Summery: A routine trip off-world has long-lasting effects for SG-1. Meanwhile, Jack has terrestrial trouble too, when his half-sister is recruited to the SGC and his worlds threaten to collide and all his secrets are in danger of being exposed.
Disclaimer: I do not own "Stargate SG-1" the series. I believe it is owned by MGM. No copyright infringement is intended. No disrespect is intended. I am merely intrigued by the possibilities.
A Matter of Degrees
by: Visions2share a.k.a. Vi
"It doesn't seem fair," Sam spoke to her father for the first time since he arrived, "that I get to have family at the wedding and the Colonel doesn't." It was probably a pipedream to hope her father would decide to return to the Tok'ra.
"Why can't his sister come?
"What sister?"
"Susan Med ... Susan Mel ... something with an M. He introduced her to me this morning and said she just joined the SGC a couple of months ago."
"No," Sam denied. She'd heard nothing about this.
"What do you mean, 'no'? She was in here before - when Selmak and I used the hand device to try and heal you. Janet said she was doing research into crystalline healing and wanted her to observe. Not that there turned out to be much to see."
Crystalline healing? He must be talking about Dr. Mallory - the one with the super genius brother - she was the only recent recruit to the program with a medical specialty.
But if it was her, then that meant the Colonel was related to the super genius too.
In her intake interview, Dr. Mallory had said the genius brother was in the Army - the Colonel had said that was a cover story for the DXS - and if they were related, he might know. But hadn't she said her other brothers were firefighters like their father? There had been no mention of a brother in the Air Force. So, had she purposely omitted him from her list of siblings? Or was something else going on? Maybe her father was confused? If only she weren't so cold, she'd be able to think it through and figure it out.
"Dr. Susan Mallory?" Sam suggested, to see if they were even thinking of the same person.
Her father snapped his fingers. "That was it. Surely you've met."
"Yes. I participated in her intake interview with Daniel and Janet. But she never mentioned having a brother in the Air Force."
"Maybe it's slipped your mind? You aren't exactly firing on all your normal cylinders, after all."
"Mmmm, fire. I think I've forgotten what it feels like to be warm."
Her father laid a hand on her blankets. "I'll go see about getting you some new heated blankets. And see what the hell is taking so long to set up a simple trip through the damn gate."
As her father left the room, Sam tried to hold on to logic and think about a possible connection between Dr. Mallory, her genius brother, and Colonel O'Neill - her soon to be husband. But as soon as she let herself think of the Colonel in those terms, any chance of logic was gone - she allowed herself to drift off into the warm embrace of the now familiar stories.
…
Sam's iso room was crowded again. Jacob was a near permanent fixture, as were Daniel and Teal'C. Janet had sent Dr. Mallory back to the Academy hospital since there apparently wasn't going to be any crystal powered healing to witness after all. The Asgard visitors, Thor, and Heimdall, had to get back to their duties but asked to be kept appraised of Sam's conditions and recovery. Heimdall, though concerned about Sam, was especially anxious to take the Earth research on gene therapy that Janet had provided, and work at applying it to her own research.
Janet was there, ostensibly, to monitor Sam's condition, but was mostly worried about leaving her friend alone with the three men while she was so emotionally vulnerable.
General Hammond and Colonel O'Neill were on the phone with Washington. Janet didn't know why, she thought, the president had already given the go ahead for the wedding.
Sam hadn't spoken the whole time Janet had been in the room and the others had pretty much given up on inducing her into conversation.
"Daniel," Jacob broke the tense silence, "Sam is worried about Jack not having family at the wedding. Can we arrange for his sister to come?"
Janet turned from the monitors to stare at Jacob. She'd just learned the colonel had family a few days before, how did Jacob already know?
"I don't see why not. Unless Jack doesn't want her there for some reason."
"What sister?" Janet asked, hoping to fill in some blanks.
"That's what I said," Sam said, her eyes closed and the rest of her face, and now even the top of her head, covered by blankets.
"Dr. Susan Mallory is, in fact, O'Neill's younger moiety female sibling."
"She, her husband, and their two daughters are staying with Jack while she settles into her new job with us. I'm afraid we, Teal'C and I, scared the little girls when we just walked into Jack's house Saturday morning."
"But ... but ... how? ... who? ...," Sam stuttered.
"Yes," Daniel answered the question she hadn't been able to form, "he is the genius half-brother you've been looking for."
…
Sam's brain was going to explode.
She had been searching for a man, any man, who could live up to the Colonel, she could use to calm the thrumming of her engine. She'd looked everywhere. Even going so far as to hack into secure SGC files in a desperate attempt to find the name of the only man she thought might, might, be able to hold her interest.
But it was all a waste of time because the man she was trying to use as a substitute was the same man she was trying to replace.
She couldn't hold it in. She laughed. Hysterically.
"We've hit a snag, people," General Hammond announced as he walked in. Sam tried to quiet herself, but she couldn't.
"What's the joke?" it was his voice. Just knowing he was in the room made her the tiniest bit warmer. She laughed all the harder.
"You," Daniel said.
"Of course, I'm a very humorous guy."
"I do not believe MajorCarter is responding to your jocularity, O'Neill. I believe MajorCarter's current consternation is due to DoctorJackson's divulging your relationship with DoctorMallory."
"Oh."
"Yeah, sorry about that, Jack. Sam thinks you should have family at the wedding, so Jacob and I were discussing the possibility of her coming with us."
"It's okay. I'd kinda forgotten everybody didn't already know. What with everything else going on."
"So it's true?" Sam calmed herself enough to ask.
"Yep."
"All of it?"
"Well, I don't know what wild tales Danny-boy as been spinning -,"
"Before you explain, Colonel," General Hammond cut him off, "we need to talk about timing for the wedding. President Rhodes has been wanting to visit the base and see the gate in action. He's decided to be here to welcome you home. Which means I won't be able to go - I'll have to be here to greet him. But it also means the wedding can't take place until tomorrow. As that's the soonest he can get here without arousing suspicion."
"Is Carter safe to wait that long, Doc?"
"She's stable currently. Selmak healed some of the damage her condition caused, buying us some time. She's going to be cold and uncomfortable, though, sir."
"I'll sleep," Sam volunteered. "It'll keep me warmer and help pass the time." And spending that time dreaming wouldn't be any hardship.
"I'll be here to keep you company, kiddo," that was the last thing she needed.
"No, Dad. I need you to go back to my house and find Mom's wedding necklace. I'd like to wear it tomorrow."
"Alright, Sam, you win. I'll go find it as soon as Jack's finished explaining why you never knew he had a sister."
…
Jack really didn't want to do this. But if Sam was going to be his wife by this time tomorrow, she had a right to know exactly what she was signing up for. He'd tell her all of it. Eventually. With everybody else also waiting to hear all the juicy details, he'd keep some things to himself for the time being.
For now he'd just try to get it over and done with as soon as possible. "I had just finished my doctorate in chemistry when my number came up and I found myself in the Army and on my way to Vietnam. I did my time there working in bomb disposal. I was recruited by the DXS, but some of my family - my mother and step-father primarily - didn't pass the background checks, so I needed a cover story. We kept it simple and as far as that part of my family was concerned, I stayed in the Army.
"In reality, I climbed quickly up the ladder in the intelligence community - ironic, I know - and became something of a troubleshooter. I was called in when everybody else had failed. Often serving under direct order from whoever was president at the time. I liked it - I was never bored.
"But Sarah hated it. I would get a call out of the blue and disappear for days or weeks on end. And on some memorable occasions, a few months at a time. Coming home all beat up, only to do it again the next time the phone rang.
"I wanted, and thought she wanted, another kid, but she refused as long as I was still doing the job. And there were so many things in Charlie's life I was already missing. Baseball games, parent-teacher conferences, even just playing catch or watching The Simpsons - his favorite show.
"So I retired.
"Three weeks later, Charlie died, and I lost all interest in living.
My aunt, or rather my mother's aunt, was the only person who invested energy in keeping me alive. She was working in the area, at the time, overseeing a research project she swore was fascinating. I didn't care. She'd recruited a brilliant but ostracized young scholar I just had to meet. I wasn't interested. Her research paid off - it worked - wouldn't I come see? I wouldn't. Nothing could pull my attention back to the world.
"Then one day there was a knock on the door. The DXS had a final job for me - a reason to keep living, if only for a few more days. They suspected a guy named West of misappropriating cutting edge technology and selling it. I didn't know why they chose me to handle it after all I was retired. But it was such a relief to have something other than my grief to focus on.
"I needed a cover to slip into the already established team. An Air Force team. So I became an Air Force Colonel.
"I reported for duty and found General West to be just as slimy as my briefing had indicated. But it wasn't until I was introduced to the project head - Catherine Langford - that I understood why I'd been chosen for the assignment.
"She'd already been trying to recruit me to mentor Daniel and monitor West. I'd ignored her when she asked, but she knew me well enough to know if the DXS asked I wouldn't say no.
"When the program got rebooted a year later, and I was again mostly retired, there was no reason not to take the posting here, and it was so much simpler to keep being the guy Daniel knew."
Jack had run himself out of words. And everybody else too, as nobody responded. One by one, they all looked to Carter, waiting for her to have the first say.
Carter pulled the blanket down enough to reveal her whole face before she spoke. "Alright then. But you should have family there tomorrow too, sir. So it's good she knows now and you can bring her. Can't he, General?"
"Of course, Major."
"She'll need a physical first before going through the gate," the doc reminded them.
"I'll bring her in with me tomorrow morning. That give you enough time, Doc?"
"Yes, sir. It'll be good to have another doctor there. I'm concerned how Major Carter's system will respond to the sudden temperature change - from hypothermic to over-heated."
"You should bring Cassie, too," Carter said out of nowhere.
"Cassie? Why?" Fraiser asked.
"If she's part of the wedding party, she'll get to meet the president. Plus, we want her there." Jack could get used to being part of a 'we' again.
Jack tried to suppress his grin as they waited for either Hammond or the doc to veto. Fraiser looked at the general, unsure, but he gave his permission with only one caveat.
"As long as she too can get medical clearance for gate travel, I don't see a problem."
The doc smiled at Carter, "I'll ask her - and I'm sure she wouldn't miss it for anything."
Author's Note: Thanks for reading! ~ Vi