6
He heard the man laugh again until something was said in the office behind him. "Hold on Jack" the big man said and Jack could hear a muffled conversation.
"Tell you what, why don't we work something out" the President came back, a tad more diplomatic
"Not goin' to happen" Jack threw his own words back at him. He heard mumbling again, the President evidently had a room full, Jack could have sworn he heard the Texan twang of George Hammond, but he was retired wasn't he?
"Ok Jack, you win, you can be based out of Cheyenne, but you better be available to travel when needed" Hayes said, Jack smiled.
"Of course sir, anything you say" he could afford to be gracious; after all he had just blackmailed the leader of the free world and got away with it!
"My regards to Colonel Carter" Hayes said as a signing off and Jack wished him a good day and put the phone down.
"YES!" he said under his breath but with passion, Sam looked at him and he smiled and nodded, thank God it had worked!
He suddenly realised that the whole room had just heard him arguing with the President and he blushed slightly and coughed, not the best thing to do in front of recruits and service men and women who were going to be under his command!
He turned back and faced them "Ok so, Mike will transfer here, you three cadets will be here most of the time, but up at the mountain at short notice, I'll have a word with the proper people about it. Michael, I am not going to call you back to active duty, not yet at any rate, Adam, you continue at West Point, but you may receive training and when you graduate you will probably be posted here on secondment, well, by here I mean up the mountain. The rest of you have your orders, and we've been here long enough so go back to the kids, or go enjoy yourselves and we'll see you here for the party."
He nodded to the SFs and they all filed out.
Jacks siblings and their spouses stayed behind, except Christine, Lukes wife, their children were still very young and she wanted to get back to them. The younger, family members left, except Cassie and David, Jon and Jacob hovered outside the doors for a while and then decided to leave and catch up with the others of the family their ages.
"Jon… Jack, sorry can't get used to calling you that" Grace said "I left dad looking after the kids, but you know he will start on you tonight don't you?" she lowered her head in shame "He's already tried to call off the whole thing because Cassie is your daughter"
"She isn't really, actually though we have brought her up for the past 3 years she is… was the daughter of my wifes best friend, she was killed in action. Cassie was always close to us both though." He explained, they should have guessed by Cassies last name!
"How is Sarah?" Michael asked. Had it really been that long since they spoke, Jack asked himself. Yeah it had to be, he doubted he had even told any of his family that Charlie had been born, never mind that he had died!
"Sarah and I divorced, almost 12 years ago" Jack told him, that caused a slight ripple, but divorce nowadays was getting more common, even amongst Catholics "I'm married to Sam now" he held his hand out and she moved to take it, that caused even more of a ripple, they had all seen how they acted and it was obvious they worked together, so how could they be married? Jack felt a headache coming on!
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"erm so…" Michael said "what is it you actually do…Sam?"
"I work up at Cheyenne Mountain on Deep Space Radar Telemetry" It really didn't sound any more believable now, years after they had first said it. Jack decided he would get some of the office goons to work on a new cover story, it was obvious to anyone who came into contact with Daniel and Teal'c that the cover was just… bad!
"Jack?" Hope looked at him "what do you do then?"
"I was stationed there for eight years before moving to DC, and now I'm going to be back" He changed the subject "I know you lot hate moving, that's why you all live up North, but you may want to consider all moving down here wholesale, even those not in the service, Luke, you are going to be posted here quite some time, and if your kids follow you into the forces they will be too, the average posting here is about 5 years, but Carter and others have been here over 10"
He was trying to be as gentle about it as possible, he knew the women and youngsters had a mutual support thing going up in Minnesota, while family members were deployed or moved stations, the family as a whole stayed put, and though Jack was very reluctant to have his father any nearer, he knew that the job was going to be a lot more long term than they were used to.
"Look folks" he scrubbed his hands over his face "I can't tell you a hell of a lot, but it is really REALLY important to National Security that this happens, and…"
"Jack" Grace said, laying a hand on his arm "we are all service families, we know there are things you can't share with us, if you say it's important, then we accept it" he saw the others all nodding, he sighed with relief.
"O'Neill!" Teal'c was stood by the doors to the building, he had been outside the whole time, as sort of a control for the sensitivity of the detector.
"T?" Jack answered
"You are needed at the base" Jack wondered why they had not called him on his cell, but looking at Teal'c he realised it was an excuse.
"Right, sorry folks, see you all tonight. Carter with me!"
"Sir!" she fell in as usual, they left the hall, Teal'c was waiting in the truck, the engine already running.
"S'up T?" Jack asked and saw his friend incline his head, when he followed the direction he saw his father moving towards them, Jacks knuckles tightened on the wheel… he was so very tempted to run the bastard down! But he shifted the gear stick and turned and left the Academy grounds.
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Jack drove up to the SGC, parting with the other two once inside, Sam went to her lab, Teal'c… well he went to wherever he wanted, case of the 1000lb gorilla.
Jack made his way to Hanks office, where he had expected the other man to be absent, he should have known, not only was he there but George Hammond was… for someone supposedly retired the man got around the high level secret places that were closed to almost everyone.
Jack knocked on the open door.
"Jack… what can I do for you?" Landry said
"Need office space, about 4 basic quarters 5 officer quarters, including mine… the cadets will sleep at the academy, a training area and… actually not sure, I'll be having Juan transfer down later in the week, he can sort the rest out"
"Not wanting much then?" Hank laughed, Jack knew they were short of space in the SGC, from the original 9 teams they were up to 25 and the lab rats were always crying out for more places for their experiments, but Jack knew something Hank didn't, NORAD, who occupied the top 11 levels was closing down, the new detection equipment they had inherited from the Asgard had made almost everything up there obsolete, only three shifts of four men were needed to do the job that the three hundred used to do. And they could do it from anywhere in the world. Cheyenne mountain was 'closing down' and it was another reason why they needed a new cover story, why would a closed AF base have so many people in and out at all hours? Not to mention the alerts.
Jack had plans for the top 11 levels, including moving most of the level two scientists up there, the ones working on non military, already proven 'safe' technology, and he hoped his teams of AGs would then have room in the more secure area for their work.
He was also hoping that they could 'borrow' a couple of puddle jumpers, not that he intended to take them out of the mountain or anything… well not much, but hey! What was the point in having stealth tech if you didn't use it?
"So, Jack, feeling a bit better now you are going to be staying here?" George asked
"It was you then? In with the Joint Chiefs and President Hayes?"
"Yes and you want to thank God it was, otherwise you would be looking for a job"
"Wouldn't have bothered me in the slightest… you know that George" he said with a smile.
"And that's the only reason you got away with it! Hayes thought you wouldn't give up your commission and pension, it took both Francis and I to persuade him you would, hell I saw you after Edora, I know you would be happy with only the basics of life, never mind if you had a wife and child to come home to!"
Jack lowered his head at the mention of one of the times he hurt Sam so much he thought she would never forgive him. George was right though, he had thrown himself into the low tech society and had never been as happy except for when Charlie was alive, or since he and Sam had finally got together.
"So… you caught a hop from Daedalus?" he asked, knowing it was the only way the Texan could have travelled so far so quickly.
"Cassie invited me to her shindig" George said shrugging… oh great, all he needed was Hammond there if his father started!
"Carolyn and I will be there too, Walter and Siler have been invited as well" Hank said.
Who had she NOT invited? Though she had seemed to live a normal teenage life with Janet, the fact that her mother spent so much time looking after SG1 and others meant she spent a whole lot of her evenings in the SGC, she had befriended most of the 'old timers' and Jack was sure it was this that had influenced her to join the Academy as soon as she was old enough.
Having a 'parent' who was a Medal of Honour holder meant that she got an automatic entry into the academy, most of the lecturers at the school were people she had known for years, and Sam and Siler were regulars at guest appearances in the lecture hall. And though he always hated the notoriety he had gained, the fuss over his rank and especially over the medals he had been awarded… the Medal of Honour especially caused notice… he was not above helping her along a bit, though once in she had to work just as hard as anyone else, he wouldn't have allowed her to get free passage, luckily Cassie wasn't that type anyway, she enjoyed working, and excelled academically.
The only real problem was if she hurt herself, they had to take her to the SGC or get Carolyn down to see to her, most of her classmates didn't even question it, but Jack knew some whispers had been circulated, and he was careful to keep his finger on the pulse of school rumour, just in case!
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