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. This chapter focuses on 5.11 Desperate Measures.

This is the final chapter barring an epilogue. There may be more to come in this universe, but nothing written yet.

Rating: Mature.

Trigger Warnings: Violence, gun use, knife use, rape, strangulation, death... basically Dark Jack goes all out (Section two - Skip if you do not want to read). Nothing like the episode!

Chapter 45: Desperate Measures

Saturday afternoon – Seattle-Tacoma Airport and enroute to Saint Christina's – Daniel Jackson

The buzz of my phone within seconds of restarting it after our flight was not unexpected. It had been five hours of electronic-less boredom in a plane so full that I could not even read a book without bumping elbows with the person next to me. How Teal'c managed to get himself upgraded to the only vacant first-class seat – without paying extra no less – I will never know. Flipping open my phone, I noted it was from Jack before reading the clipped military message with a scowl.

"What is it, Daniel Jackson?"

"I think they've got her. Jack too." I replied, handing my phone to Teal'c in case I was reading his message incorrectly. Five years of working with Jack and his breed of military lingo should be enough, but sometimes I still struggled. Teal'c had a much better handle on some of the terms.

"Indeed. I believe the plan has changed. This is no longer recon, but an extraction and clean up." Teal'c replied handing the phone back to me before reaching into his backpack for our radios, then stalking towards the exit.

"Clean up?" I queried. Teal'c merely nodded, his dark eyes telling me to expect carnage. "You don't think he's in charge? Do you?" I asked referring to the darker version of Jack. My hand went unbidden to my throat which was now mostly healed. I swear I could still feel the pressure some days.

"I do." Teal'c responded before he moved off towards the exit.

Not having checked luggage made it so much easier. Before Jack and SG-1, I frequently travelled with a case of books and two other bags of clothes. Navigating airports and train stations was always a gruelling task. Feretti and Kawalski cured me of that pretty quickly on the first trip to Abydos after I spent the better part of a day collecting all of my books from down the side of a sand dune.

Unfortunately, the General had been unable to secure a car from McChord, so we would have to take a cab. Walking out not more than a couple of metres behind Teal'c, I noticed he had already flagged one down. As soon as we were moving, I flipped my phone back open to message Jack.

"Ack. ETA 15m. Radios hot." I had no idea if Jack even had a radio, but if he did, at least he knew that we were receiving.

"Roger." Came the reply shortly afterwards.

I was about to put my phone away when it struck me that we should know what we were walking into. The original plan was for us to investigate the hospital and hope to avoid Sam being taken. Tapping out "Plan A, B or C?" into the phone I hit send.

"Winging it, SM!" I groaned at his answer and showed Teal'c. Obviously, SM was his militaristic version of that god awful nickname he bestowed upon me back on Abydos the first time.

"It is a good thing we are prepared, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c replied before looking back out the window at the passing cityscape.

"You can say that again." I grumbled.

"It is a good thing we are prepared, Daniel Jackson." He repeated with a sly smile.

"Thanks, Teal'c." I replied drily before laughing at his attempt to lighten the mood. The last we had seen of Sam; she was storming out of the briefing room after a rather spectacular display that somehow managed to not get me killed. As for Jack, he disappeared not long after her. We both knew where he was going. The fact that he was scooped up with Sam meant he was with her overnight.

"We should report this development to General Hammond." Teal'c advised, his eyes still fixed to the cityscape.

"And say what? Sam was taken. Jack is with her because he went to her house yesterday and never left. We can't hang them out to dry like that Teal'c." As much as I hated what the frat regs were doing to my friends, I could not be a party to them losing everything because they didn't follow the right channels. Telling the General would make me just that.

"Major Carter is currently not in O'Neill's command. They are breaking no rules." He reminded me of the brief off the record chat we had had with the General after Jack bolted yesterday. General Hammond already knew where Jack would go and what would happen, which is why he stood Sam down from SG-1 and lodged transfer paperwork to the Science Division rather than just grounding her because of her pregnancy. Teal'c was right, but it didn't make me feel any better, even knowing that they were being spared a court-martial due to extenuating and highly classified circumstances.

That whole drama with Kinsey was concerning me. The man seemed hellbent on bringing the SGC down.

Twelve minutes later, we were pulling up to the front of the dilapidated building. After paying the driver, I double tapped the PTT button on our radio to signal that we were in place as per SG-1 SoP when on a mission. The radio buzzed.

"Take the front, clear ground. I'll take the basement." Jack ordered. The lack of a buzz meant he was still transmitting. "The basement! We should go straight to level one!" Jack said again, only with a different tone of voice. "Hey, whose operation is this?" He said again, then the radio buzzed. Looking at Teal'c with an amused expression. I pressed the button.

"Ah, Jack. Are you talking to yourself?" I asked, trying to hide the laughter in my voice. These two were a regular Laurel and Hardy all by themselves.

"Shut up Space Monkey. Take ground." He repeated his original order and closed transmission. Double-clicking our affirmative, we looked at the entrance and its two obviously preoccupied guards.

"What is the plan, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked nonchalantly.

"Well, I've always wanted to play the electrocuted card before zatting someone." I replied with a smirk.

Two hours later - St. Christina's, Level One - Jack O'Neill (Shadow)

TRIGGER WARNINGS - SKIP IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO READ!

We had just left the basement, basically the parts you would ever want to go – the morgue, furnace, storage etc. – parts that most people never saw. The stench of burnt flesh permeating the air in the furnace room had sent my heart rate soaring. "Dammit Jack!" I berated him before bringing things back under control. I knew it couldn't be Carter because they had only taken her from the ship two hours ago. That, and the hair wasn't right. Unfortunately convincing the other half of me that it wasn't her wasn't as cut and dry as it should have been. Shaking my head, I should have known that forcing him to acknowledge his feelings would cause this. She was our one weakness.

Keying my radio with the code we used to initiate contact, I waited while climbing the stairs.

"O'Neill. Two down at reception."

"Good. KIA's in the basement. Moving to one." I informed him, then pocketed the radio. He signalled the affirmative with two clicks.

There had been two men down there - soldiers, guards or whatever - flunkies taking care of the evidence. The first one ended his days silently, one of my hands on the back of his neck, the other wrapped around his chin and twist.

Clean.

Quiet. Other than the snap of delicate bones.

The second not so much, though the dirty discarded pillow had muffled the noise of both his gasping screams as I pushed his body into the side of obscenely hot furnace and the bullet that put him out of his burning misery. Two sets of dog tags in my pocket, more ammunition, though with 14 left, I probably wouldn't need it. They had been despatched quickly and easily, just like I remembered from the old days. Days when I would kill, burn and destroy, then lock it away so that he could go home and sleep. Before Charlie had died. Before we met Sam.

I had felt him staring at what remained of the woman the second man had been pushing into the ovens. A slowly blackening husk licked by orange and red flame. Just another memory that I would lock away when this was done, though now that we were one, I wasn't sure how easy that would be anymore.

Level one so far had consisted of empty rooms, devoid of everything. No beds, no curtains, no window treatments. Nothing but the sounds of radios, not ours. Ducking into one of those rooms before they turned the corner, I purposefully turned on the light to draw their attention. Hushed whispers and almost silent footsteps told me they had picked up the anomaly. The appearance of a gun welding arm as he moved in to sweep without checking behind the door.

Wait for it.

"Moving in. Cover the hall." He whispered to the guard behind him. Rookie move. Never leave your wingman. A strategically placed hand on the pressure point at the back of his head had him sinking silently to the ground as my knife sunk deep into his side puncturing his lung. Moving him to the side, I stood tall and waited for his partner to come in after him. He didn't, choosing instead to continue watching the hall in the direction I had come from. Stepping silently behind him as he spoke.

"What's the hold u-csssk-" The question dying in his throat as he fell to the floor with a second smile, another casualty of my pilfered combat knife. Wiping the blood onto my BDU pant leg, I sheathed it before dragging him into keep his friend company in the afterlife. Two more sets of dog tags, though as ex-military, they didn't have to wear them. Old habits died hard.

Coming back out into the hall, I avoided the new paint job as I continued down towards the next room and the next and the next. All empty, save one trolley of scalpels, bandages, a kidney dish and what looked like an adrenalin shot. Probably expired. Not that it still wouldn't cause havoc on a human body. Picking up everything but the dish, I pocketed my gains and moved on. More empty rooms. Then one with three guards playing poker, a fourth asleep. I could feel the Colonel part of Jack arc up wanting to yell at them. Me. I just wanted to watch them die while they begged for their lives. Just being part of the crew that took my Samantha made their lives forfeit.

"I see your bet and raise you a 50." The chink of plastic chips clattering on the wheeled breakfast table.

"Fold."

"C'mon man, seriously?"

They didn't even know I was there. Movement on the bed revealed that the sleeping man was not sleeping and not alone. Watching a little longer, I felt Jack squirm when it was clear what the guard was doing to the almost unconscious woman on the bed. A shock of short blonde hair had Jack reeling. Without thought for our safety, I lunged through the door taking the trio unawares. Burying the adrenalin shot into the neck of the closest one, I used him as a shield long enough to take out the other two with my appropriated pistol.

"What the fuck!" The fourth yelled from his prone position while his aroused body kept up its rhythm. The blonde woman who was not Carter sporting glassy not-all-there eyes rimmed red, though she still fixed them on me. Cheeks streaked with dirty tears. Stepping forwards, I took the bandage from my pocket and wrapped it around his neck - once, twice, three times - and pulled him backwards off the bed until his arse hit the floor. Hauling him up by the bandage, he had no choice but the follow my silent order, his hands desperately trying to relieve the pressure.

"Think you're a big tough man. Doing that to her when she can't fight you." I asked in his ear. Holding the bandage tight, I heard him gasp something, but his words died in his throat. Not that it mattered. Producing the scalpel, I raised it so he could see. "What do you think I am going to do with this?" I asked. More garbled words. Dropping my hand, I placed the blade at the base of his still erect cock and with a flick of my wrist I opened him up along the prominent vein. Base to tip. A hoarse scream emanated from his throat moments before I crushed his larynx with a heavy jerk of the bandage. Releasing him, he dropped to the floor struggling. It would be contest between the asphyxiation and blood loss, but one of them would claim his life.

Walking over to the woman to cover her exposed body. She smiled as best she could, but whatever they had done to her along with what I suspected was long-term sexual abuse, it was too much. Sunken eyes, matted hair, needle tracks on her arms, cracked lips and raspy breathing. Taking a hold of her hand, "You can sleep now." I murmured the same words Sam said to me once. I wasn't all dark. With what strength she had, her fingers squeezed mine as she closed her eyes. I watched as she took her last breath, the rattle telling me she'd finally let go. Breaking the chain of her dog tags, I checked the name, rank and service. Ensign Lucille Albyn, Navy. It was not one I recognised from MacKenzie's report. Nevertheless, she was still a soldier. Slowly, I pulled the sheet up to cover her face.

Pulling the radio out of my pocket, I opened the line to report.

St. Christina's - undisclosed location – Sam Carter

Opening my eyes, the first thing I noted was that I was on a bed in scrubs. The second thing was the nearby voices coming from somewhere behind me, neither of which I recognised.

They were arguing.

"We have to do it now!" One stated unequivocally, his voice gravelly or perhaps nasally. I imagined that he was pushing his pointer finger into a table or stamping his feet as he said those words.

"Why? We got her a whole week earlier than expected. Conrad doesn't even know she is here yet. Brooks wanted to…" The other started.

"Brooks is out of the picture!" The first one shot back, interrupting the one who sounded like he might be a little on my side. "It's done." He added. Done? What was done?

"What! Since when?" The demand came.

"Two hours ago. We have to get it out. Maybe then he'll let her go." His gravelly voice had a pleading edge to it.

"He'll - let - her - go?" The words spaced out. "Are you stupid or just naïve Andrew?"

"He's holding all the cards Lucas. All I have to do is..." His sentence was cut off by a sharp guffaw.

"Seriously? You're ready to bow over to this government spook because you think he'll spare your girl. Don't you see Andrew? She was as good as dead the moment MacKenzie caught her." The second man exclaimed. "We are doctors, Andrew. We save lives, not take lives."

"We are saving lives, Lucas. The research we are doing could…"

"You are talking about the death an unborn child and it's mother, Andrew!" The one I now knew as Lucas accused, his voice taking of an edge of concern. I swallowed hard as my stomach twisted.

My thoughts went straight to my baby. Closing my eyes, I reached out to my little girl, but sensed nothing. 'No. Please.' I thought. Reaching out again, but still there was nothing. Had I miscarried while I was out of it? Maybe that was why my clothes were different. Swallowing back the bile that rose in my throat, I focused on the table beside me. There were scalpels of various sizes, a cranial drill, vials of some sort of clear liquid, several syringes and a variety of gauze and bandages. There was discomfort in my abdomen, one that hadn't been there before. Gingerly and carefully, I moved my hand over the location of the area and found a taped piece of gauze.

"At least, give it until the results come back." Lucas pleaded. The word results bounced around my brain and collided with the knowledge of the wound I had my hand on. They had performed an amniocentesis while I was under. A procedure that I knew could cause miscarriage if done too early. They had violated me, and now I couldn't feel my baby the way I had gotten used to over the last week. Holding back the sob, I shut my eyes tight. Where are you, Jack?

"Fine! But then we do it." The gruff voiced doctor relented.

I'd heard enough. I needed to get out of here. I didn't know how long I had been out or where Jack was. I knew he would come for me… eventually. The problem was I didn't know if it would be soon enough. Rolling sideways, I tumbled off the bed but managed to keep myself on my feet, grabbing onto the trolley to steady myself. Both doctors stopped arguing and looked toward me.

"She's strong." The man whose voice I recognised as 'Andrew' muttered to his offsider. The light from the room bounced off his balding head and glasses. The other doctor looked half his age and pale with blond hair.

Picking up a large scalpel, I aimed it toward him as he moved closer. "Stay away from me." I threatened with the inadequate knife that I knew would do nothing to stop his advance, stumbling as I moved to put the bed between us. "You killed my baby. How could you?" I accused, unable to stop the sob. "HOW COULD YOU?" I screamed, my stretched out arm shaking with the effort it took to hold the blade.

"Your baby is fine, Major." 'Doctor Lucas' said as the other one moved toward me.

"Then why can't I feel her!" I demanded in a choked sob, forgetting momentarily that at five weeks, it was impossible to feel or hear anything. A look of confusion passed over the younger man's face. The older one moved closer. I swung my arm in a sweeping slash toward him. "Stay away! Stay AWAY!" I screamed, my other hand clutching my stomach. I could feel the warm tears trekking down my face as my lip quivered. Taking step after shuffling step, I lost my balance and sank unceremoniously to the floor as wracking sobs erupted from my chest. I felt so empty. A deep void of nothingness. Looking up at the doctor approaching me with blurry vision, this time from sheer emotional distress. My hand shook, still clutching at the scalpel as he moved in to disarm me. Unable to fight him any longer, my arm dropped. The last thing I remembered as my body gave way to the remnants of the drug combined with exhaustion and an overload of mental anguish was two pairs of arms carrying me back to the bed.

St. Christina's – Level Three - Jack O'Neill (Normal)

Why did this place have to be so big? Between the three of us, we had managed to clear from the basement - half of which was a carpark and the other half housing some of the less pleasant sides of hospitals - up to the second level. Whilst I was only along for the ride while my shadow was in charge, I could not stop thinking about what we had seen before despatching the men in the furnace room. "It wasn't her Jack. The hair was red." He reminded me for the umpteenth time as we moved room by room clearing each one.

Daniel and Teal'c were currently on level two, and we had skipped a floor to level three. There were at least two more levels after these if we still didn't find Sam. My radio blipped four times. That meant they had not found anything worth reporting back and were moving the fourth level. By anything worth reporting, they meant Sam. My shadow's standing order had been to neutralise anyone else. Moving slowly through the corridors, we cleared each room methodically, taking out any guards, then twisted the lock on the inside of the door. The people running this place probably had keys, but a locked door would still slow them down. The things we had seen were straight out of a horror movie, and somehow I did not think we had seen the last of it.

Opening a room door, my breath hitched, though my body did not make a sound. There was someone in the bed. Another woman. Moving on silent feet, we checked the bathroom. Nothing. Casting our eyes over the woman, I noted brown hair. Not Carter then. She was hooked up to several machines monitoring everything from heart rate to oxygen levels and brain waves. The problem was they were all turned off. Picking up the chart at the end of her bed, we noted the name – Major Jessica Heyland, Air Force. One of ours from the Academy. She was mostly covered and I suspected that if we were to check, we would find the same damage as the last one.

Looking back at the woman who looked nothing like the ID photo on her admission papers. She was a shadow of the soldier in her photograph. Skin taut over sunken eye sockets, a jaw with chiselled edges and greasy looking hair plastered to her scalp instead of the plump smiling face framed with brown full-bodied hair. Moving up the side of her bed, I felt my arm reach out and press two fingers to her carotid artery. Nothing. She was dead. Swallowing harshly to stave off the feeling rising bile in my throat - though I knew no such thing was happening - we covered her face and moved out of the room, resuming the search a little more urgently and a lot angrier.

Continuing down the corridors, I cleared room after room. All were empty. Twenty minutes later, I had just reached the last room, my radio buzzed.

"Jack. We found her." My heart jolted when he didn't elaborate on her condition.

"Where?" I asked as I took the stairs two by two as quietly as I could.

"Level four examination rooms." Daniel replied lowly. "There are two doctors. Guards are taken care of."

Tucking the radio into my pocket, I felt Jack pushing my body harder getting to the top in record time for a man with one shotty knee. Stopping at the top of the stairwell, I ducked my head out to check it was clear even though Danny said it was. Doing so was habit. Advancing as fast as possible while maintaining my stealth, I signalled to the others to cover me since we had no idea if they were armed or if they had other guards on the way.

"You're going to kill her?" A voice in the room questioned loudly.

"She'll be saving millions of lives, Lucas." Another man answered. I recognised his voice from when they collected Sam from the Tel'tak.

A flash of dark anger rippled through me accompanied by images of Sam looking like the other women I had found. There was no way. Moving into the room with my gun held high aimed at the doctor nearest to Carter. A bald man standing on the opposite side of the bed facing the doorway, a large needle in one hand.

"Drop it! Don't even fool around." I ground out. When he didn't follow my order, I aimed at his head.

"Put - it - down." I demanded, stretching the order out.

"Or what, Colonel?" He said in his pinched tone of voice, needle held high.

The other doctor at the end of Sam's bed backed away, hands in the air, towards a trolley. I could see a hand gun sitting there. Without taking my eyes off the one with the needle, I swung my firing arm wide and pulled the trigger, taking out a knee. The doctor dropped to the ground in a screaming heap. Aiming my gun back to the first doctor, trusting that my non-verbal answer was all he needed.

The commotion startled Sam awake. She turned her head, a look of sheer panic crossing her face just as the doctor hauled her up and held her fast using her as a shield, the point of the needle resting against her neck, his finger on the plunger. Moments later, Daniel and Teal'c entered the room. Daniel moved to the writhing doctor on the floor while Teal'c watched the door.

"You kill me, and you kill her. This injection contains potassium chloride. No anaesthetic or muscle relaxant. She will feel every minute of her death. It will not be fast."

"You so much as squeeze that plunger, and I will take you apart piece by piece. Your death will be slower than hers. You hear me." I threatened, taking a step closer to the man who held the mother of my child hostage. "If you step away now, I'll make it fast."

"Jack. What are you doing?" Daniel asked. I ignored him, choosing to stare down the piece of shit in front of me. I knew my eyes were as black as the Ace of Spades. He was in charge, and I was no longer just along for the ride but right there with him. The doctor faltered a little, then removed the needle from Sam's neck and took a step back. I could hear Daniel breath a sigh of relief.

"Smart." We said though still held the gun on him.

"She'll never be safe. Never. She holds the key to saving mil–" BANG! The sound bounced around the small room and he dropped like a sack of wet sand. The entrance hole was neat and didn't bleed that much. Not that there was much left since the back wall had had a makeover. Pocketing the gun and rushing forwards, I gathered a shaking Sam into my arms as she sobbed.

"I got you, baby. I've got you." Moving my hand under her scrub top, I splayed it over her stomach.

"She's gone, Jack. She's…" Sam cried inconsolably. The emotion bleeding out threatened to consume me. I couldn't lose another child. Closing my eyes, I concentrated harder. She had to be there. I was about to give up when my hand warmed up and a small voice greeted me in my mind. When Sam realised, her tears started coming harder along with heavy hiccupping sobs as she placed her hands over mine, smile of relief and joy crossing her face. "Oh God! I-I thought… I lost her!" Gathering her into my arms, we shared a relieved kiss, and I was surprised to feel tears of joy trailing down my face.

"Never gonna happen Sam. She's a Carter." I replied with my own smile as I felt Shadow Jack recede into my mind taking all the bad things with him, leaving nothing but a foggy memory of the last two hours. Looking over to Daniel who was tending to the downed doctor and his barely there kneecap, I then turned to Teal'c, who nodded at my silent request for a clean up crew, then pulled out his phone. I could hear Teal'c relay the information about the guards and the women in his succinct tone while Sam clung to me.

"I love you, Jack." Sam whispered as she held onto to my shoulders, the after effects of the drug making her languid and a little floppy. "Take us home?"

Scooping her up into my arms, "You betcha, snookums." I responded, earning myself a cheesy smile and a giggle.

Saturday afternoon - Cheyenne Mountain Complex - General Hammond

Nine, Sir - Yes, Sir - No, Sir - On their way now, Sir. Those had been my answers to the rapid fire questioning of a very pissed off General of the Air Force regarding the unsanctioned operation that concluded before I knew my two best officers were missing. Not my most pleasant phone call. Not my most unpleasant one either. The call from my late wife Annette's doctor telling us that she was no longer responding to the chemotherapy would always remain the worst.

Nine. Soldiers dead. Ex-soldiers dead. Another six in our custody courtesy of Daniel and Teal'c.

One. Doctor dead. A second doctor plus a nurse missing according the doctor left alive.

Three. Civilians dead. That we knew of. How many more had been lost? I guess we will never know.

As for Adrian Conrad and his resident Goa'uld. No trace other than an empty tank set up and a dead secretary.

On top of that, there was no evidence that Colonel Frank Simmons had ever been there. None of those left alive had any knowledge of the man. A solid alibi placed him in Colorado Springs, having a long lunch in a downtown cafeteria with another NID agent. We had no idea how he could be in two places at once. A mystery that created a project the Joint Chiefs had foisted onto the already overloaded R&D Department at Area 51.

If it wasn't for the sheer lack of experienced commanders at the SGC, I had no doubt that Jack would be spending his days in a small cell courtesy of the US Government. Not to mention his importance to the program as the main contact for Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard. The little grey alien was convinced that O'Neill was genetically advanced, though we had yet to be given any specifics surrounding that.

Kinsey had managed to convince the President that his little display was blown out of proportion. The video footage had disappeared before it ever made it to the White House, though he made damn sure that the footage of Colonel O'Neill's attempt on Doctor Jackson's life and his shadow's display that scared several years off Warner's life got plenty of attention from the JCS and the President. In fact, it may well have been that initial display that saved the Colonel's bacon. Well that, along with revealing another shady operation and the seizing of a relatively intact Tel'tak.

Despite all that, the General had made it clear that the Colonel was on good behaviour for six months - without pay - returning to active duty no more than six weeks from now after a full physical and mental evaluation. If at any time during that probation period, he displayed less than stellar behaviour, a harsher punishment would be meted out. The General had not been forthcoming in what that punishment may be, but considering the arsenal the man held at his fingertips, let's just say that Jack could very well find himself beholden to the Air Force as the only demoted Captain commanding an SG team since Jonas Hanson with his time on this side of the Stargate spent in the brig.

As for Major Carter, he wasn't in the least bit impressed that she managed to get herself pregnant to her CO. I should have known that the General of the Air Force would never have believed the story perpetuated by Doctor Jackson. There was just too much history between the Colonel and Major for that to be in any way believable. Thankfully, Doctor Fraiser had defended her stating that she had been protected by birth control. The unforeseen injury and subsequent use of strong antibiotics to stave off infection in her myriad of wounds had made it possible for such an eventuality. Her placement in the Science Division whilst not a demotion, would pretty much stall her career. She'd be a Major until such time that she reached the maximum number of years, and then only if there was a Colonel's position open.

Pulling a stack of paperwork towards me, I started the process of reading and signing. Maybe in a couple of years, I'd convince the Joint Chiefs to promote Colonel O'Neill and put him in charge of this place so that he could finally understand the what it was like to have to deal with irreverent Colonel's like him.

I smiled to myself. A fitting punishment I think.

A/N: Thank you for sticking with me through this monumental story. It has been written and rewritten many times over the last goodness knows how long it has taken me to post. I thank you all for your patience and the comments.