They Also Serve

by Rebecca Ratliff

EMAIL:  rmratliff@adelphia.net

DATE: March 2004

ARCHIVE: If I haven't submitted to your archive, please ask.  (I'll say yes, I just like to know where it is.)

CATEGORY: Missing Scene

RATING: PG

WARNING: mild swearing

SPOILERS: Heroes, Resurrection

SEASON/SEQUEL INFO:  Season Seven.  Gates of War series, follows Requiem.

SUMMARY: Sidelined by his injuries, Jack waits for SG-1's return.  Resurrection epilog.

DISCLAIMER: All Stargate SG-1 characters are the property of Stargate SG-1 Productions (II) Inc., MGM Worldwide Television Productions Inc., Double Secret Productions, Gekko Film Corp and Showtime Networks Inc.This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. Anybody that you don't recognize is probably mine, so if you borrow them please send me an email to let me know where they are and have them home by midnight.  :)

FEEDBACK:  Much appreciated.


Jack O'Neill grunted and cursed as his healing ribs made themselves known.  He was tall enough that he hadn't thought anything of storing the coffee can on the top shelf.  Reaching for it now, though, was still probably not a good idea.  He pulled the step stool over and climbed up to get it.

A little voice piped up from the kitchen.  "Gloria says that's a bad word."

Jack started in embarrassment.  He hadn't known Jamie was standing there.  "Yeah, well, she's right, you're not supposed to say it."

"You did!"  Jamie giggled.

"I always did have a big mouth."  Jack grinned at his son and measured his hard-won coffee into the filter.

The team was out in LA, something about a rogue NID cell that Agent Barrett had discovered.  Thanks to his injury, Dr. Warner had absolutely forbidden him to go along.  Hammond had put it that Sam was capable of heading up the mission, which had effectively shut him down.  There had been no argument he could have made that wouldn't have undercut Sam, and Jack wasn't about to do that.  Besides, it was true.  Sam was perfectly capable.

It was just, he wasn't there to watch her back.  Things with the NID could get real complicated real fast.

She had ended up watching his back the last time.  He'd been just a little too slow and taken a hit that by all rights should have killed him.  The first time he'd worn the new armored plate in his vest, it had saved his life.  Sam hadn't missed a beat, she'd covered him and taken down the Jaffa who had shot him, then kept everyone else focused on the mission and fought an organized retreat back through the gate.  Thanks to her quick action, nobody else had been killed or wounded.  Just the kid from SG-13, Jack himself...and Janet.

They'd buried her last week and he still couldn't believe she was gone.

Now the damned rogue NID had to pull something.  Jack wasn't sure just how accurate the a term "rogue" was.  Rogue implied that they were acting on their own.  He didn't know if he believed that.  Until something had gone horribly wrong with whatever experiment they'd been doing out in California, they hadn't seemed to have any trouble getting facilities, money, manpower.  Even if Agent Barrett had decided to be Eliot Ness to their Capone family, Barrett was only one man and he could only root them out one cell at a time, and it was obvious that these people had some very powerful, highly placed help.

After the interest Conrad's "rogue cell" had shown in Carter a few years ago, Jack hated the idea of her getting mixed up with them again.  But he wouldn't be there to watch out for her too much longer anyway.  He was getting too old for the job he was doing.

They'd talked about his retirement, planned on it.  When he retired, things could change, he and Sam wouldn't be CO and 2iC anymore.  But this was the reality of sitting home with Jamie and watching SG-1 go out without him.

He hated that part of it.  Truly hated it.

The phone rang and he jumped for it, his heart in his throat.  "O'Neill."

"Sir, it's Carter.  It's all wrapped up.  We just landed at Peterson."

"Is everyone OK?"

"We're fine."

There was nothing more she could say on an open line, but they were safely home and that was enough.  This time.  He faced years of waiting for the telephone call and praying when it came that it would be her voice on the other end.  Nothing on God's earth was ever going to make that any easier.

end

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