Damned Distasteful Things
"Damned distasteful things."
Jack turned his face toward Daniel, nuzzling into his temple. He pulled his arms a little tighter around the broad chest and back. "What?"
Daniel was sitting with his back against Jack's chest, the sweat of their love making still cooling on their bodies. He reached up to wipe the sweat from his face. "Something Sam heard you say once. She told me about it when we got Teal'c home."
"Remind me to blow you longer first before we get to the main event - your brain is obviously not shut down yet." Jack grabbed a hand towel from the night stand and mopped at his own face. "Either that or I don't fuck like I used to."
Daniel chuckled, a tad humorlessly. "I should have walked into that interrogation room and zatted him three times." He swung his legs over the bed and rested his head in his hands. "I should have killed him."
Damned distasteful things. Jack remembered the conversation with General Hammond very clearly - a conversation he hated having because Teal'c was stuck in a jail cell on an alien planet, waiting for a death sentence he thought he deserved. Eyes searched the lines of Daniel's body, still tense despite the athletic bout of sex they'd just enjoyed. "Daniel."
"I used to think, back in the early days, that diplomacy solved it all; talking would fix everything. I'd see you and your 'shoot first' way of thinking and I'd wonder how in the hell you could have done those things you hinted at from your Special Ops days." Daniel's eyes were full of a dark understanding he didn't want to bear. "I get it now. I know *exactly* why you did the things you did."
"I never wanted you touched by this," Jack said softly. "Probably very naive of me, but I never wanted you to *understand* assassination."
"I would have given anything not to, but I do now. And I'm sorry."
"Sorry?"
"For the way I judged you all those years."
"There's nothing to be sorry for," Jack said, his hand reaching out to lay fingertips on Daniel's cool flank.
"Not killing Khalek is going to come back and bite us in the ass, Jack," Daniel said. "He's going to do us a lot of damage."
"I know," Jack nodded. "I know."
++++
I will conclude this recommendation by saying that I believe Dr. Daniel Jackson has become somewhat of a danger to himself and to the team. His willingness to take a solution involving termination with extreme prejudice before threats can be fully assessed show a significant change in thought process and personality. I believe that before he be allowed on any further missions that a thorough psychiatric and psychological evaluation be completed to determine if he has somehow begun to suffer mental instability due to his several and varied escapes from deadly situations, not the least of which is his recent return to corporeal form.
Lt. Col. Samantha Carter, SG1
Stargate Command
Jack sat back and stared at his screen in disbelief. "Carol!" he bellowed from behind his desk.
"Yes, sir?" His assistant hurried into the room.
"Get me a fighter to Peterson and let General Landry know I'm coming in loaded for bear. And make sure that report on my computer never gets seen by the Pentagon or the Joint Chiefs."
The young lieutenant's eyes went wide. "Right away, sir."
++++
Hank Landry hung up the phone and sat back in his chair, his jaw working overtime as he re-read Carter's report.
"Sir, Colonel Carter has left the base for the night. We're attempting to contact her on her cell phone and her home phone." Walter watched Landry push up from the desk.
"I don't care what you have to do, Chief, but get her back to this base within the hour."
"Yes, sir," Walter said and hurried from the General's office.
++++
Sam Carter hurried inside from the pouring rain, shutting the door with her hip. She quickly pulled the cartons of hot food from their bags and put them into the refrigerator. "I'm being called back to base," she said, glancing over her shoulder at the table that was set. "I knew my report would raise some eyebrows but even I didn't think they'd want to discuss it this quickly. We'll eat when I get home, is that okay?" She smiled sweetly. "I knew you'd understand. A Colonel's work is never done." She heard her pager go off for the third time in five minutes. "I've really got to scoot. Make yourself at home - and don't get into the food. That's for later."
Grabbing her jacket on the way out, she flipped open her cell and informed the base she was on her way back in. The door's slam echoed through the empty house.
++++
"She said what?" Daniel asked. He stood in front of Doctor Carolyn Lam and tried to get his mind around what she was saying.
"In her opinion, based on this recent incident with Khalek, she believes you to be a danger to yourself and to others. Her official recommendation is that you go through a battery of psychological tests . . ."
"What for?" Daniel demanded. "Because I, I suggested that we should kill him instead of trying to get information out of him? I knew what he was - I understood what he would do. There was no way we were getting out of this in one piece. And now he's out there - doing - God knows what while biding his time until he can come back and attack. How does this make me crazy?"
"I'm sorry, Doctor Jackson, but Colonel Carter is one of your commanding officers in the field . . . "
"Now just wait one second," Daniel said tightly. "I, in case you haven't noticed, am a civilian consultant. I matched rank with Jack O'Neill when he was still a Colonel. If I understand military protocol, that means that I've held higher rank than Sam for *years*. And now she tries to pull rank to get me yanked off active duty?"
"No she does not."
Daniel and Carolyn both turned in unison to see General Jack O'Neill, still in his flight suit, standing in the doorway. "Daniel, let's go."
"Where?" Daniel asked.
"Landry's office."
Daniel shot Carolyn one final, angry glance then followed Jack into the corridor. "When the hell did you get here?"
"About 2 hours after I got Carter's report. What the fuck is this all about?"
"I have no idea," Daniel muttered.
Jack marched straight into Hank's office without announcement.
"Jack," Landry said with a wry smile. "Knew once you saw that report you'd have the afterburners on."
"You have no idea," Jack growled. "Mind telling me why my former second is accusing the head civilian consultant of being double live gonzo?"
"I've had Carter paged back to the base. She should be here momentarily. In the meantime, how about we go grab a cup of coffee?"
"I don't want a cup of coffee, Hank. I want to know what the hell's going on with my base."
"Your base?" Landry asked, bristling slightly.
"You're goddamned right this is my base," Jack barked, leaning both fists on Landry's desk. "Just like Area 51, Nellis, Malmstrom, Umatilla and any of another hundred military installations, open or *closed* I could name directly associated with Home World Security. They all fall under my command and I want to know what the hell is going on!"
There was a knock on the door and all three men turned to see Lt. Col. Samantha Carter waiting patiently outside.
"Colonel," Landry said. "Come in and shut the door."
Sam stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. With a neutral look on her face she approached Landry's desk. "I take it this is about my recommendations."
"Mind telling the class why you think Daniel has suddenly become a little light in the loafers, Carter?" Jack asked, his sarcasm adding to the cutting tone of his voice.
"Yes, please do," Daniel said, crossing his arms in front of him and waiting for an answer.
"I didn't mean that Daniel is crazy, sir," she said addressing Jack. "I meant what I said in my report - I'm concerned that he's not acting like the Daniel I've known for over nine years." She turned eyes on Daniel that pleaded for understanding. "You suggested we kill Khalek - without trying any other options first. That's not you, Daniel. You always look for a peaceful solution, try to understand all sides. What I saw in that briefing - it scared me. I'm not scared of you - I'm scared *for* you."
"Carter," Jack cut in, "do you realize what you've done with that recommendation of yours?"
"Sir, we all know that stress can play a significant factor..."
"Can it, Carter!" Jack snapped. "You have just set in motion the process by which Daniel now has to prove to a board of inquiry that he is both fit and sane and capable of continuing his duties."
"I realize that," Sam began.
"Then you'll also realize that this takes him off active duty for a minimum of three months," Landry said. "During which time SG-1 will be unable to partake in very vital missions to glean information on the Ori and their movements. You have basically sidelined my flagship team with your careless - recommendations."
"They aren't careless," Sam persisted. "Daniel's mental stability is of chief importance to me."
"Really?" Daniel asked. "And just when did you begin having doubts about my mental stability?" Daniel asked. "Would it be immediately after the replicator mission?"
Sam fought down the feeling of being hunted and cornered. This wasn't the way things were supposed to have gone. Her superiors were supposed to trust her judgment. "No, of course not."
"Then when?"
"Daniel, it all - became clear - during the briefing when we learned who Khalek was. That you wanted to - well, assassinate him, for lack of a better term..."
"Damned distasteful things," Jack sneered. "Remember that conversation, Carter? Back when we were all new to this and didn't have a damned clue what the hell we were doing?"
"I remember," she nodded.
"Well I've done a few things a damned sight worse than suggest an enemy be terminated with extreme prejudice. Are you going to call me crazy, too?"
"I didn't say Daniel was crazy," Sam said, on the verge of losing her temper.
"I have made sure this report has not, under any possible means, made its way to the Pentagon or the Joint Chiefs," Jack said, his voice low and dark. "You have this one chance, and only one, to recant these recommendations, pull your report, and we will forget any of this ever happened."
Carter looked at the flinty stares of all three men, bowed her head and gave a nod.
"You better re-ass what the hell's going on in your own head, Carter," Jack said, smacking his gloves against his thigh as he made to leave the room. Daniel, eyes full of hurt, turned and followed him out.
++++
Sam walked into the kitchen and pulled the white container full of cold roast beef and gravy from the refrigerator. "How am I supposed to keep us together if you don't help me?" she yelled. "I did it for us, and then you come in and defend him? You embarrass me in front of my commanding officer and you have Daniel tagging along behind you like some sort of pet dog?" She threw the food hard against the cabinets, splattering it across the room. "Don't you understand how hard I'm trying? I'm doing this for us!" she screamed, treating the box of cold mashed potatoes the same. "I'm doing this for us!"
~finis~
