Season 9 Episode 14 – Off The Grid

Episode summary: SG-1 are sent to covertly gather intel about a Lucian Alliance plot to hook entire planets' populations on a genetically engineered type of corn. Colonel Mitchell decides to try and gather some more intel by posing as a drug dealer attempting to secure a large supply from the Lucian Alliance. The rest of SG-1 protests, but he goes ahead with the plan, and is caught. SG-1 break him out, but their escape is hindered when the gate is beamed away. They are re-captured by the Lucian Alliance agent who believes they are responsible for the theft of the gate, and beats them to try and find out where the gate is. He is about to kill them when they are beamed out by the Odyssey. They then discover that Ba'al has been stealing multiple gates, and are sent on a mission to retrieve them. They successfully get aboard Ba'al's mothership and tag the gates, so the Odyssey can beam them out, and they escape through one of the gates seconds before the mothership is destroyed by the Lucian Alliance.

Sam's phone rang, and she finished typing her sentence before picking up. "Carter."

"Colonel, General O'Neill has just arrived, and he's looking for Lt. Col. Mitchell." Walter informed her.

Oh boy.

"Thanks Walter." She hung up.

Thank God for Walter – Sam wasn't entirely sure how the Chief Master Sergeant knew that Jack likely wanted to ream Cameron out for the events of their last mission, or how Walter knew that she was the person to warn about it, but she was immensely grateful none-the-less.

She made a beeline for Cameron's office.

She got there just in time to see Jack bearing down on the office door, too far ahead for her to physically get in his way or warn Cam, and so she waylaid him with a shout. "General!"

Jack pulled up short. "Carter." His eyes seemed drawn to her split lip and the livid bruising on her left cheek. "I was just going to have a chat with Mitchell."

"I know sir." She caught up and inserted herself between him and the door. "I was rather hoping I could have a moment of your time first."

"This won't take long." Jack said, his tone neutral but his eyes flashing dangerously. "Out of my way, Carter."

Crap, that was an order. "No sir."

He raised an eyebrow. "No sir?"

"I have something urgent to discuss with you privately before you speak with Colonel Mitchell. Sir." Hopefully their marriage vows would give him pause before he brought her up on insubordination charges. Still, he was going to be pissed at her for a while.

The door opened behind her, and she closed her eyes in defeat. Stay out of this, Cam.

"General!" She felt the air shift behind her as Mitchell snapped to attention, surprised. "I wasn't expecting to see you sir."

"Oh really?" Jack asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Carter clearly was."

"Sam?" Cam asked her, confused.

"Go back inside, Colonel." She said in her best commanding tone. Ok, so she couldn't actually give him orders, but if he knew what was good for him, he'd follow this one.

He didn't. "What's going on?" Cam asked.

"Carter, I'm going to ask you again, and if I get another 'No sir', I'm going to be pissed. Get out of my way."

Sam glared at her husband icily. He'd pay later for pulling rank on her, one way or another.

"Sorry Mitchell, I tried." She muttered to her friend, and stepped out from between him and Jack, her eyes never leaving Jack's.

"Inside Colonel." Jack ordered Cameron as he stalked past them both into the office, and the befuddled Colonel closed the door behind him.

Sam looked at the closed door, and settled in to wait. The yelling started less than a minute later.

Jack didn't look Sam in the eye when he left Mitchell's office; he just brushed past her moodily. Sam knocked tentatively on the doorframe in Mitchell's open doorway. The other Lieutenant Colonel had collapsed into his chair, his face turned skywards and covered with his hands.

"Sorry about that." She offered.

"You knew he was going to ream me out for the 'fake drug dealer' bit." He commented, straightening up and looking at her.

"I was pretty sure, yeah."

"Because I put his old team in danger."

"Yes." She sat down heavily in the seat opposite.

"Or … because I put you in danger."

Sam stiffened. "Excuse me?"

"During the worst of the yelling he may have accidentally used the word 'Carter' in place of 'SG-1' or 'your teammates' a few times."

Sam slapped a hand to her forehead, covering her eyes. Idiot.

"Cam …"

"Look, Sam, ordinarily I'd say it's none of my business. But I'd appreciate you levelling with me over whether I just got yelled at because I put my boss's girlfriend in danger."

"Wife." She said quietly.

Cam looked stunned. "What?"

"We got married six months ago. I'm his wife. No one here knows, other than Daniel, Teal'c and General Landry."

"Oh." Cam exhaled sharply. "Well, that explains that, then."

"He shouldn't have yelled at you because of his feelings for me. It was unprofessional."

"Well, I probably shouldn't have tried to pose as a drug dealer when my entire team was telling me it was a bad plan. I did nearly get us all killed, and my jaw still clicks when I chew." He said, poking his bruised cheek tentatively.

"To be honest, I would appreciate it if you paid a little more attention to my opinion on ops like these. I commanded SG-1 for a year, and I have nine years of off-world experience. I'm not trying to step on your toes here, but I need you to at least listen to my advice."

Cam nodded contritely. "Yeah. Ok."

"Ok. In that case, no hard feelings for getting us all beaten up and almost killed. It's far from the first time, and it won't be the last." She stood, giving him a wry smile.

He chuckled and canted his head in a quasi-nod. "Part of the fun, right?"

She snorted, and headed for the door. "You're as bad as Jack."

"I'll take that as a compliment." He called after her as she left.

Sam was angry enough that she didn't bother to check whether Jack was still on base before she left the mountain that evening, but the borrowed black SUV in her driveway indicated that he'd beaten her home.

She steeled herself before opening the front door. She didn't really have the energy for a fight, but she was far too angry to let it go.

The smell of cooking wafted from the kitchen, and she ventured towards it warily.

"It's almost ready." Jack said by way of greeting.

She said nothing, crossing her arms and staring at him.

"Can we please fight after dinner?" He said. "I'm starving."

"Do you know why I'm pissed?" She asked.

Jack sighed. "I'll take that as a no. Yes, Sam, I know why you're pissed. Do you know why I'm pissed?"

"I do, but I think your reason is stupid."

He looked at her sharply. "You think it's stupid for me to expect you to respect the chain of command at work?"

"No, I think it's stupid for you to use rank to win a personal disagreement."

Jack said nothing, but anger stiffened his posture. He attacked the food cooking in the frying pan viciously with the spatula, and then dumped it on plates, and set them on the table.

"Eat the food, Sam."

"Is that another order, sir?"

"Oh for crying out loud, no, obviously it's not. When we're in uniform on the base, it's an order. When we're at home, it's not, as you very well know."

They had a few moments of stand-off, and then Sam reluctantly conceded and sat down, picking up a knife and fork.

They ate in silence, and when they were done, Sam picked up the plates and dumped them in the sink before turning to him again.

"Mitchell now knows about us."

Jack swore softly. "My fault?"

"Ya think?" She said sarcastically.

"I know I was maybe a little harder on him than I should have been, because it was you he put in danger." Jack said.

Sam blinked, surprised. She hadn't expected him to admit that so readily.

"I knew you were going to be, that's why I was trying to stop you." Sam replied.

"I know."

"Ok."

"Ok."

They looked at each other warily.

"I'm still pissed at you for pulling rank." She informed him.

"And I'm still pissed at you for disobeying an order."

Sam nodded. "We're not going to solve this tonight, are we?"

"Probably not." He scrubbed a hand through his hair. "I'll sleep on the couch."

"No you won't, I'm not that pissed." Sam said with an eye-roll.

Jack smirked. "Good to know."

"I'm gonna call Cassie."

"I have some work I could be doing."

Sam nodded, and left him to it, grabbing the phone and curling up on the couch for a catch-up with her goddaughter.

That night they went to bed in silence, but still held each other while they slept.

They'd be ok.