samandjack.net

Story Notes: Katmellie@AOL.com

Spoilers: Before Upgrades

Archive: SJD, yes

Author notes: Sorry if i've already posted this here before. I remembered finishing it a while a go, and couldn't remembering posting it here.


Jack's POV

Jack sat watching everyone in the room, talking, laughing and drinking their drinks. He really didn't want to be there, but as Daniel wouldn't let him out of his car unless he came, he really didn't have a choice in the matter. But now he was here, he didn't mind anymore. Carter's Christmas party was great so far, even if he wasn't making the rounds.

He hadn't really paid attention to the décor of her house before when he had been round before, but it was kind of similar to his own home. They certainly had similar taste in things, which probably helped them get along and work well as team, except for when she was explaining her theories, how they got into certain situations or how they were going to fix things. But they were part of her, so he had no choice but to love that bit about her, even if he would be brain dead for half an hour afterwards and couldn't speak properly.

He looked round the room to the eruption of laughter, coming from the direction of the kitchen, where the younger members of SG-1 were hanging out at that very moment. Teal'c hadn't come to the party; he was off seeing Drey'ac and Ry'ac, spending three weeks with them and then to come back, to spend a week with him at his house. The man deserved to get out of the base for Christmas.

Daniel and Carter were laughing at each other, bringing out more snacks from the kitchen. He could have sworn that Daniel was starting to rub off on Carter, bringing out the people side of her that he would never be able to do. She could be so rigid round people, round him, not sure of herself or what she was suppose to do. He'd been in that sort of situation when he had first joined the Air Force, but Sara had been the people's person and he had learnt from her. Watched her make the rounds and what things to say, to start a conversation with someone he hardly knew.

Taking a sip from his beer, he looked round the room again, over the people who were actually mingling with each other. He noticed someone across the room looking at him, while she talked to some guy with his back to him. Watching her for a while until she smiled at him, he raised his eyebrows at her, looking behind him, made sure she was smiling at him and not someone over his shoulder.

Looking back in her direction, he smiled and raised his bottle to her before he took another sip of his drink. She seemed nice from a far, but not as nice as it was to watched Carter from a far. Strutting around off world with some real confidence in her step, always knowing what she was doing and how she was going to do it.

He could hear them coming over to him, excusing themselves through the crowd, while she giggled away at something Daniel was telling her, trying to finish his story before he burst out laughing himself. As they came out from the crowd, he smiled at them for a moment before looking back, across the room to the unknown woman.

She'd disappeared out of sight, probably off mingling with someone else, who was having a good time. Spotting her when someone moved out the way, she was still watching him while talking to someone and it was starting to freak him out.

Daniel and Carter suddenly stopped laughing, noticing that he wasn't paying attention to them, but frowning at the woman across the room. They followed his gaze across the room, to the woman that he was looking at. Looking at each other, they nodded their heads to one another and then Carter headed through the crowd, over to where the woman was talking to someone.

Daniel watched her until she was absorbed, into the crowd of people. He could still her though in the crowd, he could probably still see her, if he was blind and never had seen her before in his life.

Daniel sat down next to him, patting him on the back, settling into his seat. He looked at him strangely, wondering what the hell the younger man, was up to as he had that look, he got, in his eyes.

"Enjoying yourself, Jack?" Daniel said waving to someone, who had called his name.

He just looked at him for a moment, before looking back in the direction of that woman, to see Carter talking with her. That was such a wrong predicament, Carter shouldn't be talking with her, she should be over where they were, telling him to go make some rounds, round the room instead of sitting on his butt.

"What's Carter doing?" He said pointing towards the two women, across the room.

Daniel gave his shoulders a slight squeezed, in a type of huge like way, taking a sip from his glass of water.

Since the last party they'd had been together, Daniel had took to drinking water, so he couldn't make a fool of himself anymore, but somehow someone would always spike his drink with a dash of vodka, or anything that wouldn't be noticed in Daniel's drink.

But he didn't know anything about it; innocent as an angel, just like his gran had always told him that he was. Never the terror that hid things around the house, which crept out at the stroke of midnight or played hookey from school, when there was homework or some test to be done that day.

Daniel stood up pulling him to his feet, as well as his own thoughts, making him almost spill his drink over his shirt and Carter's rug. He would have so been in the doghouse if he had, although there was bound to be a disaster sooner or later, with the amount of people wandering in and out of the house.

Looking up, he came face to face with the woman, he had seen across the room, her blue eyes looking darker than ever with her recently trim hair, and actually wearing a dress for once. Carter had also brought the other woman with her, almost like she was presenting her to him with a hand, gently pushing her towards him.

"Sir, I'd like you to meet Karen. Karen this is Colonel Jack O'Neill"

He shyly smiled at Karen, offering his hand out to greet her, she smiled her own smiled and shook his hand.

Shoving his hand into his pocket, he looked down at the beer in his hand, swirling the fine liquor, around inside the brown bottle. He just didn't feel comfortable with Carter, standing right next to her, although he had no idea why her opinion, would matter so much to him. Carter was a good friend to him, she could even be one of his best friends, but that had never matter before.

"So, Jack. I've heard a lot about you from Sam, she says your Special Ops trained. What does that entail?" Looking up from his bottle, he found both Daniel and Carter had slipped away, leaving him alone with this Karen woman, with no back up at all.

Stalling for some time, he took a sip from his drink, nodding his head to her in agreement. She seemed nice enough, down to earth kind of person, the nice girl from down the street kind of girl. "Erm…lots and lots, and lots of training and hard work. Did I mention lots of training"

Nodding her head to him, she giggled at him in a sort of… weird G'ould sort of way. He hoped to god that Carter, hadn't invited any Tok'ra, they never had a sense of humour except for Jacob of course, but that was probably because he was earth born and not from the planet of No Sense of Humour Humans.

Putting his drink down on the side, he felt that he had put in enough of experience at Carter's party.

Smiling at Karen, he held his hand out to her again, "Nice to have met you, Karen. But I'm going to hit the road now, got an early start in the morning. Hopefully I'll see you again"

She took his hand and shook it before he quickly left, fishing his keys out of his pocket. The sooner he got home the better. People watching him, was never one of the top things on his list.

Carter would understand why he left this early; he may have learnt how to start conversations with people. But he would bet no one at that party, would be interested to hear about the scar, he got from an arrow going through his arm or the time he and Carter had spent in Antarctica, making up some lame story about their plane crashing there or something.

**************************************************************

Sat in the commissary, he ate his breakfast while reading the sport section of the newspaper. He'd been there since about 0600hrs, unable to sleep any longer than three hours. Something about the night before was bugging him, the way Carter and Daniel had left him with Carmen… Carol… what's-her-face.

Some might say that he was a little rude to her, not really chatting with her and just leaving her like that. But she really didn't interest him, sure he had wonder why she was looking at him, it wasn't often that a young woman took an interest in him.

He didn't really think of himself out on the market, but with him being divorce now for about a year, some would say he was back on the dating scene. Although he wasn't really interested anymore, he'd rather go through the gate with his team, with Carter more than see Carmel…Carrot…that woman.

He jumped when a tray was dropped onto the table, not often did something make his jump, which showed, he was really deep in thought for once in his life. Folding up his paper, he watched Carter take the seat in front of him, sipping at her coffee while she settled into her seat.

She seemed to be smiling at him with her eyes, looking at him over the top of the mug. In two weeks time, he won't see her till after the Christmas holiday, but that would be because he would be at home with Teal'c, cursing at the TV's choice of programmes, for the holiday season, while she would be down in her lab, making out she had no reason to have a social life, working on her next miracle that would have everyone flabbergasted.

She took a bite out of her toast, leaving a perfect bite mark, and took another sip from her coffee. He smiled at her, placing the paper on the chair next him, pushing his tray to the other side of the table.

"So sir, enjoy your self at the party?"

Looking at her across the table, he rested his head on his hand, leaning onto the table for some support. There seemed to be something different about her today, she must have done something with her makeup or with her hair, or was she wearing a different perfume.

"It was okay, wasn't really in the mood to party last night. Did you have a good time though?"

Nodding her head at him, she took another bite out of her slice of toast, wiping at the corner of mouth. Was it wrong for a superior office, to love the way a subordinate ate their breakfast?

"What did you think of Karen, sir? She said she quite liked you, even if you didn't really talk much. I would have thought you'd get on with her, you talk to me easily enough"

He sat back in his seat, folding his arms in front of his chest, the whole thing becoming clear to him as to why they'd left him and Karen to talk.

"Carter, I'm not interested in her. She may be a lovely woman but…I'm not quite ready yet"

She nodded her head at him, holding up her hands in defeat before sipping at her coffee, wiping her napkin over her mouth.

Rubbing at his face, he lent back on to the table again, watching the other people at their tables, having their breakfasts and chatting. It was actually noisy in the commissary; normally in the mornings it would be the most peaceful place in the world, quieter than a mortuary.

"After you left last night sir, Karen kept asking me for your phone number. Said she wouldn't mind seeing you…"

He stood up from the table, picking up his paper before leaning down onto the table. She looked a little shock, couldn't the woman get the idea that he didn't want this Karen woman. The woman for him was the one in his dreams, and that was where those thoughts were going to stay about her.

"Carter, don't play match maker with me. I don't want to see her, nothing against her but she'd not my type. End of story" With that said he left, rolling his newspaper up and tapped it against his thigh, letting some frustration out until he got to the gym.

**************************************************************

Sam's POV

They'd been sat in Janet's office, drinking coffee while Daniel and Sam filled Janet in, on the party. Janet hadn't been able to go, no one was able to baby sit Cassie and Janet didn't trust her enough, to leave her by herself or to bring her to the party and trust her to behave herself with all, the drink floating around.

Cassie had spent the whole week sulking and from what Janet had told them, she'd spent all that night sulking and slamming doors around the house, which reminded her never to get on the bad side of Cassie in the near future. Too bad no one had reminded her, never to get on the bad side of the Colonel.

He wouldn't even speak to her, when she went to give him her report, on the device they'd brought back from P89 425; he wouldn't even look at her, just carried on playing with his ball, throwing it against the wall, sitting at his desk. All because she thought he liked Karen, the way that he had been looking at her, across the room, seemed to her that he liked what he saw.

So they thought, she thought, he deserved some happiness for once, the heartache that he had experience, over the years since after Charlie's death. Just because of that incident, didn't mean that he had to shut himself away from another chance, of finding happiness and companionship with someone. He had more rights than anyone to be happy, with everything he had been put through in his life.

Daniel leant over and top up her coffee mug up, changing the conversation to her train of thought. "Hey Sam. Did you managed to get Jack, to go on a date with…Karen, isn't it?"

Rolling her eyes at them, she sat up in her chair, leaning forward onto Janet's desk, playing with the corner of a file in Janet's In-tray.

"The Colonel won't even, speak to me now because I asked him. He says she's not his type and he doesn't want to see her again"

Janet folded her arms frowning at her, while she sipped at her drink. There wasn't any used at frowning at her, she wasn't her fault he didn't want to see Karen.

"Maybe he's already seeing someone, I mean it's not like he doesn't have a life outside the S.G.C" Janet said pulling something from her skirt.

She inwardly groaned at the thought, the idea that some unknown woman was seeing her CO and she didn't know about it. If he were seeing someone, he would have mention something by now to one of them.

If she were someone outside the S.G.C, or maybe someone on the base, but that would have found out by the grapevine, so that idea was a little far fetched.

"Ya know Sam; you should see some of the looks that Jack, gives you from time to time. I think sometimes, he doesn't even realised he's actually doing it" Daniel said cleaning his glasses for the fifth time in twenty minutes.

She frowned at him, sipping at her drink again, sitting back into her chair. If she was in a room by herself, she would have burst out laughing at it, the idea was crazy than the idea that they'd actually walk on the moon. Oh so they'd already done that, okay so it was crazy than the idea there was grey little men, running around the galaxy. DOH!

"Daniel, don't be silly. The Colonel and I are purely friends and that's it" Her face was straight, there was no reason for them both to give her a funny look, was there?

Daniel and Janet looked at each other, both nodding their heads to one another, in agreement on something. They couldn't seriously be thinking that the Colonel fancied her or even that she fancied him. If the grapevine ever heard about that, they would have a field day; everyone would be spying on them, for the rest of their time at S.G.C.

It's not like he's not nice looking or anything, nice personality, as long as you don't annoy him, and he's funny even when he doesn't mean to be. But the Colonel wouldn't go for her anyway with his thing against scientists; he'd probably kill himself before he went out with a scientist.

She jumped when Janet slammed her mug, down on to the desk, pushing it towards Daniel for him to top it up. When he finished topping up her mug, he offered to top hers up as well, but she declined, finishing off the dredges in the bottom of it.

"Sam, you and Jack actually make quite the couple, come to think of it. If that alternate reality thing is to go by, you two seemed to end up being together" She sighed getting up from her sit, leaving before she gave them a taste of what anger, she saved up for Jaffa that they may meet on their missions.

***************************************************************

She couldn't stand to think that he wasn't talking to her, which was probably why she was climbing the steps up onto his porch, with a box of beer wedged under her arm, at about nine o'clock at night. He was defiantly up with all the lights being on, his truck in the driveway and the cheering of someone in side, shouting at the TV while it blared back at him, with all the noise from the game.

This was her chance to run back to her car, get in the damn thing and make a race back, over to her house on the other side of town, and be safely tuck up in bed without him ever knowing she was there. But the thought that he was annoyed with her, it was unsettling for her, knowing that somewhere he was sat, cursing at her for trying to make him happy. What was so wrong with him being happy?

Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door, quickly straightening her appearance before he opened the door. It took him a while to opened the door, and even then she really didn't have his full attention, watching the game from the doorway. He stood there leaning up the door, dressed in a shirt that hung open, exposing his chest to the cold night air, and a pair of black jeans, which were slightly lose round his waist, just showing the top of his boxers.

"Erm…Hi sir"

He lost all interest in the game, turning to give her his full attention, letting his arm slip down the side of the door. Shyly she smiled at him, holding the beer out to him, hoping her peace offering was enough to gain her access to his house. He looked at the beer in her hand; his shoulders visibly fell before he took the beer from her, motioning her to go into the living room.

Slowly she moved pass him, a little nervous about actually being in his house. Stepping down into his living, he closed the door behind her, making her head whip round at the sound of the door, clicking into place in the doorway. He held onto the collar of her coat, holding it for her as she took her arms out of it, watching him hang it on a coat peg.

Licking her lips nervously, she watched him pass her into the living room, sitting down onto the couch; he patted the seat next to him for her to take. Sitting down beside him, she looked to the TV in the corner, watching some man being slammed into a glass wall, and then for it to be shown again in slow motion, watching his face mush up against the glass.

The TV was suddenly turned off, making the whole house fall into silence. Not many men had done that before, turn off the game, so she would have their full attention while she was talking to them. From the way Colonel spoke about hockey, she was sure he was an avid fan, never missing a game unless his life depended on it, probably even then he wouldn't miss a game.

"So…Carter, what's the beer for? If you think, getting me into a drunken stupor, so I can sign that request form, I saw on my desk today, is gonna work? Well ya wrong, I've already signed it and hopefully you'll have ya… gizmo next week"

She was a little shocked that he actually signed it, from the budget memo that went round; she was sure, requests for new equipment would take a while. Although when ever she did give in a request form, she always had the equipment or items by the next day, or the day after that at the most.

Shaking her head at him, she took the offered beer from him, twisted the lid off and threw it onto the table, with the other rubbish that had gathered there. He looked at her, while he swigged the contents of his bottle, sitting back into the couch.

"Sir, I want to apologise for the other day. I shouldn't have carried on like that and should have kept my nose, out of your private life"

His eyebrows were reaching new limits, higher than even Teal'c's could go and that was something, if he could do that. Sitting forward on his seat again, he placed his beer on the coffee table, using his elbows to lean onto his knees.

"Carter, you don't have to apologised to me. Friends take interest in their friend's private life; I wouldn't expect one of my friends not to do the same for me. Just next time, ask me my opinion before you go shooting off, trying to set me up with people. You know I hate surprises"

Nodding her head to him, she took a sip from her beer, looking round the room for the first time, since she walked through the door. She hadn't really been in the Colonel's house before, mostly saw it from the doorway when she came round to pick him up, once or twice when he had car trouble.

The items on the mantelpiece caught her attention, from where she sat it looked like a young boy, like the one she had seen in the photos in his cigar box, when that crystal entity had been looking through them. She had to admit that Charlie looked a lot like the Colonel, same cheeky chin and a child like look in the eyes.

Smiling she turn to look at the Colonel and found him to be staring at her, watching her with a bemused look on his face. Frowning she subtly moved away from him, not too much so it looked obvious, but enough to put some distance between them. He wiped the back of his hand over his mouth, moving to face her, by folding one of his legs underneath him, turning ninety degrees, resting his arms over his leg.

"Carter, how come you wanted to set me up anyway? Can't an old man live his days out in loneliness?"

Shaking her head a little more forcefully than she would have, she placed her beer on the coffee table, almost choking to death, trying to say something before she had finished swallowing.

"No, you have a right like everyone else to be happy"

He frowned at her for a moment, looking to the mantel and then back at her. His face had lost the kindness that was normally there, turning to a cold dark face that she hadn't seen before.

"No, Carter. I don't have that right at all, I lost that as soon as Charlie… died"

She didn't know what to do, comfort him and tell him he was wrong, or beat the living daylights out of him until he saw that he did have the right.

Getting up from the couch, she moved over to the mantelpiece, to pick the Charlie's picture up. For a moment she looked at it, before holding it out to him, pointing to the boy in the picture.

"Wouldn't Charlie want you to be happy? From what Daniel's told me, Sara's been engaged now for a few months now. If she can find happiness, why can't you?"

He stood up, snatching the photo out of her hands, barging passed her to put it back on the mantelpiece. Standing in front of the mantelpiece, he kept his back to her, something she never liked because she couldn't read his facial expression.

"Carter, my happiness is a lot more complicated than Sara's. There nothing holding her back, no guilt because she did nothing wrong. It was my fault and I've excepted that, but for me to have happiness…" He turned round to face her, she couldn't tell anything from his face, damn that Black Ops training. "… because mine is something I can't have"

All she could do was shake her head at him, moving a little bit forward to close some of the gap. "Sir, if you really want it then it can be yours"

He just stared at her, she didn't know whether he was sizing her up or trying to see if he could trust her. Anything involved with the Colonel, always turned out to be something complicated or something that was too Top Secret to mention.

Slowly the corner of his lips turned up, but quickly turned down when he took a step towards her, closing the very comfortable gap between them. He had a very serious look in his eyes, she'd seen it once before when Kinsey, had threatened to shut them down, to take the Stargate away from them.

"Carter, I can't ever have my happiness because what I want I can't have"

Frowning at him she backed away, unsure of what he was meaning by that was, it was disconcerting when Jack O'Neill started to be vague in what he was saying. It was an odd occurrence but it did happen.

"Sir, if it makes you happy than you certainly can have it. The only thing that's stopping you, is your own guilt or you're not willing to risk for it"

He took a step towards her, tracing his hand up her bare arm, making all the hair and the skin tingle. Her eyes closed at his touch, enjoying the way it was making her feel.

She opened her eyes when she couldn't feel his fingers, becoming extremely worried when he wasn't standing in front of her, finding he stood looking out the patio window, looking out onto the snow covered grass. Rubbing her hand up her arm, trying to calm herself down, she move behind him, looking over his shoulder before looking at his reflection in the window.

"It's not that I'm not willing or scared to take a risk, it's the things that could come from it, the damage it could do if it ever got out." He turned round to face her, his arms firmly crossed over his chest. "The damage it could do to your career, because the thing I want is you, Carter"

Backing up away from him, she wasn't sure how she was going to react, shout at him that he shouldn't feel that way or throw herself at him, bruising him in a kiss that had been happening in her dreams.

To think that Janet and Daniel were right, he did have feelings for her and not professional ones either. She looked up at him for a moment, seeing nothing but the very well trained blank expression, letting none of his feelings be shown to her or to anyone. Licking her lips nervously, she found that her fight or flight sense, was starting to kick in and she found herself running for the front door.

Grabbing her coat off its hook, opening and then slamming the door behind her, leaping down from his porch and raced, like a troop of Jaffa was chasing her, to her car. She didn't stop racing till she got home, running nearly every stop sign and red light until she was safely away at home.

**************************************************************

Three Weeks Later:

Things weren't as good as they were before, she avoided the Colonel and he avoided her as much as they could. Most of her time was spent hiding in her lab, in Daniel's lab or in the infirmary, anywhere where it would take her mind off his confession or somewhere he was sure not to go.

At the moment she was hidden away in Janet's office, drinking her secret supply of Jamaican coffee, which they both had stolen, from Daniel's supply in his office. She hadn't told anyone about that night, stopping any chance of it getting to Hammond's ears and splitting the team up.

It wasn't that she was offended by what he told her, but they were supposed to be professional, not fall in love with one another. In theory the two of them, were supposed to be oblivious to their feelings, that was the military's plan for everyone, but it looked as if the two of them were ignoring that theory.

Slamming her mug down onto the desk, she dropped her head into her hands, trying to shake any thoughts that included 'love' and 'the Colonel'. They were supposed to be Air Force officers, living up to the rules and regulations they had sworn an oath to, not to fall in love with each other.

Sighing she sat up to see Janet staring at her, somewhat gob smack by her sudden actions, holding her mug up to her open mouth. "It's nothing, Janet. Drink your coffee before you complain its cold".

With a shake of her head, Janet sipped her coffee, allowing it to pass with all the other, odd things that had been happening lately. Walking into walls because she was too busy thinking about that night, giving herself electric shocks when she wasn't concentrating and falling down the steps from the briefing room to the control room. Her excused had been a brilliant one ' it was quicker than walking '. Well it was as long as you up for the bumps and bruises, you got from tumbling down the twenty something steps.

They were both startled when Daniel came rushing in, grabbing onto the edge of the desk before he fell down. He was huffing and puffing like he'd just been on a marathon, probably running all the way from his office after he'd finally managed to translate, some artefact he'd found. Taking a few deep breaths, Daniel stood to his full height, regaining his composure.

"Guys, Jack's gone"

She was on her feet in seconds, everything else forgotten as soon as those two words, had left his mouth ' Jack's gone ', meaning the Colonel wasn't here anymore.

"What ya mean, gone?"

Janet slowly got out of her seat, putting her mug safely onto her desk.

"I mean gone. I walked into the gate room to find him, stood there in his civilian clothes, talking with General Hammond. I asked them what was going on; Jack said something about leaving the S.G.C and going to work with the Asguard for a while. Before I could say anything, they beamed him up there and then" He pointed towards the ceiling. "Hammond said, Jack had asked for a changed of scenery"

Slowly she sank back into her seat, staring down at her boots, hiding her face from view. How could he just leave? Sure things had been a little uncomfortable, but if he had given it a little more time, it would have passed like everything else. Why'd he felt that he had to go half way across the galaxy and further, to get away from it? From her?

"Sam, you okay?"

She looked up, when her name was mention, looking up to see two very confused and concerned faces. Standing up, she pulled her uniform into some order, stepping passed them and out of Janet's office.

"I've got work to do, I'll see ya later"

Wiping at her eyes, she hurried down the corridor to the elevator, searching for the security of her lab for safety.

**************************************************************

Five Months later:

She couldn't believe it had nearly been five whole months, since the Colonel had gone off with Thor. No word, no nothing about his whereabouts or whether he was all right. Sometimes she thought about killing him, for leaving her here, to deal with her feelings alone, to realise that she returned his feelings.

He was probably off helping Thor, come up with stupid ideas to destroy the Replicators, instead of being here with them, with her, and helping fight the G'ould. Both causes were as good as the other, but she needed him to be here helping them, helping her.

It took his absences to realise what exactly he did round the base, it wasn't something as straight forward as translating or working out how something work, he brought calmness to the place and kept her sane when she was working long into the night, bringing her food or drink and telling her jokes.

Looking to the new member of SG-1, Captain Sears, she opened the briefing document, sighing at the thought that he was out there and he didn't know. Sears was all right, still a little wet behind the ears, but he was a good soldier. Nothing compared to the Colonel, but he was good enough for their cause.

Sears often spent his time staring at them, asking them to pinch him to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Teal'c once smacked him round the head, giving the man a concussion and them a few days downtime. She wondered if she had been like that round the Colonel, he had been a somewhat of idol to her, the soldier that she wanted to herself to be.

She stood up when Hammond entered the briefing room, smiling at each of them as he took his seat at the head of the table, gesturing for them all to retake their seats. Taking her seat, she noticed Sears was staring again at the General, but then Daniel poked him with his pen, making the young man jump out of his trance and pay attention to briefing.

Grinning at comedic sight in front of her, she turned the page in the dossier, looking over the pictures the UAV had taken, over its pass of the village. "Dr Jackson, would you like to start?"

Looking up, she watched Daniel get out of his chair, pulling his shirt down while he picked the remote up off the table, stepping out from his chair. She turned to face the screen that had been set up, stretching her legs out in front of her, crossing them by her feet, slumping down into her seat, getting comfortable for the twenty minute lecture.

There was a big flash in the room, Thor appeared in front of the screen, almost knocking Daniel over, if he hadn't stopped when they were all blinded by the flash of light. Thor looked round at all of them, studying Sears longer than he did anyone else, before looking to Hammond when he turned round on his chair.

"Command Thor, what brings you to the S.G.C?"

She could feel her heart, trying to burst through her chest, wanting to interrogate Thor on the whereabouts of the Colonel. Surely the Colonel wouldn't be far away, if Thor was here to see them or was he finally coming back?

"The Asguard require the help of SG-1, in retrieving one of our ships that has fallen into the hands of the Goa'uld"

Everyone in the room was silent, staring at the little grey man, but she was more concern about her heart, bursting through her chest. Trying to calm her heartbeat down by slowly breathing, thinking of something claming like being in the Colonels' arms, which was making her heartbeat increase.

She let the rest of them get on with it, concentrating on calming herself down, before she had a heart attack at the age of 35. They were all talking with Thor, but their words meant nothing to her, if they didn't concern the Colonel or any news of him coming back any time soon.

"Our resources are at your discretion. SG-1 will be taken from the duty rota; all your missions will be divided between the other teams. Thor, I'll put SG-1 into your capable hands" With a nod of his head, they all were transported up onto Thor's ship, everyone except for Daniel fell backwards onto their butts.

Being pulled up onto her feet by Teal'c, she rubbed at her behind, looking round the room for any signs of Thor or of the Colonel. She noticed Daniel helping Sears to his feet, trying to keep the younger man from running round the room, being excited about being on his first Asguard ship. They all look to the door when it opened, the old stranger standing their in his civvies, hands on his hips with no expression on his face.

"Thor wants you guys up on the bridge"

He left the doorway, light flooded in where he once stood, she rushed to the doorway, but by the time she got into the corridor, he was gone. Her head hanging low, she led the way to the bridge, sparing moments to look over her shoulder, encase he was to suddenly appear behind them.

**************************************************************

Thor explained to them, all about the plan, the Colonel had come up with, where and when they were going destroy the strong hold and take the Asguard ship from them. He'd planned it with such detail, she'd been wondering why the hell they would need the rest of SG-1, but then that was when Thor told them, the Colonel had requested them as his back up.

And that he would have had to have done it by himself, because the Asguard hadn't been in a hand to hand combat situation, in over hundred years, and they weren't physically built for it. Even though she was supposed to be listening to Thor, she found herself wondering where he was. Was he outside the door? Was he somewhere close? Was he thinking about her?

There briefing came to an end, when Thor told them where their quarters would be, showing them on the screen where they were on the level. She aimlessly followed the others out of the room, keeping her hands in her pockets, listening to Sears babbled on about the original SG-1 working together again.

It was starting to turn into one of those times, where Teal'c would knock Sears out, saving them all from his over excitement. But at least his heart was in the right place, he was serious when they were in a battle situation and was clear headed, while she wondering what the Colonel would do or what he was doing at that precise moment.

Entering onto the level with their quarters on, she could hear music playing in the distance, playing down one of the corridors off from the one they're standing in. Shrugging away her interest in the music, she followed the others away from the music, entering the first room that had been allocated to her.

Inside was the usual ships quarters, but with a kind of lab in the corner, with chemicals and all sorts for her to play with. Looking through the various chemicals and gadgets, she turned when her door opened again; both Daniel and Teal'c came in before the door closed behind them.

"Wow, your room's liked mine. I've got books and artefacts in the room and Teal'c's room is full of candles"

Placing the chemical back on to the table, she frowned at them, walking pass them to take a look for her self, not believing their quarters had been done to suit the occupant.

**************************************************************

They'd been wondering around their deck for at least an hour, finding everything to have come from earth. There was a room with recreation things in it, pinball machine, playstation2, comics and books, and a TV.

They'd left Sears watching the football; the man was in heaven, sat on the couch that was similar to one, at the Colonel's house. There was a Jacuzzi in one room with a kind of Hawaii theme to it; the room had palm trees painted on the walls with Hawaiian type music playing in the background. She was getting the idea that this deck, was section off to the Colonel, it had a certain 'home' feel to it.

Entering another room, they found a gym type room, weights and exercise machines, which lead to another room. Teal'c started to investigate the equipment, while she and Daniel went through into the basketball courtroom, finding music blaring away with the occupant shooting for a basket.

He was singing along with the music, some love soppy song, which no would ever associate with Jack O'Neill. The ball rebounded off the hoop, bouncing along the floor, to roll over to her feet. Picking up the ball from the floor, the music was suddenly turned off, Teal'c came in behind them, standing to the side of her.

"Can have the ball, please?"

Looking down at the ball and then at him, she bounced it towards him, not quite sure what she should say or do. He caught the ball and returned to shooting at the hoop.

She jumped back against Teal'c, when the basketball was kicked against one of the walls, bouncing off several walls until it rolled to rest against a wall. The Colonel… Jack grabbed his things that had been left by the wall, and stormed out of there, with Daniel following right behind him.

Her head hung low, blaming herself for their dilemma. She heard Teal'c leave the room, his footsteps echoing in the room until the door closed behind him. She dropped into a heap on the floor, resting her head into her hands. Maybe she just run and tell him, how she feels? He had worked up the courage to tell her, why couldn't she do the same?

**************************************************************

For five straight hours, they had been going over the plan, each of them going through what part they will be playing and what exactly they would be doing. Jack had disappeared off somewhere, when he had finished telling his part of the plan, not saying a single word that didn't have anything to do with the mission.

He wouldn't even look in her direction, but he was more than happy to look in Teal'c's and Daniel, and give Sears odd look from time to time, finding him to be staring and leaning nearly all the way over the table to get to him.

Looking over the plans of the base one more time, she noted down where the power generators were and what she was going to used to blow them up. Flicking through the charts, she stopped when a mug of coffee was placed down next to her. Without looking up she muttered a thank you, thinking that it was Daniel or Sears, until she hear him grumble to himself before stomping out of the room. Watching his fleeting figure before the door closed, she moved to follow and then thought that she shouldn't, turning back to the plans in front of her.

The others had suddenly gone quiet, she was frustrated now, he wouldn't talk to her and then when she said something, or did something unexpected, he took it the wrong way and left. There just wasn't any winning with him. She whacked the innocent coffee over the table, jumping off of her seat to go to her quarters, the only place no one would hopefully bother her.

**************************************************************

After mission

She'd had enough of his silent treatment to her; during the mission he had given his orders through Daniel to her. Searching the ship, she couldn't find him anywhere on the 'human' deck, so started searching the other decks of the ship. Getting fed up of drawing a blank, she used one of the terminals to search for his bio signs, finding him to be in the observation lab, just down the corridor from her.

This was it, she was going to sort this out for once and for all, he was going to listen and he was going to understand. He was going to be a very nice Colonel, sit and listen to her prattle on and if that didn't work, things would just have to get physical.

Entering the observation lab, she noted that the room was used frequently, plates and screwed up pieces of paper, were all over the placed. The room was dark except for on corner of the room, where he was sat look at something, the light shining down on his greying hair.

Keying in some lovely code Thor had told her once; she locked the door to the room and then slowly crossed the room over to him, looking at the odd star chart that lay on view.

"Daniel, if that's you just go away. I don't want to talk"

She ignored him, standing behind him with her hands on her hips. He threw something across the room before spinning round on his chair, mouth wide to shout but stopped when he saw it was her.

He scratched the back of his hair, getting up off his stool, quickly collecting his things up from the workstation. She didn't like it when they like this, well they'd never been like this. Moving pass her, he clutch the pieces of paper to his chest, treasuring them more than anything.

Shaking her head at him, she grabbed his arm, using his own momentum to turn him round.

"Carter, I don't want to talk" He said trying to pull his arm out of her hold, but she wasn't letting go, somehow she found the strengthen to cling onto him, keeping him from going anywhere.

"Well, tough because you're going to listen to me. I wasn't rejecting you when I ran from your house"

He managed to tug himself free, heading towards the door.

"I was scared, scared of the truth in your words!"

Nothing was stopping him, not any of her words had affected her, and well… they do say actions speak louder than words.

Running to catch up with him before he got to the door, she grabbed him by his shoulder, turning him round to securely hold his head still, kissing him like her life depended on it. The items in his arms dropped onto the floor, his arms going round her waist firmly, lifting her up from the floor.

She didn't know where they were going, but she knew they moving somewhere. All care had gone out the nearest airlock, she was more concerned with what his lips were finally doing, kissing her as hard as she was kissing him.

She felt the edge of a table or something on the back of her legs, wrapping her legs round his waist, he dropped her down onto whatever it was, his hands freely roaming underneath her t-shirt.

Taking a moment to catch her breath, she moaned as his lips travelled down her neck, making her look to the ceiling above her. Her skin felt as if it was going melt, his hands torturing her with a simple caress.

"O'Neill could you please come to the bridge" He suddenly stopped, breathing into the crook of her neck; both of them just froze in place.

He pulled back slightly, just enough so he was able to look at her, removing his hands from underneath her t-shirt, letting them rest on her hips. Unwrapping her legs from around his waist, she look at him, both their lips formed into smiles.

Sighing he stepped back slightly, helping her down off the workbench, holding her firmly against him when she nearly lost her balance. "I should really…"

She nodded her head, letting her hands trailed down his chest, gently patting against it. His arms fell from around her, but he didn't move, standing still in front of her. Looking up into his eyes, all she could see was happiness and something else, but he was holding it back. In one swift movement, he kissed her very slow and passionately, making her go weak at the knees when he let of her, rushing to pick up his things and then went out the door, heading to the bridge.

Grabbing onto anything that was behind her, she held a hand to her lips, enjoying the sensations that he had cause to her lips. Her smiled broaden as she took a few steps towards the door, almost being in a drunken state, a drunken state of love, she left the confines of the observation lab, staggering off somewhere down the corridor.

**************************************************************

Standing in the background, she listen to Sears prattled on to Daniel, about having breakfast with Jack and Thor that morning. She'd gotten a very enjoyable surprised in the middle of night, finally finding the way back to her quarters round about that time, she'd found him conked out on her bed, probably waiting for her to come back, from where ever she had been.

Even she didn't know where she had been, walking aimlessly round the ship, getting some very weird looks from Thor's crew. Last night, she had slept better than she had in a long time, snuggling up next to him on the bed, draping his arm around her. But the best part had been the waking up, not even Jonas had woken her up by tracing and kissing patterns onto her neck, and anywhere else he could get to without disturbing her.

Thor appeared in the room with a flash of light, lazy git couldn't even be bothered to walk from the bridge, down to the transportor room they were in. Sears was staring again, but luckily Teal'c ended it for him, stopping him from making a ass out of himself, by doing this kind of Vulcan neck pinch thing, picking him up into a fireman's lift.

"Are you ready to be transported?"

The door opened, Jack rushed inside, skidding to a halt in the middle of the room. "No their not, well… not yet"

She couldn't help the smile, but she did managed to stop the giggled that saved her telling off.

He said his goodbyes to the others before taking to the side, out of the hearing range of a very inquisitive Daniel. She clung to his shirt, closing the gap between them, looking up at his smiling face.

"I promised, I'll start coming back for visits"

Wiping a strand behind her ear, he let his hand linger on her cheek, stroking his thumb over her cheek ever so lightly.

"Oh, visiting anyone I know?"

He leant down towards her, slipping his arms around her waist, pulling her against him. "Just some scientist that I know"

Someone made a subtly hint that they wanted to leave, coughing like they were coughing up fur balls. They were having a moment, going home could wait, she thought to herself, holding him as tight as she could.

At the same time, they lean back away from each other, before closing the distance again, this time the distance between their lips. Everyone else could have already left for all she cared; he was doing that thing again with his hands, tracing things onto her lower back.

The coughing fit started up again, making them both pull back from each other, having to pull themselves away from each other. But she knew one thing was for sure, Daniel was going to die as soon as they got home, and she didn't care if he was needed on SG-1 or if Janet would kill her. He was going to die by her hands.

Moving to stand with the others, she watched him move to stand by Thor, glaring at Daniel beside her. The last thing she saw was one of his waves, just before Thor beamed them down, right in the middle of the commissary.

Acting as if nothing was unusual in them beaming into the commissary, they all left, following behind her while Teal'c carried Sears. Someone was talking to her, but she wasn't there, she was caught between dreaming of Jack and ways to kill annoying hairball cougher behind her.

**************************************************************

The End

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