Work Text:
“Colonel, I understand congratulations are in order!” General Hank Landry’s voice preceded him as he strolled out of his office into the briefing room.
Samantha Carter and Cameron Mitchell, seated and waiting for SG-1’s next mission briefing to begin, both looked up towards Landry in confusion as he made his way to the head of the table.
Cam’s face was a picture of complete bafflement. “Uh … Thank you sir?” He glanced towards Sam, assuming her to be as in the dark as he was.
Sam’s gaze flickered to meet Mitchell’s and for a split second there was something resembling panic in her eyes before it was gone, her features quickly rearranged into confusion. She tilted her head to the side and directed her focus to the General. “Oh … What for, sir?”
Cam frowned and leaned slightly towards Carter to study her more intently, suddenly suspecting she had a better idea of what this was all about than he did. “Wait, what’s going on?”
She reflexively pulled away, cheeks flushing pink. “What? I don’t know!”
Landry finished settling into his seat, resting his clasped hands on the table. He cast a speculative look towards the female officer in front of him. “Colonel Carter, are you telling me you did not get married this past weekend?”
Mitchell’s jaw dropped and he sat bolt upright. “What?”
Across the table, Teal’c tilted his head to the side ever so slightly and raised an eyebrow in Cam’s direction. Daniel, who had been skimming through the briefing notes, paused and lifted his head, eyes shifting between Sam and Mitchell with interest.
Sam, for her part, found herself at a loss for words. “Oh, well … I suppose, really …” She stopped, took a deep breath, cleared her throat and eventually settled on, “It’s actually a little bit … well, complicated.”
Landry looked like he was trying not to be amused by this. “Complicated. Yes, I suppose that’s one way you could describe marrying someone in your own chain of command, Colonel.” His eyes twinkled even as he kept his overall expression stern.
Mitchell was frowning, clearly trying to put the pieces of the conversation together in a way that made sense. His mouth moved a couple of times as if he was attempting to speak but the effort proved unsuccessful.
Sam raised her chin and sat up straighter in an endeavour to try and regain some control of the situation. “Well, that’s one way of looking at it, sir. You know, in a certain light.” She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, conscious of everyone’s gaze on her.
Landry leaned back in his chair and contemplated Sam. “Hmm, in a certain light you say.” He paused for a moment, thinking, before continuing. “Colonel Carter, who do you report to?”
Sam sighed but answered, “You, sir.”
“And who do I report to?” Landry spread his hands open as he waited for Carter’s answer.
Sam’s earlier attempt at confidence faltered slightly, her gaze falling to the table in front of her. “General O’Neill, sir,” she muttered almost inaudibly.
General Landry pulled one hand up to cup his ear, angling it towards Sam. “I’m getting old, Colonel, you’ll have to speak up.”
Sam cast her eyes to the ceiling as if hoping to be unexpectedly beamed out of the room by the Asgard, but of course that didn’t happen. She took a breath and met Landry’s amused gaze. “General O’Neill, sir.”
One side of Landry’s mouth quirked upwards. “Doesn’t seem very complicated to me.”
At this point Cam, who had been sitting at the table quietly gaping at his teammate through the entire exchange, finally regained the power of speech. “I’m sorry, Sam are you saying you and General O’Neill got married?”
Having been caught off guard by the entire conversation, Sam was still apparently having difficulty constructing coherent sentences. “Oh, um, well actually …”
Daniel sighed and made a loud show of flipping his briefing notes closed. “Oh, for heavens sakes! Yes, Jack and Sam got married on Saturday. Teal’c and I were there. Afterwards we had a barbecue at Jack’s place. It was nice! It should have happened years ago. Everyone is happy!” He leaned forward and focused his attention on Landry. “Can we get on with the mission briefing now?”
Silence reigned over the room for a long moment. Sam winced slightly in response to Daniel’s outburst and tried to kick him under the table but her foot met only air. The moment stretched on and she looked around warily, hoping everyone would let the topic go and move on to the mission at hand.
“Wait, you invited Daniel and Teal’c but not me?” Cam’s voice burst into the silence, crushing Sam’s hopes. He turned a pair of mournful blue eyes towards her.
She sighed. “I’m sorry Cam, it was just a really small thing, kind of spur of the moment …” she looked guiltily at Mitchell, smiling to soften the blow of having excluded him.
Suspicion crept over his face. “And what did Daniel mean by ‘should have happened years ago’? Exactly how long has this been going on?” he demanded.
Sam glared across the table at Daniel, who simply blinked at her with an expression of complete innocence before turning his attention back to his notes. She faced Mitchell and attempted a forced laugh. “I have absolutely no idea what he’s talking about.”
Cam looked scandalised. “Wait, were you guys a thing while you were on SG-1 together?”
Sam cast a desperate look towards Teal’c, who was observing the entire scene with a mild expression that anyone who knew him well would immediately identify as amusement. He offered no comment. She pulled her attention back to Cam in slight panic. “No! Of course not!”
Daniel was still contemplating the briefing notes but at this he lifted his gaze to peer over the top of his glasses at Cam. “Define ‘thing’ …” He emphasised the last word, drawing it out and letting it hang delicately in the room.
The look Carter shot him would have withered lesser men, but Daniel simply quirked his lips in a half smile at her, pushed his glasses further up his nose and cast another look of innocence around the room.
“Daniel!” Sam groaned, “Can you please just stay out of this? You’re making it sound so … sordid!”
Vala Mal Doran chose this precise moment to arrive, fashionably late, for the mission briefing. “Ooh, did someone say sordid? What have I missed? I hope you know you can count me in for anything sordid …” She swept her gaze around the room and winked at Daniel before dropping dramatically into an empty seat.
Sam moaned and slumped forward onto the table, her head pillowed on her arms.
General Landry was still sitting at the head of the table watching the chaos unfold, wearing an expression that suggested he might have regrets about ever bringing up the topic in the first place. He peered down at the back of Carter’s head with a slight frown. “Well sordid or not, given I’ve just had the President of the United States on the phone telling me how happy he is for the two of you—”
Sam jolted back upright. “The President, sir?”
At the same time Mitchell’s head spun in her direction and he stared at his teammate as if she’d suddenly sprouted leaves. “Who on earth are you?”
Landry didn’t seem annoyed by the interruption. “Oh yes, President Hayes himself called to tell me all about it. Since it appears it’s all been taken care of way above my head, I’d say I don’t have much room to be upset about this development, wouldn’t you agree Colonel?”
“I don’t think it’s really my place to answer that, sir,” Sam responded weakly, looking slightly nauseous.
“Hmmm,” Landry grumbled, squinting slightly at Carter. “Well, it still would have been nice if one of you had told me first.”
“No kidding …” Cam muttered under his breath, glancing sideways towards Carter.
Sam looked cautiously towards the General, having difficulty gauging the temperature of his mood towards this unexpected, and frankly slightly awkward, change in her personal circumstances.
Finally after a long pause Landry broke, a wide smile splitting his face. “Ah, I’m just messing with you Colonel Carter. Well earned congratulations are in order.”
Relief bloomed on Sam’s face. “Thank you, sir.”
“Well, I can’t say it was entirely a surprise,” Landry confessed. “George might have had a couple of things to share about you two when I took this job.”
Sam choked slightly at this revelation and stared wide-eyed at General Landry in horror. Daniel lifted a hand to hide his laugh and shared a look with Teal’c, whose expression now clearly displayed amusement to anyone regardless of how well they knew him.
Mitchell looked at Sam with some major side eye. “You know, this really is sounding kind of sordid.” He shook his head, then the corner of his mouth twitched up into a smirk. He dropped his voice to a loud stage whisper. “Way to go, Sam!”
Sam had had enough. Placing her hands firmly on the table in front of her she looked pointedly around at everyone in the rom. “Alright, you’ve all had your fun. Can we get on with the briefing now?”
Landry chuckled. “Okay Colonel, we can do that.”
Sam breathed a sigh of relief. Finally the ordeal was over. The news was out and the room’s focus could turn to the upcoming mission.
However before anyone else had a chance to speak, footsteps could be heard on the metal stairs and a familiar voice floated up the spiral staircase. “Ah, the SGC, there’s no place like home …”
A moment later the silver head of Major General Jack O’Neill appeared, followed shortly by the rest of him. The room’s attention immediately shifted from Sam to the new arrival as he strolled casually into the room.
Jack caught Sam’s gaze with a warm twinkle in his eye, then looked around at the scene before him, hands held out wide. “Well, isn’t anybody going to congratulate us?”
Sam groaned and dropped her head back onto the table with a resounding thud.