THE HERE AND NOW
CHAPTER 21
"THE WHO AND THE WHAT"
Truth be told, Jack O'Neill's special way of dealing with things was had never been on the subtle side. He was more of a direct aproachapproach kind of guy, so when he rushed towards the van, pulled the door opend and pointed at the two stunedstunned figures in the van with his gun, it was understandable that Samantha would be thrown completlycompletely off her game.
"Hello boys. Strife here with you?"
"General O'Neill!"
Jack smiled and put his gun down. These were his kids also. He had trained them to be special ops and they were the best. But not even they could compete with his experience in the field, so it was no suprisesurprise that he was able to suprisesurprise them.
"Jason, RobieRobbie. I see you're still as careless as ever."
"I don't understand sir… weren't we?"
"At ease men. Just wanted to chat with you boys."
"Of course sir, but there is the matter of our outstanding orders and Mrs. Shanahan's presence."
"Of course."
He lead her away. Of course what ever they were going to discuss was something she probably didn't need to hear. Not right now at least. So he signaled Daniel and Teal'c to come for her and wait in the car. Once they did so, he returned back to his old aprenticesapprentices and smiled. All the while Sam just glanced at the two men whom used to be her brothers.
"You guys know about this?"
"Only the essentials Mrs. Carter."
"Jack's been keeping a tight leashd on this. You know, in case it got out."
"I should have known... ungh. Pete told me he had run a background check on me. I should have figured he would do the same with the General."
"Indeed."
Daniel frowned and shoock his head. Teal'c was not going to make this easy on Sam and by the looks on Sam's face, she had noticed. She was not sad, she was angry and who would blame her? She was after all triyingtrying to at least see them as her coleaguescolleagues again.
"Aron and Pete?"
"Aron is at school, so he is safe. Pete is out on a case with his partner. No worries there."
"So why all the rush?"
"They are here to deal with a problem. O'Neill will attempt to stop them."
"Teal'c, I know I'm not your favorite person right now, but can we save this all for later? I need information here."
Jack O'Neill had repeated the same words to the two who were currently on the phone with their comandingcommanding officer. Strife was not pleased and when he saw Jack O'Neill in the survailancesurveillance van he was beyond angry. He had gotten the drop on his boys. Not good.
"Hello Strife."
"Lobo te sacaron de la montana?"
Wolf, they got out of the mountain?
"Numas quiero informacion strife oh te deveria de llamar cuervo?"
Just want some information Sstrife or should I call you crow?
Strife laughed and shoock his head Jack O'Neill had not changed at all since he had seen him last. Ordering the two officers to wait out side, he smiled at his old friend and nodeednodded. He would get what he wanted. After all, Jack O'Neill was an old buddy of his and thanks to Jack, he had been able to be there for his daugther'sdaughter's wedding.
"Still remember the old code names I see."
"Yeah well, I remember a lot of stuff from back there. Now Mikael, you gonna give me what I need?"
"Hey no real names now, Jack. I'm still special forces!"
"Okay, Strife, stop playing around and get me what I need!"
"Your pretty doctor's in deep. Her husband is a good cop, but a stupid man."
"How can I make this go away?"
"We got pretty rialedriled up you know? If they conceedconceded to a full investigation then yeah, we can take the dogs out."
"And what would this inverstigationinvestigation entail?"
That was where the tricky part was. And Jack O'Neill knew it. And as the negotiation started and Jack waited for his (who's?) rambling to finish, another man was as tired of rambling as Jack. Only this one wore glaesess and was sitting besides a tall jaffa called Teal'c, who was refusing to speak any further to the recentrlyrecently arrived Samantha Carter.
There was some bad blood with between them, he knew that much. Teal'c's way of the warrior and loyalty were the things that made up who he was, not to mentioned the fact that Jack O'Neill had toughttaught him that no one was left behind and had showned him what a true brother in arms had been. Daniel knew Teal'c had thought about of Sam in the same light when she had left. itIt was as if she had spit all those believes beliefs right back in his face.
"So, tell me something. When you left your family and son…" She said.
She got it said and Daniel cringed. He did not want to be in the car with the two, but he was the only one who was keeping the argument civil and somewhat controlled, which was weird enough.
"That was diferentdifferent."
"How so? You left because you believed that Jack was going to be able to save your people. You had a belief. So did I!"
"Then why return now?"
"Because in the my search for what I believed was right, I made some mistakes. Is it so bad to try and correct them?"
"Only throught time might your actions be truly known."
"Teal'c, I know it's not easy, but im I'm triyingtrying!"
Daniel shoock his head. This was getting to the point where Sam was thinking over her choices and was doubting her return. He hated to be the one to tell her this, but they had been doing fine with out her. She was not nedeedneeded, but having her back did bring back memories. Nine years they worked together.
"Then you must not give up."
With those simple words Teal'c had laid to rest her doubts. Daniel smiled when he saw her shaking her head. He had given her an oportunityopportunity to make it up to them, to be back in their life. It was going to be hard, but with Teal'c she at least had gotten some way through. He might not trust her as he once didhad, but he would tolerate her and that was a start.
"I did miss you guys."
"We know Sam. It's just hard, okay, and dontdon't take this the wrong way, but you just jumping back into our lives isn't quite helping."
"I know... jeez this is so messed up."
Jack O'Neill nodeednodded. Pending Carter's approval, he would be the one who would lead the investigation into her and her husband's action. He would monitor them and see that they would pose no treath threat to the work they did. He took a deep breath and walked over to Teal'c's car.
"Is every thing well O'Neill?"
"The dogs are have been called off; sparkplug Sparkplug is sending what she found over to the head honchos, while we are on our merry way to the base."
"I toughtthought this was going to be more complicated."
"Daniel, shut up."
Monitored lives, phone calls, mail, everything would be under a microscope and Sam knew this was her getting a slap on the handwrist. She hated that once again she had caused trouble to for Jack. Driving back to the mountain was one of the most unconfortableuncomfortable things either of them had experienced. Daniel was over thinking, Teal'c was quiet and Sam was just pouting.
"So, Danny boy, dinner at my place?"
"I have some research to do."
"Oh well guess it's just Janet and me again."
"What of April O'neill?"
"Cass is taking her to the movies. Go figure, soon as I mention I might not be able to be there for her, she jumps at the chance."
"It is good that she will watch over April. Perhaps we can finally go on our night out."
No they couldn't. They needed to tend to some details. Jack had to contact Janet to let her know that everything was going to be fine. The whole thing with Pete was still way not over and he knew that Carter was just itching to ask him what to do now, what was going to be done to her and if she still had a job.
In another life perhaps, he would have been gentler with her and have not so sternly diciplineddisciplined her so sternly, but it had to be done. She understood that, but it hurt her to have him speak to her as if she was another employeemployee, nothing more, not even a friend. Just some lab technician who had scrwedscrewed up big time and by the time he had finished ranting, every thing was silent in the car. No one spoke and; no one said a word. (Would he really do this in the car in front of Daniel and Teal'c? I can't picture it, especially when he knows that she is no longer close with them.)