7.
Mark spent an hour or so looking at babies and then the rest of the morning looking at computer coding, and at the machines they ran, he was amazed at the power required to run the place!
He was invited to the commissary at 12:00 by Dr. Jackson, who insisted he was to be called Daniel and when they got there Jack, Sam and Teal'c were already sat down eating
"I thought you two were off to DC for a meeting?" He asked
"We are" his sister scraped the bottom of a sundae dish, getting the last blue gunk onto her spoon.
"You are going to be late" he pointed out, it was already 2 hours since the phone call from the President and Jack had mentioned he had to be there in 3, though even if they had set off straight away it was pushing it unless they took a top speed jet.
"Naww we got it covered" Jack said, a smug look on his face "T…I need a favour this afternoon,"
"How may I be of assistance O'Neill" asked the huge man
"Give Mark a lift home, his cars have been checked, he can bring 'em to work tomorrow, and go see that damn foreman at the house, I want the kids out of here before they are talking! Hell at this rate we will be lucky to get them out before school! It isn't good for them only seeing daylight for a couple of hours a time when we can take them up top."
"Indeed" was the reply "I shall make sure he knows the urgency of the situation"
"Don't break him! The president was quite specific on that" Jack waggled is fingers and received a solemn nod in acknowledgement, Mark wasn't sure of he was kidding or if the warning was justified, it was certain that the huge man could seriously hurt someone if he tried.
Jack got up and held the chair for his wife to stand "I have to go get my blues on… You getting dressed up too Carter?" he asked
"No, I'm going to do a bit of shopping while you are in the meeting, I don't remember the last time I had an afternoon wandering around with nothing to do." She answered, "or actually I may nip over to Nellis this afternoon…"
"Nope! Not going to happen!" Jack stated firmly "day off… get a life… have fun… any of this ring a bell?" Mark watched his sister closely, she would never have allowed anyone to get away with bossing her around in her personal life before, but here was her husband telling her she wasn't allowed to do something, in front of people, and she accepted it! Or did she? Mark thought he saw a gleam in her eye as she looked back at the table to wave goodbye
She headed to the double swing doors, her husband stood still, not moving "Carter?" he said, she looked back, all innocent and wide eyed. He held out his hand towards her and said "Stone" she looked at him, at his hand and then back to his face.
"Sir?" she said opening her blue eyes wide in fake innocence, Mark could see she knew exactly what he meant, she was playing him.
"How far can I trust you Mark?" Jack turned on him quickly
"I have no idea" Mark answered honestly
"Good answer, Ok, T… get her stone off her, Mark stay!" Sam sighed and put her hand in her trouser pocket, and drew out an odd shaped milky pearl coloured stone
"You don't play fair Jack" she said and handed it to him, he gave it to Teal'c.
"She doesn't get it back unless there is an acknowledged emergency for 48 hours T, understand?" The man nodded
"48? You said overnight!"
"Crap" he murmured "sorry 24" he corrected, his hand signals saying 48. Mark smiled, it was about time his sister met someone who would bully her when she needed it, but wasn't trying to turn her into a good little housewife.
Jack put his hand on the small of her back and steered her out of the room.
"I take it I shouldn't expect to see her for a couple of days then?" Mark asked the two men left at the table with him.
"Indeed" said the one
"She works too hard" said the other "Jack was told by the doctor that if he couldn't get her to rest they were going to take her off active duty, that means she will lose SG1, though officially the last base commander retired the team"
"What are these SG teams about? I've heard of several mentioned now"
So Daniel and Teal'c filled him in on the details his sister had left out, especially the fact that she was a front line combat officer, not just a computer/science geek as Mark had been lead to believe. He heard all about them saving the world, several times only because SHE was there, though it was possible that Jack O'Neill had a lot to do with it as Mark couldn't see his sister breaking rules on her own, but from what he was hearing, both the men at the table would follow either of them into hell if they ordered it.
Eventually Mark rose and headed to the control room to get a better look at the computer interface and as the lift opened there were the couple in person, Jack in his uniform with 3 stars on each shoulder, one more than at the wedding, and Sam in jeans and a Tshirt, a leather jacket slung over her arm. They all walked towards the briefing room and the other two stopped outside the cupboard and Jack opened the door gesturing for her to step inside. Mark looked at them both…
"Hold the door, if it closes you can't open it" Jack told him, he stood in the room, put his hand around Sams waist and pulled out a stone identical to the one Sam had handed over earlier "Oval" he said, and there was a bright light, and they were gone!
Well that explained a lot, of course it also raised one hell of a lot of questions! Mark allowed the door to swing shut and continued on past the door to his left and into the 'briefing room' he went down the steps and was in the control room again.
He asked for a terminal and the grey haired, spectacled Tech Sergeant offered him the one next to his, the one Sam had sat at earlier, and Mark started in again on the coding.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
It was about 3pm… 15:00, he had to remember to use 24 hours again now…when he was disturbed next, and it was Teal'c and Daniel, offering him a ride home, he agreed and was about to ask for a print out of the full programme when the man next to him gave him a 4 inch thick pile of paper.
"What's this?" he asked
"The print out" the man said. Mark rose and patted his pockets automatically for his car keys, realising only then that he had sat all day in his jacket, the Sergeant held out a card key and an ID badge and told him he would need them to get in tomorrow, Mark was about to say he was coming back once he had his car when Daniel shook his head and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't argue with Walter" he said "If he says you won't be back this afternoon, you won't"
"Is he an Alien then?" Mark asked, Daniel laughed
"No, just VERY good at his job!" he replied and steered his way to the lifts.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
They made it out of the mountain, Teal'c walked over to the largest vehicle in the lot and jumped in, Daniel and Mark got in the back.
"Jack tell you, you could drive this?" he asked
"He did not" was the reply
"He's going to be pissed you know" Daniel said
"Indeed" came the smug reply "however O'Neill asked me to get Colonel Carters Asgard transporter stone from her because he was afraid of trying himself, he should not have done that. If we were on Chulak she would have needed a weapon to deal with him"
Mark wondered what the hell he meant by that Daniel looked over and said "He IS an alien!"
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