Season 8 Episode 10 – Endgame

Episode summary: The trust steal the stargate, and SG-1 attempt to retrieve it. General Jack O'Neill is relaying orders to Colonel Pendergast, commander of the Prometheus. They have a target lock on a cargo ship containing trust operatives, who have the stolen stargate and are using it to launch chemical attacks against jaffa, slaughtering thousands. The cargo ship also contains Daniel and Sam (and Teal'c, although Jack doesn't know that). Pendergast wants orders to shoot before the ship can escape. Jack hesitates. Ultimately, Jack's hesitation gives SG-1 the time they need to set a locator beacon so that they and the gate can be beamed out by the Prometheus. Episode ends in the gateroom with Daniel commenting that in retrospect maybe Jack should have destroyed the ship when he had the chance. Jack looks pained, and says 'Some choice', leaving SG-1 awkwardly at the gate ramp.

"One of us should go talk to him." Daniel said, giving Sam and Teal'c significant looks, as they gathered around Sam's lab bench.

Neither of them asked who he meant or what they needed to talk to Jack about. After their esteemed leader's dour mood in the few hours since they'd gated back to Earth, it was obvious Jack was very disturbed about having had to decide whether or not to shoot a cargo ship containing Daniel and Sam out of the sky. The cargo ship had actually contained Teal'c as well at the time, although Jack hadn't known that until afterwards.

"So … any volunteers?" He asked.

Teal'c raised an eyebrow at him. He could have predicted that asking Teal'c to do it would be a non-starter. Sam on the other hand …

She was squirming a little and avoiding his eye. She didn't want to do it either. Huh. He had assumed she would want to be the one to talk to Jack. It had seemed to him that over the last few years, the two of them had gotten pretty good at helping each other deal with the stickier emotional traumas they got served up from week to week.

"Sam?" He prompted.

"Maybe you should do it." She said quickly, looking uncomfortable.

Now she was getting the patented 'Teal'c eyebrow'. Perhaps Daniel wasn't alone in finding her reaction odd.

"Ok … I just figured maybe you might want to. You know, since you're team leader and all …" He said, trying to give her an excuse to do it.

Sam looked even more uncomfortable at that remark. "I don't think talking to the General about his feelings falls under my purview as SG-1's CO." She said.

"No, but talking to him on behalf of the three of us about a tactical decision he made could be considered –"

"It's not an appropriate thing for me to bring up with him, Daniel." Sam snapped, cutting him off. "I'm his subordinate officer, there's a certain level of … professional detachment … we're supposed to maintain."

Professional detachment? "Since when?" He asked, perplexed.

"Since always." She said defensively.

Daniel exchanged a confused look with Teal'c. Sure, they knew that on paper Jack was Sam's CO and their relationship should be more professional than personal, but SG-1 had always been a little different. You couldn't go through the things that SG-1 had been through together over the years without forming a close personal bond that transcended the traditional working relationship. In the last few years especially, Jack and Sam had seemed to develop a close and healthy friendship, and Daniel knew Jack had been an immense help to Sam in dealing with her PTSD in the aftermath of Fifth's torture. Surely this was no different?

"Has something transpired of which we are unaware, Colonel Carter?" Teal'c asked gently.

"No, of course not." She said.

Daniel frowned sceptically. "Then why are you suddenly so worried about talking to Jack about something personal?"

Sam closed her eyes briefly, looking pained. "I already tried, alright? He doesn't want to talk to me about it. He practically gave me a dressing down for insubordination."

Daniel's eyes widened. "Oh."

Sam looked away, twisting her hands together anxiously, looking hurt.

"I'll talk to him." He said resolutely. Sam nodded and gave him a small smile that didn't reach her eyes. He patted the lab bench decisively, exchanged a significant look with Teal'c, and left.

Daniel left the mountain, and drove to Jack's house, parking on the driveway behind his truck.

He knocked, and Jack opened the door. "Something I can do for you Daniel?" Jack asked deadpan.

"Can I come in?"

Jack wordlessly let him into the house, and put a beer in his hand as they sat down in the living room.

"You shouldn't have snapped at Sam." He said.

Jack's eyes grew dark with anger. "That's between me and her."

"She was trying to help."

"It's none of your business."

"I disagree. She's my friend, and so are you." He shook his head. "I don't get it, why is it ok for you to be there for her after her ordeal with Fifth, but not ok for her to be there for you after the day you had today?"

"You're a civilian, so maybe you can't understand, but there are certain lines you don't cross with your CO. Ever."

"That's bullshit." Daniel exclaimed. "Firstly, I've spent seven years working on an Air Force run base, so don't tell me I don't understand the rules, I do. But I also know you and Sam, and I know she's been the one to talk to you and help you deal with the fallout from tough missions in the past."

"That was different. We were team mates. I'm a general now, I'm not supposed to show favouritism."

Oh. "Is that what this is about? Someone's accusing you of playing favourites with Sam?"

Jack scowled at his beer bottle, and took a long few moments before answering.

"Hammond and I have been getting some grief from the political types about her promotion and appointment as the CO of SG-1."

"Why?" Daniel asked, outraged. "She's earned it a dozen times over, and she's more than proven herself worthy of it since the promotion."

"I know that." Jack retorted acidly. "And Hammond knows that too. And so does everyone who's ever worked with her. But on paper it doesn't look good that my first official act as base commander was to promote my female subordinate officer."

Daniel swore under his breath. Jack raised his eyebrows and saluted him with his beer. "My sentiments exactly."

"Does Sam know?" Daniel asked eventually.

"No. And she doesn't need to know."

Daniel shook his head. "I might have agreed with that, except that your solution of pushing her away by yelling at her for trying to be your friend is just cruel."

"What am I supposed to do, Daniel? Hammond practically ordered me to put some distance between us, for the sake of her career. She's going to make General herself one day if I manage not to screw it up for her."

"Have you considered levelling with her? Telling her all of this?"

"She's got enough on her plate, she doesn't need to be worrying about the political nonsense and gossip as well."

"I think you're forgetting who we're talking about. She can handle it. Frankly I think she'd handle it a hell of a lot better than you are."

Jack stared at him coldly for a moment, and then he deflated a little, sitting back in his chair with a sigh. "Yeah, I know she would."

"So …?"

"So what?"

Daniel blew out an exasperated breath. "So, are you going to explain what's going on to Sam and make things right with her?"

"Will you leave me alone if I say yes?"

"As long as you also agree to talk to her about what happened today." Daniel said.

Jack rolled his eyes and said nothing.

Daniel waited a beat and then persisted. "Either you talk to her about it later or you talk to me about it now."

"Oh for crying out loud, fine. I'll talk to Carter."

Sam jumped in shock when someone knocked on her door. Her back door, which was only accessible by a locked side gate. She cast an uncertain look in the direction of her safe, which contained her personal hand gun, but decided it was unlikely whoever it was would be knocking if they intended her harm.

She opened the door warily, and was surprised and very confused to see her CO silhouetted against the night sky.

"Sir?"

"Hey Carter. Let me in, would you, it's freezing out here."

"It's after midnight and it's January, sir." She said mildly. "Why were you in my backyard?"

"I'm being covert."

"Are we being watched?" She asked in surprise.

"Probably not, but under the circumstances I decided to play it safe."

He opened her cupboards and helped himself to a tumbler of scotch while she watched, baffled.

"What circumstances are those?" She asked when he didn't elaborate.

He took a long draw of the scotch before answering. "I owe you an apology for yelling at you earlier today. I had a reason for it … but Daniel thinks my reasoning was flawed, and I think he's probably right."

"Ok." She said, still waiting for him to shed some light on this bewildering conversation.

"What they don't tell you before they pin that General's star on your shoulder, is that the job comes with a whole lot of politics. Every brown-nosing little weasel at the Pentagon thinks he can do a better job, and everything I do is under a microscope."

"Everything you do, including your friendship with your old team. With me." She filled in.

"Exactly." He nodded, looking relieved. "I'm sorry, I wanted to shield you from this, but … to protect your reputation, and your career, you and I need to appear outwardly to have an entirely professional relationship."

"Is someone making allegations against us?" She asked apprehensively.

"Not exactly, but they're hinting at it."

Sam sighed, and leaned back against the counter. "Crap."

"Yeah."

"You could have told me that before yelling." She said reproachfully.

"Yeah. Sorry."

Sam took a deep breath. "It's ok. We can appear purely professional. It just means we can't spend any time together outside of work and no non-essential contact at the SGC."

Jack grunted. "It's not necessarily forever. Just until the fuss about your promotion has died down."

Sam looked at him sharply. "They're not suggesting …"

Jack winced. "Sam, don't take it personally. No one who knows you would ever dream of suggesting you didn't deserve that promotion."

"But someone, somewhere, is suggesting that your promoting me is evidence of an inappropriate relationship?"

Jack raised an eyebrow at her wryly. "You know, technically it could be argued that we do have an inappropriate relationship. CO's generally aren't supposed to buy engagement rings for their subordinate officers."

Sam flushed. "They don't know anything about that. And we have … special circumstances."

Jack grinned. "That's one way of putting it. Look, Carter, don't lose any sleep over this. It'll blow over. We just need to be a bit more careful for a while."

Sam nodded. "Ok."

Jack set his empty tumbler down with a dull thud. "And for the record – and I'm only saying this because I promised Daniel I would – yes, deciding whether or not to shoot the two of you out of the sky was nine kinds of hell, but I don't need to talk about it. It's part of the job description. Besides, you and I have had the conversation about how much it sucks when one of us is in danger so many times that we could probably recite both sides of the conversation verbatim."

Sam sighed and nodded.

He headed back to her back door. "I don't suppose you have a step ladder I could borrow? Climbing over your fence was a little more challenging than I anticipated."

Sam laughed. "How about I build a secret tunnel through my basement that comes out at a manhole in your backyard?" She teased.

"Just a ladder will be fine."