Chains

Author: BadgerGater

Email: BadgerGater

Category: Missing Scenes/Epilogue from Jack’s POV

Season: Four, episode Chain Reaction

Summary: Jack gets a nasty surprise when a new General takes command of the SGC

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: Language, this is Jack after all, and an angry Jack

Disclaimer: Stargate and its characters are the property of Gekko, MGM, Showtime, etc. etc. etc. and I know it. I’m just borrowing them for this story. I’m not making any money, it’s all just for fun, entertainment, etc.

Author’s Notes: Just a few things left out of an episode I liked a lot…

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I wouldn’t have done it for myself. I’d have thrown in the towel, called it quits, burned my bridges, said hasta la vista, sayonara, auf wiedersehen, tot ziens, arrividerci, and f**k you.

You get the picture.

But there were other people who needed me to get involved: Daniel, Sam, Teal’c, Doc, the General. Hell, two-thirds of the other SG-teams, even technicians like Sgt. Siler, and Sgt. Davis the control room guy, all came to me, begging me to do something.

As if they thought I could, just because I’m a Colonel.

Okay, let me back up and start at the beginning.

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See, I didn’t believe a word General Hammond said when he told us he was hanging up his stars. Nope. Not a one. Retiring because he couldn’t handle the job? Pardon my French, but bullshit.

I knew there was more to the situation than met the eye.

But I also knew that it might be none of my business. Sure, he wasn’t telling us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about why he was retiring, but maybe it was none of our business. I mean, it could have been personal, like his health, or his granddaughters needing him, or maybe getting himself a girlfriend, hell, I don’t know. I have no life outside my job, so how would I recognize it if someone else suddenly did?

But you get what I mean.

Maybe George needed a life.

But I didn’t think so.

George, like me and Daniel and Carter, had all the life he needed, right here, in the SGC. Where he was needed.

And he knew it.

He knew we needed him, depended on him, relied on him, counted on him.

So why the hell was he doing this?

He wouldn’t tell me.

And since he outranks me, I couldn’t order him to tell me. I couldn’t browbeat it out of him, or trick it out of him.

If he chose not to tell me, I had no options.

I had to accept what he said.

But I sure as hell didn’t have to like it.

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So yeah, I was already in a foul mood when General Sour, er Bauer arrived. Nice guy. Real charming, sociable, garrulous, loquacious, friendly to a fault.

Right. I’m the ranking senior officer here and he never even had the common courtesy to acknowledge my existence. Not that I was expecting much, but, jeez, I’ve been here four years, I know the place and the people.

So, some people like to form their own opinions.

Or they have ‘em before they arrive.

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And then things really got ugly.

My first inkling of the disaster that had befallen us was the next morning when Teal’c came to my office. He doesn’t do that often. Usually, I go seek him out, mostly because after hmmm, oh, about 34 minutes of paperwork, I need a break.

But there he was, first thing the next morning, standing in front of my desk, at parade rest.

“So, what’s up, Teal’c?”

He was looking oddly at me. Okay, Teal’c always looks oddly, but more oddly than usual. Looked a little offended, too, which struck me as pretty strange.

“O’Neill, have I done something to offend you, or incur your wrath?”

I thought a moment. “Nope. Never. Well, there have been a couple of times, but nothing lately. No.”

“Then you did not request that I be removed from SG-1?”

I jumped out of my chair. “Removed from SG-1? You’ve been removed from SG-1? Since when?”

“Since 0800 this morning. I was informed by Major Wade that I should join him at 0900 to begin preparing for his team’s next mission.”

I sighed in relief. “Whew. Damn. For a minute there, T-man, you had me worried. I thought you really were transferred, permanently…”

“I have been assigned to SG-3, O’Neill.”

“They’re short one member since Donakowski broke his leg. They must just need someone to fill in on a mission.”

“Actually, Major Wade clearly explained to me that I have been permanently transferred.”

I started to pace. Bauer must have done this. But why? It made no sense, none. “Okay, I’ll go talk to this new guy and find out what the problem is. Just some misunderstanding, I’m sure. Until then, consider yourself temporarily loaned out to Wade. You can go with him on the mission, but he’s got to give you back. Make that clear to him.”

Teal’c bowed gracefully. “Thank you, O’Neill. Our team functions competently and effectively, and I would not wish to serve with any other unit.”

“Ditto, buddy. You are just as vital to SG-1 as Daniel and Carter. We’re a team, and we stick together.”

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I watched Teal'c go, and tried to ignore the little knot of worry which had formed in my gut. No, this had to be just a small failure to communicate, maybe even a test. Some new commanders liked to shake things up, liked to see if they could rattle their subordinates. Liked to test the teams and team leaders.

I headed for Carter’s lab.

Daniel was just exiting her office as I arrived.

“Come with me, would you?” I asked him, walking into her work area.

“Ah, so you’ve heard then,” he said.

“Can you do anything about it, Sir?” there was pleading in Carter’s eyes and voice. I mean, I know she likes Teal’c, but I didn’t expect her to look quite so broken up about it.

“I’ll try. This has got to be just a misunderstanding, or a little test by our new boss. I’ll go grovel and make nice and they’ll give us Teal’c back…”

“They re-assigned Teal’c too?” Daniel asked.

I nearly had a heart attack. “Teal’c *too*?”

Carter waved her hand at the strange contraption sitting on her desk. “I’ve been ordered to build the new mega-bomb so I won’t have time to serve with SG-1…”

“And I’ve been told archaeologists don’t belong on a field unit,” Daniel wasn’t only upset, he was angry.

I was stunned. Pole-axed. Afraid I was about to have a stroke. I flopped down onto a chair, and buried my face in my hands, closing my eyes as if shutting them could shut out the words I’d just heard.

“Sir, are you all right?” Carter asked, suddenly looking very worriedly at me.

I looked up, at Daniel, then Carter. “He transferred you, too? Both of you?” I asked, hoping I’d misheard.

“Yes, Sir. Both of us.” Carter’s eyes were huge. “He didn’t tell you?”

“Hell, no,” I could feel my blood pressure rising. “That sorry son of a bitch. How dare he dismantle my team and leave me to hear about it second hand.” I jumped up out of my chair.

“Sir, please,” Carter was worried. “You can’t go like that…”

“Like what?” I snapped.

“Angry, Sir. It will just make matters worse.”

“They couldn’t be worse!” I shouted.

“He could always reassign you, too,” Daniel said very quietly.

“At this point, what the hell’s the difference? Huh?” I glared at them.

“Jack…”

Damn, he was right. I needed to show up and be reasonable, calm, efficient, logical, all the things I’m not, even under the best of circumstances. SG-1 was doomed. I dropped back into the chair. “Shit.”

“Colonel…”

“What?”

“I…” she looked away.

Daniel spoke up. “Dismantling the team isn’t all of it.”

“It’s not?” I couldn’t imagine anything worse.

“Sir, General Bauer has me building a bomb, a Naquadah bomb…”

“Sam tried to convince him it wasn’t a wise thing to do…” Daniel added.

“And he didn’t listen. Colonel…”

I nodded. “So he’s reckless as well as incompetent.”

“I didn’t say that, Sir.”

“But you were thinking it,” I amended.

She nodded, Daniel did too.

“Is there anything you can do, anyone you can talk to?” he pleaded.

“Like who?”

“The President?” Daniel asked hopefully. “I mean, we did save the planet. More than once.”

“In this political climate, even saving the planet only goes so far, Daniel. Especially when there are other people out there telling the Commander in Chief that anyone could have done it, that we were lucky, that our own blunders got us into the mess so it was our job to get us out of the mess.”

Daniel shook his head. “Damn.”

“You guys are the geniuses. You’re the ones who are supposed to think of a way to get us out of this.” I looked at them for help. “Think of something.”

Carter shrugged. Daniel wrapped his arms around his chest and looked glum.

Oh good. The two biggest brains in the entire human portion of the universe, and neither one of them had an idea, which meant *I* was going to have to try to save our butts. Great. Just great. As if we all didn’t know that diplomacy is absolutely my strong point.

“Okay,” I got up and started toward Bauer’s office. Delaying the inevitable, desperately trying to think of the right things to say, I walked three laps around level 19, three more on level 20; stopped and counted to ten about a dozen times, went to the bathroom, kicked the wastepaper basket around a couple of times. None of it helped.

Finally, taking a deep breath, I walked the last stretch to the CO's door. Bauer’s name tag was already in place.

I knocked.

“Come.”

Steeling my resolve, grimly ordering myself to keep calm, I opened the door.

“Colonel O’Neill.” He did not look surprised, or pleased, to see me.

“General.” Nice, non-committal greeting.

Bauer was talking to his secretary, dismissing her before turning his attention to me. “I’ve just been going through your mission reports.”

“Yes, Sir, “ I answered, keeping a tight lid on my emotions. What, he was going to give me a spelling lesson? Assign me to the base newspaper? Have me write his memoirs?

“They’re satisfactory. Although in the future you might want to include bullet point summaries with each section. It makes for an easier read.”

I stepped nearer to his desk. “Bullet point summaries,” I repeated very slowly. The man had just torn my team to shreds and he was worried about bullet point summaries. I was thinking what the point of a bullet might do right between his eyes.

I think he sensed the tension. “Is there a problem with that?”

F**king damn smug idiot bureaucrat. Before I knew it, my mouth was running faster than my brain, the sarcasm jacked up to maximum voltage. “General. I realize the format of my reports is of vital importance, and if you’d like, someday we can get together to talk about the fonts and margins. But right now I’d like to discuss the fact that you are dismantling my team without discussion.” Okay, yeah, I know this is the military and I’m supposed to follow orders, but damn, I didn’t work this hard to get to be a Colonel and be ignored like a raw recruit.

You know, I don’t think Bauer likes me. He certainly has no sense of humor. His next statement proved it.

“General Hammond may have allowed you a certain latitude in his presence, Colonel, but you’d do well to watch your tongue with me.”

I looked over at him, and I lost it. I can’t stand being patronized, especially by a dim bulb desk jockey. Yeah, you bet your sweet ass I’d looked up his record and called half a dozen people I knew who could tell me something about him. He’d never gotten any closer to combat than watching the old TV show by that name. “You know, General Hammond kept us together for a reason.” A reason this bozo hadn’t even had the decency or foresight to ask, the fool. “The fact is, if it wasn’t for SG-1, right now you’d be sittin’ there with a snake in your head (I was beginning to regret the fact that we’d ever saved the planet when it included the likes of him) instead of your head up your ass.”

“COLONEL!” Bauer leaned forward, eyes snapping, bristling like a dog ready to fight. “No one around here is above reproach. If it continues, your long history of insubordination will come to a swift and completely unspectacular end under my command. That I can assure you.” He sat back smugly. “Now I suggest you take some time. Think things over. Decide if you still want to be a part of this operation. Dismissed, Colonel.” And he turned away.

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That was great, Jack. Wonderful. Perfect. Lost your temper and pissed him off.

Who the hell picked that idiot for this job?

I couldn’t face my team. I’d screwed up, made things worse instead of better.

Lovely. Now I’ve completely lost it, arguing with myself.

The hell I will.

I’ll quit first.

Of course, maybe Bauer will just court martial me. I’m sure he can find a reason, and without really trying. And with my record, huh, I don’t stand a god damn chance.

Not a snowball’s chance in hell.

Life sucks.

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I avoided Daniel and Carter as long as I could, and then, when I had my stuff packed for my vacation, meaning I took with me anything I didn't want Bauer to find or read, I went to find them. They were in Daniel’s office this time.

One look at my grim face and they knew I hadn’t accomplished anything.

“Sorry, campers. All I did was make things worse.”

“Worse?” Daniel’s eyebrows lifted. “What did you do, get demoted?”

“Close. Got sent home. To think about things. About whether I still want to be a part of this,” I waved a hand at the walls around me. I slumped dejectedly into the chair. “And honestly, I’m not sure if I do.”

“Jack, you can’t quit.”

“Why not? He’s got both of you grounded. Want to bet he’ll have me behind a desk next? Counting paper clips or something,” I said dejectedly. “Believe me, he won’t have to search to find an excuse to keep me out of the field.”

“Maybe Thor could intervene. Or General Carter.”

“I don’t think this guy will listen, Daniel,” I said softly. “He’s got his mind made up.”

Carter shook her head. “You can’t give up, Sir. We need you. The SGC needs you.”

I washed a hand across my face. “Major, think about it. This was inevitable. Sooner or later, those bastards in Washington were going to find a way to get rid of us, because we’re too damn annoying. Or me, anyway.”

“It’s not just you, Sir.” Carter, as always, was trying to find something positive. “We can’t let this happen. What if you went to talk to General Hammond?”

“I don’t think it will do any good. He was adamant. Something’s wrong, but I don’t know what. And I can’t go poking around in his private business.”

“Yes you can, Sir. Find out the truth. You’ll have the time.”

Daniel nodded in agreement. “And in the meantime, we’ll try to keep General Bauer from blowing up the planet.”

XXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXX

So I went to see the General.

And when I heard what they did, heard how they used his grandkids to get to him, nothing, absolutely nothing, was going to keep me from going after those NID bastards who’d orchestrated this.

There's some guilt involved here, too. George Hammond is no teddy bear, despite outward appearances. Teddy bears don't get to be Generals in this man's Air Force, and especially not generals in charge of the most top secret operation in all of the U.S. military. People think I've got odd gaps and mysterious assignments in my past, my jacket is nothing compared to Hammond's.

George knows how to get along with people, or at least, make the right alliances, coalitions and allies. He knows how to play the game, the politics of power. He has friends, powerful, important, devious, darkside friends. George has used those people to help me out, called in markers he'd have now, to save himself, if he hadn't used them up saving me and my team. So, I owe George Hammond. And I did what had to be done.

I threw all my principles to the wind and threw in with Harry Maybourne.

Slimy, weasely, Harry Maybourne.

Lie down with dogs and you’ll get up with fleas, Jack.

And ticks, too.

If it wasn’t bad enough I had to actually *watch* Harry Maybourne eat, I had to travel with him halfway across the damn country. Be seen in public with him. Actually, for a few minutes at Kinsey’s house, act nice to him. Ewww.

Senator Kinsey.

Now there’s a reason to curse the intentions of the founding fathers of our country. Of course, 200 plus years ago, they had no idea politics would turn out to be such a sleazy profession.

Kinsey. I should have known he’d be a part of something this low down and dirty. It’s just his style. Hide in the background and let the goons do your dirty work, while you promote your own hidden agenda. Yeah, sure, he may have been elected by the people, but I damn well know nobody elected him to kidnap a good man’s grandchildren.

I don’t like politicians, and he’s the worst of the lot. Bad news from that first moment I met him all those years ago, him and his smug ‘God will protect us bullshit.’ If God protected the innocent then my son… Stop it, Jack. Don’t even think of your son in the same breath as Kinsey. The man’s an ass and an absolute fool, but a truly dangerous fool because he doesn’t realize he’s a fool. He’s delusional and power hungry.

I’ve often said life sucks and fate doesn’t deal a fair hand. I mean, there’s the bastard, living in that big house, a man with a wife and kids and a damn nice dog, none of which deserve to be saddled with the likes of him. I’ll bet none of them know what he really does.

Harry got us in there, got the info right out of Kinsey’s own computer. As much as I hate to admit it, Harry does have his uses, and he is good at what he does.

So there we were, just drove on in the big man’s driveway like we belonged there, rang the doorbell and walked right in on the Senator’s fancy little party and strolled on up the stairs to his office. He couldn’t make a fuss in front of all those folks, and he knew it and he knew that we knew it.

So sure he denied everything. What else would you expect? If the man told the truth, he wouldn’t be a politician.

But then he did something really, really stupid. He made me mad. He threatened my team, threatened Teal’c and Daniel and Carter. He may have thought that would scare me, which only proves he doesn’t know Jack O’Neill at all. See, I only know one way to respond to a threat and that’s not to back off, that’s to charge forward, ten times harder than before.

I stood there pointing a gun at him (pointing, not waving, I remind you) and looking back, I probably should have gone right ahead and shot him then and there, really, and I know it. I have the bad feeling that someday I’ll truly regret not having done it, but I’m not that far gone yet that I could actually just cold bloodedly shoot a man in his own house, even an SOB like Kinsey. Not that I wouldn’t have liked to. Not that it wouldn’t have been the best thing to do for the future of mankind. Not that it wouldn’t have been quite satisfying.

I’m not sure how long the data we got out of his computer will protect us. People like Kinsey have a knack for worming their way out of any situation. If he backtracks, doubletalks, erases, eliminates and evades things long enough, even the incriminating stuff on this computer disc is only going to hold up for so long. He’ll make it look like a fake. He’ll do something else to someone else to make them lie for him. He’ll lie so convincingly himself that folks will believe him. That’s how men like him get elected to office.

I always knew the American people could be suckered in waaaaay too easy.

God, he won’t *really* run for president, will he? Please. No. But even the American people wouldn’t be crazy enough to vote for him. The half of us who *do* vote.

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So once again I’ve done what had to be done, wallowed in the dirt and the mud to save a friend. I’d do it again, you know, if I had to. I wouldn’t like it any better, and I’d still feel dirty afterwards, like I do now, but I’d do it.

Hammond knows the price I paid, but I don’t think my teammates or the other SGC personnel do, I don’t think they have even an inkling, and that’s okay. I don’t want to have to explain to them about my past, about Special Ops and the shit I was involved in. I won’t tell them how getting Hammond, and us, out of this mess meant turning my back on a bunch of solemn oaths I’d made a few years ago, about never getting involved with those kinds of people again, never stooping that low.

I meant what I told the General. Some day he is going to have to buy back my soul, what little is left of it. I’d turned a traitor lose on the world, and I know that deed will come back to haunt me.

The things I've done for my friends-- really, you don't want to know.

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