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Chapter 2: Major Samantha Carter
A month? He's reassigning all of us for a month? General Hammond waltzes in here, drops a bomb on us and sits there like we're supposed to like it. What's wrong with this picture?
When I can think again, he's telling me that Teal'c and I are going to some Pentagon information exchange, the colonel's going to do some recruitment screenings at Eglin, and Daniel supposed to go help those NID hacks at Area 51.
Something is seriously wrong with this picture..
The colonel feels it too. I can see it in that little squinty thing he's doing with his eyes. Teal'c's giving me the eyebrow lift and Daniel..
Now that's strange.
Daniel's not looking at anybody. No reaction at all.
Uh oh..
The colonel sees it, but he's not saying anything yet. I guess that means we shouldn't either, but that doesn't mean I have to like it General Hammond's still going on about "well-deserved downtime" and I admit we've had some really rough missions lately. Maybe it's just the colonel's suspicious nature rubbing off on me, but I have a really bad feeling about all of this. Why not just give us a week's leave? Why send us off to opposite ends of the country for heavens sake?
Not to put too fine a point on it, but we're needed here. We've already got too many teams out on medical stand down or on long-term missions off-world. I don't understand the reasoning behind all these comparatively trivial assignments at this particular point in time.
I keep waiting for the colonel to protest. I can see he's working up to it, sifting his way through General Hammond's words for some clue to latch on to. I also see the little side glances he's giving Daniel, expecting support but finding only a head bowed into a hand rubbing away at another headache. I pick up on the little edge of concern creeping into the colonel's eyes. Daniel's had a lot of headaches lately.ever since Amaunet used that ribbon device on him. I know Janet's keeping an extra close eye on him because of it.we all are. Things haven't slowed down very much for any of us since then; Daniel was knocked around pretty thoroughly on Netu, then there was the alien body-double thing, and just last week the Triad thing with Skaara which put a lot of pressure on Daniel and the colonel. Business as usual has been way too busy for SG1.
The colonel's gaze goes from Daniel to Teal'c to me without a word. When General Hammond finally winds down to the inevitable request for questions, I'm not entirely surprised when the colonel shakes his head and allows us to be dismissed.
As Teal'c and I head for the door, I see the colonel touch Daniel's arm causing pain-filled eyes to finally look up. A killer headache.no doubt about it. The colonel gives Daniel one of those long stares that Daniel dismisses with a wave meant to be reassuring, but it just comes off looking terribly tired.
"I'm okay, Jack." It's barely a whisper, meant only for the colonel's hearing.
The colonel just nods, putting out a hand to help Daniel to his feet. *Houston, we have mother-hen mode.* The colonel takes Daniel's arm and guides him to the door I'm now holding open for them. The colonel meets my worried look with a shrug and a tight smile. I can see the thought as clearly as if he'd said it, 'maybe we really can use the down time.' I nod my head in response as I follow them down the corridor, but I'm hit by that sneaking suspicious feeling again.
There's more to all of this than we're being told..