Back to just the canon characters here other than brief mentions. I don't know if JAG is the right group but I figure that they would have authority at the SGC because of the marines there. I also have no clue if they have a "Special Investigations" group.

See part 1 for header notes

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Nathan watched the young man intently. The tension in his frame was evident to anyone who cared to look, so certain was he that his next stop would be in front of a firing squad. Jack's thunderous expression as Spencer related the story of how Major General Dubenich had duped him into spying on the SGC was not helping matters.

"And the real lieutenant Johnson?" Jack asked eventually.

Eliot's lips thinned briefly. "Dead," he managed. "So far as I know. I was taken to see his grave after Dubenich offered me the, uh, opportunity," he continued. He fell silent for a moment, before offering resignedly, "I don't even know if the guy was real."

Jack's face softened slightly at that, evidently hopeful that there had been no further effects on anyone but the SGC and that there had been no family who had lost someone to Dubenich's machinations.

The general made a note. "Dubenich. Short guy. Curly hair and glasses?" he asked after a moment, and recognition suddenly stung Nathan. He stared at Spencer, hoping that it wasn't the person he was thinking of, but was disappointed when the younger man nodded.

Jack looked across at Nathan, expression quite clearly saying, "Crap!"

Nathan knew the sentiment was echoed in his own face. Major General Victor Dubenich. The man who had caused Jack's squad to be captured in Iraq, on an operation in the middle of nowhere that supposedly no-one but COC had known about.

After a moment of silence which stretched for just a beat too long, Jack turned back to Spencer and asked, "And you went along with it, why?"

Spencer shut down, face going almost perfectly blank as he stared at the desk just in front of the General.

"Look, son, we know Lieutenants Parker and Hardison basically did it for the challenge," and Jack's expression clearly read 'Kids!', "and I'd expect that of two people in the service due to the courts, but your service jacket says you're a volunteer, that you're confident in your own abilities, and that the only thing holding you back from making the leap to lieutenant is your attitude."

Spencer looked about to protest, making Jack arch his eyebrows in a 'See?' gesture, one which the younger man evidently picked up on, because he subsided, closing his mouth again. "Yes sir," he mumbled, making Jack give him an odd look which Nathan just knew meant that Jack was having to hold himself back from confessing that he himself had been given a similar warning about the reason he hadn't been promoted.

He glanced across at Nathan, giving him a questioning look. Nathan rolled his eyes in response, but nodded. He should have known. This was why Jack had asked him here. He could have just said he was calling in the damned favour without trying to make Nathan think he had agreed out of his own free will. And damnit, if Jack had just explained the situation Nathan would probably have volunteered anyway, but Jack was evidently making the attempt to let him think that offering his help in the investigation was his own idea.

"Guards," Nathan directed, speaking for the first time, "please take Sergeant Spencer back to holding."

He caught the tensing of the man's shoulders as the guards un-cuffed him from the chair just in time. "Sergeant Spencer," he snapped, voice a whip-crack in the quiet of the office, "Stand down!"

Piercing blue eyes turned on him, wide with surprise as the action-ready tension vanished as if it had never been there in the first place.

"Sergeant Spencer, I'm Major Ford, currently of Special Investigations under JAG. We will be investigating this case, given your allegations, and I will be down to holding to take your statement later, along with Parker and Hardison. But right now, the General and I need to discuss this."

After a moment, Spencer relented. His expression clearly informed Nathan that he, Spencer, wasn't about to forget a face.

As soon as the young man had been led out at a shuffle by the two marines, Nathan dropped into the vacated chair.

"You twisty bastard," he said warmly to Jack, who smirked at him, eyes twinkling.

"That's high praise coming from you," the General informed him. "Thoughts on the kid?"

Nathan shrugged. "I need to get the full story in writing. And then the story from the two lieutenants. And then we're going to need to get Dubenich to incriminate himself."

Jack flicked his brows up a notch in query.

"You have a Captain Devereaux in your legal department, do you not?"

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Eliot sighed, rubbing his wrists as he dropped onto the narrow bunk. It wasn't the worst room he'd slept in, but the sword of Damocles hanging over his head was the heaviest yet, and on the thinnest rope.

Parker leaned down from where she had settled on the top bunk of the pair. "You too?" she asked brightly, as though this was simply one more obstacle to overcome.

He snorted. "Yeah. Me too."

There was a soft chuckle from the other bunk. "Thought you'd be looong gone, man. Didn't think there was a marine here who could take you down."

Eliot glared but the bunk; and its occupant; utterly failed to burst into flames. "They took me to Sanq, for a meeting with Colonel Une," he informed them. "Three of those Pilots and half of SG11 were there."

"And our dear Eliot wouldn't beat up band-members, would he?" Parker queried.

It was moments like this that Eliot really wished he had been sent on this assignment alone. "I played with 'em one time because Major Brooks was a victim of De Lint's directions and he found out I can play a little guitar, okay. One time. That does not mean they're my friends."

Mentally he winced. Even to himself, his tone sounded defensive.

Parker seemed satisfied by that, rolling back up onto her bunk, but Hardison took that opportunity to sit up and stare at him. "You keep telling yourself that, man. When Lieutenant Colonel Carter caught me out, I felt like a complete heel. I know we were here to gather intel, and that's our job, but man, the way she looked at me? I felt like I was about five."

"What did Teal'c say?" Parker asked abruptly.

Feeling even worse, Eliot ground out, "I don't know. He's off base."

"Oh, man," Hardison groaned. "What do you want reading at your funeral?"

Deciding that enough was enough, Eliot lay back on his bunk and draped an arm over his eyes, realising his mistake only moments later as Hardison stated with utter certainty, "You're not really a lieutenant?"

"What?" Parker demanded, swinging down to look at the patches on his uniform that had borne rank insignia and now showed trailing thread and bare velcro. "Really?"

"Oh man," Hardison sympathised. "They were really determined to get you."

Parker looked between the pair. "What's going on?" she demanded, not having quite caught up yet.

"Impersonating an officer," Hardison told her. "Wouldn't have seemed a big deal at the time, not when we were expecting to be in and out. They got you but good, man," he finished.

He realised what Parker was doing a moment too late as she dropped off the bunk and shoved him over so that she was half lying on him, between him and the door. He allowed her hug for a moment as his eyebrows tried to migrate to his hairline, then protested, "Would you get offa me?"

She poked him in the ribs with one bony finger. "Shut up and take it like a man," she told him, then added gleefully, "And that's an order, mister."