CHAPTER 16


 It should have made Jack feel just a tad better knowing that the charges against both him and Carter had been dropped.  ‘Should have,’ was the operative term. Now he only had to deal with the hostile looks he kept getting from Frazier. She had one of those, “oh just wait till your next post mission exam,” looks. First Jack was accused of kidnapping. Then he finds out he sort of did it. That only made the matter worse when you consider it was only sort of a kidnapping to begin with. Jack could only plead with Janet Frazier for relief and, as much for his own as hers, “I didn’t do it!”

    

“I know,” she seemed unconvinced.

Carter pulled one of her earphones back and looked to her companions in the back of the van, “Janet, it’s not his fault. I mean if you stop and think about it, logically…”

Frazier’s hand shot up and her head dropped, “please Sam. Right now I’m not in the mood for logic.”

 Everyone flinched when the back door opened. They settled back down when they saw Daniel standing there. He was anything but settled. As he caught his breath he asked, “is Teal’c back yet?”

After checking his watch Jack replied, “no. What did you find out?”

Daniel was a bit hesitant about responding. His eyes drifted to Janet and then back to Jack. He stumbled over his words and nodded for Jack to follow him out of the van.

Janet would have none of this, “Daniel Jackson if you do not spit it out right now you can bet that you will regret, very greatly, coming back from your next mission.”  

Jack gulped at that one too.

“OK,” Daniel took a deep breath, “I found Cassie’s friend. She told me that…”

It was a case of being saved by the alien. Teal’c looked into the van from behind Daniel, “I have been successful in convincing the menial laborers of the Bus terminal to surrender to me what information was required.”

“Without casualties I hope?” Jack asked.  

Teal’c did not respond.

Before the explosion of voices could drown all other sounds out, Sam held up her hand as she detected something from her parabolic microphones. It was different from the rest of the sounds she had been listening to for the better part of an hour. That was only to be expected though. The two FBI agents had just returned to their little command post a few minutes ago. Now they were doing something and Carter was trying to hear them do it. 

 Everyone else thought it was a waste of time but, if what Major Davis had said was true, then those two jerk Feds had been put on this case before it was even a case. That made it perfectly clear this was a set up. Since Sam was convinced the kids were all right, finding out who set them up became a priority. Who could have known that Little Jack and Cassie were going away for the weekend? More importantly how could anyone have known to connect them to the SGC?

At first Sam heard only the sounds of two people talking. Then she heard the sounds of several other people talking on top of the first two. Sam could swear the voices she was hearing, coming back over the headsets, were those of her own team!

Then Sam heard the Mulder guy say, “what the hell is that?”

Sam heard herself say it, over her headset, at the exact same time.

 In no time at all the voices of the FBI Agents and SG-1 were intermingling and growing exponentially louder. The squelch that resulted from the feedback pierced Sam’s ears and she also heard another scream on the other end.  At that point Sam tossed the headset down and grabbed her ears as they rung in pain.

“Carter?” Jack became quizzical and knocked lightly on her forehead, “hello. What just happened?”

 Sam was still clutching her ears and working her neck up and down as her body wanted to go fetal right in the seat, “I… I… huh?” It took another moment before Sam recovered enough to state, "I think they had their own mic on us!"

Jack switched the parabolic sensors off, “all right that does it. I’m done with that little prick up there. I say we go kick his door in and beat the crap out of him.”

Daniel raised a point, “Jack you’re really not going to learn anything by doing that, you realize.”

“Daniel,” the way Jack said the name came out sounding more like, “duh.”  Jack controlled his temper a little and then, “who says I want to learn anything from him. I just want to beat the crap out of him.”

A brow raised over the right eye of Teal’c, “I am in agreement with O’Neill. Inflicting physical pain on this Mulder person would bring great pleasure in times of stress. It is as important as a balanced meal of…”

Daniel cut in, “no offense Teal’c, but this isn’t your show.”

“You are correct Daniel Jackson,” Teal’c was looking out towards the park they were positioned by. “It is in fact a lot more interesting and about to become even more so. I do believe those are the agents in question coming our way.”

Jack quickly jumped out of the van for a first hand look. Mulder was stomping across the park while vigorously digging into his ears with a q-tip. Agent Skully was dragging her heals a bit behind him and just shaking her head and rolling her eyes. 

This brought a smile to Jack’s face, “he looks pissed. Good work Carter.”

Sam was still stumbling from side to side as she got out of the van. Janet tried to help her but for all the Doctor’s intentions she was just too small to be of much use. Fortunately, Teal’c reached out with a single hand and held the Major up by the back of her shirt. All the while Sam got a peek at Colonel O’Neill stomping off right towards the FBI. Daniel was following close behind him pleading but obviously with little effect.

Then the cell phone started ringing. Sam assumed it was just more of the various sounds hammering inside her head. Teal’c apparently had very fined tuned senses because he did not even have to look around, “I believe, Doctor Frazier, that is your long range vocal communication device that summons attention.”

Janet had not even realized it herself till Teal’c mentioned it. The pandemonium was quite engrossing and after a few stressful days Janet was simply not up to the task of doing much of anything. She was only acting out of habit when she grabbed her phone very quickly. 

After looking on the caller ID Janet became very excited, “it’s Cassie!”

Putting the phone to her ear Janet let it all vent out, “Cassandra Frazier if you thought the time you put the dog in the mi…” Janet’s eyes grew wide, “who is this?”

Meanwhile Jack had squared off with Agent Mulder and was bouncing around from side to side with his chest puffed out. Mulder was returning the favor but, as it always seemed to be the case, he could not quite get past the dead pan routine, “I’ll have you know that interference in a Federal Investigation is a Federal Offense.”

Skully was standing back behind her partner. Her arms were crossed and she was not very enthused about this public display of testosterone. At best she could only be described as bored. She mumbled a reply to her partners threat, “yeah like it would be a Canadian offense?”

In the other corner, Daniel provided his own council, “um, Jack you do realize we’re in a very public place here.”

The two combatants, who had actually yet to combat, seemed oblivious to their coaches. Jack just kept getting into Mulder’s face, “I am going to so own you. We are a Federal Investigation Mister Federal Offense.”

“The Air Force,” Mulder almost cracked an emotion in his voice but quickly recovered, “does not have jurisdiction over civil matters. Your being here is a direct violation of Comitus Factus.”

Jack started taking off his jacket, “all right that’s it. Nobody calls me a comatose faggot.”

That got Daniel to stand back. Not only was Jack stripping, but the FBI guy had already dumped his trench coat and was loosening his tie. The only thing Daniel could think to do was ease over next to the red headed agent and ask, “does this sort of thing happen to you a lot?”

She only shrugged, “not as much I’d like. Mulder just isn’t the physical type, and believe me I know. What about you?”

Now it was Daniel’s turn to shrug, “unfortunately all the time.”

The Air Force had now squared off with the FBI and both men were in a squat like stance with fists raised and legs spread. Each was daring the other one to strike first.  

Daniel pulled out a bill and waived it at Skully, “I got ten on Jack.”

“No bet,” she wouldn’t even consider it.

 Before the first swings made it completely to contact, Carter came running up, “Colonel!” She pushed the two men apart and then dropped over to catch her breath. In between puffs she noted, “sir I really hate to break up your fun but we have a serious problem.”

“Move Carter,” Jack made slapping gestures for her to get out of the way, “I am soooo going to kick his ass.”

Mulder puffed out his chest again, “well why don’t you just come on over here and try it fly boy.”

“Colonel!”  Sam shouted above the two men. She was dead serious, “somebody grabbed Cassandra! For real this time!”

Both men dropped their shoulders and fists. In unison they both replied, “what?”