Possession, Part 10
Title: Possession, Part 10 (of 11)
Author: muck-a-luck, posting in brainofck
Pairing: Daniel Jackson/Goa'uld/Jack O'Neill
Rating: NC-17
Summary: SG-1's luck finally runs out. The ultimate mission failure. A month of possession.
Content/warnings: None.
Spoilers: None.
Disclaimer: If anybody is planning a script like this for SG-1, I'm certainly not going to claim any rights to it. However, I'd be delighted to work in a co-writing/consulting/first-reader/advisory-type capacity, with my fee to be negotiated at that time. :D
Archive rights: Absolutely none. My journals only. muck_a_luck and brainofck
Blame: Blame on this one allllllllll goes to cocoajava for poking the Stargate part of my brain with a huge pointy stick.
Special thanks: To Diana and Kelex and a big recommendation of their excellent story Hammurabi's Code. I have made a note at the end, as well.
For my loyal rugbytacklers, I have done a Stargate crash course located here.
Previous chapters available here.
General George Hammond had been looking for a nice, quiet, Stateside posting prior to retirement. He wanted to spend time with his family; play with his granddaughters; enjoy the fruits of a long and successful career.
Instead, here he was, on the front line, sending his men and women into the unknown, and bringing them back, as often as not, frightened, injured, maimed, contaminated, or dead. Occasionally snaked.
And today he had three key assets that had not come home at all. The intel from the Tokra was a mixed bag, as usual. Their report of Teal'c and Major Carter's movements before the ha'tak attacked were encouraging, but… He stared at the little viewing globe on his desk, with Torranach's hurried, near panicked message to Major Carter. His gut twisted coldly around the idea that the first news he might have to give Jack, restored to himself again, was that the snake had murdered Daniel.
Then Hammond remembered his own gift. A viewing globe handed to Hammond by the snake as a gift in memory of the occasion. The knot in his gut tightened.
Not a day went by that General Hammond didn't think he was too old for this. He went down to the artifacts room to find the view globe himself.
It was a recording, several hours long. Hammond had the impression that it was the snake's last day in Jack's head. It began with Jack and Daniel talking in a garden, and just went on. Hammond understood right away the snake's vindictive motivations in giving these personal moments to an outsider. But as much as he wanted to set the thing aside and not look, with three of his most valued personnel missing, he couldn't risk that the snake had buried some key message deep amidst images of love and lust recorded there.
So he saw Jack confess to Daniel by the pool. He watched Daniel seduce Jack over Tsingtao. He turned his head from touching and lovemaking, but had to listen, or what was the point, and even at his age with his experience he found himself blushing so hot that he had to stop, and step away, and let his breathing and heart rate settle before he came back again, to watch the snake in Jack's body order Daniel's execution.
When it was done, he sat back and rubbed his hands over his eyes. Nothing to see but lovers facing the end. He gave a long shaky sigh. Well, he didn't get to be a general by flinching.
It was a poorly kept secret around the infirmary that General George Hammond worried.
A lot.
Dr. Frasier had standing orders that he was to be informed immediately of changes in her patients' conditions. So it wasn't at all unusual for him to be "coincidentally" in the infirmary at key moments.
Today, it was, as ususal, complete coincidence that he was having a much needed discussion with his doctor about improvements to the mountain's communicable disease protocols about an hour after she took the sedative out of Col. Jack O'Neill's IV drip. Pure coincidence.
Jack opened his eyes. It was like the ending of so many bad dreams - the dingy, dim light of the infirmary, the unpleasantly familiar feeling of tubes attached by needles and friction. Which was how he knew it hadn't been a dream.
"Daniel's dead."
The sound of his voice set off the usual quiet scurry around the room and brought the general and Dr. Frasier to his bedside.
"We don't know that for a fact, Colonel," General Hammond replied.
"He's dead, General. I gave the order to his First Prime myself. They shoved him out into space with no air. Daniel's dead."
Hammond just shook his head.
"We know all about that. But we think Torranach may have engineered a rescue. He seems to have delivered a message to Major Carter. We think she and Teal'c got away in time to help."
"What do you mean, 'We think?'" Jack asked.
"I assume you are aware that the planet the Tokra chose was in a disputed region of space? We were attacked by another ha'tak just as the procedure moving the goa'uld from your body to Torranach's was completed. We evacuated by Stargate, but Teal'c and Major Carter didn't come through. One Tokra said that he had seen them ring up to the surface just before the attack began. Another Tokra reports she saw the ship that brought you to the surface leave just before the attack. It all adds up to Major Carter and Teal'c taking the tel'tak. It's the only thing that makes any sense."
"How long have they been gone?" Jack asked.
"Almost two days now."
Jack just nodded. Hammond realized how empty it sounded. The rescue mission, if successful, would have been a lightening strike. In the context two days sounded like an eternity.
"We have been working with Torranach trying to locate them."
Jack's expression went from calm, solemn resignation to pure fury. His whole body tensed and he started pulling at tubes. The general and Dr. Frasier pounced on him at the same time.
"Colonel, they can come out now, but remember how awful it was the last time you pulled them out yourself," Frazier shouted, as Jack yelled, "What the hell are you thinking? You trust him?!"
After his recent ordeal, Jack didn't have a lot of fight in him. He finally collapsed back panting into the pillows, and Dr. Frasier began the process of unhooking various tubes herself.
"No, we don't trust him," Hammond said, as if the outburst had never occurred. "But he's the only source of information we have. He says that there is a lot of activity in that solar system right now. He thinks they are probably hiding, waiting for things to die down before attempting to land and use the Gate. Under the circumstances, I'm not canceling their codes. I think they're going to come home to us in a few days, and Torranach believes they're going to bring Dr. Jackson with them."
Jack stood in the door of the office, looking tired. Hammond knew that look. Defeat. He'd seen it before on Jack, and he hated it.
"Good to see you on your feet again, Colonel. Come in."
Jack stepped into the room, and shut the door, but didn't sit. He stood awkwardly, eyes wandering the room. The general waited. Jack finally looked him in the eye.
"Did you watch it?" His voice was hoarse. Probably from the removal of the goa'uld through his throat.
Hammond chose not to notice that Jack's eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot.
"Yes, I did. When Major Carter and Teal'c didn't come back with us, I was worried that the thing would have a message - something important I needed to know about what was happening out there…" Hammond kept the statement matter-of-fact. No flinching.
Jack nodded and took an envelope from the inside pocket of his jacket and laid it on the table.
Hammond sighed heavily.
"Jack, I'm not accepting that."
"I know what I would do if I were you, and under any circumstances I can imagine, I'd rather resign than stay."
"What do you think I'm going to do? If it's court martial you're worried about, Colonel, I've never much cared about what two consenting adults in love do with their private lives. The SGC needs you."
"Here's what I think," anger now, and bitterness. "I think if Daniel's alive, SG-1 gets split. And if Daniel's dead, I don't think I can look at the inside of this mountain again. I have to go."
"Colonel, you're not thinking clearly and I'm not accepting this," Hammond prodded the envelope with one finger. "You are an officer on active duty until I say otherwise. I haven't made any decisions regarding you or your team, and I would appreciate you giving me an opportunity to make up my mind before you jump to conclusions."
Jack shook his head, the anger washed away.
"We both know what was on that thing. No CO in his right mind would let me and Daniel out into the field together again."
The colonel looked the general in the eye, and the general refused to look away. But he couldn't bring himself to offer his colonel any reassurances, either. Hammond had already come to the same conclusion himself. He respected Jack too much to tell him outright lies.
It was Jack who finally looked away. When he spoke again his voice was quiet and flat. Defeated again.
"If it's all the same to you, sir, I'd like that thing the snake gave you - the globe thing - I'd like it back."
Hammond hadn't gotten to be a general by blushing in front of his field officers, either.
"I'm not giving you that thing so you can watch yourself execute Daniel over and over. I'll give it to him when he comes back."
They were eye to eye again across the desk.
"You're dismissed, Colonel. I expect you back on this base tomorrow at 0800."
Jack snapped to attention and saluted smartly, then turned on his heel and left. The general had never figured out exactly how Jack put so much insolence into those routine gestures of respect.
Hammond let his head fall back against the smooth, warm leather of the chair. He didn’t get to be a general by flinching. But he was too old for this.
Two days, and Jack hadn't slept. Dr. Frasier reported it wasn't entirely his fault, as his body was adjusting to the removal of the goa'uld's control over his various systems. He prowled the Mountain, appearing for every off world activation of the Gate, even the scheduled ones.
He was driving Hammond completely out of his mind.
Not to mention the effect he was having on the entire rest of the staff of the SGC.
Currently he was dressing down SG-12's newest member. The general might have been amused under other circumstances. The young lieutenant was getting a primer course on a soldier's bad language. The general had been witnessing the growth of Jack's vocabulary for years. Jack had been a cold warrior. He could have picked up the Russian or the Arabic or the Persian in any number of places. But Hammond was fairly certain they could blame the sheer breadth and depth - Greek, French, German, goa'uld, Spanish, Hindi - on Daniel's bad influence.
"Colonel!" Hammond shouted over him.
Jack broke off and looked up. The lieutenant snapped to attention.
"As you were, lieutenant," Hammond said, taking Jack forcefully by the arm and leading him down the hall.
"This stops now," Hammond hissed. "You go home and sleep, or I'm giving you to Dr. Frasier and she'll make sure you sleep. Am I making myself clear? I don't want to see you on this base for forty-eight hours. Keep your cell phone on. I'll call if there's news."
The general gestured to two airmen on duty at a juncture of the halls.
"Escort the colonel to his car, gentlemen. I want him off this base in fifteen minutes. If he gives you any trouble, I authorize you to restrain him and report with him to Dr. Frazier for further orders. Understood?"
Daniel walked through the Gate into the SGC and thought how many times this place had looked like the front door of paradise to him. Home safe, was what this drab, nasty little space meant. It had a special place in his heart.
General Hammond stood at the bottom of the ramp, grinning from ear to ear.
"Welcome home, SG-1! You've kept us waiting long enough!"
Sam stopped at the bottom of the ramp and saluted.
"Good to be back, sir! Where's the Colonel?"
"I sent him home a few hours ago. Trust you people to keep him on tenter hooks for days, then appear as soon as he goes home for some sleep."
They shuffled through the debriefing. It hadn't been a mission per se, and there really wasn't that much to report. Now they were done and Hammond was ready to send them home for a couple of weeks of much needed vacation.
"Well, people…" he began.
"General, can we talk about something else?" Daniel asked quietly.
"Certainly, Dr. Jackson. I just don't want to keep you here longer than necessary."
"I appreciate that, sir. But I was wondering what you're planning to do."
Daniel didn't need to be more specific. They all understood the question he was asking.
Hammond saw the apprehension in Sam's expression, and the stoically blank look that he had learned indicated Teal'c was ready for bad news. And Daniel. Daniel was a cultural anthropologist in the middle of a field study of American military society. Hammond could see that for Daniel the question was more for confirmation of an hypothesis already proposed. Daniel had already accepted defeat.
Hammond looked at his flagship team - with Jack, the luckiest and most gifted group of explorers, he imagined the SGC was ever going to see. No other team in the program had the success rate with both first contacts and tactical missions that this squad could boast.
He sighed and pulled the trigger on them.
"Honestly, Dr. Jackson, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. But my feeling is that for various reasons it's no longer appropriate for you and Colonel O'Neill to serve together in possible combat situations."
"General Hamond, may I speak candidly. And… I believe the phrase is 'off the record'?"
Hammond turned to Teal'c in surprise. He had expected the first argument to be from the civilian on the team, not Teal'c, whom he sometimes thought of as his own First Prime.
"I believe that we can all consider this entire conversation to be off the record Teal'c. Please be as candid as you like."
"I don't understand why you are making this judgment at this time. Surely if you had concerns about the relationship between DanielJackson and O'Neill, you would have separated them months ago."
"Teal'c, not to put too fine a point on this, but one of the reasons our military institutions have so strongly resisted female members over time is the dangerous and detrimental effect inappropriate personal relationships can have on soldiers in harm's way. We have policies to prevent people engaged in…" He groped for an appropriate word, and finally gave up. "We don't usually let two people who are in love serve together. Personal relationships and military ones aren't compatible. Surely you have made similar observations in your own experience?"
General Hammond flinched. He refused to look in Daniel's direction
"Indeed. I am fully aware of your Tauri customs and policies, and they are similar to the Jaffa view. That is why I have been so pleased that you have shown such tolerance with regard to DanielJackson and O'Neill's relationship. I don't understand what has precipitated your need to separate them now."
Now the general was completely flummoxed. He turned to Daniel in surprise, only to find that Daniel himself was staring at Teal'c in shock. Sam was stony faced and silent, but her eyes shifted from Daniel to Teal'c in a way that made Hammond think she was as lost as he was.
"I don't understand what you're trying to say, Teal'c…" he finally admitted.
Teal'c raised one eyebrow in surprise.
"Surely you are aware that DanielJackson and O'Neill have been romantically involved for some time?"
Daniel made a little strangled sound next to him. Teal'c gave him a disapproving glance. When Hammond just stared at him speechless, Teal'c's raised eyebrow turned to an even more disbelieving expression.
"The entire base knows. You can ask any enlisted man in the cafeteria and he'll tell you the various wagers you can join regarding their off world and off-base sexual behavior. Our allies and enemies alike are aware… The Jaffa even have jokes about them."
Their collective response was stunned silence. Teal'c actually gave a tiny huff of exasperation.
"I always assumed you overlooked their relationship because of SG-1's performance. I do not believe I boast when I say that we are consistently your most successful team. I assumed that you let our performance outweigh your lesser concerns about DanielJackson and O'Neill's relationship outside the base."
And then he got it. His First Prime - a man who had arguably outranked General Hammond, as the commander of Aphophis' entire fleet - hisFirst Prime had just offered the general the justification he needed and a possible way out of this mess.
"So you mean to tell me that Dr. Jackson and Col. O'Neill have had a sexual relationship for, what? Months?"
Daniel made another small choking sound and Hammond turned to him. He looked pale and frightened and had apparently completely lost the power of speech.
"I'm sorry, Dr. Jackson, but we are being off the record and candid here and I have to take this opportunity to be sure I fully understand the situation."
He turned back to Teal'c.
"Well? How long has this been going on?"
"I am not certain, as they are actually very discreet when they are here or off world. But I feel confident that they have been intimate since soon after the death of Shau're, and perhaps were… Courting? Is that what you Tauri say? Dating? even before that. O'Neill has clearly been infatuated with DanielJackson for as long as I have known them."
Hammond ignored Daniel, who had laid his head down on his forearms in apparent utter humiliation. The poor man was humming to himself a little.
"Major? Why didn't you report this behavior to me?"
"Don't ask, don't tell, sir!" Sam chirped. "Teal'c's absolutely right. They have never shown any overt signs of an inappropriate relationship while I have been working with them, and what I might or might not suspect about them when they're off base and off duty and on their own time is really not relevant."
"But you suspected?" Hammond pressed her.
"Don't ask, don't tell!" She repeated brightly.
"Alright. A different question. Have you ever seen any indication, particularly in the field in dangerous circumstances, that the two of them were influenced by their affection for each other?"
"Well…" Sam appeared to be considering this question carefully. She was smiling a smug little grin that showed that she had caught on and was now thoroughly enjoying herself. Daniel raised his head in morbid fascination, waiting for her reply.
"Frankly, sir, we're all a little overprotective of Daniel. He's the civilian on the team and the only combat training he's ever really gotten he's gotten from the three of us. I've never seen the Colonel behave any differently towards him than Teal'c or I might and have. And as far as Daniel's behavior is concerned… I've never known him to pull any punches with the Colonel. Have you?"
Daniel made the faintest whimpering noise.
"Fine. So Teal'c, your argument is that this relationship between Dr. Jackson and Col. O'Neill has been ongoing for some time, it's existence has not been detrimental to the performance or safety of this unit, and it's an overreaction for me to take action to stop it now?"
Teal'c inclined his head with the slightest smile. His own equivalent of a smirk.
"I see. Well. I'll take it under advisement, then. Under the circumstances, perhaps it would be appropriate for me to consider being more flexible, as long as SG-1's performance remains exemplary and Dr. Jackson and Colonel O'Neill can maintain the level of decorum they have demonstrated to date…"
Suddenly, all was right with the world. General George Hammond looked them over again. He was fairly certain he had never seen a human being as completely mortified as Dr. Daniel Jackson at that moment, but there was relief on his face, too, so the general allowed a little smile to tug at the corner of his mouth. Teal'c was calm and pleased. Sam was practically dancing.
"Go home, people. I don't want to see any of you for at least two weeks. My captain will call you when I'm ready to put you back on the duty roster. I cannot tell you how delighted I am to have you all home safely and to have successfully sorted this whole business out. Dismissed!"
General Hammond caught Daniel's arm as he made to flee the room.
"Come with me, son. There's something I want you to have."
Possession, Part 10, Supplemental (or, man, I think I screwed that up!)
Possession, Last Chapter
If you're interested, all my stories, in order, from one page. Also, my fiction recommendations.
A special note: I was thinking through Teal'c's argument in my head. I wanted him to make a comment about how the enlisted men joked about Daniel and Jack and their sex life… And it came to me. The perfect comment. The Jaffa even have jokes about them. And for that I must credit Diana and Kelex and their excellent story Hammurabi's Code, in which they wrote this exchange…
Author: muck-a-luck, posting in brainofck
Pairing: Daniel Jackson/Goa'uld/Jack O'Neill
Rating: NC-17
Summary: SG-1's luck finally runs out. The ultimate mission failure. A month of possession.
Content/warnings: None.
Spoilers: None.
Disclaimer: If anybody is planning a script like this for SG-1, I'm certainly not going to claim any rights to it. However, I'd be delighted to work in a co-writing/consulting/first-reader/advisory-type capacity, with my fee to be negotiated at that time. :D
Archive rights: Absolutely none. My journals only. muck_a_luck and brainofck
Blame: Blame on this one allllllllll goes to cocoajava for poking the Stargate part of my brain with a huge pointy stick.
Special thanks: To Diana and Kelex and a big recommendation of their excellent story Hammurabi's Code. I have made a note at the end, as well.
For my loyal rugbytacklers, I have done a Stargate crash course located here.
Previous chapters available here.
General George Hammond had been looking for a nice, quiet, Stateside posting prior to retirement. He wanted to spend time with his family; play with his granddaughters; enjoy the fruits of a long and successful career.
Instead, here he was, on the front line, sending his men and women into the unknown, and bringing them back, as often as not, frightened, injured, maimed, contaminated, or dead. Occasionally snaked.
And today he had three key assets that had not come home at all. The intel from the Tokra was a mixed bag, as usual. Their report of Teal'c and Major Carter's movements before the ha'tak attacked were encouraging, but… He stared at the little viewing globe on his desk, with Torranach's hurried, near panicked message to Major Carter. His gut twisted coldly around the idea that the first news he might have to give Jack, restored to himself again, was that the snake had murdered Daniel.
Then Hammond remembered his own gift. A viewing globe handed to Hammond by the snake as a gift in memory of the occasion. The knot in his gut tightened.
Not a day went by that General Hammond didn't think he was too old for this. He went down to the artifacts room to find the view globe himself.
It was a recording, several hours long. Hammond had the impression that it was the snake's last day in Jack's head. It began with Jack and Daniel talking in a garden, and just went on. Hammond understood right away the snake's vindictive motivations in giving these personal moments to an outsider. But as much as he wanted to set the thing aside and not look, with three of his most valued personnel missing, he couldn't risk that the snake had buried some key message deep amidst images of love and lust recorded there.
So he saw Jack confess to Daniel by the pool. He watched Daniel seduce Jack over Tsingtao. He turned his head from touching and lovemaking, but had to listen, or what was the point, and even at his age with his experience he found himself blushing so hot that he had to stop, and step away, and let his breathing and heart rate settle before he came back again, to watch the snake in Jack's body order Daniel's execution.
When it was done, he sat back and rubbed his hands over his eyes. Nothing to see but lovers facing the end. He gave a long shaky sigh. Well, he didn't get to be a general by flinching.
It was a poorly kept secret around the infirmary that General George Hammond worried.
A lot.
Dr. Frasier had standing orders that he was to be informed immediately of changes in her patients' conditions. So it wasn't at all unusual for him to be "coincidentally" in the infirmary at key moments.
Today, it was, as ususal, complete coincidence that he was having a much needed discussion with his doctor about improvements to the mountain's communicable disease protocols about an hour after she took the sedative out of Col. Jack O'Neill's IV drip. Pure coincidence.
Jack opened his eyes. It was like the ending of so many bad dreams - the dingy, dim light of the infirmary, the unpleasantly familiar feeling of tubes attached by needles and friction. Which was how he knew it hadn't been a dream.
"Daniel's dead."
The sound of his voice set off the usual quiet scurry around the room and brought the general and Dr. Frasier to his bedside.
"We don't know that for a fact, Colonel," General Hammond replied.
"He's dead, General. I gave the order to his First Prime myself. They shoved him out into space with no air. Daniel's dead."
Hammond just shook his head.
"We know all about that. But we think Torranach may have engineered a rescue. He seems to have delivered a message to Major Carter. We think she and Teal'c got away in time to help."
"What do you mean, 'We think?'" Jack asked.
"I assume you are aware that the planet the Tokra chose was in a disputed region of space? We were attacked by another ha'tak just as the procedure moving the goa'uld from your body to Torranach's was completed. We evacuated by Stargate, but Teal'c and Major Carter didn't come through. One Tokra said that he had seen them ring up to the surface just before the attack began. Another Tokra reports she saw the ship that brought you to the surface leave just before the attack. It all adds up to Major Carter and Teal'c taking the tel'tak. It's the only thing that makes any sense."
"How long have they been gone?" Jack asked.
"Almost two days now."
Jack just nodded. Hammond realized how empty it sounded. The rescue mission, if successful, would have been a lightening strike. In the context two days sounded like an eternity.
"We have been working with Torranach trying to locate them."
Jack's expression went from calm, solemn resignation to pure fury. His whole body tensed and he started pulling at tubes. The general and Dr. Frasier pounced on him at the same time.
"Colonel, they can come out now, but remember how awful it was the last time you pulled them out yourself," Frazier shouted, as Jack yelled, "What the hell are you thinking? You trust him?!"
After his recent ordeal, Jack didn't have a lot of fight in him. He finally collapsed back panting into the pillows, and Dr. Frasier began the process of unhooking various tubes herself.
"No, we don't trust him," Hammond said, as if the outburst had never occurred. "But he's the only source of information we have. He says that there is a lot of activity in that solar system right now. He thinks they are probably hiding, waiting for things to die down before attempting to land and use the Gate. Under the circumstances, I'm not canceling their codes. I think they're going to come home to us in a few days, and Torranach believes they're going to bring Dr. Jackson with them."
Jack stood in the door of the office, looking tired. Hammond knew that look. Defeat. He'd seen it before on Jack, and he hated it.
"Good to see you on your feet again, Colonel. Come in."
Jack stepped into the room, and shut the door, but didn't sit. He stood awkwardly, eyes wandering the room. The general waited. Jack finally looked him in the eye.
"Did you watch it?" His voice was hoarse. Probably from the removal of the goa'uld through his throat.
Hammond chose not to notice that Jack's eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot.
"Yes, I did. When Major Carter and Teal'c didn't come back with us, I was worried that the thing would have a message - something important I needed to know about what was happening out there…" Hammond kept the statement matter-of-fact. No flinching.
Jack nodded and took an envelope from the inside pocket of his jacket and laid it on the table.
Hammond sighed heavily.
"Jack, I'm not accepting that."
"I know what I would do if I were you, and under any circumstances I can imagine, I'd rather resign than stay."
"What do you think I'm going to do? If it's court martial you're worried about, Colonel, I've never much cared about what two consenting adults in love do with their private lives. The SGC needs you."
"Here's what I think," anger now, and bitterness. "I think if Daniel's alive, SG-1 gets split. And if Daniel's dead, I don't think I can look at the inside of this mountain again. I have to go."
"Colonel, you're not thinking clearly and I'm not accepting this," Hammond prodded the envelope with one finger. "You are an officer on active duty until I say otherwise. I haven't made any decisions regarding you or your team, and I would appreciate you giving me an opportunity to make up my mind before you jump to conclusions."
Jack shook his head, the anger washed away.
"We both know what was on that thing. No CO in his right mind would let me and Daniel out into the field together again."
The colonel looked the general in the eye, and the general refused to look away. But he couldn't bring himself to offer his colonel any reassurances, either. Hammond had already come to the same conclusion himself. He respected Jack too much to tell him outright lies.
It was Jack who finally looked away. When he spoke again his voice was quiet and flat. Defeated again.
"If it's all the same to you, sir, I'd like that thing the snake gave you - the globe thing - I'd like it back."
Hammond hadn't gotten to be a general by blushing in front of his field officers, either.
"I'm not giving you that thing so you can watch yourself execute Daniel over and over. I'll give it to him when he comes back."
They were eye to eye again across the desk.
"You're dismissed, Colonel. I expect you back on this base tomorrow at 0800."
Jack snapped to attention and saluted smartly, then turned on his heel and left. The general had never figured out exactly how Jack put so much insolence into those routine gestures of respect.
Hammond let his head fall back against the smooth, warm leather of the chair. He didn’t get to be a general by flinching. But he was too old for this.
Two days, and Jack hadn't slept. Dr. Frasier reported it wasn't entirely his fault, as his body was adjusting to the removal of the goa'uld's control over his various systems. He prowled the Mountain, appearing for every off world activation of the Gate, even the scheduled ones.
He was driving Hammond completely out of his mind.
Not to mention the effect he was having on the entire rest of the staff of the SGC.
Currently he was dressing down SG-12's newest member. The general might have been amused under other circumstances. The young lieutenant was getting a primer course on a soldier's bad language. The general had been witnessing the growth of Jack's vocabulary for years. Jack had been a cold warrior. He could have picked up the Russian or the Arabic or the Persian in any number of places. But Hammond was fairly certain they could blame the sheer breadth and depth - Greek, French, German, goa'uld, Spanish, Hindi - on Daniel's bad influence.
"Colonel!" Hammond shouted over him.
Jack broke off and looked up. The lieutenant snapped to attention.
"As you were, lieutenant," Hammond said, taking Jack forcefully by the arm and leading him down the hall.
"This stops now," Hammond hissed. "You go home and sleep, or I'm giving you to Dr. Frasier and she'll make sure you sleep. Am I making myself clear? I don't want to see you on this base for forty-eight hours. Keep your cell phone on. I'll call if there's news."
The general gestured to two airmen on duty at a juncture of the halls.
"Escort the colonel to his car, gentlemen. I want him off this base in fifteen minutes. If he gives you any trouble, I authorize you to restrain him and report with him to Dr. Frazier for further orders. Understood?"
Daniel walked through the Gate into the SGC and thought how many times this place had looked like the front door of paradise to him. Home safe, was what this drab, nasty little space meant. It had a special place in his heart.
General Hammond stood at the bottom of the ramp, grinning from ear to ear.
"Welcome home, SG-1! You've kept us waiting long enough!"
Sam stopped at the bottom of the ramp and saluted.
"Good to be back, sir! Where's the Colonel?"
"I sent him home a few hours ago. Trust you people to keep him on tenter hooks for days, then appear as soon as he goes home for some sleep."
They shuffled through the debriefing. It hadn't been a mission per se, and there really wasn't that much to report. Now they were done and Hammond was ready to send them home for a couple of weeks of much needed vacation.
"Well, people…" he began.
"General, can we talk about something else?" Daniel asked quietly.
"Certainly, Dr. Jackson. I just don't want to keep you here longer than necessary."
"I appreciate that, sir. But I was wondering what you're planning to do."
Daniel didn't need to be more specific. They all understood the question he was asking.
Hammond saw the apprehension in Sam's expression, and the stoically blank look that he had learned indicated Teal'c was ready for bad news. And Daniel. Daniel was a cultural anthropologist in the middle of a field study of American military society. Hammond could see that for Daniel the question was more for confirmation of an hypothesis already proposed. Daniel had already accepted defeat.
Hammond looked at his flagship team - with Jack, the luckiest and most gifted group of explorers, he imagined the SGC was ever going to see. No other team in the program had the success rate with both first contacts and tactical missions that this squad could boast.
He sighed and pulled the trigger on them.
"Honestly, Dr. Jackson, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. But my feeling is that for various reasons it's no longer appropriate for you and Colonel O'Neill to serve together in possible combat situations."
"General Hamond, may I speak candidly. And… I believe the phrase is 'off the record'?"
Hammond turned to Teal'c in surprise. He had expected the first argument to be from the civilian on the team, not Teal'c, whom he sometimes thought of as his own First Prime.
"I believe that we can all consider this entire conversation to be off the record Teal'c. Please be as candid as you like."
"I don't understand why you are making this judgment at this time. Surely if you had concerns about the relationship between DanielJackson and O'Neill, you would have separated them months ago."
"Teal'c, not to put too fine a point on this, but one of the reasons our military institutions have so strongly resisted female members over time is the dangerous and detrimental effect inappropriate personal relationships can have on soldiers in harm's way. We have policies to prevent people engaged in…" He groped for an appropriate word, and finally gave up. "We don't usually let two people who are in love serve together. Personal relationships and military ones aren't compatible. Surely you have made similar observations in your own experience?"
General Hammond flinched. He refused to look in Daniel's direction
"Indeed. I am fully aware of your Tauri customs and policies, and they are similar to the Jaffa view. That is why I have been so pleased that you have shown such tolerance with regard to DanielJackson and O'Neill's relationship. I don't understand what has precipitated your need to separate them now."
Now the general was completely flummoxed. He turned to Daniel in surprise, only to find that Daniel himself was staring at Teal'c in shock. Sam was stony faced and silent, but her eyes shifted from Daniel to Teal'c in a way that made Hammond think she was as lost as he was.
"I don't understand what you're trying to say, Teal'c…" he finally admitted.
Teal'c raised one eyebrow in surprise.
"Surely you are aware that DanielJackson and O'Neill have been romantically involved for some time?"
Daniel made a little strangled sound next to him. Teal'c gave him a disapproving glance. When Hammond just stared at him speechless, Teal'c's raised eyebrow turned to an even more disbelieving expression.
"The entire base knows. You can ask any enlisted man in the cafeteria and he'll tell you the various wagers you can join regarding their off world and off-base sexual behavior. Our allies and enemies alike are aware… The Jaffa even have jokes about them."
Their collective response was stunned silence. Teal'c actually gave a tiny huff of exasperation.
"I always assumed you overlooked their relationship because of SG-1's performance. I do not believe I boast when I say that we are consistently your most successful team. I assumed that you let our performance outweigh your lesser concerns about DanielJackson and O'Neill's relationship outside the base."
And then he got it. His First Prime - a man who had arguably outranked General Hammond, as the commander of Aphophis' entire fleet - hisFirst Prime had just offered the general the justification he needed and a possible way out of this mess.
"So you mean to tell me that Dr. Jackson and Col. O'Neill have had a sexual relationship for, what? Months?"
Daniel made another small choking sound and Hammond turned to him. He looked pale and frightened and had apparently completely lost the power of speech.
"I'm sorry, Dr. Jackson, but we are being off the record and candid here and I have to take this opportunity to be sure I fully understand the situation."
He turned back to Teal'c.
"Well? How long has this been going on?"
"I am not certain, as they are actually very discreet when they are here or off world. But I feel confident that they have been intimate since soon after the death of Shau're, and perhaps were… Courting? Is that what you Tauri say? Dating? even before that. O'Neill has clearly been infatuated with DanielJackson for as long as I have known them."
Hammond ignored Daniel, who had laid his head down on his forearms in apparent utter humiliation. The poor man was humming to himself a little.
"Major? Why didn't you report this behavior to me?"
"Don't ask, don't tell, sir!" Sam chirped. "Teal'c's absolutely right. They have never shown any overt signs of an inappropriate relationship while I have been working with them, and what I might or might not suspect about them when they're off base and off duty and on their own time is really not relevant."
"But you suspected?" Hammond pressed her.
"Don't ask, don't tell!" She repeated brightly.
"Alright. A different question. Have you ever seen any indication, particularly in the field in dangerous circumstances, that the two of them were influenced by their affection for each other?"
"Well…" Sam appeared to be considering this question carefully. She was smiling a smug little grin that showed that she had caught on and was now thoroughly enjoying herself. Daniel raised his head in morbid fascination, waiting for her reply.
"Frankly, sir, we're all a little overprotective of Daniel. He's the civilian on the team and the only combat training he's ever really gotten he's gotten from the three of us. I've never seen the Colonel behave any differently towards him than Teal'c or I might and have. And as far as Daniel's behavior is concerned… I've never known him to pull any punches with the Colonel. Have you?"
Daniel made the faintest whimpering noise.
"Fine. So Teal'c, your argument is that this relationship between Dr. Jackson and Col. O'Neill has been ongoing for some time, it's existence has not been detrimental to the performance or safety of this unit, and it's an overreaction for me to take action to stop it now?"
Teal'c inclined his head with the slightest smile. His own equivalent of a smirk.
"I see. Well. I'll take it under advisement, then. Under the circumstances, perhaps it would be appropriate for me to consider being more flexible, as long as SG-1's performance remains exemplary and Dr. Jackson and Colonel O'Neill can maintain the level of decorum they have demonstrated to date…"
Suddenly, all was right with the world. General George Hammond looked them over again. He was fairly certain he had never seen a human being as completely mortified as Dr. Daniel Jackson at that moment, but there was relief on his face, too, so the general allowed a little smile to tug at the corner of his mouth. Teal'c was calm and pleased. Sam was practically dancing.
"Go home, people. I don't want to see any of you for at least two weeks. My captain will call you when I'm ready to put you back on the duty roster. I cannot tell you how delighted I am to have you all home safely and to have successfully sorted this whole business out. Dismissed!"
General Hammond caught Daniel's arm as he made to flee the room.
"Come with me, son. There's something I want you to have."
Possession, Part 10, Supplemental (or, man, I think I screwed that up!)
Possession, Last Chapter
If you're interested, all my stories, in order, from one page. Also, my fiction recommendations.
A special note: I was thinking through Teal'c's argument in my head. I wanted him to make a comment about how the enlisted men joked about Daniel and Jack and their sex life… And it came to me. The perfect comment. The Jaffa even have jokes about them. And for that I must credit Diana and Kelex and their excellent story Hammurabi's Code, in which they wrote this exchange…
- Daniel shook his head and rubbed his eyes. "It's like we're the butt of this big cosmic joke, you know?" He peered up under his wet bangs. "Did you know the Jaffa have dirty jokes about us?"
"No, but I'll make sure to ask Teal'c about it when we get back," Jack answered, humoring Daniel with a smile. "But if it starts with, why did the Tau'ri cross the road, I'm going to have to hurt somebody."