you proud – all your people will do you proud."

"I know," Jack nodded once. "That's not the problem. I know Davis and the rest of my staff can handle it. It's just . . ."

"That you want to be here to handle it yourself," President Hayes finished for him. At Jack's sharp nod, Hayes smiled in sympathy. "I know what you mean but sometimes you have to delegate; you can't do everything yourself. Besides, we need you in your post for many years to come so you need to take care of your health. And if that means to let your subordinate deal with the clean up detail, then that's what you'll do."

"Yes, sir," Jack answered seriously. When your Commander in Chief gave you an order, you didn't question it – well, if you were Jack, you questioned it if you thought you could get away with it but even Jack knew when he was licked. "Well, I guess a vacation wouldn't be the worst thing right now. Especially since my lovely wife has agreed to take her vacation too."

"See, it could be a kind of second honeymoon for you guys," the President said with a grin.

"I like the sound of that," Jack agreed. "We celebrated our one year anniversary a few months ago," he added. "Maybe we can start a tradition of having a honeymoon every year."

"That's something every couple should do," the President agreed.

"Too bad with the jobs we have, that's more a dream than a reality," Jack said somberly.

"Yeah," the President nodded before realizing that there was someone else in the room. "Oh, excuse us, Agent . . . Barrett, isn't it?"

"Yes, sir," Barrett answered and stepped forward to shake the President's hand; flattered that the older man had remembered his name. Before they could say anything else, the door opened again and the Joint Chiefs, the Secretaries of State and Defense and the Ambassadors to the UN and NATO and their aides stepped in. The next few moments were spent in greetings all around and a few introductions.

"Are we ready?" the Secretary of the State asked as everyone took their seats.

"Not quite," Jack started to answer when the whine that preceded the white flash of the transported signaled that someone was beaming down. Again the only one surprised by the beam down was Barrett; he'd thought that the whole of the White House, the Pentagon and the SGC had a shield that prevented anyone from beaming in or out. The others in the room knew that while the shield existed, certain commanders in the Air Force Spaceship Fleet had a frequency that allowed them to bypass it. Colonel Samantha Carter was one of them – as was Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet.

"Mr. President, Generals, Mr. Secretaries," Sam said, looking first at the President and then at the rest of the people in the room. "My apologies for being late but something came up at the last moment . . ."

"You're not that late, Colonel," the President waved away the apology.

"Anything we need to know, Carter?" Jack asked her.

"No, sir," Sam shook her head. "It was an unrelated matter." Jack nodded and Sam moved quickly to sit down beside him. On the way, she made eye contact with Barrett; they shared a tight, small smile before the President called the meeting to order.

Jack, who had not missed the smile, cleared his throat and began the briefing, putting all thoughts of Barrett and his feelings for Sam out of his mind. After all, despite what the other man might feel, Sam had, in the end, chosen him. Actually, Sam had chosen him in the beginning, the middle and the end. For Sam it had always been Jack just as for Jack it had always been Sam. It wasn't for nothing that one of their code words was 'always'.

For the next half hour, Jack briefed those present on Ba'al's latest attempt to take over Earth. For a few, like Barrett, this was the first they were hearing of it; some others had heard bits and pieces but it was the first time they heard all of the details. When they started to interrupt Jack asking for details, the President told them to hold all questions until General O'Neill had finished his briefing.

When Jack got to the part about what they've done to find the clones, he turned the floor over to Sam. From then on, they took turns conducting the briefing. When they were finally done, the questions began and it took almost an hour for the pair to answer all of them.

"The representatives of the IOA know most of what's going on," Jack started to wrap it up. "As do those associated with the SGC. Most of the steps that I've just gone over have already been taken; however, they've just taken place so the fallout will not be long in coming."

"That's why we're having this briefing now," President Hayes answered.

"We should have been informed of this from the beginning," the UN ambassador protested.

"No offense," Jack said, "but until I had a handle of just what was going on, information was dispersed on a need to know basis."

"And I didn't need to know?" the Ambassador asked. "You just told us that the IOA representatives were told about this."

"They were told only what they needed to know, not a thing more," Hayes replies. "And no offense, Charles, but you really didn't need to know any of this before." The Ambassador opened his mouth to protest but thought better of it and closed it without saying anything.

Jack had to look down at the papers on his knees to stop them from seeing his grin. That was one of the reasons he liked President Hayes; the man did not put up with any BS and did not hesitate to put people in their place when they needed it.

"If there are no more questions," the President said and when everyone shook their head, he clapped his hands and stood. "Well, then I guess that's all for now. Thanks for coming." Each person nodded again as they prepared to leave. The next few moments saw most everybody saying thanks to the President, nodding to everyone else and leaving the room.

As the majority of the group made their exit, General Reynolds walked up to Jack, who had stepped to the side to wait for the President who'd been waylaid by the UN Ambassador.

"Jack," he said quietly. "I don't think right now is the best time for you to go on vacation."

"I know," Jack said frustration clear on his voice. "Believe me, if it was up to me, I wouldn't be going anywhere." Reynolds opened his mouth to ask why he was taking vacation if he didn't want to when the President walked up to them. He'd finally managed to send the Ambassador on his way and was in time to catch the exchange.

"General O'Neill's going on vacation because his doctor recommended it," he informed the other general. "And because I ordered him to."

"Doctor's recommendation?" Reynolds repeated. "Are you alright?" he asked, sounding confused.

"Yes, I'm fine," Jack answered curtly. "I'm fine; people are overreacting that's all." It was obvious he was beyond frustrated with the whole topic.

"It wasn't overreacting at all," Sam argued as she stepped next to them. She'd been standing to the side by herself, getting her papers together when she'd realized what was going on. She knew that Jack was anything but happy about leaving on vacation while there was more to do regarding Ba'al; he felt he was abandoning a mission and having one of his peers question him on it would only made it worse. She also knew that, after talking about him self, there was nothing he hated more than anyone feeling pity towards him. So, she did something she would never do under any other circumstances – she inserted herself in a conversation between two generals and the President and she contradicted him. Since it was done in an effort to stop him from exploding in frustration, she felt more than justified. Besides, both General Reynolds and the President knew about hers and Jack's personal relationship; they wouldn't really think bad of her for interfering.

"The General," she continued even though Jack sent her a mild glare, "has been working over time dealing with the Ba'al situation. It's been needed, of course; all the same, he's been working so hard that he's been ignoring his health. Doctor Frazier and I just felt it better that he take a break now – sort of as a preventative measure rather than wait for him to collapse and then have him have to take even more time off." It wasn't exactly a lie just a little . . . finessing of the truth; the last thing Jack would want was to have it be known that he'd actually fainted. He was the big, bad ass General and protecting his big, bad ass image was part of her duties as his wife.

"Like I told the General earlier," the President added, "there's still a lot for him to do around here; we can't afford to lose him. Right now, his health is more important than the case. Besides, he's trained his men well – they're more than capable of dealing with this."

"I'm sure they are," General Reynolds agreed, nodding his head. "And they're right," he continued, looking at Jack, "health should always come first." He then added with a gleam in his eyes, "of course, Presidential or medical orders are kind of superfluous – wife's got the last word, eh, Jack?"

Both the President and Sam grinned at the barb. Sam knew General Reynolds's wife enough to know that the older woman ruled with an iron fist when it came to the general's health or anything else she considered domestic matters so she knew not to take offense and the General meant it as a good-natured joke and not a disparaging one. Jack, on the other hand, mock glared at his wife before responding.

"Yeah, well, it doesn't seem to matter that I'm the one that wears the two stars," Jack grumbled, "apparently, she's the one calling the shots now."

"All the good wives do," General Reynolds said with the air of someone imparting some great truth. "I hope you know what a lucky s.o.b. you are to have such a good woman standing by your side."

"I know, I know," Jack sighed. "I do know that; I just wish she would be more concerned with my dry cleaning and not with me taking a vacation." At that taunt, Sam completely forgot that they were standing in the Oval Office and in the presence of not only the President of the United States but some other high government officials.

"Jack!" she cried and turned enough to actually slap him on the shoulder, which only made him burst into laughter. "I can't believe you said that." But they could all tell she wasn't really offended; she was too used to Jack's off the wall sense of humor to take real offense. The President and General Reynolds shared a grin at the couple's antics.

"Kidding," he cried, still grinning. "I'm only kidding. You know how much I appreciate you taking care of me." If they'd been any where else, Sam knew at that moment, Jack would have put his arm around her shoulders but since they were still in uniform and standing before the Commander in Chief, he limited himself to a loving glance. "And she's also taking some time off . . . so, I guess it could be worse. She could have made me take the time off and still go to work herself."

"Oh, no, I'd never do that," Sam denied, shaking her head. "If I didn't also take the time off, who would make sure you didn't get into trouble?" she asked with a smirk worthy of Jack himself and had all three men laughing.

Barrett, who had dawdled behind in the hopes of talking to Sam, got what could be the surprise of his life when he 'accidentally overheard' that Sam was the before-mentioned wife of General O'Neill. Only his years as an agent allowed him to keep an impassive face as he tried to assimilate what he'd just heard.

Once he thought about it for a moment, he'd decided that the most surprising thing of all was that he wasn't that surprised about the fact that they had gotten married; rather, what surprised him was the fact that he hadn't heard anything about it before. He didn't know how long they'd been married but they must have been together for a few years, at least – probably, since her transfer to Area 51's R&D division. That must have been what she meant when she told him 'not exactly' in answer to whether or not she was single.

How had they managed to keep their relationship such a secret? It was obvious that the President and the other general knew about it, evidenced by their talk, teasing and laughter, but Barrett got the distinct impression that not all persons that had been present in the meeting knew about it. Sam might still be stationed at the SGC but the General lived and worked in the DC and DC was one small city and a town that thrived on gossip, ferreting it out and spreading it around, so how had they kept it under wraps? For that matter, how did they make it work with her living in Colorado and him in DC? Thinking of the logistics of that would be enough to give anyone a headache. He decided he'd better not think about it - it really was none of his business, anyway.

As for how they kept it a secret, he supposed working for an ultra secret government program for over a decade (not to mention the years he had spent in black ops) had taught them how to keep a secret. Not that it mattered; it, again, was none of his business and that was the real reason he'd known nothing about it. With a final glance at Sam, Barrett gathered his papers and left the Oval Office. The meeting had provided a lot of information, some that he now had to put away and some that was going to create more work than he'd had in a while. Still, it was information that he'd needed to have; at least now, he could finally put the 'what if' questions away once and for all.