AU: When an exploration mission goes way off the left field, Jack and Sam are left to patch up their lives. Will that door stay open?
Disclaimer: All recognisable characters are the property of MGM/Amazon. No copyright infringement intended. I am once again taking my favourite two Gaters for a walk in an Alternate Universe. Takes place after 5.05 Red Sky with some canon episodes skipped (overlooked) and others referenced.
Rating: Mature.
Chapter 39: Relieved of Duty
Friday morning – Enroute to the SGC - Senator Kinsey
Finally. After three and a half years, I had the ammunition I needed to shut them down for good. Once again, I had been approached to back a takeover, but O'Neill had too many contacts in the underground to make that possible. No. This time I would bury the program with them until another more opportune time arose.
Maybe in a few years, with a change of President, we would resume the program with a more like-minded leader. A competent one who would not cave under the scrutiny of a woman several decades his junior. Bauer had been a hasty choice when the opportunity presented itself last year. I wouldn't make the same mistake again.
The results were clear. The blonde Major was pregnant. As soon as the file had been handed to me over breakfast, I knew it was time to make my move. I had been on my private jet less than forty-five minutes later.
"Sir, we are coming in for landing in fifteen minutes."
"Thank you, Samuels." I said, responding to his grimace with a smile. Gone was the sly smirk he commonly wore, replaced with a downtrodden look of docile obedience ever since Simmons recruited his sister. Kennedy's suggestion to get the Samuels' girl into the SGC had paid off. The young girl was barely out of the Academy and had no idea that she had been played from the start. Having her career in my hands would be a sure-fire way to ensure that Samuels remained on the right team.
"Yes, Sir." He replied quietly. As acquiescent as always. He had always been a staunch ally until word about the kidnapping of Hammond's daughters surfaced on the AF grapevine. After that, he had stopped being as vocal in his disapproval of the program. Despite O'Neill having no solid evidence of my involvement in that, Samuels' general approval of his former CO stymied his loyalty to the cause.
"Colonel, you are about to witness the very thing you have wanted for years. A little more enthusiasm would be appreciated." I cajoled him. "Lauren wouldn't want you to be sad on a day like today." I added as a reminder of why he was here instead of back at the Pentagon. Kennedy had noticed his waning enthusiasm and suggested he be my AF liaison to the SGC.
"With all due respect, Sir. Why her? Lauren has done nothing but work hard." He asked sheepishly. I was first and foremost a family man, so I could appreciate his devotion to his half-blood sister who was twenty years his junior. Unfortunately for him, she was not my family.
"So have I, son. So. Have. I. Worked hard to keep the good, God-fearing, law-abiding citizens of this great nation safe from those who would threaten them. Those who are meant to protect them, but instead invite trouble from hostiles. This O'Neill and Carter have made enemies that have threatened our very existence. That is what I am working to protect." I outlined for the man sitting in front of me, purposely not adding that I intended to use anyone in anyway I could to secure my position as the undisputed leader of the SGC. Even O'Neill and Carter were pawns for me to move. Sure, the child was reportedly the offspring of Doctor Daniel Jackson, but that did not matter.
"But Sir, we have no proof that the child is Colonel O'Neill's." He said, questioning my plan to hang O'Neill under the UJMC fraternisation regulations and with him the integrity of the SGC as a whole.
"Proof? I don't need proof. In fact, all I will need is enough hearsay, rumour, and doubt to plant the seed into the minds of the Joint Chiefs." I explained. Even if he wasn't, and I doubted that very much, it will be childs play to convince the Joint Chiefs that he was the father. There would be nothing to stop them both being court martialled. Then Hammond would be charged for covering up their indiscretions. The alien would go to Area 51 and the archaeologist – well I didn't care where they sent him. Even if O'Neill wasn't the father, she was unmarried and pregnant, and while that was not an issue for the modern Air Force, it was for many of my God-fearing, law-abiding constituents who held the sanctity of marriage as absolute. A young unmarried woman bearing the illegitimate spawn of her commanding officer was the perfect catalyst.
"They will want to keep her around, Sir." Samuels added.
"She is the least of my concern Colonel. If the information I have heard is true, she will spend the rest of her days in a sanatorium being treated for schizophrenia. The child will be fostered since its assumed father will be rotting in a cell." I said with a sneer. It had been a stroke of genius putting the thought into Chekov's head that only SG-1 would do for his rescue mission, though my plan was for the Russian Colonel to be the one returning instead of O'Neill. When the psychologist had Carter committed, that had been sugar on top. Then O'Neill returned much to my disappointment. But finding out she was pregnant, well that was just what I needed.
"What? But Sir, you can't keep him indefinitely for breaking the fraternisation regulations." Samuels objected. I smiled at his withering defence of a man that he admittedly hated.
"No, but I can for the murder of a fellow officer." I reminded him of the Cromwell incident three years before. Samuels instantly clammed up and looked out the window. It had been his idea to send Cromwell's team into the mountain knowing that O'Neill would have an issue with his former CO due to their history.
O'Neill didn't even realise that I had been behind most of underhanded things thrown at him on home soil for the last few years. Sure, he tracked me down during the Bauer incident, but he had nothing he could pin on me. Not even the user profile I had appropriated could be linked to me. It had been nothing to convince the Powers That Be that my home computer had been hacked and used for nefarious dealings. Its not as if I had the most secure password, a scenario which was orchestrated entirely to make O'Neill and his traitorous lackey think that I was an imbecile.
The seat belt sign switching on signalled that we were five minutes from landing at Peterson. Checking my watch, it was coming up on 9am local time. Traffic between Peterson and Cheyenne Mountain would be heavy, and I didn't want to spend over an hour in the car with Samuels.
"I want a helicopter." I announced to the man in front of me.
"Sir?"
"You heard me, Colonel. I have no intention of spending my precious time sitting in traffic. I have places to be after we deal with this business. I want a helicopter, and you will make that happen." I ordered, pointing at him to emphasise that he was an equal pawn in my game.
"Yes Sir." He responded drily before looking back out the window.
Less than an hour later, we were striding through the corridors on level 27 of the most top-secret military base America had to offer, flanked by the two military police officers I bought with me, on our way to the central briefing room housed above the Stargate ready to issue the stand down order to General Hammond. Walking into the room expecting to find it empty, I was surprised when seated at the table was none other than the full complement of SG-1 including the blonde Major I was told had been committed along with the short brown haired CMO and Doctor MacKenzie.
Slamming the door closed abruptly, I ordered the two MPs into action. "Sergeant, arrest those two!" I bellowed, my finger pointing accusingly at Hammond's 2IC and his startled Major.
"What the tarnation is going on?! Sergeant, stand down!" Hammond responded in a louder booming voice which made my entourage, including Samuels, waver slightly. He was known as a man who was not to be crossed.
"General, they are in direct violation of Article 134 of the UJMC, fraternisation and conduct unbecoming…"
"The hell we are, you over…" O'Neill started as he rose from his place at the table, his hand waving Major Carter back to her place. A motion that she did not seem to appreciate and subsequently ignored in direct insubordination.
"Colonel O'Neill!" Hammond barked, coming to his feet while his eyes still fixed on mine. "You and your team are dismissed! Senator. My office." He stated. I scowled, there was no way I was allowing either of those two out of my sight.
"Oh, I don't think so. Not this time. You might be the General, but I am in charge here." I said, flinging a signed declaration on the table under the General's nose. He didn't have to know that another well paid staffer had procured the President's seal, that our Commander in Chief did not even know I was here. "Sergeant arrest Colonel O'Neill on a charge of sexual misconduct with a junior officer." I demanded of the MPs again. They looked from me to Hammond, then O'Neill and back to me before moving in and drawing his hands behind his back. His blonde Major looked incensed by what was going on, but she did nothing to stop the cuffs going on her Colonel's wrists. Neither did anyone else in the room.
"Sorry son." Hammond said to the Colonel. "It seems I have been relieved of command."
"Not your fault Sir." He replied as the MP started to march him from the room, an action which saw the alien stand from his seat alongside the Major as if he could do anything to stop this turn of events.
"Why you stupid over-reaching pathetic excuse for a man!" The blonde Major growled, earning a surprised look from all but two people in the room. At first, I figured she was talking to the General, then I saw her eyes fixed on me. The nerve of that… how… my anger knew no bounds and I let forth with words rather than thoughts.
"How dare you!" I roared, "Do you know who I am, Major?" I barked back at her, ignoring the smirk from the female doctor.
She scoffed, "Yeah, you're a self-important little man with nothing better to do than wave your star-spangled dick around." She continued, clearly on a roll with her insults. The MPs standing by O'Neill snorted until I cast a glare at them. O'Neill just smirked and shrugged his shoulders as if her words were nothing unexpected. So much for her reputation as a dignified by-the-book officer.
"You can't talk to me like that." I huffed indignantly.
"Why not? It's not insubordination to tell an arsehole that he is an arsehole, unless he is an arsehole that outranks you. Then you just smile and nod." She said, coming to the end of her tirade bringing a smirking smile from the alien and a cough from Doctor Jackson as he leaned back in his chair and fixed a knowing gaze in my direction. I looked at both Hammond and O'Neill not believing that either of them would allow a mere Major to use such language. Hammond remained stony faced as ever, while O'Neill muttered something about wondering what those looks meant making Samuels snort derisively behind him before resuming his attentive stance.
"As the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, I can demand your dismissal." I told her, hoping she did not know enough about government structure and politics to know that I was peddling a falsehood.
"Oh, I'll make it easy for you. I quit. I resign. See you later. Adios, you jackass!" Her words fell on deaf ears because I knew there was a process she had to follow, and it wouldn't go through before I could have her head on the court martial chopping block.
"Carter. What are you doing?" O'Neill cautioned her.
"Oh, sorry. You want it in writing? Sir!" She barked at her own CO, much to my astonishment. I could not help but gape when she grabbed a scrap of paper from her pocket, then scrawled on it before folding it up into a makeshift aeroplane and flying it rather efficiently at Colonel O'Neill, his bound hands meaning it flew into him and fluttered to the floor. "There, done." She scowled back at me.
"Your little display will not stop the inevitable, Doctor." I countered using her professional name. "You will forever be known as the Air Force Major who brought the SGC down singlehandedly while pregnant with her CO's love child." The smirk on my face growing. "No one will solicit your good opinion when I am done with you."
"I'm not afraid of you." She bit back. "Oh, and for the record. My child belongs to him." She said pointing to the archaeologist.
I barked out a laugh, "Sure it does, and I am a Democrat!" Turning to O'Neill expecting his expression to give up the game. While it wasn't the look of a jilted lover, it was anger. The question was, was it anger at what I had said or anger at what she had said.
"You want proof, I'll give you proof." She stated before marching around the table and launching herself onto the lap of the man in the chair, kissing him in a way that was unfit in public. I was about to bite back a remark about how fake it looked, when she brought her legs up to straddle his thighs while his hand hooked under her… oh for love of Mary! I looked at Hammond and O'Neill, one of whom looked uncomfortable and the other who was now radiating anger that I have never witnessed on the man despite my attempts to goad him. When I didn't think his look could grow darker, she groaned and escalated the public display of affection. Turning back to O'Neill, I could feel more than see rolling thunderclouds of fury colouring his eyes.
Turning back toward Hammond with a shocked look, "General. You allow this behaviour to happen on your base?" I demanded.
"No, Senator. I do not. However, apparently this is no longer my base, so feel free to stop them." He stated just as Doctor Jackson groaned a name that I could not make out, though the brown-haired Doctor ducked her head trying to hide her smirk while Doctor MacKenzie gaped at her. What in the name of Gods' green Earth was going on here? I had been hoping to witness something between the Colonel and the Major, because truthfully I had nothing.
"Oh, for crying out loud, Carter! You've made your point! Get off him." O'Neill barked. "Get these things off me!" He demanded. I was losing control of this situation because the MPs immediately released him just as the Major released and staggered back from the ravaged looking Doctor Jackson who was struggling to breathe.
"I'll see myself out, shall I?" She smirked, "Teal'c, Jack, George, Doctors… nice knowing you, honour to serve and all that stuff, you…" she said fingering the archaeologist's collar with a smile while he straightened his glasses, "I will see later." Then she turned and left, brushing past her former CO, without so much of a glance back while the rest of the occupants in the room waited for my next move.
My plans that relied on some kind of reaction to my accusations were up in smoke. I had no hope of having a case brought against Colonel O'Neill for the death of Cromwell while his integrity and professionalism at the SGC remained intact. Fraternisation would have done just that. Maybe that child really was Doctor Jackson's and with that display being on CCTV, nothing I could say would stick, so - grabbing my fake letter - I deftly tore it in half and marched from the room not even checking if my Pentagon liaison and MPs were following.