samandjack.net

Story Notes: Matter of Tact 10: Email: randomleaves@yahoo.co.uk

Spoilers: Seven-ish

Archive: SJD, please.

A/N: Amusingly, I wrote this listening to wedding bells. They go on for a really long time, don't they? Oh, sorry. There's no wedding in this. Or a proposal. I just thought it was amusing, that's all, and wanted to share.

Thanks to Melly and Emry who are still sick and still way better at spotting my myriad of typos than I am.


"Here?"

"No. Another four."

Peering out into the darkness in front of her, Sam tried to make out the small right turns. She'd thought roads couldn't get any smaller than the one she was on right now, but apparently that wasn't true.

The car hit another pothole and Sam winced when she heard Teal'c's head hit the roof of the car. Again. "Sorry, Teal'c."

Pointedly saying nothing, Teal'c continued to look disapprovingly at her. Her decision to rescue Jack from her father was unnecessary - in Teal'c's opinion - because Jack didn't need rescuing. 'O'Neill' was perfectly capable of looking after himself.

Sam had pointed out that this was her father they were dealing with and henceforth Teal'c had just remained silent and slightly cross. A difficult expression to pull off considering he was wearing a blue and yellow striped woolly hat - a gift from Cassie, who mischievously enjoyed the game of extending Teal'c's ludicrous hat wardrobe.

Spotting another right turn, Sam glanced to Daniel who had a finger on the map and his eyes on the road. "Not this one?"

"No. Another four."

Jonas piped up immediately. "You said that the last time."

Jonas was pissed because he hadn't been allowed to navigate in the front. Plus, Daniel had earlier made some comment that Sam had (thankfully) missed about Jonas's clothes and he was determined to get Daniel back for it.

The two of them were really beginning to get on her nerves.

"That's because the last 'road' wasn't marked," Daniel said, through his teeth.

Sam blinked. "It wasn't..." Oh God.

She resolved not to think about it. So what if they'd be driving around all night because Daniel apparently couldn't navigate on Earth? It would give her plenty of time to imagine ways of punishing her father.

Slamming the heel of her hand against the steering wheel, she swore inaudibly. How *could* he interfere in this way? Jesus, it was so *like* him, marching off to involve himself in her love life, thinking he could sort things out when things *didn't* need sorting out. Things were *fine*!

She could only hope Jack would be able to face her dad and his questions and not fall into the old Jake Carter trap.

The I'm-an-old-man-humor-me-trap. The my-daughter-is-an-idiot-and-you-need-to-let-me-interfere trap. The I-was-a-General-in-the-United-States-Army and you-need-ordering-around trap.

God, the General should have recalled her the *moment* her father returned. The *moment*.

"What about this one? Is this one on the map?" came an aggrieved voice from the back.

"Oh, give it up, Jonas," Daniel snapped irritably. "I'm sorry about the T-shirt remark, okay?"

The apology - such as it was - would have solved the situation. Jonas wasn't one to hold a grudge unnecessarily long (unlike some people she knew - glancing at Teal'c in the mirror) and he would have accepted Daniel's poor attempt without a qualm. The guy was essentially peace-loving, after all.

But then Daniel went ahead and spoiled it.

Leaning forward in his seat, Jonas snapped, "Did you just call me *cat* boy?"

"Daniel!" Sam exclaimed.

"At least I *have* a girlfriend, Jackson, and don't have to go off world and pilfer the wives of other men!"

Sam braked.

Hard.

Silence descended in the car, but for the angry breathing of one of the backseat drivers and the hum of the still running engine.

Experience had taught Sam that when dealing with these situations, her temper needed a moment or two to cool down or she'd say or do something unforgivable.

"Daniel, what did Jonas mean by that?" she said softly, flexing her hands where they were correctly holding the wheel at ten and two o'clock.

Daniel was staring out of the window fixedly, one elbow resting on the ledge just below the window pane.

"Daniel?"

"I didn't know, okay!" he exclaimed fretfully. "I had no idea..." Miserably, he trailed off and turned his head further away from her, curling up against his side of the car.

Biting her lip, Sam glanced in her rear-view mirror at the faces of the occupants in the backseat. Teal'c nodded to his left slightly and Sam's eyes ran over Jonas's guilt-stricken face.

"Teal'c, you and Jonas get out and stretch your legs," she suggested, reaching to the turn the engine off.

Jonas was already halfway out of the door by the end of the sentence but Teal'c paused long enough to give her a significant but approving look in the rear-view mirror before he joined their hurriedly escaping teammate.

Watching them walk over to the fence at the side of the road, she smiled slightly as she saw Teal'c rest his hand on Jonas's shoulder. She knew she could always count on Teal'c for a great deal of strength in these situations. He'd always been a source of comfort to her, a calming influence when she was stressed or upset and she was appreciating that more and more.

Glancing at Jonas she knew she'd have to have a talk with him as well. There was something going on with him and Becky that she didn't understand. He was acting so strangely - it couldn't *just* be commitment issues.

"Who was it? Tamila?" she asked, bluntly.

Daniel shook his head. "No. Laetitia."

Frowning, Sam sorted through the faces of the people they'd come into contact with. She had difficulty with the women - the society had been patriarchal and the majority of the leaders had been men. She, as leader of SG-1, had mostly consorted with them.

Obviously, this was not the case for Daniel.

"Who was she?"

"As it turned out," Daniel sighed, his fingers now fiddling with the edge of the map, "the wife of the Chief Ancient Historian."

Sam winced. "Lavron's wife? That's... really great, Daniel!"

"I didn't know! We didn't... She didn't tell me. She was in the museum a lot, I thought she was one of the researchers they'd pulled from the university. Sam, she's a third Lavron's age!"

What had that got to do with anything? she wondered, briefly. "Did you..." There was really no delicate way to put this. "How far did you and she go, Daniel?"

"Jonas walked in on us. After that, he pointed out who she was." He glanced at her and then looked away skittishly. "I told her that there was just no way anything could happen."

"Okay, okay. That's good."

"Sam, we got pretty far." He winced. "She was *married*, Sam. Someone else's wife. I had no... no right..."

Reaching across, she clasped his hand. For this moment, she put aside all her military concerns and was his friend. "You didn't know, Daniel."

"But, God," he rubbed his hand over his chest, "I feel... I feel like such a hypocrite. I mean, it's nearly like Sha're and..."

"Stop right here - it is *nothing* like Sha're. Okay? This was human error. You're allowed to make mistakes."

"Yeah, but once upon a time I was..." He made a vague, faintly desperate gesture upwards. "You know. I saw all and... knew things. Things that..."

She squeezed his hand tighter. "You're human now, Daniel. Focus on that." She shook her head and pulled her hand away, not wanting to touch him when she said this. "I'm going to have to tell General Hammond. I'll try to keep as it as off the record as possible but he's going to need to know."

Daniel nodded slightly. " I figured."

"You should have come straight to me. The moment you found out, both of you should have come straight to me. I thought I'd made this clear."

"I didn't think..."

"Well, you should have," she sighed. "What *possessed* you Daniel?"

"What do you mean, 'what possessed me'? She was an intelligent, interesting, attractive woman. We talked about things, about her planet, about mine, her family and my lack thereof. It was..." His voice cracked when she reached back to take his hand. "I just wanted... you have someone, Sam. In fact, in a way, you've had someone for nearly eight years, whether or not you both knew it. I spent three years searching for the woman I loved, never able to... to..." Daniel's teeth clenched and he pulled his hand away from her and turned back to looking out of the window.

"I understand, Daniel. I'm sorry - I shouldn't have said it." She sat back in her seat and looked over to Jonas and Teal'c, both of whom were now staring unabashedly back into the car. She gestured to them to come back and then put her hand to the car keys. "I had no idea you felt this way, Daniel."

"No," he murmured quietly, reaching to turn the radio on as the other two got back into the car.

*

Jacob Carter snored as if he was trying to wake the dead.

It being half past twelve in the morning, Jack tried to work out the logistics of that particular cliché. Presuming that there were no dead bodies buried under the cabin - Jack was pretty sure his grandfather hadn't been a murderer - and none out in the woods - a fact which Jack found hard to believe - the dead bodies would have to be woken from the nearest cemetery. Which was about twenty-five miles away.

Jack went back to listening to Jake snore.

It was loud, he decided, but not *that* loud. He supposed that had Grandpa O'Neill buried anyone under the cabin, Jake could probably wake them.

Then again, after a hundred years - give or take a decade or so - the dead bodies would be pretty much...

Yeah.

Now would be a good time to change his thoughts to something else.

Let's see...

Fishing. Water. Fish. Fish. Mermaid. Sam.

Hmm. He should have known. Those fish were always trouble.

Hockey. Hockey games. Hockey teams. Sam wearing his hockey shirt.

Okay. Slightly less obvious but, still, he could see how his brain had leapt there.

Buffy! Yeah. Buffy talking. Buffy fighting. Sam fighting. Naked.

Yeah. That had been too easy.

He smiled.

Though the evening had been pretty weird - conversing with the father of a woman he knew biblically was never going to be easy. In Jack's experience, the relationship only eased up after married to said daughter, but then Sara's father hadn't had a snake inside of him.

Jack froze.

The first time Sara had gone on a date after their divorce, she'd called him a couple of days afterwards. The divorce being as amicable as divorces could be, they'd remained... friends. Of a kind.

Should he have told Sara about Sam? A courtesy, if you like. Admittedly, it was a bit late for all that, but should he? After all, this was the first serious relationship he'd had since Sara.

Then again, he'd last seen Sara two years previously. A mutual friend had mentioned her in conversation once, about five months before, and Jack hadn't had much to say in response. Something about Sara going brunette, of all things. It would be just a little uncomfortable to call her only to shove his happiness in her face.

And he was happy, wasn't he?

Weirdly, considering his girlfriend was over a thousand miles and fifteen hours by car away from him... yeah. Despite Jake's misgivings, Jack was genuinely confident in his relationship with Sam. He trusted her, he believed in her and he was pretty sure this break had been a good idea for both of them. He, unlike Sam, had confidence in her leadership abilities; she just needed to get used to the concept. The isolation of command was nothing new but then SG-1 was no ordinary field unit - he was sure she could find a balance between friendship and leadership that would suit everyone. It was a matter of trial and error and wasn't something that came straight away.

Having Jack around as a reminder of the old SG-1 and as a distraction in another aspect of her life was unfair on her, and on him. He needed to get back into a retirement mode and get used to her being away for long periods of time.

And he could do that. Because it would be, ultimately, worth it.

Jacob, at least, had seemed to understand. By the end of the evening, he was even admitting that some of it even made sense to Selmak.

At which point, Jack's eyes had started wandering to the back of Jake's neck every time the guy had turned around.

Shortly after that, Jack had directed Jake to the guest room and then took himself off to bed.

Unfortunately, there had been no sleeping for Jack.

He grabbed a pillow and shoved it over his head, but that didn't work. It just made him claustrophobic. He briefly considered smothering Jake, but figured that really wouldn't go down well with Sam.

Sam.

He missed Sam.

Sighing, he rolled onto his stomach and reached for the thick curtain covering the window. Twitching it aside, he stared out at the moon. Full moon tomorrow, he noted. Plus, the wind had let up; the trees nearest his window were no longer swaying.

Goddammit! The freaking pictures were rattling! How *did* this man work undercover?

Okay, he was wide awake and there was no chance that he was going to get to sleep. Not with that racket going on.

Muttering to himself, Jack got out of bed and crept out to the kitchen where he flicked on the lights. Jacob had finished off most of the small brown loaf Jack had bought, but had kindly left the very end, which was mostly crust. Jack wasn't a particularly fussy eater - unless it was yogurt - so he pulled out some jelly and slathered up the piece of bread. Happily, he chomped his way through it, leaning on the counter and staring out at the reflection of the moon on the lake.

Maybe he could read a book to pass the time, he thought, looking at the unread pile on the table, on top of which was Sam's parting gift - 'An Illustrated Guide to Fish Specimens'.

Inside the front cover, she'd written (sweetly), 'So you can see what they look like! Sam xoxoxo'.

Yeah. She was a funny girl.

Wiping his fingers on a towel, he opened the front cover, just to see her writing again.

A beam of light suddenly caught him on the face and his head jerked towards the front windows. "What the..." Treading swiftly over the floorboards, he yanked open the door and peered across to the car that had pulled right up to the end of the lane. Its headlights were still on. He could, just about, make out a couple of figures, but that was it.

Were they lost?

Not particularly wanting to approach complete strangers in nothing but boxers and a T-shirt, he folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the doorframe.

The lights went out and then the engine cut.

The front passenger door opened. "Jack?"

Of all the people... "*Daniel*?" he exclaimed, astonished enough to walk out onto the deck. Two more figures appeared and in the light pouring from the living area windows, he could make out Teal'c and Jonas. "Guys - hi! What brings you here?" And why was he suddenly talking like this was normal?

Wait, they had come out of the passenger seats. That could only mean...

Approaching Jack, Teal'c frowned at him, glancing at his clothes. Jack swore that if he had made some kind of crack about the little green aliens on his boxers, he was going to mock the hell out of that hat.

"MajorCarter drove us," Teal'c replied briefly, in tones that suggested it was all he needed to know to understand. Which was partially true. He walked past Jack brusquely. "I require much sustenance. The journey was most exhausting."

Jack's eyes were now fixed on the fourth figure, who was getting a bag out of the back of the car. "Sure, go right ahead. You know where everything is." Turning back to Daniel and Jonas, he asked calmly, "What the hell is he wearing on his head?"

"It's Cassie's latest find," Sam called, walking towards him with a bag strung over her shoulder. "Like it?"

Jonas glanced at Sam as she came to stand next to him, then he looked back at Jack, "She says it's very fashionable."

Still looking at Sam, he replied, "Well, you know me and fashion." It seemed he was completely unable to convince his smile to reduce its wattage. Stupid happy emotions.

God, she looked really great.

It would probably be rude to grab Sam and run into his bedroom with her, wouldn't it? Damn manners.

"Oh, get a room," Daniel muttered, sounding unusually irritated. He walked past Jack as well, and headed straight into the kitchen where Teal'c was rummaging through cupboards.

Jack glanced back at Sam and Jonas, a little confused. As far as he knew... he'd yet to insult anyone. "What's up with him?"

"Don't ask," Jonas sighed tiredly, following Daniel himself.

Blinking, he focused on Sam - she didn't look angry with him, but it might change at any moment. "What's up with *all* of them?"

"Oh, you know. We've pretty much been arguing since we left Colorado." Dropping the bag onto the ground, she stepped up onto the deck and lowered her head to his shoulder, sagging against him. "I am *so* glad to see you."

Reaching around her, he clasped his hands at the small of her back. "If that's been your company for the past twenty-eight... nine days, I'm not surprised." He paused, suddenly struck by a thought. "Where are they all going to sleep?"

She lifted her head, narrowly missing colliding with his jaw. "Not with us!" she exclaimed.

Oh, he was so glad they were on the same page.




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