Like Quite
Dreams Held Tight
....Hold those things you most love close... for tomorrow, they may be gone.
Title: 01: A Beginning
Rating: T
Beta'd By: sela21k *hugs*
Summary: They lose some, they gain some, and they will always be SG-1.
Author's Note: Well, here goes the start of my first serious chapter story... *is both nervous and excited* Hope you all like it! And thank Sela for the wondeful beta'ing. ;)
Chapter One
-A Beginning-
Some stories start with a beginning; perhaps the meeting of two strangers, or the escape of a prisoner, or the birth of a child destined to rule.
Some stories, however, begin with an ending.
This is one of them.
It came as the engine rumbled into life, settling into a purr that was completely unsuitable for the black pick-up it was in. The wheels grabbed the road easily, pulling out onto the road, and heading south.
A half-wave out the window, a brief glance in the rearview mirror- and then it was gone, turning around the bend; then *he* was gone, leaving a hole in their lives.
For the remaining members of SG-1, it was just one more moment that would make or break them.
“Umm… Jack?” Daniel frowned and turned around, catching up with the General easily. “What are you doing?”
Jack glanced at him over the stack of boxes and sighed slightly.
“What does it look like I’m doing, Daniel?”
“...moving?”
“Exactly.” He hit the elevator button and it opened almost immediately.
Sam blinked as she quickly took in the stack of boxes, Daniel’s worried expression, and her former CO’s exasperated look.
“Sir?”
“If you’ll let me in, I’ll explain.” He gestured roughly with the cardboard packages and she hastily pressed herself to the side, giving the large boxes more than enough room. With Daniel slipping in behind their CO, the elevator quickly became crowded; Sam slipped a few boxes from the top of the stack to help ease the burden on her commander.
And then they both stared at Jack. The stare was distinctly child-like; similar to the one given by a confused first grader who’s waiting for his mother to explain something.
Jack’s lips twitched as he kept a grin in tight check.
“I’ll tell you in a minute; just let me put these in the truck.” Right on cue, the doors opened with a sulky groan and he started to walk out; unfortunately Teal’c was standing there, eyebrow raised.
“O’Neill?”
“Look, come on up to the surface with me and I’ll talk. But please- these are getting *heavy*.” The Jaffa obligingly took the heavier of the remaining packages and moved out of the way, letting Jack lead the troops up to his truck.
“Why are you transporting containers to your automated vehicle, O’Neill?” Teal’c asked as they walked easily down the concrete halls.
“That’s what we’d like to know,” Sam said, glancing at him with a smile. It didn’t hide the faintly worried look in her eyes, but it was genuine.
“Are you retiring?” From the look that Jack shot Daniel, not only was the answer to that a resounding ‘no’, the question itself was innately stupid. Somehow.
“I tried that once- no, make that *two* times, and look what happened.” He waved the boxes in front of them in an empathic gesture that almost sent a hapless Airman to the Infirmary. “Oops. Sorry.”
“So…” Their archeologist prompted once the four had loaded the boxes on the pickup, which was almost full already. Jack took a moment to lean against the tailgate, pursing his lips thoughtfully.
“I’m going to Washington.”
All three stared at him, in mixed degrees of shock, disbelief, and stoic blankness/eyebrow-raising.
“Seriously?” Sam and Daniel asked in unison. He glared at them.
“Yes. Seriously. What, you think I’d joke about this stuff?” Then he sighed, looking tired suddenly. “Apparently they want someone for the ‘Head of Homeworld Security’ position in Washington and I got picked.”
“Why not Hammond?”
“I’m guessing they figured he’s too hard headed to manipulate.”
“And you’re not?”
“Their mistake. And…”
“…yeah.”
“Wow. Politics. That’s… a bit of surprise.” She adopted an innocent look when Jack glanced her way. “What?”
“In-deed.”
“Well, even *I* have higher-ups. So this is it for now. Have fun with your new commander.” He joked half-heartedly. They watched silently as he opened up the driver’s door and slid in, turning to look back at them before he closed it.
“Take care. And write. Or call. If I miss the memos, I’ll probably miss the letters.”
And he was gone.
Moments, minutes later, the three turned slowly back to the Mountain and began to head back in. Finally, throwing off the morose air that had descended abruptly upon them, Daniel took a breath and visibly perked up.
“I wonder if we should warn Major Davis who’s headed his way…”
And, right on cue, the klaxons began their forlorn wailing.
-
“So, how’re things over there?”
“Good.”
“Okay.”
“Acceptable.”
“The speaker phone’s working, I assume?”
“Yeah. Took Sam three tries to get it right.”
“Hey, why is it that every time there’s a mundane problem, *I’m* the one who gets stuck trying to make it work?”
“Because, Carter, when the single woman on this planet who can dismantle and reconstruct a naquadah generator in three minutes *can’t* work a VCR, it’s funny.”
*Snort*
“I am inclined to agree with O’Neill.”
“See? Good ol’ Teal’c even agrees with me!”
“…upon careful consideration, I have decided it is wiser to say that ColonelCarter is fully capable of doing ‘anything she puts her mind to’.”
“Hey- no switching sides! That’s just not fair!”
“How’re the politicians, Jack?”
“Oh good God, don’t get me started. You know, this places needs to be shaken up a bit. Maybe we could arrange for a few motherships to try and invade over here. You’d think they’re not taking the whole ‘universe bent on destroying us’ thing seriously!”
“Well, you have to admit it’s a bit hard to believe it when you haven’t seen the things we have, sir.”
“Yeah, well, that’s not a good enough excuse. How was your last mission?”
“…”
“… look, guys, the only thing keeping me from coming back there and re-instating myself as SG-1’s leader is one) Carter’s doing a damn fine job of it; two) I’d probably get court-martialed; and three) I’m counting on you guys to *tell* me, not make me read those damn mission reports.”
“…well, the people there were *blue*…”
“See! Was that so hard? Now, keep talking.”
“…”
“And yes, Carter, even the sciencey-techno babble.”
“Well, we found a generator that’s very similar to our electric ones of the early 1900a, but instead of running on a fuel we know of, they’ve actually enhanced the design and efficiency enough for it to run on air; and the possibilities of doing something to our technology is looking more and more achievable, and…”
-
It was one of the better endings to a mission, all things considered. Everyone was in (mostly) one piece, they were back on time, the natives were promising trade…
…and they didn’t have to worry about the NID trying to take over the base (again).
“Welcome back, SG-1.” Walter looked at them with faint relief; the team being back meant that nothing too bad could go wrong. “You’re scheduled for a briefing at oh-eight-hundred.” Sam nodded in response, heading off towards the locker room as the rest of SG-1 followed her- not two, now, but three.
Major Hal Brooks was a good man; honest to almost a fault, willing to listen, with honor and loyalty ingrained into his simple character. But the others knew him for what he was- a spy for the NID.
Not that he wanted to be, of course. It was just when someone held the safety of your wife and child as a bargaining tool, there wasn’t much you could do.
Hal was on their team because the NID hadn’t been able to force Hammond out of his position as Head of the SGC. So they had chosen to weasel their way in through underlings: at least half of the new recruits were in some way connected with the civilian organization. Not that they openly acknowledged it. All the same, the SGC knew.
It had been, therefore, with much frustration and under great pressure that Hammond had assigned a fourth member to SG-1.
We’re too unpredictable to leave unwatched. Carter shed her (what seemed like) armory of weapons, glancing at the worried Brooks out of the corner of her eye.
Too dangerous. Next to her, Daniel shook out sand from his boots, wrinkling his nose.
Too ‘damn loyal’ to O’Neill- The Jaffa purposely relaxed his clenched jaw.
-and Hammond-
-and the values of good and the fight against evil. The ‘originals’ met each other’s quick looks as Teal’c nodded to Hal, hiding his cool dislike for the NID’s influence on the newbie.
“You fought well today.” Then, turning, he strode out to the Cafeteria. Brooks, confused, frowned.
“But- we didn’t fight.”
Jackson shrugged, pulling out his translational notes of the native language.
“He means that you did a good job.”
“Oh.”
Passing him, Sam touched him on the shoulder.
“Really.” And then she was gone, already talking with Daniel about another mission.
They supposed the NID hadn’t figured out they knew about Hal; very few people would look beyond the info sheet and see the hidden nuances that practically screamed ‘wiped’. SG-1 hadn’t survived because they were slackers, though, and the research had paid off.
Whatever reasons, they were very well aware of the agency’s insiders, and avoided them as best as humanly possible.
And if it hadn’t been for Hammond, the entire base might have left long before then. But knowing that the SGC was in danger (though not from an alien, for once) and that he was depending on them, Sam, Daniel, Teal’c and the others held on. No matter how many operatives the enemy had, no matter who was a foothold, Hammond was going to stand by the unspoken ideals and pledges of the Stargate Program.
I will be fair.
I will be just.
I will hold all peoples equal.
No man left behind.
Because after all, all the ‘old-school’ members could sense that something was coming…
…and they knew that it couldn’t be anything good.
-
“…and as we progress into the week, temperatures will drop an astounding twenty degrees from their already low records, leaving Colorado residents in a colder February than the previous ten years…”
“Teal’c, change the channel!” Closing her refrigerator, she tossed a Diet Coke to the archaeologist slumped in a chair; he caught it neatly which was a measure of just how good his reflexes had gotten, seeing as a second earlier he had been half-asleep.
“I find knowing the weather most helpful, ColonelCarter.” The Jaffa retorted calmly, the remote set possessively on the couch arm next to him.
“Looks like it’s going to be a cold one.” Daniel muttered, blinking sleepily. Sam glared at him.
“I know Hammond ordered us to go home at eleven, and while I may have a thousand projects to do myself, it was a good idea. When’d you get home?” He just blinked again up at her, looking infuriatingly innocent, and she dripped cold water on him.
“Ah! Cold, cold, cold- what the hell was that for, Sam? Don’t be mad at us just because Jack hasn’t e-mailed us in a week!” About to splash more ice on him, she paused.
“Someone’s here…” All three glanced instinctively at towards the door, and right on cue the door bell rang. Shooting a split-second look at the other two, Carter straightened and headed purposely towards the door as Teal’c uncrossed his feet on the coffee table and Daniel visibly shifted to ‘alert without coffee’ mode.
Taking a moment to scan the side windows, she twisted the door knob and opened it partway, ready for anything.
A young woman in casual dress was ordinary enough; her hair, pinned back, revealed a pen tucked behind an ear, and her eyes roamed over everything, absorbing the entire scene. The most likely guess was that she worked as a secretary; everything about her said ‘organized’. But it was the focus in her brown eyes, the way she studied every potential obstacle and adjusted her stance to one appropriate for fighting that told Sam she wasn’t who she seemed.
She had been trained to flee first, then fight- it was apparent in every slight movement she made. Carter had no doubt, though, that the secretary would put up quite the resistance if cornered.
It was the fact that she didn’t know the woman- and that there was no reason for a secretary to possibly want to talk to her- that was causing Carter to hesitate.
The other woman spoke first, eyes snapping to her face as soon as the door opened.
“Lieutenant Colonel Carter?”
She raised an eyebrow, tensing slightly. People asking for her by her military rank meant *trouble*.
“Yes?”
“I have some news you might want to hear about; it concerns the disappearance of Brigadier General Jack O’Neill…”
Yeah, *that* kind of trouble.
02: Bidding Time