TITLE: SG-1 Or Bust
AUTHOR: Tiv'ester
E-MAIL: tivester@lycos.com
STATUS: Complete
CATEGORY:
SPOILERS: Maybe the beginning of season 9
SEASON/SEQUEL: 9th
RATING: PG
CONTENT WARNINGS: None
SUMMARY: Sometimes, putting a team together is a team effort
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Stargate SG-1. Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. I have written this story for entertainment purposes only. No money has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Originally in the Ancient's Gate zine Legends

Mitchell stood at attention in the general’s office. He glanced around the room, taking in all the personal items that expressed the general’s personality. He noticed the basketball hoop right away. Perhaps this general wasn’t a typical pencil-pusher from Washington? Mitchell didn’t know anything about General Hank Landry, only that General O’Neill had personally requested him and he had some battle experience.

Landry turned around and looked Mitchell straight in the eye. “Colonel, you’re here to lead SG-1.”

It wasn’t easy to lead a team when the team didn’t exist as it had for eight years.

He understood the whys and wherefores of everyone going their separate way. Daniel Jackson, going to Atlantis; Teal’c, working with the new Jaffa government; Carter, getting that R&D post at Area 51 – all good moves to advancement. They were getting on with their lives and careers. Nothing wrong about that.

No, no, sirree. Absolutely nothing wrong about that.

But he was supposed to be on, SG-1, not lead it. That was the deal. Be on it with Jackson, Teal’c and Carter. Learn from the best, work with the best, get into all that trouble they were so famous for getting into.

So far, he’d been on the sidelines of all the trouble – almost. Getting sick with the rest of the population when they were going nose to nose with that prior had been the closest he’d come to being in the thick of things, but the rest of the time, he’d had a bird’s eye view of all of the trouble Daniel and Vala had gotten into. It had been an interesting few weeks.

He knew over the course of those few weeks that a team was forming with or without everyone’s knowledge. Mitchell didn’t know how it happened or when, just that it did. After all, it’s much easier to get an impromptu basketball game together with people who do know each other and who can work together, right? Was that his first sign? They had become SG-1 through those weeks of dealing with Vala’s shenanigans and the Ori threatening them. Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, Doctor Daniel Jackson, Teal’c and Vala Mal Doran WERE SG-1.

For a little while.

Walking down the corridor, he tossed a baseball back and forth from hand to hand absently. Sometimes he thought better when his hands were doing something, so tossing a baseball back and forth helped him sort out his thoughts. Things were changing a little too fast, and if he didn’t move fast, everything would just disappear. The conversation he just had with General O’Neill was what he needed to take that first step.

“Let me get this straight,” General O’Neill’s voice thundered over the telephone, “First you get a lady who knows how to punch every one of Daniel’s buttons drag all of you into one mess after another, slaps that bracelet on Daniel, then those bracelet thingies came off but still had Daniel and Vala connected. And that little mental vacation they went on did something to them that kept them connected. Now Vala’s been sucked into a black hole, sort of, and Daniel’s sleeping about 23 hours a day?”

“Take ‘em where we can get ‘em, General.”

Mitchell could almost “hear” General O’Neill smiling on the other end of the line.

“Right. Look, Mitchell, you’re just getting started there, but listen. You want to get SG-1 back together? Get Daniel first. He’s the biggest pain in the ass you’ll ever work with, trust me, but he’s worth it.”

“He is, huh? Okay, this is what you do and if you ever tell anyone I told you how to get the best of that stubborn archaeologist, I’ll deny it…”

Sometimes, the fact that someone you work with is best friends with a major general who has a sneaky but rarely vindictive sense of humor had its advantages. It also had its disadvantages. O’Neill knew the risks of being on an SG team better than most, but he still had a protective streak where his “kids” were concerned.

How in the world Daniel Jackson and Jack O’Neill became best friends was still a bit of a mystery even to those who knew them, but there was one hard and fast rule at the SGC – mess with one of them, the other will come running. How many phone calls did Landry get from O’Neill while Daniel was in that coma-communication with Vala? Still, in spite of or even because of that overprotective streak, O’Neill wanted Daniel on SG-1. Maybe the general knew something no one else did? To quote the general, no Daniel, no team.

That made sense. Teal’c had Jaffa duties to attend to, but he had come rushing back to the SGC the moment he heard Daniel was ailing. Teal’c would come back if Daniel did, but Daniel was the one to have on the team before anyone else. Mitchell would need him. After all, O’Neill had told him, he always did when he was in command. That well-worth-it-pain-in-the-ass was the one who opened the gate, baited Goa’ulds and stood up to priors while figuring out all those “meaning of life” stuff at the same time.

What else had O’Neill told him? The key to getting Daniel to do what you want is to not give him time to think. Go straight for the gut response. Just be sneaky about it.

Sneaky, huh? Maybe he could be sneaky enough to get around Daniel Jackson?

"And you’ll have a better chance of getting the best of him if you talk to him before he’s had any coffee. Trust me on that. And make sure you don’t stay on one topic the whole time. Keep changing the conversation a little bit, keep him off-balance when he’s decaffeinated.”

Taking O’Neill’s advice to heart, he made a quick check in the infirmary. There was some activity, and every bed was filled.

“Colonel,” Doctor Lam walked over to him. “Something I can do for you?”

“Just looking for Doctor Jackson. What’s going on in here?” he asked quickly.

“SG-11 came back after they all walked through some vegetation that seems to have the same effect as poison ivy. I think we’ll be busy for the next few hours.”

“Itchy,” Mitchell commented. “What about Jackson?”

“I released him provided that he stays on the base for the next few days,” she told him.

“So he’s better?” Mitchell wanted to know.

“Physically, he’s fine. He’s still sleeping most of the time, but he’s not in any danger of falling into another coma. The only thing that concerns me is how quickly he wakes up after these short naps. We’ve had a couple of instances where he doesn’t seem really awake, others where he’s gone from deep sleep to being wide awake. I think his entire sleep cycle has been affected temporarily.”

“But it’ll pass?”

“I think it will. We were monitoring him constantly until the readings were mostly repetitive. Now, we’re just performing random tests.”

Well, that was good news. Mitchell did a quick turn-around and headed off toward the elevators. There was no time like the present to be sneaky. The first place to start looking was Daniel’s office.

Daniel’s office? Daniel had been promised an office on Atlantis, but Vala’s appearance derailed those plans. All the better for SG-1, but not so good for Daniel’s career. It was no small feat to discover the mythical city of Atlantis. Scholars and explorers had been hunting for it centuries, and the man who deciphered the Stargate was the same man who found the ancient city. How difficult was it for a scientist to make the greatest discoveries in the known universe and then never be allowed to tell anyone? Mitchell thought about it for a second -- if the SGC and the Stargate were ever made public, Daniel, his opinions and his expertise would be in great demand on the lecture circuit.

That was something to think about later. Right now, Mitchell had to get the band back together, and the first one to get was Daniel.

He walked down the corridor toward Daniel’s office, the baseball once again getting tossed back and forth between his hands. He nodded to a few passers-by… strange, but he was beginning to feel “at home” at the SGC. Okay, so what if he hadn’t had a chance to really lead SG-1 yet? Too many things had happened too fast, and they’d had a mess to untangle first. His first few weeks certainly hadn’t been boring.

He stopped at the almost closed door. He knocked, softly at first, then a little louder when he didn’t get an answer. He pushed the door open and saw why there was no answer. Daniel was sitting at his desk, his head leaning on his fist as his arm propped him up, sound asleep. Yeah, it would be a little while yet before he was completely over that whole bracelet withdrawal business.

Mitchell sat down in the chair across from Daniel. A quick glance at the desktop showed that Daniel had fallen asleep mid-word.

Mitchell sighed. He’d wait a few minutes. Maybe Daniel would wake up all of a sudden, and then they could talk.

This did give him a chance to think even more about his new lot in life and how he was going to handle this conversation. All in all, he hadn’t been given an easy job, no matter which job he thought about. In command of SG-1? He had the same problem Landry had – commanding people who didn’t need commanding because they knew what they were doing and were too damn good at their jobs. Rumor was that the unexpected was routine and surprise was a daily occurrence at the SGC, many times courtesy of SG-1. Forget rumor. Mitchell had seen it all up close and personal. None of it was anything they taught at command school.

The man in front of him was nothing like he’d read about either. Yeah, he was brilliant and had more courage to walk into dangerous situations than anyone ought to have -- and he wasn’t a trained soldier! He was a civilian. He’d learned on the job and taught a few people a few lessons along the way. Landry was the only one he called “sir,” but everyone else on the base called Daniel “sir.” How do you command someone like that?

"You can’t really order Daniel around, you know,” O’Neill had told him. “He’s on a more equal footing to you than anyone else. You can give him an order and he’ll obey it, but he’ll argue his point if your order doesn’t make any sense. He’s not a soldier, so don’t expect him to be. He’s someone you can trust, and that’s what’s important."

Trust. Mitchell knew he had a long way to go before he had that. Maybe. Right now, both Daniel and Teal’c knew they could trust him to do whatever was needed, right? Had he proven that to them?

He wanted to prove more than that to them. H wanted to prove he was worthy of their friendship too. That was going to be tougher. SG-1 had been friends for years. They’d been through life, death and hell itself together. They knew each other, how each would react, everything. How was he supposed to find his own niche in that?

“Daniel’s one of the best friends you’ll ever have if you’re lucky enough to get it. He can be polite and friendly to just about everybody, but there’s only a few he’ll call friend. There’s no way to tell you how to do that ‘cause I haven’t figured out what makes him tick yet. He makes friends in the strangest places, so get used to that. Let’s face it; he made friends with an Unas that was going to roast him.”

Sage words of advice from the man Daniel had taken a staff weapon blast in order to save.

Then, Daniel’s head started to slide off his fist.

“Hey, Jackson,” Mitchell reached out and shook Daniel’s shoulder.

A very sleepy-don’t-talk-to-me-until-I-have-caffeine Daniel looked up, around, at his desk, at Mitchell. “Uh, hi. Guess I fell asleep again.”

“Looks like. You sure you’re okay enough to be working?”

Daniel nodded as he yawned and reached for the coffee pot. “I’m fine,” he said in mid yawn. “I’m only sleeping fourteen hours instead of twenty three. Doctor Lam thinks I’ll be fine in about a week. Besides, all I was doing was taking up bed space when someone else could use it.”

“I saw SG-11 in there.” Mitchell watched Daniel as he groggily picked up the coffee pot and aimed it over his desk. In a swift move, Mitchell grabbed Daniel’s coffee mug and shoved it under the tilted pot before Daniel ruined all the paperwork. Okay, this wasn’t one of those “immediately awake” times. Maybe that would work in his favor. “That’s good. Wouldn’t do me any good to have a member of my team falling asleep while the bad guys are attacking. You are going to be on SG-1, right?”

Daniel took a sip of coffee, then another. It seemed to rouse him a little. “I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet. My trip to Atlantis is off for the moment –”

“Then you’ve got your dance card free.”

“And I’ve been doing…” he waved his hand toward the walls, “this instead of real archaeology for most of a decade.”

“You’ve got experience.”

“I’ve lost all my family, I’ve died and come back, ascended twice, been addicted to several alien devices –”

“Got earth a buttload of allies, negotiated dozens of treaties, saved earth a few times – life’s full of pros and cons,” Mitchell said.

“Mostly cons,” Daniel said before drinking more coffee.

“Maybe not.”

“Want coffee?” Daniel asked.

“No, I’m good,” Mitchell said. Time for a different tact. He looked at the baseball in his hand. An idea about how to start the conversation formed. “Life’s got a way of throwing curve balls at all of us,” he said. “They told me I’d never walk again, but here I am. Took me two years to get here, but I did. I guess you could say I hit that curve ball right out of the park.”

Daniel nodded as he stifled another yawn. Well, this wasn’t going anywhere.

“Then I got thrown another curve ball. I show up here, and the general says I’m leading SG-1. I wasn’t expecting that. I mean, you guys are legends.”

“No, we’re not,” Daniel told him as he moved all the paperwork away from him and gave his coffee cup a clear spot to sit. “We’re just doing our job. That’s all.”

Just their jobs? Yeah, okay, but … how to explain this one? “Have you ever gone through the SGC training course?”

Daniel shook his head. “No. I did help write some of the training manuals and help out on the simulations.”

“The first day I was there was like watching an episode of Star Trek. I mean, the colonels were telling us about aliens and space ships and little snakes that take over a person’s body – kind of hard to believe at first. Then they hand out copies of some of the SG missions. For the first week, we’re reading about all these close calls all the SG teams had, how many times Earth was in danger, things like that. They’re showing us alien weapons and how to use them. It’s all a bit much when it’s being thrown at you all at once. Then I got promoted to lieutenant colonel and got a higher security clearance and access to all the SG mission reports. I read all of SG-1’s missions then. Some of those escapes were pretty unbelievable.”

Daniel was watching his coffee steam up from his cup. “Sometimes, it’s hard to believe we’re still alive. We’ve been in some pretty bad situations.”

“Know which one convinced me I wanted to be on this team?”

Daniel thought for a moment. “No. Which one?”

“The one where you met that Unas, Chaka. I read that report and all I could think of was there you were getting dragged around a planet by this, uh, critter with claws and fangs and you still made friends with it. You wrote in your report you did everything you could to slow him down because you knew O’Neill and the others were trying to find you. That’s teamwork.”

Daniel, more awake than he was, answered, “That was the way we did things.”

“That’s what I’m talking about. You guys are good at it. I know everybody would give their eye teeth to be on SG-1, and I was one of them. It’s good to know you’re on a team with people you can trust your life to. When General O’Neill told me I could be on the team, my biggest worry was not being good enough.”

Daniel leaned back in his chair and yawned. He really wasn’t as alert as Mitchell wanted. Maybe that was a good thing? “It’s not a matter of being good enough. Sometimes, we weren’t good enough. Sometimes, we were just lucky. I think it all comes down to how well you can handle what you come across out there. Believe me, I think there were times General Hammond would have disbanded us because of all the trouble we got into. We screwed up a lot over the years, and sometimes the consequences were … bad. That’s some of the things they don’t tell you about in the training course.”

“Is the rule that it’s better to be lucky than good?” Mitchell asked.

“Sometimes,” Daniel answered. “Sometimes, it was only luck that got us back in one piece. We’ve watched friends die right in front of our eyes. We’ve watched our actions harm civilizations. We’ve seen situations get worse because we interfered. We’ll never be able to make up for what we did wrong. Those reports you read only gave you the summaries. They didn’t go into the details. We are not heroes.”

Mitchell knew that for a fact, but perhaps he hadn’t realized it? The truth was in the details, and the details weren’t in the mission summaries.

“How long have you been in the Air Force?” Daniel asked him.

“Seventeen years,” Mitchell told him.

“You’ve got a pretty good record?”

“So far.”

Daniel leaned forward, his coffee cup between his hands. “From what Jack’s told me, you’re good at your job. If you weren’t, he wouldn’t have chosen you to be the new leader of SG-1. I’m guessing you’ve got a lot of commendations, medals and awards?”

Mitchell nodded his head. “I’ve got some.” Where was Jackson going with this?

“Leading an SG team isn’t like any command position you’ve ever had before. If you want to lead SG-1, you’ve got to be willing to get the one thing in your file that has the potential to destroy your reputation.”

Mitchell hadn’t expected to hear that. “What’s that?”

“You haven’t been written up for anything. You may have walked the line all through your career. It’s always been a bit of a joke between us, but we’ve always said that General Hammond had a file drawer that was filled with our reprimands alone. We’ve had some official and unofficial ones because we went against orders –”

“And saved the world.”

“A few times. The thing is that we’re no different than anyone else here. We’ve pulled some stupid stunts that may have resulted in some heroic endings, but all in all, we’re just a group of people trying to stay alive out there. If you can do that, then I don’t think you’ll have anything to worry about.”

“Yes, I have. What if I do something stupid that gets Earth blown up?”

“We’ve all done something stupid that could get the Earth blown up. You’re only human. You’re going to make mistakes just like the rest of us. The question is whether or not you’re willing to go the distance to make it right again.”

“You know, these last few weeks have proven something to me,” Mitchell said.

“What’s that?” Daniel wanted to know.

“I thought I was only going to be on SG-1. Then Landry told me I would be leading SG-1. I’ll do my best, but after everything I’ve already seen on the other side of the gate, I also know I can’t do it alone. Commanders are only as good as the people they work with. You and Teal’c, you’re pros at this,” Mitchell sat back in his chair. “You and me, you and Teal’c, me and Teal’c, we work pretty well together. We seem to be on the same wavelength even if we’re not talking. One thing pilots always try to do, no matter what team they’re on or where they’re assigned, is have a wingman they can trust. The thing is that no matter what I may be able to do, you and Teal’c, you’re the ones that are needed out there. There’s stuff that you need to be the one to find. I think I can go that distance to fix mistakes, but I would really like the option to not do something stupid in the first place. You’ve got the experience after all these years. You’re needed on SG-1 even more than a team leader is.”

“What about Sam?” Daniel inquired.

“She’s military. If she’s on the team, she’ll have to be transferred. You and Teal’c, it’s your choice.”

When Daniel didn’t answer, Mitchell added, “Would begging help?”

Daniel smiled. “Begging? No. Bribery might work though.”

“Bribery, huh? Are you channeling Vala?”

The two laughed, a comfortable laugh shared between two… friends? “Think she’s okay?” Daniel asked him.

“Her? Oh, yeah. Besides, I think we should worry more about the people in the Ori home galaxy. Once she gets on her feet and isn’t sleeping fourteen hours a day, she’ll be taking them for all they’re worth.”

Had they reached an agreement? “Don’t push it,” O’Neill had told him. “Once you think everything’s agreed on, just leave it at a point where he’s not overthinking it.” Was this that point? He watched as Daniel drained his coffee cup and reached for more.

Mitchell tossed the baseball from hand to hand again as he got up and headed for the door. “Get some sleep. Next week, we’re probably gonna hit the ground running. Word is more priors are showing up on a lot of planets, so we’re gonna have our hands full.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Daniel finished his report, and then stretched. It was a bit of a chore trying to stay awake for long, but he was managing. He took another look at his work… same ole’ same ole’. Maybe the next trip to Pegasus … the phone rang.

Daniel grabbed the handset. “Jackson.”

“Hey, Daniel,” Jack’s overenthusiastic voice blasted over the earpiece, waking him up a little bit. “How did it go?”

“Pretty well. I think he’ll do a good job commanding SG-1 once he gets past the idea that we’re the best at what we do and realize we’re just doing our best.”

“He’ll get over the hero worship thing eventually, I hope. That kind of thing won’t do anybody any good and might get someone killed. You’re gonna have to break in a new colonel. You ready for that?”

“It’s not one of my favorite jobs. Is there some reason why you didn’t want me to tell him I’d decided to stay on SG-1 before now?”

There was a pause, maybe Jack was thinking over his answer? “SG-1 will be his team. He has to build it back from scratch. I think it’s a good idea if he thinks that he’s the one to get you on the team.”

“Make him think he’s accomplished something?” Daniel asked.

“Sort of. I think he’ll feel more at home as team leader if he thinks he’s the one who –”

“Got the band back together,” they said in unison.

“So…” Jack started again, “I hear Vala really pissed you off a few times. Teal’c mentioned something about you throwing pillows?”

~~~~~~~~~~

Jack hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair, mentally patting himself on the back. Very few knew him well enough to know he could be very sneaky when he wanted to be.

He wanted someone he could trust to command SG-1, and Mitchell’s record along with his willingness to risk his life to protect them in Antarctica was a good indication that Jack could trust his kids with him. The only thing that really bothered him was the fact that Mitchell had placed SG-1 on a pedestal instead of realizing they were just four people doing a job and getting beat up in the process. Occasionally. Daniel would be the best cure for that. He didn’t accept hero worship from anyone, and he’d be the one to convince Mitchell that they were only a group of people who were good at their job.

All he had to do was get Daniel to stay. The SGC needed him, SG-1 needed him. He was too good at his job to lose to anyone else. Besides, Jack needed him there at the SGC. Someone had to be there to balance out the military mindset and speak up for everyone else. Sometimes, it’s easy to lose sight of the basics, and they needed Daniel to remind them what the basics were. Once Jack had him convinced of it, then the next step was to get Daniel in on this little charade with Mitchell.

Teal’c would come back if Daniel came back. It was simple as that, Jack knew it was. Teal’c still felt an obligation for Daniel. Perhaps he always would. Even with the Goa’uld defeated, a Jaffa’s insight could be a huge help in the galactic power play going on out there.

It was too bad Vala was gone. From all the reports, the new SG-1 team had worked well together once Daniel stopped wanting to kick Vala to the next galaxy – which, according to rumor, he never actually stopped wanting to do. She had a mercenary exterior, but inside, she had a heart. Even Teal’c agreed to that when he saw how hard she worked to save all those people from the prior’s sickness. What Teal’c found “most enjoyable” was that Vala knew exactly how to drive Daniel up the wall, and Jack was sorry he missed it. The great pillow toss Teal’c told him about would have been priceless! Not much rankled Daniel, but she did?

The phone rang, and Jack picked it up. “O’Neill… yes, Mr. President… I just talked to him, sir… Daniel’s definitely on the team. Since he’s there, Teal’c will stay on it as well… I think Mitchell will be fine. He’s already got Daniel’s seal of approval and Teal’c thinks he’s doing a good job… I wouldn’t have recommended him if I didn’t think he could do the job… yes, sir, I’m glad to know we’ve got an SG-1 we can trust… no, sir, Vala’s gone. I don’t think she’ll be back anytime soon to discuss why the senator wanted big guns…”

~~~~~~~~~~

The president looked at the file on his desk. The label said prominently SG-1. He opened it. The first picture he saw was that of Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, team leader. The next was Doctor Daniel Jackson. Perhaps he’d been a bit presumptuous putting Jackson’s picture in the file so soon, but he’d been assured by General O’Neill that Daniel Jackson WOULD be on the team by hook or by crook. Or perhaps by a little shady arm twisting? No matter how, O’Neill had managed to get Jackson back on the team. He reached into a file and pulled out a picture of Teal’c and placed it behind the others.

Three people so far.

Earth’s premiere team.

He could sleep a little better knowing they were still in safe hands.

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