Chapter in the past

THE HERE AND NOW

CHAPTER 12

" SG-1 "

Three days back and she was reeling from the news of Sam's absence. Everyone was still in shock and she could see her friend would be missed by all. The base wasn't the same and Sam's old lab now lay abandoned, no replacement in sight and Jack was still getting an ear full from the President. Pretty much everyone was angry. After all he had let her go; the world renowned expert on the Stargate was gone.

That had been a major blow, not only to his career but Janet believed it had cost him even more personally. The air force didn't take kindly to losing one of their best officers and Jack was going to get more than a reprimand on his record. She wondered how General Hammond was going to deal with all this, or for that matter the President.

The other thing was SG-1 and how they were going to operate. Sam had been the new commanding officer. Now SG-1 had no commanding officer or scientist on their team. That worried Janet. SG-1 was the lead team and now there was no SG-1 and that would affect everyone. Taking a deep breath she walked towards the office of Jack O'Neill and noted his down cast expression.

"So…"

"Tough week."

"I can see that. How you holding up sir?"

"Not too bad since I have single handedly broken SG-1 up, lost our expert on the Gate and other things and now have the brass angry at me."

"So tough week?"

"Oh yeah."

"Lunch?"

He smiled and nodded. The thing he needed the most right now was to relax and forget about everything that was going on. Still she was worried about him. He had been sleeping less and the pressure to find two new members of SG-1 was weighing him down. Not only that but she knew that re-grouping SG-1 was going to be hard and she didn't even know how the others were going to react.

There was a tension with the remaining members of SG-1 that Jack didn't like. They looked at him as if blaming him for what had happened with Carter. It hurt, but Jack O'Neill was a master of emotions. He knew how to hide them and how to use them to his advantage. So it was easier that when he was with his old friends he was strictly professional. The introduction of Hailey to the team came as no surprise since Sam had been preparing the girl. She was more than qualified.

Teal'c was put in charge and SG-1 became a 3 man team. It would get difficult sometimes, but that is how it had to be. And even though his friends were hurt by the way he was acting, Jack O'Neill knew that they needed time as did he. This was not a time to get together and be with each other as friends. That would bring too many memories and the all too painful realization that Samantha Carter was no longer with them.

So he waited it out and Janet was with him, helping him and lending her ear whenever he needed to unload. She helped him with his adoptive daughter and in time Daniel and Teal'c had put aside Carter's desertion and had invited him for beer and pizza. Hailey was invited as was Janet. It was hard to do this team bonding get together and Hailey knew it but she stayed strong and did her best. This was her team now; she needed to be part of it. Her determination paid off.

SG-1 was back, the wound and betrayal had not left, but it was slowly beginning to heal and with time they would try to forget, try to understand. But for now Daniel didn't speak to Jack O'Neill about what he was feeling. Teal'c didn't bring Sam up in any conversations and Janet followed their example. Jack needed to be angry, to feel betrayed and to be allowed to hurt in his own way. That's how Jack O'Neill was.

The man loved Samantha. Janet and Teal'c knew this and even though Daniel Jackson had not been present in the zatark testing, he was no fool and had seen through their so called professional relationship. Even though he didn't know how deep it ran or how strong it was, he knew that what Sam had done had hurt Jack more than it had hurt any of them. She had left them behind and Jack felt more than betrayed by her actions.

Yet he didn't break and Daniel's fears of him becoming the man he had first met all but vanished when he saw how Jack was with his adopted daughter, with them and when he was in General mode. He was not the same man he had once known, he was not the same man who would take all the pain and bottle it up until it destroyed him. No, this man was different. He let go of the pain and made himself stronger not for himself but for those around him.

"Tough week?"

"Jacob came to visit."

"I...wow."

"Yeah... damn it Daniel, I don't want to go through this every time one of our allies contacts us."

"I know...but why do I get the feeling there is something more going on?"

"I'm in trouble Danny."

"Jack?"

"The big wigs are going to arrange a meeting with me and go over my command decisions up until this point. If they don't agree with my actions I will be removed from the SGC."

Letting go of Carter, accepting her resignation, was the stupidest and most moronic thing he had even done or at least that's what the brass told him over the phone. They had demanded he seek her out, find her and bring her back. But how could he? How could he ruin and destroy what she wanted? He couldn't and he accepted the consequences.

"This is bad."

"Hammond will vouch for me, but losing Carter…"

There was hell to pay, but nothing was done. There would be no more promotions for him, no more career advancement and no more favors from the Pentagon and the big Generals, but the court martial was a formality, a reprimand, a warning that if he screwed up again he was getting kicked out of the SGC. It wasn't said, but he got the message all to clear.

SG-1 was another problem, but Janet had helped, reminded him of Carter's apprentice. Young Jennifer Hailey, as brilliant as Samantha Carter but twice as stubborn and with an attitude to match. Fortunately for Jack O'Neill, the girl admired him and with the promise of being in the lead team, he hoped he had the upper hand.

"So today is the day?"

"Yes."

"Nervous?"

"Nope."

"I'm surprised."

"Why?"

"She is smarter than most people on base Jack."

"Don't worry doc, I handled Carter for almost nine years. I think I can handle a Lieutenant."

Yeah it was a stretch to have a Lieutenant on the prime team, but the girl needed to be with the best if she were to become the best and beside that, she was probably the only one who could match Carter in both brains and brawn. As he headed towards his office he smiled when he saw the Lieutenant already waiting there, a nervous scowl on her face.

"Lieutenant Hailey, at ease."

She was nervous, he knew. He motioned for her to sit down, opened the file in front of him and smiled making light conversation and asking basic, normal questions, to help to ease the tension out of the room. Just what he needed so he could drop the news to the girl.

"Just here to tell you that you do good work and I'm giving you a field commission with an SG team."

"Sir?"

"I think you're ready and with Teal'c's and Daniel's help…"

"SG-1? Sir!"

"You don't think you're ready?"

"I… I don't know Sir. I've only been on field duty on research missions, not in combat situations."

"You do as you're told and you will be ok."

"Yes Sir."

What else could she say? No, to the General, to the man who had once risked his life to save her life and that of the others? No, to being on the primary team? No to the man who had shown her more than one way to be a soldier, how to follow the rules while still being true to yourself? No, she couldn't say no, so with a smile she nodded and became the third member of SG-1.