The following Monday Jack was in his office when he heard a commotion in the outer room. He got up to see what the issue was. He found his executive officer, Lieutenant Thompson preventing a man from proceeding further into the office. His secretary, Evelyn, was standing behind her desk, ready to come around if she needed. Jack, and in fact, most people in D.C. knew that she feared no one and she alone decided who got permission to see Jack. Even President Hayes knew better than to agitate her.

Jack recognized the man immediately. His face hardened. "Singleton, is there a reason you are harassing my staff?"

The coldness in Jack's voice and the blunt tone stopped the conversation in the office. Everyone turned to face him.

Congressman Singleton spoke first. "I need to speak with you and your staff doesn't seem to want to let me by."

"My staff is doing their job of keeping out the trash."

Lieutenant Thompson and Evelyn exchanged glances. While both were aware of Jack's disdain for politicians, his downright rude and cold treatment of the congressman had them both worried. Jack was treading on thin ice.

"You would do well to watch your tone with me O'Neill." Singleton stated.

Jack walked up until he was less than a foot in front of the congressman. "And you would do well to march your ass out of my sight and keep going before I forget that the only thing keeping me from killing you is a rule written on a piece of paper." Jack replied with ice in his voice.

Lieutenant Thompson realized the situation was getting dangerously out of control. He had never seen the general so mad, but he had not doubt that O'Neill very much was ready to kill the congressman. He already apparently had killed one. He moved forward to step between them. He stopped when the congressman held up his hand.

"It's okay. General O'Neill has a right to be upset with me considering what happened, but I hoped to talk and…well, I came to apologize." Singleton replied.

Thompson looked at O'Neill, who seemed to be contemplating what Singleton said. He then glanced at Evelyn, who seemed to be as confused as he was.

Jack realized that Singleton was offering an olive branch and as much as he wanted to strangle the man, his real anger was at his son. He sighed and stepped out of the way and waved his arm to indicate they should move to his office.

As soon as he followed the congressman in he shut the door and then then walked to his desk. He indicated Singleton should sit. The senator remained standing behind the chair Jack had sitting for guests in front of his desk.

"I heard what happened between your daughter and my son." Singleton explained. "I found out when he had to explain the restraining order. I went to visit him, and he couldn't go into the Student Center because Miss Frasier was in there."

Jack nodded. "Your son crushed my daughter's heart and then he beat her." Jack said with a flat voice.

Singleton sagged. "Yes, I finally got the whole story. He admitted to…being unfaithful, and worse, assaulting Ca…Miss Frasier."

Jack remained silent as the congressman turned and looked at some of the pictures on the wall. There weren't many. One of SG1 on one of their early missions, with no real indication of whether it was off world or on but was a good one of Sam, one of Charlie, and one of he and Cassie, taken by Sam at the cabin. It had been Sam's favorite pic of the two and she had copies and frames made for all three of them. He noticed Singleton paused at that one a moment. He looked back at O'Neill.

"Miss Frasier is quite a pretty girl…excuse me, young woman."

"Yes, she is."

The congressman smiled. "I understand she can take care of herself as well. I assume you taught her that."

"Actually, her aunt did that." Jack replied. "But I won't deny being happy with the results."

Singleton smiled. "Aunt? That must be the mysterious woman who displayed amazing skills at the restaurant?"

Jack didn't answer and Singleton moved back to the center of the room.

"I heard from a couple of people that John and one of his…female friends tried to confront Cassie and your group at a restaurant and a, I quote, beautiful woman who can move like lightning and kick ass, end quote, made it known that she was not to be trifled with. According to some of John's friends they all thought this lady was both very attractive and extremely frightening, especially after she threatened to feed John his own testicles if he so much as talked crossly to Miss Frasier."

Jack's face must have registered an expression that Singleton noticed because he smiled. "I take it you may not have known all of that."

"She is a pretty tough lady who has been through a lot." Jack allowed.

Singleton nodded. "The reason I came here is to apologize, for sure, but after arriving back home, and explaining to my wife what our son had done, she let me know that apologizing would not be good enough."

Jack indicated Singleton should continue.

"You will be happy to know that my son will be leaving school to undergo counseling. You may find this hard to believe, but I do not condone his behavior nor accept it. And my wife will be traveling to the university next week to set up a counseling center for women there. We hope to establish a place where women who have gone through something like Miss Frasier can obtain counseling and help, and if need be, a place to work on their classes in a safe location where there will be no chance of running into the person that assaulted them."

Jack nodded. "It sounds like a good idea." He allowed.

Singleton nodded. "My wife would like to permission to talk to Miss Frasier and see if she would like to help set it up."

Seeing Jack's face he quickly added, "You can of course be there. My wife would have come today, but you have a reputation of…not always liking politicians and to be blunt, she wanted to see what shape I came home in before she came here to talk to you."

Jack almost smiled. "Tell you what. I will call Cassie tonight and see how she feels about it. If you don't mind, you can leave your wife's phone number and if Cassie decides, she will call her."

Singleton grinned. "Fair enough."

A few months later, Jack pulled into his townhome. He killed the engine to his car and sighed as he looked out at the snow covered landscape. Two days until Christmas. While admittedly, Jack had long ago accepted that holidays were not something that would ever be as much as part of his life as most people, for some reason, he felt the emptiness more this year than he had since Charlie died. He suspected it was due to the fact that he and Sam were now officially a couple but separated by a whole galaxy, and that Cassie still called him two or three times a week to talk.

She was doing very well and had no recent issues, but Jack had gotten the impression she still wanted to assure herself that she could reach out to him anytime. He didn't mind. He enjoyed their talks and it made him feel like he was important in her life, and he always had tons of information to pass to Sam and of course, Sam always sent a video back for Cassie.

He had asked Cassie if she wanted to come for the holidays, but she had said she had already made plans and hoped he understood. He was disappointed, but he understood she needed to find her own path.

He climbed out of the car. He had fought off TSgt Miller and Lieutenant Thompson a week ago, insisting they go home early during the holiday season and not wait on him to get through with work to drive him home. He locked the car and went to his door.

Something was different. He set his bag down and slowly unlocked the door and quietly pushed it opened. The lights were on. He barely had time to react as a red-headed blur impacted him.

"Surprise!" Cassie said as she hugged him tightly. "Merry Christmas!"