It was a *really* hot day.
The mess hall felt like a sauna. Jack pushed his untouched plate away in disgust and stretched his arms above his head. The sweaty material of his BDU's squelched audibly away from his skin.
Carter scrunkled her nose, but didn't lift her eyes from her jello.
Jack smirked.
Ignoring Daniel's pained gaze, he stretched again. Gleefully.
This time, she did look up. "You are doing that on purpose," she said, her eyes dancing.
Jack relaxed back down into his chair with a `humph'.
"Am not," he replied, watching the sweat drip off her nose.
"Are too."
"Am not."
"Are TOO."
"Are you guys finished?" Daniel asked in exasperation, putting his papers down on the table, and looking from one to the other. "*Some* of us are trying to concentrate…"
Jack sighed, and let Carter placate the peeved archeologist.
His gaze dropped to her water glass, which was swimming with little chunks of ice.
He looked at Carter.
And back at the glass.
A little droplet of water ran down the side and onto the table, and Jack was lost.
He moved with all the agility and speed of years in the field – element of surprise - and picked up the glass and dumped its contents neatly on top of her head.
She *shrieked*.
Her chair flew backwards as she stood up and started a strange sort of dance, leaping round the table and clutching at her back. Jack broke into waves of helpless laughter as she pulled her shirt away from her body and let the offending ice cubes fall onto the floor with little plinks.
Turning, she glared at him. Water was dripping in a steady stream from her chin.
Jack choked back another howl of laughter and tried to look innocent.
"Have an accident, Car – AARGH!"
Cold! Shit, so COLD!
Grabbing desperately for the ice cubes slithering down his spine, he invented his own `Dance of the Ice-Cube' and narrowly missed tripping over as he hopped around the mess hall, cursing violently. Finally getting rid of the ice, he turned. "Teal'c!"
Teal'c looked at him impassively, the glass still in his hand. "Is this another Tau'ri custom, O'Neill?" he asked.
"Funny."
Sam was practically doubled over with laughter.
Daniel blinked at them, and then, in a move that Jack wouldn't have given him credit for, picked up his glass and splashed Teal'c squarely in the face.
The Jaffa froze.
There was a long, tense moment, before Sam burst into another peal of laughter.
"Oh, *Daniel* - the *timing*!" she said weakly, slumping down into a chair and holding her stomach.
Teal'c looked very deliberately from the still-dry Daniel to the remaining glass of water on the table. He raised an eyebrow.
Daniel clapped his hands together and pushed his chair back from the table. "Well, guys, I have work to do, so I'll just be leaving – "
"I believe you should stay, DanielJackson."
"I don't think - "
"I still have much to learn about this custom."
"I'm sure Jack can help you with that." Daniel was carefully backing away from the table.
Teal'c reached for the last glass, and took a step toward Daniel.
Daniel edged backwards.
Teal'c's eyes gleamed.
Daniel thumped into the back of a marine sitting at the table behind him, and half-turned – and Teal'c pounced. By some miracle Daniel managed to jerk out of the way, and the water arced beautifully through the air and splashed into the table behind him.
"Ha!" Daniel yelled, punching the air with his fist.
His triumphant smile lasted exactly 5 seconds - until the marine tipped the entire contents of a jug onto Daniel's head.
Within seconds, the mess hall had turned into a massive free-for-all.
Halfway between dousing Lt. Johnson and fighting off an attack by Daniel, Jack decided that the pretty blue jello would be a nice hair accessory for Carter. Match her eyes, and all.
Sneaking the half-full desert off the table, he crept over to her side and tackled her, holding her arms pinned to her sides.
"Sir – oh, GROSS!"
He laughed, and continued smushing the jello into her hair.
"Oh, you are so dead."
She twisted in his grip until, *somehow*, her arms went around his neck.
Oooh. He could so deal with this close contact thing.
"So, Carter," he began, inappropriately liking the way her breath hitched just fractionally in her throat. "What –"
She smeared jello all over his face.
"You *witch*!"
She smiled deviously, and pushed away from him. Just in time.
"SG-1! SG-3!"
The deathly hush fell over the commissary, and everyone's heads jerked uniformly toward to door.
General Hammond was glaring at them.
Ah. There was that.
A globule of jello slid slowly down Jack's face, and plunked onto the floor next to the toe of his boot. Carter made a muffled sound suspiciously like a choke and began shuddering from suppressed laughter.
Jack gazed desperately at his feet. If he had to look up, he was going to laugh, he just *knew* it -
"Colonel O'Neill!"
Damn.
"Sir?"
"Can you explain to me why two of the highest ranking teams on Base were having a water fight - in the commissary?"
Jack looked carefully around at the dripping floor and tables, and then back at General Hammond.
"Alien influence?"
~fin~
Story Notes: A/N: This is all for Feath. Hope it makes your sucky day a little bit better. Thanks to Allie O'N for the beta, and splash_the_cat and Melly for letting me trial ideas.
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc, are the property of their respective owners. Any original characters and plots are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended. ... [ read more ]