Warnings: Some swearing.

Chapter 5: Posse Comitatus

In the end, Jack couldn't really refuse Carter's request without a really good explanation. He'd contemplated actually making a trip to some far off planet, maybe even visit the Tok'ra or perhaps Netu... But he was determined to get over Carter and the sooner the better. He was never one to runaway from a challenge and this was one was a doozy:

A whole freaking day with Carter's fiancé.

Well, if she'd managed to move on, had chosen someone else, there was no reason why he couldn't do the same. He'd made some positive steps towards that goal while in Washington. The thought elicited a smile.

The meeting with the President and the collective acronyms hadn't been a total bust. It had been good to see General Hammond wheeling and dealing with the top brass. The two of them had gone to dinner afterwards, catching up on old times and mutual friends.

At the hotel bar, they ran into one of the CIA agents from the meeting earlier that day and had invited her for a drink.

Jack hadn't planned any of it. He was just being friendly and invited a colleague out of politeness, but George had seen an opportunity. After one drink, the older General had informed them that he was off to his bed for an early meeting at the Pentagon and had left them to it.

Agent Johnson had given him a knowing look and a grin, seeing that Jack was uncomfortable with the situation.

"So... This is awkward," she said after a minute of silence.

"Listen-"

"No! Look this doesn't have to lead to anything. It's just a drink," she tried to tell him reassuringly.

Jack knew he was being an ass. Here was a beautiful woman who might just be interested in him and what was he doing? Trying to push her away? For what? He was available and so was she. There were no rules or regulations preventing him from enjoying this woman's company and for once he should really just let go and enjoy himself.

He looked at her properly and picked up his drink. "You're right. It doesn't have to lead to anything. Not tonight anyway. But I make a lot of trips to Washington."

She gave him a startled look, surprised at his suddenly charming demeanor and clear invitation.

"I'd like that, Jack."

"Jack? Jack?"

Jack pulled himself away from his reminiscing and focused on Daniel who was calling his name repeatedly.

"What?"

"We're here."

Jack looked out of the passenger side window, realizing that Daniel was right. They had arrived at Pete's bachelor's day out or whatever the hell they called it these days. When he'd gotten married to Sara, he and his friends had gone out the night before the wedding to get stinkin' drunk and he'd woken up in the middle of an airfield only wearing his shorts. His buddies had driven him to the church still hung over, but on time, and Sara hadn't known the difference. That was the extent of his celebration and he liked it that way.

He mentally prepared himself for the 'fun' day ahead and stepped out of the cab. The black Chevy Suburban was SGC issued and Teal'c's preferred mode of transport and Jack liked to indulge the big guy whenever he could. T no longer went out as much after the incident with Krista and her boyfriend, so when he did, Jack made sure his friend had a good time.

"Does this not remind you of our missions, O'Neill?" Teal'c pointed out, looking up at their surroundings.

"Yeah. Trees. Lots of them."

They followed Daniel and Jonas who were already at the reception area. It was a clearing at the end of a dirt path, consisting mainly of wooden shacks with corrugated metal roofs and hand painted signs which proclaimed 'Hot Food' and 'Register'.

"I guess Paul's a really classy guy," He muttered to Teal'c.

"I believe you mean 'Pete', O'Neill."

"Pete, Paul, whatever!"

He saw Daniel shaking hands with a stocky blond guy and recognized him as Carter's fiancé. He gave himself another mental deep breath and went over with Teal'c to join them.

"Wow!" He heard Pete exclaiming. "You guys are gonna be hard to hide in the woods." All four of them, including Jonas, stood taller than the cop.

"Oh, I'm sure we'll be just fine," Jack told him smiling slightly. "In fact, I think you should put us all in the same team."

Paul frowned at him for a moment before shrugging and grinning back at him again. Goofy. Carter was marrying this goofy clown!

"There's actually twelve of us, so you can pick two of the groomsmen for your team."

Jack looked over Pete's shoulder and saw a teenage boy with glasses standing awkwardly to the side as Pete's friends laughed merrily over bottles of Stella. Bleah.

"I'll take him," He pointed to the boy, swimming in his camo overalls that was more than two sizes too big.

Pete looked behind him. "Adam? You want my nephew Adam in your team?"

"Yeah," Jack answered back. "You can keep the other guy."

Pete looked at him oddly again, but merely shrugged.

Shanahan introduced them to the rest of the group, offered them beer, which all four of them declined.

Jack never engaged in battle with alcohol in his blood.

Carter wanted them to get to know her man better. Jack was determined that Shanahan knew exactly who he was dealing with by the end of the day.

Once the teams were assigned, the two guys who were in charge of organizing the games gave them the health and safety speech.

Face masks were too be worn at all times unless everyone had their paint balling guns on the ground. Gloves with a hard plastic back were recommended as the paint balls travelled at more than two hundred miles per hour and could easily take exposed skin off. They weren't allowed to shoot at close range and instead should ask the person to surrender if in their sights. No aiming at the head at anytime.

Next they were told about the weapons available, including paint grenades and smoke screens. More ammo was available at extra cost.

Once the spiel was over, they suited and kitted up in the loose fitting camos provided. Teal'c struggled to fit in his and only just managed to squeeze himself in, much to Jack's amusement. The big guy looked dangerous in his dark skull cap and fitted overalls.

The first game was a simple capture the flag. The objective of each team was to capture the other team's flag mounted near the other team's underground silo and shove it in the silo's chimney. First to do so wins.

Each team had to be inside the underground silo at the start and once the whistle blew they had to quickly file out and engage the enemy.

Jack couldn't believe his luck. This was basic strategy. Something he'd taught raw cadets at the academy. He knew his team very well and had been in battle with them so many times in the past eight years that he didn't even have to discuss strategy with them. Adam looked lost, so Jack knew he'd have to give the kid the easy tasks.

"Can you run fast, kid?"

Adam gave him a small grin. "It's the only thing I can do."

"Good," Jack said, patting him on the back. "You're gonna capture the flag for us."

Adam's eyes widened. "What? But-"

"Don't worry. We'll be covering your ass. Don't think. Just focus on the flag and once you see it, run towards it as fast as you can and head for their chimney."

The teenager nodded, clearly uncertain of Jack's plan, but not brave enough to actually question it. Jack smiled to himself, thinking the kid might make a good soldier with a little more backbone. He knew when to take orders and that's what Jack liked.

The air horn blew and Jack was the first one out of the bunker followed by Adam, Daniel, Jonas and Teal'c who was going to be guarding the flag and bunker.

Both Daniel and Jonas were off like a shot, circling towards the back of the enemy bunker to provide covering fire. Jack was the one in charge of the frontal assault, making sure that none of Paul's team made it into friendly territory. If they did, Teal'c would be taking care of them.

Shanahan's team weren't bad shots. Most of them were police officers and had practice at the range. But most of them had never used anything but a pistol, and the paint ball guns were far more similar in size and weight to a P90 than a hand gun.

Jack found it more than easy to take out each and everyone of them. Daniel and Jonas attacked from behind and the other team found it difficult to actually advance and took cover behind tree trunks. This gave Jack and his team the opening they needed. Jack pushed Adam forward and yelled for him to do his thing.

The boy sprung forward, sprinting without care towards the enemy flag. Pete saw him and took aim, but doing so forced him out of his cover and Daniel dispatched of him in three successive shots.

Jonas hurled a smoke grenade towards the opposing bunker where Adam would have to climb the metal rungs to put the flag in the chimney. It hid him enough that the guy guarding the bunker just kept shooting in his direction, but was then shot promptly in the head by Jack. He went down on the ground clutching at his head mask.

The game was over in five minutes.

The next five games went the same way, with SG-1 not making the game very interesting. Pete's team were covered in yellow paint by the end of it, all groaning and swearing about their bruised bodies.

"Fuck, Pete. Where the hell did you dig up these guys? You said they were scientists at the Air Force, not fucking special ops!"

Pete merely shook his head. O'Neill and his friends had completely humiliated him. He should've known the guy was up to something when he suggested keeping his team together. The way they fought spoke of battle hardened professionals and Pete couldn't help but think this had all been just a form of amusement for them, not really much of a challenge.

Sam would've known this, and yet she hadn't said anything.

Sam hung up the phone, feeling a headache coming on.

Pete had given her the low down on what happened at his guys day out and he wasn't happy. He'd been cold and abrupt with her, implying that it was her fault he had lost to her friends.

Her fiancé had conveniently forgotten that it was him who had suggested that it would be good for his and her friends to get to know each other and since all of her friends were men, why not paintballing?

She knew what the outcome would be, but once Pete got something in his head, he got so swept up in it that there was no dissuading him. Now he was sulking and it was somehow her fault.

She'd only realized how much this side of him irritated her. He was such a nice guy most of the time, kind and funny. If at times he tended to want his way, she'd tried to be understanding knowing that part of being in a relationship was about compromise. She also just realized that most of the compromising was on her part.

Why was she feeling like this? Ever since she'd said yes to Pete her life felt more and more out of control. All the things she'd taken for granted, her independence, her friendship with SG-1, were all disappearing. Pete constantly called, wanting to know where she was despite her reminders that most of what she did was classified. It was sort of understandable that he wanted to be part of her life, but it was difficult trying to have a normal life when most of her life couldn't be classified as normal. She wasn't used to reporting her whereabouts to someone who wasn't her superior.

As for SG-1 they were now doing their own thing. Teal'c spent more and more time off world visiting the Jaffa ever since his failed attempt at living amongst the humans. Daniel was his usual self, but he was often seen in the General's company, the two of them going out together during their free time, something he and O'Neill didn't used to do back when they were in SG-1 together. Whilst she was still close to Daniel, he'd made it pretty clear that he wasn't that happy with her engagement. Not once did Daniel express any desire to meet her fiancé or inquire about her upcoming wedding.

Then there was the General.

Ever since his promotion she'd felt the distance between them widening. If she were honest with herself it had started in that elevator ride after she'd told him about Pete.

He seemed happy enough for her, but there was always an undercurrent between them, like he was afraid to let his guard down. He no longer made trips to her lab or ask her to have cake with him.

Yeah, the difference in their rank might explain his sudden distance, but she'd always thought that their friendship went beyond such a thing. They would always be subordinate and superior, but he was a friend first. It had hurt her a lot when he'd accepted his promotion and she'd found out from someone else. Daniel had let it slip later that he and O'Neill had spoken about it and both had agreed it was the best thing to do. She'd later approached Teal'c and it turned out he was the first one that O'Neill had told.

Why he was pulling away from her like this, she couldn't understand. Jack O'Neill could be a real pain sometimes, but he wasn't deliberately cruel to her. Her hallucination back on the Prometheus had said that he would always be there for her, but that's all it had been, her own mind trying to comfort her into thinking that he'd be happy with any decision she made.

Now that the decision had been made, she wasn't happy and it seemed neither was the General.

Sam felt the bile rise in her throat. Oh, god, how could I have let it go this far?

Clueless much, Sam? How do you feel about Carter in this fic? When I wrote it, I was really angry with her and I wonder if that shows. I honestly think that Jack had no other recourse in the series BUT to accept her decision and allow her to move on. Retirement wasn't ever an option when he was constantly being burdened with the fate of the world, and an unfinished war. What do you think?