A/N: I have to rush to edit this chapter in the half hour break I have between classes, so I apologize in advance for any mistakes. I've done my best to catch any errors, but sometimes they slip through. And now on with the story… Enjoy!
Descension Back To Normalcy
"Major," Jack finally growled a full thirty seconds after Daniel had slid the glass door shut and joined the rest of the team out on the back deck. "You'd better have a damn good explanation."
"For what?" Sam asked. The frustration dripping from her words was nothing compared to the waves of it that were rolling off her. "Wanting to go longer than six hours without having anyone breathing down my neck?"
"O'Neill and Daniel Jackson became concerned when you did not return several hours after the local shopping centers had closed for the evening," Teal'c informed her calmly, clasping his hands behind his back. "They wished to ensure that all was well."
"We assumed that you would have called if you were going to stay out," Daniel said, managing to sound more put out than accusatory. He was angry that she had been so irresponsible and inconsiderate, but right now Jack was mad enough for all of them and tag-teaming Sam wouldn't accomplish anything. Actually, it might manage to make her even more furious, but Daniel was pretty sure he should avoid doing that at all costs.
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize living under Colonel O'Neill's roof meant I had a curfew," Sam snapped, planting her hands on her hips and turning the full weight of her glare on Daniel.
"And I didn't realize you needed one!" Jack yelled back, throwing his arms out. "Although given your record of downright reckless behaviour lately, maybe it's not such a bad idea!"
"Look Sam," Daniel interjected before Jack could pick up anymore steam. With every second that passed, it seemed less and less likely that they would manage to keep their promise to Janet; there was going to be a whole lot of yelling before this was over. "We realize now that we over-reacted, but at the time, it seemed reasonable. We were expecting you back hours ago and when we couldn't get a hold of you, we panicked." He couldn't keep the trace of anger from weaving its way into his speech, despite his conciliatory words.
"I am a grown woman," Sam said, slowly and clearly, as if explaining a very complicated, very foreign concept. "I can take care of myself and, if you'll recall, I do it on a regular basis."
"Not lately, you don't," Jack retorted icily. His eyes were narrowed down to scarcely more than slits and the full force of his glare was leveled at Sam.
"Whose fault is that?" Sam demanded. "I didn't let the NID destroy my house; I wasn't even there. You should remember that, sir, seeing as you were and all."
"The NID wouldn't have had any reason to tear it up if you hadn't been playing house with that damn alien!" he roared, stepping forward and finally unleashing the full force of his fear and anger on the most convenient target.
Daniel and Teal'c exchanged concerned glances in the dim light cast by the moon. So far things were going worse than they'd expected; considering how low their expectations had been, they were understandably concerned.
"Don't you dare," Sam said, her voice low and dangerous as she stalked across the wooden deck to stand toe-to-toe with Jack.
Daniel couldn't help but grimace. Janet had been right; Sam was too worked up to let a little thing like insubordination stop her now.
"Don't you dare stand there and tell me that it's my fault. I told you, all of you, about Orlin when he first showed up because I wanted to get rid of him, but you didn't believe me. You didn't give me a choice but to 'play house', as you so nicely put it. You screwed up! You don't get to lay the blame for that on me!" she raged, her face flushed with anger
"Guys, I think this is a little off-topic," Daniel stepped up, trying to put a bit of distance between them. He didn't for one second believe they'd actually hit one another, but he also didn't think that screaming in one another's faces was going to help much.
"Back off, Daniel," Jack demanded coldly. "After all, the Major here can take care of herself so well," he added mockingly, his voice rising again.
"O'Neill," Teal'c warned, his voice low.
"This is exactly what I'm talking about," Sam growled. Her furious words were directed at Teal'c and Daniel but her eyes didn't stray from Jack's. "You need to stop trying to protect me from everything and everyone!"
"Done," Jack snarled. "We can't protect you from the biggest threat to your safety anyway – your own damn pig-headed foolishness!"
"Enough," Daniel snapped, placing a hand on Jack's chest and pushing him back a few steps, putting some space between him and Sam. Looking over his shoulder, Daniel saw that Teal'c had pulled Sam back a few feet and was keeping a hand on her shoulder. Whether Teal'c was restraining or comforting her, Daniel couldn't tell.
Jack opened his mouth, in all likelihood intending to make another dig at Sam, but Daniel stopped him with an icy look. "Let's all take some deep breaths and calm down before we say anything else we end up regretting."
With a huff, Jack turned away and moved to the solid wood railing, pulling his toque off and running his hands through his already mussed up hair. Daniel kept an eye on him, but it was obvious to all of them that Jack was making a concerted effort to settle down and Daniel didn't seriously expect to have to intervene in any more screaming matches. Daniel's gaze moved over to Sam, watching as she shrugged off Teal'c's hand and slipped her fingers into the back pockets of her jeans, turning her back and trying to collect herself. Daniel shared another look with Teal'c and waited in silence for several moments while the others tried to relax.
"Look," Sam began with a sigh long minutes later. "Not returning any of your calls was stupid and I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to worry you, I just needed some space. That doesn't excuse it though. It was a horrible thing to do and I promise it won't happen again."
"I'm sorry too," Jack sighed, turning to face them all again. "I was way out of line just now."
"Me too," Sam agreed. "I had no right to imply that you stood by and let the NID…"
"It's okay, Carter," Jack said quietly, waving her off with a flick of his wrist. "Let's just forget the last two minutes and move on."
"Okay," Daniel negotiated. "Does this mean we can focus on to the issue that brought us here in the first place?"
"You can't come bursting into places waving guns around just because I don't answer my phone!" Sam exclaimed in exasperation, the calm that had settled over her dissipating quickly. "You terrified Cassandra!"
"O'Neill and Daniel Jackson were not waving the zat'nik'a'tels, Major Carter," Teal'c stated without a trace of humour. "They were, in fact, pointing them."
"I'm not sure that was her point, but that's still very true," Daniel noted. He sought out Teal'c's eyes in the dark and saw a twinkle of amusement shining back at him. Daniel smiled back; trust Teal'c to dispel tension by arguing over semantics. They all knew he had a much better grasp of colloquial Earth English than he let on, but he still managed to feign his ignorance quite convincingly most of the time.
"I know you mean well, I do," Sam began, her eyes roving over each of them in turn. "You guys have been there through everything over the last few days, and I love you for it. But right now, I need to feel like my life is getting back to normal and 'normal' does not involve a few dozen phone calls whenever I'm out of your sight for more than a few hours at a time, or the three of you hovering around me every waking moment of the day."
"We are merely concerned for your well being, Major Carter," Teal'c said quietly, the deep rumble of his voice washing over the moonlit backyard.
"I know," Sam smiled. "And I appreciate it… Even if it didn't really seem like it tonight," she added sheepishly.
"Jack…" Daniel said pointedly, clearly trying to wheedle something out of the older man.
"Daniel…" came the usual reply, spoken with the familiar drawl that warned the subject being hinted at wasn't open to discussion.
"Either you can tell her, or Teal'c and I can, but we're not going back inside until she knows."
"Until I know what?" Sam asked, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.
"Nothing," Jack said firmly, narrowing his own eyes at Daniel.
"I see no reason why we should not tell her," Teal'c offered, weighing in with his opinion.
"Whatever it is, somebody had better tell me," Sam stated firmly, crossing her arms.
Glancing back and forth between Jack and Sam, it became clear to Daniel that Jack had no intention of saying a word and Sam had no intention of letting any of them leave until somebody spilled the beans.
"We have become so concerned with your whereabouts in light of the threats Colonel Simmons has made against you recently," Teal'c informed Sam, earning him the full force of Jack's glare.
"Simmons is just…" Sam began, rolling her eyes dismissively.
"'Simmons is just' most likely responsible for sending someone to break into your house through one of your brand new windows and spray paint 'any time we want' on every wall of your bedroom," Daniel interjected, locking eyes with her.
Sam stared for a few heartbeats before looking to Teal'c and Jack for confirmation. "Is that true?"
"Reynolds found it two days ago," Jack confirmed with a sigh. "He had the window replaced and kicked everyone out of the room until he'd plastered over the graffiti. We didn't think you really needed to know right away."
"Why would you think I didn't need to know?" Sam asked incredulously, sweeping her gaze over all three of them.
"Because like you said, Simmons is just…" Jack explained, waving his hands vaguely in front of him to try and convey what exactly it was that the man in question was. "Reynolds reported it to me, and I took it to Hammond. We both agreed that Simmons was just trying to get inside your head. We didn't think it would be a big deal to let you get comfortable in your own house again before we told you. Besides, we weren't exactly planning on letting you out of our sight much for the next little while," he added, only half-joking.
"When we couldn't reach you tonight, we started to worry that Simmons hadn't just been blustering," Daniel concluded.
Sam backed up a few steps and slid down the side of the house, settling herself on the deck. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, examining her denim-covered kneecaps. The men of SG-1 traded concerned glances with one another before Jack finally bit the bullet and moved towards her. Hesitating for a fraction of a second while he prepared himself for the pain it would send through his knees, he joined her on the ground, close enough that his shoulder nudged hers, long legs stretched out in front of him.
"This is nothing new, Carter," Jack reminded gently. "We knew the NID was interested right after Jolinar died."
"But they've never broken into my house before," she argued. "Well, not until recently, anyway," she amended with a wry smile.
"No, they haven't," Daniel agreed, moving to sit on her other side. "But we're pretty sure it only happened because Simmons knew you wouldn't be there."
"Even Simmons isn't dumb enough to think we'd be letting you stay at your place with the condition its in right now," Jack said bluntly. "Playing mind games is just the closest he can come to getting back at you with the President blocking him from bringing you up on charges."
Sam let her head drop back against the wall and took a deep breath. Daniel and Jack shared a look over her head before turning their attention back to her.
"Major Carter," Teal'c murmured, gracefully lowering himself to the ground in front of Sam. "Please understand that we withheld this information only because we believed it was not necessary to burden you with it at this time. It was not our intention to conceal the truth from you indefinitely."
"I know," Sam assured, giving him a tight smile. She dragged in a deep breath of the crisp night air before speaking again. "So, what now?"
"I talked to Hammond," Jack informed her. "He called in a few favours and managed to get his hands on one of the security systems from Area 51 that was decommissioned last year. Siler and a couple of his guys are going to install it over the next couple of days, but it's pretty high tech so it's going to take them a while… We're also going to have to undo some of the work we've already done in order for them to wire up the house properly, but it's no big deal."
"You talked General Hammond into getting me a state of the art, NSA-approved security system for my house?" she asked in disbelief, her eyes going wide as she tried to work out a rough estimate of what such a system would cost.
"No, actually. It was his idea," Jack informed her. He'd been ready to make a similar suggestion and the General had beaten him to it, but Sam didn't need to know that. After all, she couldn't very well subject a two-star general to a tirade about her ability to take care of herself. Some days Jack would kill for General Hammond's immunity to such things… It would almost make all the paperwork worth it. "Besides, they're just sitting around in boxes, collecting dust."
"You're all going to be ridiculously over-protective for the next little while, aren't you?" Sam asked, a ghost of a smile crossing her face as she shook her head at his flippancy.
"Indeed," Teal'c replied warmly.
"I still need space," she advised. "I need to feel like I'm in control. And I need to know that you know that I can take care of myself, otherwise I have no business being out in the field with SG-1 once we're back on active duty."
"We understand that," Daniel acquiesced, earning nods of agreement from Jack and Teal'c. "But we need to know that you're safe."
"So, how do we assure ourselves that you're okay without making you feel like we're suffocating you?" Jack asked, leaning his shoulder a bit further into hers.
"Well first off, I'm going to have to insist that you leave the zats back at the SGC… Why you even had them with you tonight, I'll never know," Sam said, managing to joke and chastise at the same time.
"Okay, no zats we can do," Daniel agreed with a smile. That was an easy issue to concede, given that they all owned personal weapons. He refrained from pointing that fact out, though, lest Sam's next demand be that they keep their weapons locked up at home.
"Two calls a day, one in the morning and one at night, on a rotating schedule," Jack proposed.
"Are we not supposed to be brainstorming solutions that do not make Major Carter feel as though we are hovering?" Teal'c asked pointedly before Sam could utter a single syllable of protest.
"One call every morning when we're on downtime for one week or longer," Sam negotiated, smiling gratefully at the gentle giant of a man sitting in front of her.
"And weekends?" Daniel asked.
"No calls," Sam stated firmly.
"No way," Jack argued, shooting that idea down immediately. "One call Friday night and you explain your plans for the weekend. Another call Sunday morning, just to check in and make sure you're okay," he negotiated.
"I have one father, I don't need three more," Sam said in a singsong voice, warning him that he was pushing it.
"I believe that one phone call on Friday evening would be sufficient," Teal'c stated, coming to her aid again.
"I can live with that," Sam agreed, gracing her ally with another smile.
"So, one call Friday night when we're off for the weekend and one call every morning when we're on downtime for a week or longer," Daniel summarized, looking at each of them in turn and receiving three nods in response. "I can live with that."
"I guess we should probably head inside and prove to Doc that we didn't kill each other. Then we," Jack thrust his chin towards Teal'c and Daniel, "Should hit the road so girls' night can start up again." He braced a hand on the deck and moved to push himself to his feet, but his progress was halted before he made it very far.
"Not yet," Sam insisted, resting a hand on Jack's knee to still him. "Let's just stay out here for a little while longer."
"Okay," Daniel agreed, leaning against Sam's shoulder and pushing her further into Jack.
Sam slid her feet under Teal'c's crossed legs, letting his body heat seep into her cold toes, warming them quickly and ratcheting the tingling sensation running through her naquadah-sensitive body up another notch. On either side of her, Jack and Daniel leaned into her even more. They were now squishing her between them but Sam didn't mind. She felt warm and safe nestled in the huddle her teammates had formed around her and she was content to stay there for as long as they would let her.
A/N: I think I might be in trouble… This story is now longer than my thesis and there are still at least two more chapters to go: ) Thanks to everyone who's still with me, you're all awesome!