MEMOIRS OF

MAJOR GENERAL JACK O'NEILL

(Re-activated)

4. Pegasus

Chapter Two

By Arrietty

2009 - One week later

I was bored, totally bored out my skull. From what I'd read in the reports that had come in the data stream, this place was a hive of excitement. I leaned on the door jam of McKay's lab, he was spouting on about something or other, I wasn't really listening – although the words sexy and bombshell did penetrate my subconscious. Three of the other scientists stuck listening to McKay looked bored while another woman, a Katy someone, the botanist, couldn't quite remember her name looked miserable. It was something to do with what McKay was talking about, so I listened too.

"I knew she'd come back to me. I mean Colonel Carter and me," he paused for effect, "Have this great rapport – we are just like this," He held his hands in front of him and locking the fingers together. He grinned, "Soon we'll be . . ."

"What?" I asked.

"Oh, General O'Neill." He had spun around and looked a little pale.

"Soon, we'll be what?" I asked again. I could see the botanist out the corner of my eye, she was watching intently.

"Erm…" he stuttered "We'll be putting that reactor together."

Nice save.

"Ah," I sauntered into the room. "Because you do know that you are talking about my wife, don't you?" I waited.

I didn't know that McKay could go any paler, but he did.

"Wha . . . but . . . huh?"

I held out my left hand and waggled it in front of me. The lights glinted off the surface of the gold wedding band.

The botanist was positively beaming.

"Oh, congratulations." He didn't look like he was happy about the fact. "Excuse me, sugar level getting low, gotta eat." He literally ran from the room.

I couldn't help smirking as I left the lab.

Now I had to find Sam, she needed the heads up. Since we'd been here I had only seen her briefly. Either I was being stuck by needles or she had her head under a consol somewhere fixing something or talking to McKay. Actually it was more like McKay was talking to her.

I found her in a small lab not far from the main area. "Sam."

She was bent over something mechanical all sorts of lights were winking and blinking on it. I snagged a chair with my foot and dragged it over beside her and sat down. "So . . . what ya doin'?"

She pulled in a deep breath and frowned slightly, here comes the lecture, but I didn't really mind, I just liked to watch her talk.

"Do you really want to know?" she asked.

I grinned, "No not really."

She smiled and buried her head back into the machine. I stretched my arms up above my head and sighed.

"McKay won't be bothering you any more."

"What!" Her head shot up and gave me the stare.

"Nothing," I held my hands out, "Look, I didn't do anything to him, I knew you had that covered." I quirked my eyebrows at her. If McKay knew what Sam was capable of, I don't think he would have been such a nuisance.

"I had it under control, Jack." Yup, I was in trouble.

"Yeah, but did you know about Dr. Katy Brown?" I remembered her name.

"No."

"Well she wasn't happy about it so . . . " I shrugged my shoulders.

"So what did you do?"

"I just showed off my nice new ring you bought me."

She rolled her eyes at me. "So, now everyone will know we're married?"

"Yup, that about sums it up." I picked up a pen-like gadget and began to twirl it in my fingers.

She snatched it out of my hands and said, "That's a delicate instrument." And threw it down on the bench. 'yeah delicate, yeah.' I snorted. She ignored me.

"Has Dr. Beckett got any closer to finding out how to reverse this age thing?" She had swivelled around on her chair and was watching me intently.

"No, I don't think so. They seem totally at a loss of what to do." I picked up another item from the bench.

"They'll find it, I know they will. They have to."

"I don't know, I quite like this at the moment. I'm beginning to feel it now." I leaned back on two legs of the chair.

"You're hair is getting darker."

"It is?" My chair made a bang as I let it fall back onto four legs. "Cool." I ran my hands through my hair. "Thicker too. You know this is funny, I never noticed that."

"I don't know, I quite liked the grey." She smiled and tucked her head into the machine again.

"Sheppard and his team are going out on a mission tomorrow."

She ignored me.

"I'm bored, Sam. I need to get out there."

"Why don't you and Teal'c do some sparring?"

"He and Ronon have hit it off, they spar. Teal'c said something about a formidable opponent."

"What about Teyla, she teaches."

"Yeah, I've seen the bruises on Sheppard."

"There must be something else you can do to relieve the boredom?"

"There is a whole new galaxy out there, new stars, and new adventure." I was leaning forward and I put my hand on her knee.

"And new danger." She twisted her head around and looked at me.

"You want to come with?"

"No, I need to help Rodney set up the defences that we brought back from the Aschen. That is if he is still talking to me."

"I didn't do anything."

"I know," she took hold of my hand and ran her thumb across the back of it. "Things are different now."

"I know, but you go on missions all the time, you don't hear me complaining." She raised her eyebrows and was clearly amused. "Well, not much complaining," I added.

"Oh go and have your fun," her voice though sounding resigned was still amused.

"Why didn't you tell me you and Colonel Carter are married?" Dr. Weir was certainly agitated.

"We didn't think it was necessary, we're on a mission." I shrugged my shoulders.

I'd come to ask her if I could go with Sheppard's team and was met with this. News travels fast in this city.

"I'd have given you different quarters – there are some rooms available to married couples. We have a few already here now."

"Sa . . . Colonel Carter and I find it easier when we're on a mission to 'not' be married. If you want to give married quarters to anyone, give it to Daniel and Dr. Fraiser.

Her eyebrow rose. "What's in the Earth's water supply?" she asked clearly amused.

"I was wondering, changing the subject, if I could go with Sheppard and his team when they next go out."

"They were going tomorrow, but it has been put ff a few days. Ronon is in the infirmary."

I groaned, "What did Teal'c do?"

"I'm not sure, but Ronon asked Teal'c not to hold back . . ."

". . . So he took him at his word," I finished for her.

She nodded her head in agreement. "They could go without Ronon, but Colonel Sheppard prefers to bring him along these days."

"Have you managed to catch Lieutenant Ford yet?"

She let out a sigh. "No he still eludes us. We really were getting low on personnel and your arrival has been a God send."

"You mean sixteen marines."

"Oh yeah, they've been a huge help too." She grinned.

"So how long will it be before we can go out?" I asked.

"I'm not sure, Ronon will heal quickly, its just Carson being extra careful I think. It is Teal'c I am more concerned about."

I stood, "What's happened to Teal'c?" I asked.

"He was knocked unconscious; I hope he has a hard head."

"Oh yes, he has a very hard head," I said irritated with them both as I rushed off to the infirmary.

I needn't have worried, they were both regaling stories to each other about their many exploits when I arrived.

I turned to Beckett, "How long before they'll be back to normal?"

"As I just said to Colonel Sheppard, they'll be cleared for duty by tomorrow."

I spun around looking for Sheppard, he was the only sane person in this city as far as I could see and he had been pretty busy the past few days getting the marines settled in.

I finally found him in one of the storage rooms. It was filled to the ceiling with Ancient doohickeys, giving me a deja vu feeling about smelly planets and spiders.

"What ya doin'?"

"McKay, seems to think that something in here might help them. I don't know why as none of it works." Just then one of the precarious placed metal boxes began to topple. I reached up and took the doohickey from him so he could climb up and secure the box.

I nearly dropped it. It sprung to life, making a whirring noise. The metal box from above crashed to the ground nearly hitting Sheppard.

I placed the machine on the floor. "What is it? And I thought you said they didn't work in here."

"They didn't, we've found that only I can initialize some of the Ancient gear here as I have the strongest gene." He stood back and grinned, "But it looks like yours are stronger."

I couldn't help feeling smug.

"Here's another one, try this," he handed me another machine, it was smaller than the one I'd touched before.

As soon as I touched it, lights flicked on and a small circular button spun round and rose from the side.

"Hey, you're gonna be McKay's hero." He smirked.

"It'll have to take something good for that," McKay had avoided me as much as possible after that day I announced our marriage. Although good had come from it, Daniel and Janet had their own room now instead of being bunked down with the rest of us.

The rest of the day had me touching all sorts of mystery machines, Sam pulling them apart to find out how they worked and McKay hopping about like a four year old boy on Christmas morning. Some still didn't work with me initialising them, but most did and there were enough to keep McKay going to months, so he said. There was another guy in there talking in Russian, it sounded like Russian although Daniel insisted it was Czech, personally I thought they sounded the same. Zelenka was his name and he was just as excited as McKay. It was quite funny in a geeky scientist sort of way.

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