DISCLAIMER: I only borrowed them for a while. MGM and whoever can have them back whenever they want.
SERIES: The third in a series of vignettes from those close to Sam/Janet.
SPOILERS: Any episode involving Agent Barrett. Set just after Smoke and Mirrors (Season 6)
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author

Outside Looking In:
Agent Barrett

By Celievamp

Sam Carter is one remarkable woman. The moment I met her when she came to tackle me about the snow job that was being done on her Commanding Officer I knew that she would help me crack this thing. During the incident with that stupid SF show I managed to see how she worked and that predisposed me towards helping her not that I knew much about her outside of her official record - impressive though that was. I still didn't trust her though and she did manage to singlehandedly fubar the Steveston project which was to say the least unfortunate. I could forgive her that - she did stop me getting snaked, after all.

But she trusted me. Even though I was NID. And considering her history with NID that was a big step to take.

Mind you I still thought she was going to deck me when I told her that Kinsey was alive but in a coma.

Then she told me this strange story of an alien foothold situation at the SGC and devices that could mimic the appearance, sound and even the thought processes of another. And that the members of SG1 currently not in custody were probably the only people I could trust as she and Teal'c could not be read by the machine due to the naquada in their blood and Jonas Quinn had not yet joined them at that time.

And I realised that I hadn't really listened to a word she'd said, just caught up in the way that she said it. She was an incredibly beautiful woman made more so by the fact that she had absolutely no idea just how special she was.

I learnt a few things about her those few days that we worked together to protect Kinsey, save O'Neill's ass and root out the real assassin. Things that went far beyond what was written in her official record.

Her bravery. I didn't see her lose her cool once, not even when we were five feet away from enough liquid explosive to vaporize us and looking at a six second countdown. Walking without hesitation into a room full of people who would kill her without compunction if they knew her true identity. Her extraordinary skill levels - lockpicking, code cracking, reprogramming alien technology as if it was nothing more complicated than a VCR. The speed at which her mind worked. The loyalty and respect that she got from her colleagues. She's going to make a hell of a command officer one of these days.

I also figured that however much I was attracted to her - and by the time she had handed the case to me on a plate I was ready to propose to her on the spot - that I had no chance at all.

Trust issues, you see. I bugged her hotel room. And I listened in on her call to one Janet Fraiser, Chief Medical Officer at the Cheyenne Mountain complex. And apparently Sam Carter's lover.

That definitely wasn't in the file.

It knocked me back a little. And it explained a few things as well. It explained her effortless confidence in herself, her abilities. She had someone special in her life, someone who let her know on a regular basis just how wonderful she was. And by her file Janet Fraiser was brilliant and beautiful enough to match her, to be an equal partner in their relationship.

Even though I should have made my discovery known to my superiors at once, I kept it off their file. What I knew could have hurt them badly, got them a dishonourable discharge at the very least. More, if Kinsey got his teeth into them. And apart from fulfilling some regulation and easing an old man's spite - it would have done them - and us - nothing but harm. And we need them on the side of the angels. Trust, you see. You're never too old to learn a new trick.

It won't stop me making another pass at her though, if the chance arises. I have to keep up appearances as well.

The End

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