Chasing The Wind

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Hammond stared at Pete. He hoped that the cop was telling the truth. Hammond had always been good at reading people, and his instincts said that the cop had just made an error in judgment and he was telling the truth about the whole mess.

Hammond certainly understood why any man would fall head over heels for Sam Carter in just a few days. She had a charisma that drew people to her. Of course being so beautiful and sweet went a long way in her attracting most men even if she was unaware most of the time.

Hammond sat down and continued to glare at Pete. Pete never moved his gaze from Hammond’s. It was as if he wanted to assure Hammond that he hadn’t meant any harm.

“Look, General Hammond, I can only say that I’m sorry. I never meant for all this to happen. I was mad, really mad when I called you. I shouldn’t have done that. I tried to apologize to Sam, but she wouldn’t let me. I don’t blame her. I don’t know why I called you. I guess I just didn’t take enough time to think it all though.”

“But I swear, sir, I had no other reason to ask Dave to do the searches than to find out about Sam.” Pete held Hammond’s gaze, he knew people couldn’t normally continue to look straight into someone’s eyes if they were lying. Hammond believed him. None of the investigation had uncovered any motive other than Pete’s personal interest. It also helped that he’d called Mark, Sam’s brother, after talking with the President.

Sam had told him that Mark and Pete were best friends and he set up her first date with Pete. Mark explained Pete’s run of bad luck, so the general could see why the man had gone overboard. Only thing that bothered Hammond was Kinsey the rest he could take care of. But Kinsey was a continuing threat to the SGC and his people. Hammond had a bad feeling that he hadn’t heard the last of this. He didn’t get the stars on his uniform by being lax or dumb.

Even if he believed Pete, he still had ever intention of making absolutely sure Pete wasn’t working for anyone else before he let him go. Kinsey was a sneaky SOB, so he didn’t put anything past him, even using a cop. Worse things had been known to happen.

“Tell me about this friend of yours, Farrity.” Hammond requested.

“What do you want to know?” Pete wasn’t sure what Hammond was asking him.

“Why would he run these searches for you? It’s my understanding that searches that are initiated from the FBI are supposed to be in an official capacity. Is he inclined to just break protocol to do a friend such a personal favor? Has he done this for you before?”

Pete swallowed hard, “Well, no. He didn’t know it was personal. I’ve never asked him do to a personal favor like this. It’s always been for a case I was working. And yes, he always runs the searches.” Pete felt the guilt about what had happened to his friend move through his body. He hated that he had damaged Dave’s career and caused his reassignment.

“You think Farrity could have been approached by anyone else?”

“If you mean did he search their files for any one other than me? No. He didn’t even know who they were and he told me to back off after he realized their files had been scrubbed and tagged.” Pete answered. Hammond studied his face. He found no reason to disbelieve this man. He seemed honest enough, if he could just get in his mind for a certainty that Pete’s motive was personal.

“If anyone, anyone at all, I don’t care if it’s the President or a senator inquires about this I want to know immediately. You got that, Shanahan?” Hammond’s eyes had changed from a soft blue to a stone cold crystal blue. His face was fixed and set in a scowl, no hint of humor or that he didn’t mean what he said. “Take this card; it has numbers where I can be reached any time.”

“Sure, General Hammond. Immediately.” Pete answered with no deception in his voice and pulled out his wallet to slip the card inside, but he read all three numbers before pushing the card into the card slot.

Hammond moved with such grace and energy it seemed he was in his thirties instead of his late sixties. He was bone tired and he was in desperate need of rest, but other than his bloodshot eyes it didn’t show. He thought for the hundredth time in the last twenty four hours that he was too damn old for this job. He should seriously think of retiring and letting someone younger take over this command. But there was Kinsey to contend with and he’d hate to think of him gaining a foothold with someone else in charge. He left the room in a little better frame of mind than he’d entered, but he still wasn’t happy.

He stopped outside the door and motioned Teal’c to the side. “Teal’c thanks for waiting. We have a situation here with this detective Shanahan. I wish I could tell you what it is, but you’ll have to trust me.”

“I am aware of the situation, General Hammond. O’Neill has informed me of this incident.” Teal’c assured the general there was no need of further conversation. Hammond should have known that Jack and Sam would tell their team. They never were good at keeping secrets between the four of them.

“Good. I need you to sit with this detective. No interrogation, just give him that famous look of yours and make him sweat. I want to know that he’s telling the truth. If he has to look at you for an hour or two, I think he’ll get the message.”

Teal’c gave the general a slight bow of his head and turned to go into the interrogation room. He shut the door behind him. Hammond nodded to the guards, “No one and I mean no one is to go in there other than Teal’c and myself.” With that he stalked down the corridor and to the elevator. He was going to his quarters for the rest of the night, he hoped!

Pete looked up as Teal’c entered the room. Shock was evident on his face. He was sure that General Hammond was going to let him go. Had he misread the man so much? “Who are you? You come to escort me off this base?” Pete asked the big man. He glanced at his tattoo. It was interesting. He had never seen a raised tattoo before. Must be something new. It looked like real gold too.

Teal’c didn’t answer, only gave Pete a hard look. He sat on the opposite side of the table and stared at Pete. Pete was getting nervous again. He’d been so sure that the General believed him, but now…. Well….he wasn’t so sure. Damn Mark Carter. Why had he ever tried to fix him up with his sister? He had to know what she did was classified even if he didn’t know all the details of her job. Mark should have warned him.

Teal’c continued to stare.

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Jack broke the kiss and moved so he could see Sam’s eyes. “We should eat something. I know you’re hungry. And we should get some rest. We can stretch out on the cot together.”

“You sure? Together?” She asked. “I’m not too sure I can keep my hands off you.” She giggled softly.

“Well, if you kept giggling, I may not be that sure,” he grinned at her. “But we’re on base and I know you pretty well. I don’t think you’ll let me get by with too much here.” He helped her move from his lap and then she reached for his hands to help him up. Still holding hands both stood still and looked into the other’s eyes. “I love you.” Jack whispered.

“I love you too.” Sam answered. This was such a new experience for them that each time he said it she felt like it was the first time. He kissed her once more but broke the kiss before it became too heated. Their lips parted slowly and their eyes locked again. Jack could see desire in her eyes and he knew he hadn’t been able to hide his feelings either.

Trying to lighten the moment he added, “Truth is I’m not a spring chicken, and I’m too tired anyway. I think you’re safe here. Will you stay with me?” Jack asked. He didn’t want her to leave, but he wouldn’t stop her.

“Yeah, I will, but I don’t buy it for a minute.” She said sliding her fingers up his arms. They sat in the chairs by the small table and Sam handed him a sandwich, a drink and a piece of chocolate cake wrapped in clear plastic.

“I’m almost too tired to eat. It’s been a long day.” Jack said as he opened the wrap on his sandwich and took a bite. He popped the tab on both their canned drinks and they ate in silence.

Jack reached for the cake and unwrapped the plastic covering. Sam smiled. She couldn’t remember Jack turning down cake too often. It had to be his favorite, although he loved pie as well. He took several big bites and then noticed she wasn’t eating hers.

“You want a piece of mine?” He asked slowly passing the caked filled fork under her nose. His eyes twinkled. She opened her mouth and groaned as she ate the cake. The sound she made caused his temperature to go up a notch and she smiled, enjoying the effect she had on him.

“Sam, Sam,” he grinned slowly shaking his head eyes twinkling, “you shouldn’t do that to old man!”

“Ah. But you’re not old. We’ve had that conversation already. Right?” She gave him a heated look.

“If you keep looking at me like that I might have to reconsider the old thing.” He leaned across the small table and licked the chocolate from her lips and then kissed her. Pushing back from her he shook his head.

“That was not a good idea!” He smiled and took her hand. He ate the rest of his cake by sharing it bite for bite with her. When they had finished and put the trash away, she moved to the small restroom to wash up for the night. Then he took his turn.

She was sitting on the side of the cot her boots on the floor beside the bed; she had pulled the blanket down and was waiting. He sat on the same side and pulled off his boots.

“You think I should wash my feet?” Jack teased.

“I may change my mind about staying here if you don’t put that sock down,” Sam giggled as she moved away from him. He grabbed her and pulled her down on the sheet and they lay together, both keeping their BDU’s on. Jack reached for the lamp switch and turned it off. He kissed her soft lips once more and then spooned behind her. This was perfect. He hoped nothing would damage what they had. Seemed he’d wished that a lot sense last night.

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Pete had lost his patience. He was tired and angry. It had been at least two hours since the general had left. They had no right to keep him here, especially all night in this room with not only guards on the outside, but this strange looking soldier in the room with him. The man just kept staring at him. It had unnerved the hell out of him.

He had tried time and again to get the guard to talk, but he was even more closed off than the other two. It was beyond Pete why anyone would want to be in the military, but as a guard? That was even more unimaginable. He finally gave up and laid his head back over his folded arms on the table. He’d try and get a few winks. It helped just to shut the sight of this man out of his vision. Maybe he could forget he was there.

Teal’c smiled slightly. It was good to see this man, who had caused his friends trouble, so unnerved. He was glad O’Neill had told him what happened. It made this particular job fun.

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The President turned off the lights in his office as he left for the day, or rather make that night. It had been a long day and night. The meeting with Kinsey had gone just as he had thought it would. Bad. It never failed to amaze him that this jerk had been elected to office by the people. It was proof positive that Kinsey could disguise his true self well.

He hated that his last term in office was nearing an end, because with the power that Kinsey had he wasn’t so sure that the jerk wouldn’t be the next President. That would be terrible for the whole country. But, he knew that Kinsey would destroy the Stargate Program and most likely lose all their off-world allies in the first two months.

He had to get some people in place before he left office to keep a check on him, people with power to match Kinsey’s. He also needed to think of starting a new oversight committee to oversee the SGC. Maybe that would help keep Kinsey from getting complete control over it.

With the secrecy involved with the program, it would make it easy for a snake like Kinsey to ramrod his way into control. And he knew that Kinsey had designs on the SGC for his own purposes. He’d said it was to protect the planet from alien invasion. Please!

He knew Kinsey much better than that. Kinsey wanted alien technology no matter the cost and he had never been happy with the way Hammond ran the SGC. Hammond was too humanitarian for Kinsey’s selfish wants. And then there was O’Neill, an ex-black ops soldier that had broken every rule and regulation in the books. But was one of the best officers he had ever had the pleasure to know. He knew that O’Neill had put his life on the line for his country so many times over his long military career and that he’d do whatever it took to get the job done. But he also knew that Kinsey hated O’Neill with a passion.

But at least with the report from his staff that they had drawn the same conclusion from their interrogation of Farrity that George had from his interrogation of Shanahan, he felt better knowing that Kinsey had no part in the search of the SGC officers’ files. Kinsey had also let a couple of things slip that gave away truth, he’d only found out after it happened.

Although now he knew Kinsey would continue digging until he found something. He would have to tell George to keep a close reign on his officers and to keep an eye on that detective. He’d never put anything passed Kinsey, even kidnapping if it served his purpose.

TBC

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