Hey! Here we go…
Enjoy!
M.
Chapter Thirty-One
"Can someone explain to me what the hell just happened?" Jack asked once the room only contained him, Sam, Cam and Vala and his daughter who had found a way to sit on his lap. The other adults exchanged glances but any chance of answering where interrupted.
"Oh, you must be kidding, we are late?" Daniel's voice made them turn around towards the door.
"It appears you are correct DanielJackson." Teal'c voice came from behind.
"The whole crew is here! What a coincidence," Jack remarked. "Care to join us guys, and maybe, shed some light on the events?"
"Well, I, uh. we…"
"We did a mighty job so you two can be together again, or I should say you three. Now you owe us at least a decent dinner," Vala answered with a mischievous grin.
"I don't know all the details, General," Sam smiled. "For sure I didn't know all my papers were processed and that my rank was mine."
"General O'Neill, sir?" Amelia's voice called him; he nodded to make her join them in the conference room. "Ah, sir… I'm just here to bring you these and letting you know, and I'm going to quote him, 'if he dares to place one single hair of his head at his office or reaches the gate of the Pentagon, I will kick his but to the moon and back.'"
"What are these, Amelia? I don't recall asking you for any paperwork."
"Oh, you didn't, sir. The President called eight days ago to ask me to take care of all your important meetings and reorganize your schedule, moving anything not extremely important from here to the following month. He also said, that if you didn't take your leave, he would place you under house arrest." Jack shook his head and grabbed the papers signing them.
"I guess orders are orders, even if they are veiled ones," he added amused. "Well, then, Miss Mal Doran has stated I owe you a dinner, and maybe you can tell me why."
"Ah, well… after I first talked with Sam, she mentioned her assignation back to Earth was denied even when they knew she was pregnant. I commented this with Teal'c," Daniel explained looking at the Jaffa.
"I had twice encountered issues with General Price. I personally communicated him of our invitation to join us for a council meeting and an offering of doing it on the SGC grounds. Both times he mentioned losing the document and thus, forgetting about it."
"And that's why you contacted Beta," Jack affirmed.
"Indeed, I found General Price to be not worthy of my trust."
"When Teal'c mentioned this and added to what I already knew, I went back to Cam. We were all surprised on how you weren't barreling in trying to reach her."
"I assured Daniel that I had sent the proper documentation to the SGC. I was also intrigued because I hadn't received any kind of orders or procedures and that was almost ten days after Sam first appeared in Sakkara. I thought by then something had to be said or some position was taken, and I got nothing," Cam explained.
"Since the SGC personnel is more prone to speak with me, I returned to Earth and started asking around. And not surprisingly, no one knew a thing," Daniel affirmed and then he looked at Jack, "Not even you, Jack."
"How did you know I?" He trailed frowning, "Ah, the dinner you forced me to have…"
"Yes, I knew that if you were aware of her situation, you would be making enough noise to be allowed out. And .. well, you weren't. You were still depressed and uncooperative," he shrugged.
"Why didn't you tell me then? You made me wait for almost two months, Daniel!"
"We couldn't tell you, Jack. If you reacted, then chances where that General Price would've been free of charges. Finding those documents were the only way to get him, and if we didn't manage to get those, then General Lacroix wouldn't have ever attached to the situation. He would've walked…"
"Are you saying that all of you knew all this?" He got guilty nods from Daniel, Cam, and Vala. One simple affirmation from Teal'c and Jack closed his eyes before he managed to look at Sam.
"No, I didn't know," Sam whispered. "I knew there was something wrong; I mean, you weren't there, and I was sure you would be there by my side when I consciously woke up the second day. But then," she sighed, "remember what I said to you that first night?" He nodded remembering how distressed she was when she confessed she thought he had moved on or died until Daniel confirmed that the one KIA was her. "Well, it was true, I was utterly worried, and I thought that all the few things Daniel had told me about you were just white lies so I would still fight for my life."
"But you didn't seem so surprised or distressed, at least not with Hayes attacks in your questioning," The General raised an expectant eyebrow, his wife sighed.
"I learned part of Hayes plan the moment I reached DC," she grimaced. "He told me he needed me to have an audience explaining everything that had happened to me to clean my name with the other Generals. I didn't understand what exactly I had done to grant something like what we just experienced in these two days. And he finished telling me not to worry during the audience if he seemed a little out of character because he was on my side. Our side, actually. But sometimes one has to pretend to be on the other side to be able to turn their hands."
"What about all that thing about our anniversary? If he found time to explain all that to you…" he waved his hand.
"Oh, I think that was real, his phone was set with Spanish date format." She grinned. Naysa squirmed in his lap and jumped down, running out towards Amelia.
"Why did she run away?" Mitchel asked with a concerned look.
"A girl has to go one a girl has to go," Vala smiled. "Speaking of, when are we planning on leaving, I'm starving, and I happen to know you take a long while to make dinner, General."
"As soon as Naysa's back," he shrugged, "how did you get here by the way?"
"Military transport, we were around the SGC, and we left as soon as some order was settled."
"Teal'c and I arrived this morning from Sakkara and got stuck among the people who needed to be questioned. That's why we were late," Daniel explained. "We were supposed to leave on their same transport and then, finding another one took a while."
"Are you sure you want me to cook? We can go eat somewhere …"
"And then we wouldn't be able to speak freely, come on Jack. We will help," Daniel offered.
"That's what worries me," he whispered making Sam smile, "Okay, we can take the metro back and then you can try and fit on the back of my truck, or some of you can take a cab."
"Sir, if I may," Amelia interrupted him as she had arrived with Naysa a few moments earlier, "we can organize transport for all of them."
"I know we can Amelia, yet it's not a military operation. Therefore, we shouldn't. We can all live with a metro ride. And you should go home, and then bring your husband back to our little encounter."
"I'm not sure I should, General."
"Carter…" he trailed, and Sam understood what he meant.
"Amelia, you should. Really, you were the one who had to put up with our General, and we know that's not exactly an easy task. So please, come up and join us."
"If you insist."
"Yup, we do. Some of us will need to watch our words," he added looking at Vala. It didn't take much longer for them to start moving out of the offices and towards the exit. And if a General, a Colonel, and a baby raised enough attention, apparently a General, two Colonels, two aliens, an Archeologist and a little girl should be the start of a joke or great friends as their ride was joyful and loud and the perfect picture of a family having fun.
Jack looked around with a smile, Sam caught his glance and frowned looking around to try and find why he seemed a bit sour even when enjoying a ride with friends.
"What?" she mouthed to him, and he shook his head and winked at her as they got to their stop. He managed to place himself behind her while taking Naysa out of her hands and at the same time, managed to bring them at the end of their group. She turned her head slightly to try and see what he was planning "What?" she asked again, and this time he smiled mischievously and used the difference in height to whisper to her ear.
"It's just not exactly the plans I had for us tonight," his voice reached to her soft and warm and made her shiver.
"Hey, you two! Hurry up!" Vala screamed from the top of the stairs.
"See, now you'll have to wait… Samantha," he whispered again and laughed when she whimpered and pouted before she set her face again as if she didn't want to send her friends away and do whatever plans Jack had in mind more. Once they were out, she glared at him. "See, it's not fun being left out of the plans, Carter. Not fun at all."