Assess This, by Betacandy (PG)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Rec Category: Janet

Pairing: none
Category: Janet Frasier, episode related, humor, team
Warning: none
Author on LJ: betacandy_sgfic
Author's Website: The Hathor Legacy
Link: Assess This

Why This Must Be Read: Betacandy is one of the reigning queens of Stargate gen fiction, with a deft hand at characterization and dialogue. In this fic, Janet is thrown straight into the SGC madhouse, when she meets SG-1 for the first time after the events of Emancipation. Janet's reactions to SG-1 are perfect; she is still an outsider, after all, struggling to understand new experiences like the alien "Mr. Teal'c." Throughout the medical exam and debriefing, Betacandy leads us through Janet's initial snap judgements and her cautious reassessments of Jack, Daniel, Teal'c, and Sam. It's not only Janet's first impressions that matter, but SG-1's first impressions of her... and by the end of this short story, it's clear that all five can look forward to a lasting, rewarding friendship.

“Tell me a little about your mission so I know what to look for,” she suggested.

His eyebrows shot up. “Oh, it was a lot of fun, actually,” he replied dryly. “We met some Mongolian traders and got some medicine samples from them, which you might find interesting.”

“I bet.”

“Then we went to a party and the leader’s teenage son kidnapped Carter and sold her to some warlord who had a daughter he wanted to marry, and we had to buy her back,” he continued. “Then we got away, but we had to go back because the warlord was going to stone his own daughter to death and Carter challenged him to hand-to-hand and beat the crap out of him. And then the star-crossed teenagers got married. That about cover it, Daniel?”

“The Reader’s Digest version,” Jackson mumbled from the next bed.

Kidnapped by a teenager and sold to a Mongolian warlord? Beat the crap out of said warlord? Janet’s hands paused in her examination of the Colonel’s neck, and she found him staring at her. She kept her voice deliberately light, the General’s remarks beginning to make disturbing sense. “Way to go, Captain.”

“He’s over-dramatizing it a little,” Carter remarked from across the room on her bed at the far end.

“The hell I am,” O’Neill said in a more serious tone.

“Actually, he’s not,” Jackson agreed. “Considering how bloodthirsty Mongolian warriors and raiders were on earth…”

As he continued, Janet found herself distracted by O’Neill leaning forward just enough to get her attention. Softly, he said, “Doc, they had her for about eighteen hours. She says she’s fine.”

Jackson was still talking, and Mr. Teal’c had begun interjecting comments about warriors he had encountered during his service to Apophis. Janet replied softly to O’Neill, “You have reason to doubt her word, or are you just being overprotective because she’s a woman?”

O’Neill blinked thoughtfully, as if that hadn’t even occurred to him. “The first tribe made her wear this really pretty dress. When we got her back from the others, she was in a big potato sack thing. Daniel thought it might just be a cultural thing but, hell, if he came back from hostile territory in a potato sack and wouldn’t tell me anything but ‘I’m fine’, I’d-”