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Appraisal	By : Quills Category: Stargate: SG-1 > General Views: 3712 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate SG1 or its characters. I make no money from writing this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Appraisal
- 1
Alex Flynn winced as she knocked on Brigadier General Jack O’Neill’s door. The staff blast she’d taken to her left shoulder was nearly healed now, but it would take a few more days for the residual ache to fade away. Until it did, much to her frustration she found herself stranded on base while the rest of SG10 carried out their missions. Filled to the brim with pent-up energy, she’d intended to spend the morning in the gym burning it off, but instead the general had sent a message for her to see him for a long overdue appraisal.
“Come in.”
Lowering her arm back to her side, she cautiously pushed the door open and walked in. The general was sat behind the vast mahogany desk that dominated his office, setting the red phone back down in its cradle as his brown eyes came to rest upon her. He was new to the job, having taken over from the inimitable General Hammond less than a year ago, but in the short months since she had arrived Alex had realised how much respect he commanded. On occasion, though, she caught him gazing wistfully at the gate whenever the teams departed, and she sensed now how ill at ease he was trapped behind his desk.
Saluting smartly as O’Neill lifted his head, she stood to attention. “Reporting as ordered, sir.”
“At ease, Lieutenant Flynn. In fact, take a seat. You’re not long out of the infirmary and I’ve got enough on my plate without being taken to task by the doctors for keeping you standing.”
Alex didn’t know whether to laugh or not, so instead she mutely dropped into the chair he’d indicated. He watched her a few moments longer, and then sighed.
“So.” The general peered over the top of his files and scattered papers, a faint furrow in his tanned brow as he let loose another heavy sigh that spoke far more than anything else he’d said so far. “Are you ready for your first appraisal, lieutenant?”
“I think so. Are you ready, sir?”
A tiny smile twitched at the corners of his thin lips. “Let’s find out, First Lieutenant Alexandra Flynn, newest recruit on SG10. You joined the military straight out of high school, right?”
“Right. My dad was in the air force, and they sounded me out as soon as I showed an interest. They asked me to do my college degree first -”
O’Neill glanced down. “In archaeology?”
Alex nodded, finally beginning to relax into her stiff-backed chair. “Yes. I’d always had an interest in it, and when they suggested I do it for my degree I saw no reason not to. It wasn’t until I graduated and they brought me to Cheyenne Mountain that I understood exactly why they’d pushed me down that route.”
“Yeah, Dr. Jackson was thrilled when the military finally started to realise we need more than just brute force out there.” The general finally unleashed a rare smile. “Mind you, Flynn, seems you’re pretty good at that side of it too. Your file shows a great aptitude for physical fitness, and you’ve aced every test we’ve put you through here on the program. Colonel Barnes has nothing but good things to say about you in his mission reports, and I get the impression the whole team can’t wait for you to be back on active duty.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Don’t thank me, lieutenant. It’s all down to your hard work – and you know something, not everyone is cut out for this program. All the training in the world can’t prepare you for what you might find on the other side of the gate, and all we can do is throw you out there to see if you seek or swim. Fortunately, you seem to be one of the latter.” His smile widened. “Hey, this appraisal thing isn’t so bad, is it? It’s easier than I thought it would be.”
Alex’s eyes widened in disbelief as the significance of the stacked files and the general’s furrowed brow fell into place. “General O’Neill, is the first one you’ve done?”
“It’s the first one you’ve had, so we’re well-matched.”
Stunned into silence, she stared across at him until a sudden burst of noise from the loudspeakers made them both start in their chairs.
“Unscheduled off world activation!”
“Oh, for crying out loud!” O’Neill snatched up the phone on his desk and punched the button that linked him to the control room. “O’Neill,” he barked, an impatient scowl upon his face once more. “Who is it? Are SG3 back already?”
“No, sir,” Alex overheard the sergeant say. “We’ve just received SG6’s ident code. Dr. Mathers radioed to request permission to bring some artefacts through to study. Shall I give them a go-ahead?”
“SG6? Sure,” the general said. “Tell them I want them ready to debrief in half an hour.”
He stayed on the line a few moments longer, evidently waiting for SG6 to successfully disembark and come out of the gate room before he hung up and glanced across at her once more. “Right, where were we?”
“In the midst of confession time, I think. Sir, have you really not done any other appraisals yet?”
O’Neill gestured helplessly at the state of his desk. “Does this answer your question? Forgive me making you my guinea pig, Flynn, but you’ve never had an appraisal before, so I figured you wouldn’t know if I messed up. Shit, does this count as messing up?”
“Um...probably, sir.”
The low hum of the air conditioning seemed to heighten as they began to laugh, the tension in the office momentarily broken. As their laughter faded away, Alex closed her eyes, a faint sheen of perspiration creeping across her face as her hand unconsciously drifted towards the top button of her shirt. Despite the air conditioning, the temperature in the office seemed to be rapidly rising.
When she opened her eyes again O’Neill had leaned forward, breathing more heavily than before as his eyes darkened. “You’re feeling it too, aren’t you?” he said under his breath.
Her tongue darted out across her lips. “Sir?”
“At the risk of sounding like a walking cliché, Flynn, is it me or is it getting really hot in here?”
Without even realising what she was doing, she flicked the button open as he laid his hands against the desk, his knuckles white as he clenched his fists. “Sure seems to be, sir,” she finally said as a wave of dizziness washed over her. “Perhaps we should head to the infirmary.”
“Oh, come on! You must have seen enough of that place this last week.”
All of a sudden, she found it impossible to tear her eyes away from him. “It’s not somewhere I fancy going back to, no.”
“I heard you weren’t the best of patients, Flynn. How is your shoulder healing up?”
“Quicker than I thought it would. Lucky it was my left arm, really.”
“Mmm.” O’Neill sucked in a sharp breath, then without warning rose from his chair. “Can I see?”
Alex pushed back in her chair as a rush of heat flooded through her. “My shoulder?”
“Unless there’s anything else you want to show me,” he said coolly.
She moistened her lips and stood up without speaking, no longer daring to trust her voice for fear it would betray her. Her slow-burning fever began to spiral out of control as she pushed her shirt down past her shoulder, exposing the puckered wound and the black lace strap of her bra to the general’s wide eyes.
Even as he circled around her he didn’t change the direction of his intent stare for even a moment, and to Alex’s stunned disbelief she came to realise that in his mind, O’Neill was steadily undressing her – and clearly he was enjoying what he imagined. With a low groan, he ran one hand through his hair as her head rolled to the side.
As fire raged through her veins, he finally came to a halt in front of her, his hand shaking as he stretched it out until it came to rest against the barely-healed wound. The touch of his skin against hers was electrifying, tautening her nipples to pebble through her bra even before one of the general’s long fingers slipped beneath her bra strap.
“Is that sore?” he said softly.
His hand was threatening to move lower still, but his thumb still stroked the jagged contours of her wound. Alex flinched as she involuntarily glanced at it, ashamed of the flash of red that marred the creamy skin around it, but the general insistently cupped her jaw in the palm of his hand to tilt her head back up towards his.
It seemed O’Neill understood perfectly the conflict in her head. He shrugged off his jacket, the medals gently clinking against each other as it fell to the plush carpet beneath their feet. “It’s beautiful, lieutenant. Trust me, I’ve got more than a few of my own, and each one’s a badge of honour I wear with as much pride as the medals now on the floor. Be proud of it, because any man who’s worth his salt will only want you more for seeing it. Speaking of which...”
She shuddered as his hand pushed triumphantly into the cup of her bra, resting against the curve of her cleavage as her heart skipped a beat. Her nipples silently screamed out for his attention, but he seemed content simply to gently tease her for now as his calloused fingers danced across her skin, coaxing her arousal higher and higher until he delivered a brief kiss to the top of her head.
“Time to take your shirt off, Alex.”
Her breath caught in her throat. Convinced she must have misheard him, she pulled her head back to stare up at him and he groaned loudly, his hand tightening painfully on her breast to wrench an answering cry from her lips. “My -”
“Your shirt off, lieutenant – and that’s an order!”
The charismatic general was impossible to defy, and when his forefinger finally brushed against her left nipple her body exploded in a frenzy of desperate, consuming longing for everything he was so clearly offering. Alex needed more; she needed everything he had to give. As he rolled her nipple between his fingers, she nodded urgently and reached up one hand to begin unbuttoning his shirt before she stepped back.
O’Neill drew a shallow breath, taking up the task she had left off as she tore at the buttons of her own shirt instead, unable to stand the few brief moments until she would be back in his arms. “That’s it, Alex,” he said. “Show me yours and then I’ll show you mine.”
This lust had exploded out of nowhere, but now it had arrived she could no sooner fight it than stop breathing. Her skin burned in the wake of his touch, but as she let her shirt fall away to lie on top of the general’s discarded jacket, some nagging protest in the back of her mind fought its way through the fore. Her face contorted, and when he tossed his shirt aside and reached out for her she hesitated. “We shouldn’t be doing this, sir.”
“I know, but somehow that’s only turning me on all the more,” he said hoarsely. “How about you, Alex?”
“Sir?”
The general took hold of her hands, his gentle yet firm grip impossible to break away from even if she’d been able to summon up the will to do so. As he guided them back towards the desk, he lowered his head until the whisper of stubble on his cheek brushed against her flushed skin, effortlessly driving her protests away. “I want to know if you’re just as turned on as I am, Alex,” he said, the hunger in his voice a fresh, searing thrill that made her fever spike. “You’re driving me crazy, and I have to know if you want this as much as I do!”
The faint voice in the back of her mind still insisted this was wrong, but it was growing weaker with every passing moment, the renewed touch of the general’s hand and the scent of musk on his skin more than enough to mute everything but the consuming lust she felt for him.
“Why don’t you try and find out?”
O’Neill released one of her hands only to snake his arm around her waist, forcibly dragging her into the heat of his body and holding her so close she could feel his hard cock pushing insistently up against her stomach. Laden with a fierce promise, it twitched impatiently and Alex let loose a low moan from the back of her throat, powerless to fight back the tide of arousal that pounded relentlessly through her body. His arm tightened possessively around her as his mouth hovered agonisingly close to hers and he spoke once more.
“Oh, I think I’m going to have to do just that, Alex. One more thing, though.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Call me Jack.”
“Is that an order as well?”
“If it has to be,” he said, his eyes meeting hers in a direct challenge as he let go of her only to sweep everything off the polished surface of his desk. “Do I have to order you to lie down on my desk too, Alex?”
Alex moved back into the general’s waiting arms and laid one trembling hand against his face. “I don’t think so, sir – Jack – not if it brings me closer to having your cock inside me,” she whispered, barely daring to believe the words she heard herself say. It was as if they were in a dream, but if they were she didn’t want to wake up, not until they’d taken all they so badly needed from each other.
O’Neill swore loudly, his delight plain to see as he lifted her off her feet and threw her roughly down onto the desk before springing up to wrench her thighs apart and kneel between them.
With no warning his mouth descended upon her throat, searing and branding it with a ferocious kiss that had her rocking senselessly against him, carried away on a wave of pleasure so powerful it swept all else aside. She was lost to this, yet she gladly surrendered all she was into the general’s skilled command as his mouth moved lower, his destination obvious when he forced one hand between their feverish bodies in search of her breasts.
This was the point of no return, but Alex simply stretched her arms out above her head as he wrenched her breasts out of their lace restraints with another hissed curse of wonder. Their eyes locked for the space of a heartbeat, and then as his hand closed around her left breast his mouth laid claim to the right. She threw her head back and writhed shamelessly against him as his tongue wrapped around her nipple before he gently bit down, sending her arousal hurtling to previously undiscovered heights. O’Neill’s fingers played around her other nipple as he groaned softly, the heat of his tanned skin against hers rising in tandem with the temperature of the office, despite the continued whir of the air conditioning.
He briefly lifted his head, a teasing smile playing around his thin lips as he cupped her breast in his hand. “Guess that answers my question, Alex. I didn’t think it was possible, but it seems you really do want this as much as I do. So, shall I continue?”
“Could you stop now even if I said no?”
O’Neill’s smile faded away, and he pinched her nipple sharply to wrench a rough cry of elation from her still parted lips. “I don’t think I could, Alex, but even though I know that’s not right all I can think of is burying my cock inside you. Do you think you’re ready for it?”
Her head was a frenzied haze of desire, his face and the hunger he wore so plainly in his brown eyes the only thing she saw. Even her shoulder didn’t hurt any more, for he was all she knew. “You know I’m ready, Jack!”
His mouth grazed hers as his hand slipped down past her waist. “Then shall I find out?”
“Please, Jack, please!”
She fisted his hair with a low, mewling cry as he fumbled desperately with the button of her military pants, cursing under his breath until it popped open and he tugged them triumphantly down past the flare of her hips. She stilled beneath him, suddenly nervous and shy, but then their eyes met and she saw that his lust for her easily matched all she now felt for him.
“Jesus, you’re so beautiful!” His mouth finally slammed down onto hers as his hand thrust triumphantly beneath the lace of her panties. Alex cried out into his mouth and he eagerly swallowed the sound as he slipped one finger into her pussy, meeting next to no resistance as, to her fierce elation, his thumb firmly stroked across her aching clitoris. A crippling jolt of pleasure seared through her veins and she eagerly bore down against his hand as he forced another finger inside her, stretching her pussy out and stroking the inside of her walls in time with his skilled manipulation of her clit.
O’Neill’s kiss was firm and demanding, issuing his orders without the need for words. She understood exactly what he wanted from her and held nothing back, pushing down hard against his hand as his fingers began to thrust in and out of her pussy, each stroke he made across her clit urging her closer to the orgasm that had been so near ever since they had first touched. She willingly opened her mouth to allow his probing tongue the entrance it craved, and he groaned in approval as he lowered his full weight onto her and staked out his claim on her mouth afresh.
Alex submitted to everything the general demanded from her, for she sensed without needing to ask how determined he was to make her come before he screwed her. Obeying his orders was second nature, yet this was the sweetest and easiest order he had ever given. He wanted to lay claim to everything she was, and when each touch of his fingers against her clit drove her nearer to her climax she was more than willing to let him take it all.
She cried out into his mouth and he hungrily swallowed the sound as his caresses became ever rougher and more urgent, and to her elation she felt her body tense in greedy anticipation of the release that was no near, yet still so far. O’Neill seemed to understand her frustration, for he finally broke their kiss with a low burst of laughter that sent violent tremors of delight shooting down the full length of her spine. “Are you going to come for me soon, lieutenant?”
The gentle tease in his voice thrilled her anew, and she felt no shame in taking hold of his head to pull his mouth back towards hers as she writhed against his hand, fighting for breath and furiously urging her body to relax from the glorious knot of tension it had become. “So...so close!” she managed to gasp, and triumph smouldered in the general’s dark eyes.
“Then let’s get you there, Alex – because you’re not getting my cock inside your beautiful pussy until you’ve come for me at least once. Ready?”
O’Neill’s openly salacious words proved to be all she needed. When his fingers thrust inside her one last time just as he captured her clit between his thumb and forefinger and pinched it sharply, Alex lurched and shattered into a million shard of complete physical ecstasy, each wave of pleasure that soared through her body more powerful than the last. She sobbed out the tide of her orgasm into his bare shoulder, clinging to him as her anchor as the world spun around the two of them on top of the desk, and he held onto her tightly. The unguarded delight on his face seared itself into the forefront of her mind, for nothing had ever felt as real and right as this.
“I’ve got you, Alex, I’ve got you,” he said, near crushing the breath out of her body as he held her tightly beneath him. “Just let it take you, and then I swear, as soon as you get your breath back I’ll give you all you still need!”
“St-still need?” Alex whispered as the last throes of her climax slowly abated to leave her body burning in his wake, aflame with its furious need for yet more from the general.
“Oh yes! I know what you want, Alex,” he crooned, his hips already rocking against her in simulation of all that was mere moments away. “You need more, and you need this as fast and rough as I do. Good as that was, you want my cock inside your sweet pussy right now, don’t you?”
“Goddamn it, Jack, you know I do!”
O’Neill laughed, dazed incredulity settling over his face as his fingers hooked the waistband of her panties to finally pull them away, but just as he silenced her frantic cry with his mouth on hers once more the door to the office flew open to reveal Daniel Jackson, his eyes widening inside his head to toe protective suit as he took in the scene before him.
“Jack, stop!”
Alex arched into the general and shook her head frantically, even the presence of Dr. Jackson unable to distract her from the furious need that beat out a tattoo through every last inch of her body. “No Jack, don’t stop!” she sobbed, wrapping her legs around O’Neill’s waist as he reared up with a desperate groan. “I don’t think I could bear it, please don’t stop!”
“Alex, the Goa’uld could be knocking at the door and I don’t think I could stop! Daniel, would you kindly piss off now?” O’Neill ground out, his face contorted with the effort of holding himself back. “You might not have noticed, but we’re kinda busy here!”
“Oh, I noticed, but this shouldn’t be happening!” Jackson said, his right fist clenched as the door swung closed behind him. “Look, all I’m asking is that the two of you get down from the desk and hear me out, okay?”
His voice was low and calming, almost as if he was trying to soothe a wild animal instead of interrupting the two of them mere moments before the passion between them could erupt, but the general’s reddening face betrayed how perilous Jackson’s task was. O’Neill tensed, breathing far too heavily as he gathered Alex against his chest and turned his head to the side.
“And why would I want to do that, Daniel? Talk to you, or give Alex all she wants – it’s not much of a dilemma!” he said fiercely. “Tell you what; join in if you’re not going away!”
Alex’s breath caught in her throat as she unconsciously rocked her hips against the general’s, the tantalising suggestion of having the two members of SG1 all over her one that sent her arousal soaring yet further, and she could do nothing to hold back a low moan laden with longing. O’Neill looked down at her again and swooped in for another rough, impassioned kiss that only ended when Jackson coughed pointedly.
Inside his suit the doctor’s face rapidly reddened, but he shook his head as they both unwillingly looked across at him. “Jack, if you were in your right mind you wouldn’t have been about to screw a junior lieutenant on your desk, let alone invite me to join in without asking her,” he said, a forced calm to his voice as he slowly advanced on them. “Isn’t that enough to tell you both something out of your control is happening here? Get down from the desk, come on.”
“And then you’ll leave us in peace?”
“Sure, if you still want me to.”
“Perhaps we should hear him out, Jack,” Alex said under her breath, her ferocious desire for the general still shining through in every syllable she spoke. “The sooner we do, the sooner he goes – and the sooner we can get back to what we were doing so well.”
“Yeah, you sure were acing your appraisal, Alex.”
Their eyes locked again, and then with a great effort she shook her head from side to side. O’Neill swore loudly and punched the desk as he wrapped his free arm around her, helping her down onto the chair with him whilst shielding her bare breasts from view, keeping them pressed up against his chest as her pants rode back up to cover her ass.
“You know something, Daniel?” he said. “Your timing sucks!”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Jackson said as he circled around the desk to stand next to them. “And sorry about this too.”
“About what?”
As the general opened his mouth to speak, Jackson opened his fist and swiftly stabbed a syringe into each of their arms. Alex jerked back instinctively against the sharp pain, and O’Neill cursed again as he shoved their chair backward.
“Damn it, Daniel, what the hell was that?!”
“A mild sedative to take the edge off it for you both. Sorry, Jack – and you too, lieutenant - but it had to be done. It was the only way to make you two calm down enough to listen to me, and it’s working already, isn’t it?”
Jackson was right. Alex’s eyelids had grown heavy, but alongside the mild drowsiness was the renewed clarity of mind that had entirely abandoned her these past fifteen minutes. Even as her feverish body silently screamed out to nestle further into the heat of the general’s, she began to see how very wrong this was, and the way his eyes had slowly widened told her the same realisation was settling over him.
The doctor slowly nodded as they both looked up at him. “So, perhaps now you might have the presence of mind to ask why it is I’m suited up.”
The colour receded from the general’s face. “Chemical attack?” he asked hoarsely.
“In a manner of speaking, yes. Courtesy of Ba’al and SG6, from what I can gather. It seems one of the artefacts Mathers brought back was booby-trapped with an extremely potent dose of pheromones. It was activated for release by transport through the gate, then travelled through the air conditioning. Genius, really.”
“Genius,” O’Neill echoed grimly, his arm still around Alex’s shoulders to hold her near. Seated across his lap as she was, she could still feel the rock hard shape of his cock pressed up invitingly against her, and it was all she could do not to bear down against it as he spoke again. “How come you’re not affected?”
“Wasn’t on the base when it went off. Teal’c heard a rumour while off world and radioed to me on P5X-781 to warn us, Jack. We came back straight away – everyone else had obviously already had a full dose of the pheromones, including you two,” Jackson said wryly. “We suited up before they hit us and manually closed the iris, and once that was done it was a question of finding the source and shutting it down. Strangely enough, not many people seemed willing to break off from what they were doing to help, though I have to say none of them were enjoying themselves as much as you were.”
A dull crimson flush blazed across the general’s face anew, and it became clear how tenuous his grip on the situation was. “Right,” he finally said, a tight furrow running down his brow. “What’s the situation now then?”
“SG3 are holding the gate room – I figured the priority was to keep the gate defended while I found you and did whatever I needed to for you to take back control.”
“I’ll make a soldier out of you yet, Danny boy.” Jack smiled tersely, but then he glanced down at their state of undress and his eyes began to darken once more.
Clinging with all her might to the shred of self-control that had returned, Alex finally pushed back and shook her head. “Um...maybe I should get dressed now before the sedative wears off, sir.”
He swallowed hard. “Perhaps you should – lieutenant.”
The renewed formalities were the cue she needed. Though her body still throbbed and burned in the wake of all he had done – and all he had promised to do – she had no choice but to slip down from his lap and catch the shirt that Jackson tossed over with his eyes tightly closed. Keeping her back to the general she hastily redressed, and to her dizzying relief by the time she turned around again he too had tugged his rumpled clothing back on.
“Unscheduled off world activation!” came the automated call once more, and O’Neill seized hold of the phone. Without waiting for it to be answered, he shouted into the receiver.
“Keep the damned iris closed! I’m on my way!”
As he slammed it down again and whirled towards Jackson, Alex slumped against the wall. The full gravity of all that had happened began to sink in. It had all been chemical, none of it real, and now her senses were returning to her she realised there was no way she would have willingly crossed that line with the general – not for want of physical attraction, for there was plenty of that, but she knew even a brief kiss would risk both their careers. And they had done so much more than that! She couldn’t stay at Cheyenne Mountain now, not when every time she looked at her commanding officer she would remember the forbidden pleasure they had shared.
Her stomach lurched sickeningly, but as she buried her head in her hands she realised O’Neill had cut across the office to stand in front of her. “What are you waiting for?” he said briskly, despite the lingering hunger for her he could not hide from his eyes.
“Sir?”
“With us, Flynn! The base is under attack. I need all those capable in the gate room – and you, Flynn, are a brilliant solider. We need you.”
Alex didn’t need to be asked twice. There would be a time for recriminations, but this wasn’t it, not yet – not until the base was secured. Standing smartly to attention, she gritted her teeth and followed the half of SG1 out of the office, passing no comment as they made a brief diversion to the armoury before bursting into the control room.
The iris was closed as O’Neill had commanded, with SG3 stationed around the still active gate. As the two men glanced at each other warily, a drawling voice abruptly filled the room, carried through the wormhole as if its owner was standing right beside them.
“Hello, Stargate Command. I trust you enjoyed our little gift?”
O’Neill’s top lip drew back as he leaned over the microphone. “Ba’al?”
“The one and only.” The amusement in the voice of the Goa’uld was painfully apparent. “General O’Neill, it is common courtesy to thank someone for a gift, you know. Come, surely you enjoyed yourself? I had rather thought you would be doing so still, but perhaps the Tau’Ri do not take as long over such things as I like to.”
The general’s sharp intake of breath spoke more than any words could, and Alex’s hand tightened around her Zat gun as Ba’al’s low burst of laughter rippled around them.
“I had hoped it would be an adequate distraction for you to fail to close the iris in time, but the fact I can still hear your voice tells me we have failed. A pity.”
“Sorry to disappoint, Ba’al.” O’Neill scowled, his fist clenched tightly around the microphone. “So, is there anything else I can do for you? You’re kind of tying up the line, and thanks to you I now have even more paperwork to catch up on.”
“Until next time then, General O’Neill.”
The wormhole disengaged. As one the three of them exhaled, and the general turned back to face them as behind him SG3 lowered their weapons. “Daniel, make sure everyone affected reports to the infirmary for a dose of that sedative. Has the weapon been neutralised?”
“First thing we did, Jack. The pheromones it released should be wearing off now, but I’ll make sure everyone’s taken care of regardless.”
“Right. Yes.” O’Neill ran his hand through his hair, and then with a barely discernible groan his eyes came to rest on Alex. “Lieutenant Flynn, with me to debrief.”
“Jack -” Jackson cut in, but the general firmly shook his head.
“It’s okay, Daniel. Trust me, I’m back in control, but I think the lieutenant and I need to straighten a few things out.”
Jackson grimaced, but eventually he shrugged his shoulders and left the control room. Alex tensed and steadied her nerve to say what she knew she now had to before the general could break the strained silence that had settled between them.
“I’ll have a written request for a transfer on your desk by the end of the day, sir.”
O’Neill’s eyes widened. “I beg your pardon?”
“I think you heard me, sir.” Her eyes shone with tears, but she didn’t back down. “No offence intended, but I really don’t think our working relationship is going to withstand this, and you’re far more important to the program than I am. So like I said, I’ll go.”
“No way!” He caught hold of her arm to stop her from walking away. “Lieutenant, don’t you dare throw away your one shot because of this. Neither of us were in our right minds; hell, I’d have let you off for firing at me, let alone...”
The general trailed off and they both flushed deeply, the memory of all they shared forefront in both their minds. He quickly spoke again.
“Jesus, Flynn, do you have any idea how much crazy shit I’ve done under the influence of alien tech? By all rights I should have been court martialled a dozen times over, but the Stargate is a game changer. None of what happened today is your fault, do you understand? And what’s more, there’s certainly not going to be a black mark on your record over this. We’ll keep it off the record for all our sakes – it’ll go down as a chemical incident with no lasting effects. We weren’t the only ones affected, remember.”
Alex knew that, but that was only a part of all that was troubling her. “Still, sir...”
“Lieutenant, I will not let you quit!” he said sharply. “Every time you step through the gate, adventure waits on the other side. Where the hell else are you ever going to find that? The Stargate program is the chance of a lifetime, and I won’t let you throw it away. Call it an order if it has to be that way, but you are not quitting.”
Despite her reticence, she felt the tension slowly drain away. The thought of leaving the program was sickening, but she had convinced herself there was no other choice. General O’Neill, though, seemed steadfast in his determination to keep her at Cheyenne Mountain – but as much of a relief as that was, there still remained the pressing issue that every time she looked at the general she would remember all they had shared outside their control. However, his next words solved that too.
“Anyway, between you and me I won’t be at Cheyenne Mountain much longer. Sideways promotion, as it were,” he said with a wry smile.
“You’re going?”
“Yeah.” His smile faded away as he gazed beyond her, transfixed by the silent Stargate. “I’m going to miss it, but I think it’s for the best. It’s never felt quite right stepping into General Hammond’s shoes, so I think it’s time to let someone else take a shot. I’ll still be involved, but not on base.”
Alex sunk into the nearest chair, the receding adrenalin taking with it the last of her energy. “Then we’re getting someone new?”
“Someone from outside the program, or so it seems. Hey, why do you think I finally pulled my finger out to get these appraisals done? Don’t want the new guy to think I’ve spent a year slacking.” She finally began to laugh once more, and to her relief the general joined her as he too took a seat. “So what do you say, lieutenant? Staying?”
“As Teal’c likes to say, sir, undomesticated equines could not remove me. I’m staying.”
“Good. Then one more thing, lieutenant.”
“Sir?”
O’Neill flashed her a rueful smile. “Congratulations, Flynn. I think you passed the appraisal.”

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Appraisal