Sam Carter waited outside of General Hammond's office, temporarily occupied by Colonel O'Neill while the general was at a conference in Washington DC. Through the conference room window, she could see Lt. Col. Medina talking earnestly to O'Neill.
While she waited, she went over in her mind what she wanted to say. There was a fine line between reporting legitimate concerns and tattling, and she wasn't confident that she wasn't about to step over that line. But the more she thought about the morning's encounter with Jonas Quinn, the more worried she got.
Medina came out of the office, a slightly disgruntled look on his face, and nodded curtly to the waiting major. "Carter."
"Sir." She watched as the man walked away, stiff-backed. Hoping SG3's commander had not pissed off Col. O'Neill, she stuck her head through the door. "Colonel, have you got a minute?"
"Depends. Are you going to talk crazy talk?" O'Neill asked sardonically.
Smiling slightly, Sam entered the office. "Crazy talk, sir?"
"Yes, Carter, crazy talk. I've been stuck in this office for over a month, and all I've heard is crazy talk."
"It's only been four days, sir."
"Well, it seems like a month," O'Neill made a face, gesturing Sam to a chair. "Medina thinks we should take down the memorial wall."
"Why?" Sam blurted out, feeling a strong pang of denial. The memorial wall was one of the corridors by the guest quarters. At the beginning of the Stargate program, Jack had hung up pictures of fallen comrades, SG team members. The tradition continued to this day, the wall steadily growing more crowded. It had only been a short time ago that she and her teammates had ceremoniously added Daniel Jackson's picture as the only member of SG1 to have fallen in the line of duty.
"He says four people have turned him down to replace Lieutenant Charles. He blames the wall. He says people think SG3 is jinxed."
Sam frowned. It was true that SG3 had more contributions to the memorial wall than any other SG team. "Sir, I don't think taking down the wall is the answer."
"That's what I told him," O'Neill said with little boy petulance. Shaking his head, he looked at his 2IC. "So, no crazy talk?"
"No, sir. No crazy talk."
"Thank you, Carter, I appreciate it."
Sam couldn't help but grin, but the grin faded when she recalled the purpose of her visit. "Sir, have you talked to Jonas lately?"
Jack's face shut down a bit as it always did when discussing the Kelownan. "I told you, Carter, I've been stuck here for about a thousand years. Why? Has he figured out where that weapon is yet?"
When Jonas had first returned from his off-world mission two weeks earlier, he had told the colonel that he knew where the mysterious weapons cache was. He said it was in a secret chamber at the base of an altar. What the Kelownan had yet to figure out was exactly which altar it was. Several forays back to the planet had revealed the place was 'crawling with altars' as Colonel O'Neill had put it, but the secret chamber had yet to be discovered.
"No, sir, he hasn't, and at this point, I don't think he's likely to."
"Oh, come on, Carter, he's got a better chance than any of the rest of those idiots."
"It's not that, sir." Sam shook her head. "Colonel, did you know he hasn't worked out with Teal'c in over a week?"
"What? Why the hell not?" O'Neill frowned.
"He's squirreled himself away in his quarters working on that translation. According to one of the SF's guarding him, he only comes out to get food. I never noticed because I've been working on the 302's weapons array."
"Well, at least he's getting food," the colonel said pointedly.
Sam understood what he was saying. Daniel was notorious for getting so caught up in a translation that he'd forget to eat or sleep. She said sadly, "Sir, Jonas is not Daniel. This just isn't like him. I went down to talk to him a while ago, and he barely seemed to know I was there. And he doesn't look good. He looks sick. Sir, you need to talk to him."
"Carter, do you see this pile?" The colonel indicated a two-inch thick stack of papers. "This is just what came in this morning."
Sam glanced at the stack. "Oh, come on, sir. You know you don't want to do paperwork. You're probably the only person that Jonas will listen to. He's convinced himself that if he doesn't find this weapon, you're going to kick him off of the team."
Sam held herself very still. She knew the colonel didn't take kindly to being pushed into things, but she had been taken aback by how exhausted and ill Jonas had looked. If it had been Daniel, all three of his teammates would have been there, checking up on him, making sure he rested, making sure he took care of himself.
She felt guilty at the 'out of sight, out of mind' attitude she had where Jonas was concerned. In fact, if she hadn't wanted his input on the naquadria-powered weapons she was working on, she wouldn't have gone to see him today.
Before coming to see O'Neill, she had stopped by to talk to Teal'c and discovered that he had not spoken to the Kelownan for several days either. He had been caught up in training a new batch of recruits.
"Well, if he's sick, send him to Frasier. Have him checked out."
Sam's shoulders slumped in defeat. "Yes, sir. Thank you for taking the time to see me."
O'Neill managed to hold the hard-ass commander pose for a few seconds before his own shoulders slumped. "Aw, come on, Carter. Don't you think being stuck here with General Hammond partying in DC is torture enough? Jonas drives me nuts, you know that."
"Sir…" Sam was interrupted by a rap on the door.
O'Neill, looking relieved at the interruption called out, "Come."
Sam couldn't help the thrill of alarm that ran through her when Major Pamela Webster stepped into the room. The SGC's head of security was as tough a marine as Sam had ever met, but the woman looked scared to death.
O'Neill apparently saw the same thing. He had his game face on when he asked, "What's wrong, Major?"
Standing ramrod straight, eyes front, Webster replied, "Sir, the alien is missing."
