Title: Loose Ends
Author: knightshade
Rating: PG-13 for some swearing
Spoilers: Divide and Conquer

Summary: Jack knows it's not about him anymore. And he knows the only thing he can do to help Carter is try to tie up the loose ends. Post Divide and Conquer.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Stargate. They belong to MGM and Gekko Productions, among others. No copyright infringement is intended. I like to think this is fair use, but that has yet to be proven in court.

Author's Notes: This takes place post Divide and Conquer. It's a little bit shippy, but not very much. It's more about Jack dealing with all the fallout.

Thank you very much to Twitch who was kind enough to turn a very fast and helpful beta on this.

Loose Ends

Jack watched as Freya climbed the ramp to the Stargate, carrying that infernal machine of hers. Well, actually, it was Anise, and therein lay a problem for Jack. He was tired, raw, and desperately hoping to tie up the loose ends before everything came unraveled on him. He'd been hoping to catch Freya alone before she left, but she'd been surrounded by a steady stream of people. Besides which he really didn't want to ask Anise if he could talk to her host.

The treaty signing had been an anti-climactic half hour and then everyone had filed out. The rest of the Tok'ra delegation had left, taking the body of Martouf with them, which left Anise at the top of the ramp alone. As Jack watched, she bowed her head, closed her eyes, and became Freya.

"Colonel O'Neill?"

"Yes?"

"Do not worry. I understand. I have spent some time reading about Earth customs."

Jack raised both eyebrows, wishing, not for the first time that the Tok'ra weren't so damn cryptic. Although in this case it was probably a good thing. He'd told Daniel about the incident with her in his quarters and the guard had seen them together. It was a plausible explanation for her comment. Hell, he wasn't even a hundred percent sure she wasn't talking about that. But she could have meant that she knew about the regulations and wouldn't talk about what he and Carter had been forced to say. Here was hoping anyway.

Jack mustered a smile. "That's … great. Uh, see you when we see you, I guess," he said, silently hoping that wasn't soon. He couldn't help feeling a little bitter about what she'd put him through, especially when the za'tarc had ended up being in the Tok'ra ranks.

Freya nodded and then disappeared into the gate, swallowed in the blue wash before it snapped apart and disappeared like so much expended energy.

As soon as she was gone, the last of the aliens to leave, Hammond held up his hand to get everyone's attention. "I'm sorry, people. I know it's been a long and difficult day, but I'd like to get a quick debriefing in before we call it a night."

---

The briefing room was uncomfortably quiet and filled with an uneasy tension. Jack was sitting next to Teal'c and across the table from Daniel and Doctor Fraiser, but he was doing his best not to look at either of them. The last person to arrive in the briefing room was Carter. She had slipped out of the gate room as soon as the Tok'ra had taken Martouf's body. Jack was sure she'd gone back to her quarters to change into fatigues that weren't stained in his blood. Now she sat quietly, her face pale and drawn, her arms resting listlessly on the table. Jack tried to catch her eye, but she had taken her seat without looking his direction. He tried not to take it personally -- he knew Carter's thoughts weren't on him -- but it still stung.

"I'll try to keep this as brief as possible," Hammond said. "I just want to get the details down while it's still fresh."

There were nods around the table.

"Okay, first of all, Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter, how was it you were both cleared of being za'tarcs?"

"We didn't realize we weren't giving the full story about the mission on Apophis's ship, sir," Jack said, jumping in before anyone else had the chance. Carter was the smart one, but he had years of involvement with covert operations and classified projects. He always had a cover story in the back of his mind, ready to throw out when he needed it. It was habit more than anything else, but sometimes it came in handy. And right now he wanted to be the one to cover for them. That way if it ever came out, he could take the fall for lying.

"We were both briefly knocked out when the armbands fell off. When we started coming to, we were aware of things that were going on, like Jaffa marching in the distance, but not consciously. Those memories were in our subconscious minds, so it looked like we were leaving things out."

Jack could feel Teal'c not looking at him. Dr. Fraiser was a different story altogether though. She was giving him a dark glare from across the table.

"And how did you figure this out?" Hammond glanced at Fraiser but Carter jumped in.

"When Dr. Fraiser was in the process of sedating me, I started to remember some of the missing pieces."

Nicely done, Jack thought. She was telling the truth. It was only the pairing of her truth with his lie that made the whole thing a misdirection. Not that he really thought it would amount to a hill of beans if they were called on the carpet for this, but it was something at least. Maybe Carter would just get a dishonorable discharge instead of a long vacation with him in Leavenworth.

"I somehow managed to get across to Dr. Fraiser that I knew there was a problem and she stopped the sedation." Carter's voice was uncharacteristically toneless and Jack felt bad that she had to do this now, after everything else she'd been through today.

Hammond looked in Janet's direction and Jack waited on pins and needles to see what she was going to do. "Major Carter was pretty well out of it, sir, but she managed to tell me that they'd lied without knowing it, and that the machine was wrong. So I brought her out of sedation and stopped the procedure on the colonel before it was started."

"Carter told me what was wrong, Anise retested us, and we both came out clear of za'tarc programming, sir," Jack finished, resting his elbows on the table and fighting the urge to fidget.

Hammond glanced around the room. "Well done, people." Jack studied him for any sign of suspicion or disbelief. It was encouraging that the General seemed to have accepted their story, but it was way too early to be breathing any sighs of relief.

The briefing shifted to the events in the gate room and Jack put in his two cents before listening to Carter's description of events very carefully. Her voice was hollow and tight when she recounted shooting Martouf. Her eyes were locked somewhere in the middle of the conference room table and Jack wondered, not for the first time, how much Jolinar's feelings affected her. If it was as much as he feared, then she had to be a mess inside, no matter how well she seemed to be handling things right now.

The briefing was thankfully short, as Hammond had promised. When he dismissed them, Jack followed Carter out. He caught up with her in the hallway, but stopped, suddenly feeling awkward. Jack wanted to do something but he just didn't know what. A hug seemed in order, but given the circumstances he wasn't sure that was a good idea. He found himself holding back, leaving more space between them than he might otherwise. "Are you okay?"

"I will be, sir." She didn't quite meet his eyes. Close, but not quite.

"You did what you had to do, Carter. There was no other option."

"I know, sir."

Jack knew she didn't really believe that. Not yet. "Is there anything I can do?"

"No. Thank you. I'm really tired. I think I'm just going to get some sleep."

He nodded, feeling awkward and fairly useless. "Okay."

She turned down the hallway toward her quarters and Jack was helpless to do anything but watch her go. He wanted to head back to his quarters too, hole up there, and lock out the world. He wanted to escape all of this, but he knew he had things to do. Taking care of this mess was probably the only thing he could do right now to actually help Carter. With a sigh, he turned to look for Dr. Fraiser only to find her headed his way, striding with purpose.

He wasn't the only one looking to have this conversation.

"Colonel, can I have a word with you?" she asked, professional sounding to the core, but he could see the cold fury in her eyes. This was not going to be a day at the park.

"Sure, doc. Your office or mine?"

"Mine, if you don't mind."

He mustered a weak smile. "Sure thing."

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To Be Continued