It was quiet in the lab shared by a group of the base's physicists and Sam was using that quiet to her advantage. She would normally use her own lab or the one shared with the rest of SG-1. Sometimes, however, her own lab was a tad too messy from one experiment when she wanted to simply do paperwork. SG-1 were recently back from their undercover mission with the Tok'ra and Sam could not concentrate on her own work when Colonel O'Neill was sitting there 'writing' his mission report. It usually involved him making lots of paper balls and then juggling or simply throwing them around. That was when he was not trying to start conversations with anyone nearby. Sam was very nicely settled in the physics lab as three of the physicists had been off-world testing ring devices for the past few days. The only person with whom she had needed to share the lab was Jonas Quinn and the only time he spoke was when he had questions concerning the research. Sam did not mind those questions because it showed his passion for the subject and for learning itself. She had little doubt that soon his knowledge would exceed that of the other physicists.
Sam was quite glad that Doctor Felger was still absent. Whenever he was around she always felt that he was staring at her and to say that it made her uncomfortable was an understatement. Doctors Coombs and Meyers were okay to work around, but they did get drawn into bickering with Felger quite often and Sam had enough of that with the colonel and Daniel. Meyers had been back from their research trip for two days and aside from his panicking that Felger and Coombs had walked right onto a Goa'uld ship alone, he had been relatively easy to work alongside of. Of course, then the news came that the undercover Tok'ra, Khonsu, had been killed by his first prime and Sam had become distracted from her work alongside Doctor Meyers. She had been aware of SG-1 being on standby for meeting with Khonsu and on her last mission with SG-1, she had secretly hoped that they did not get the call whilst she was with them. Since Daniella had been born, Sam had now undertaken some off world missions, including ones which lasted overnight, but they had all been semi-routine and never knowingly in the path of a Goa'uld. Her reaction to discovering that SG-1 had become prisoners of the Jaffa had struck her differently than it ever had done before. Her primary thought had been of Jack, not Colonel O'Neill or the others. It had been for the man with whom she shared a home and family. It had taken a few seconds before the military training deeply engrained within her kicked through that concern, quickly reminding her that SG-1 were still a force to be reckoned with and that if anyone could get out of their predicament it would be them. There was still an underlying fear that they would end up in the grasp of Anubis himself, but Sam had tried her hardest to ignore those thoughts.
It had been less than a day later that SG-1, along with Felger and Coombs, had returned safely to Earth. Sam had been in the control room and watched them all exit the wormhole. The colonel's eyes had met hers, telling her in their deep chocolate brown that he was fine. She had smiled, nodded and he had nodded ever so slightly in return. They both tried so hard to keep their work life and personal family separate but in instances like that, it was difficult to not give a slight indication. On the most part it worked without problem. At work, whether off-world, on base, in a briefing or attempting to work in their lab, they were 'Colonel' and 'Major'. He was most definitely the boss who listened to her and took her advice just as he always had. At home, they had developed a routine in the mornings and evenings, and their nanny, Sasha, had moved in a few weeks earlier. Ever since Jack had mentioned that they needed to communicate and work as a team more, ignoring the fact that they were not a traditional 'couple', they had been sharing the parenting. Sam had not thought far enough ahead to question whether Daniella would suffer at school, or be confused as to why her parents lived together but were in separate bedrooms. For the moment, it worked.
Sam had also not considered what would happen if Jack were to ever bring home a girlfriend. She had no idea if he even had a girlfriend, or whether he would ever tell her if he did. There was still a lot about him that she did not know and he still kept a large portion of his life a secret. On the night of his return from being held prisoner by Khonsu's Jaffa, he had stated that he was so glad to be home. They had been sitting on the couch together, Daniella sitting on her father's lap and Sam had responded by saying that she had only felt that glad to have him safe once before. Neither of them had mentioned Kanan and Ba'al, but they had known that it was to that which she was referring. Thankfully, there had been no sadistic torture inflicted upon him this time.
"So you got into their vents and that's how you travelled around the ship?" Sam glanced up as four individuals entered the room. It was Doctor Meyer who appeared to be questioning Felger.
"I told you it was of vital importance that I memorise those blueprints, didn't I?" Felger questioned the slightly shorter doctor. Sam took a moment to watch them along with Doctor Coombs and Jonas Quinn. Felger and Coombs had been at home ever since their return, but apparently they were now back at work. Felger had a look of pride upon his face and his chest was puffed up in an incredibly male bravado pose. "SG-1 would have been goners if it hadn't have been for me and my knowledge." Sam rolled her eyes at this. She, of course, had received the full story from Jack at home with certain words being changed so as to not give anything away to Sasha or Daniella. The last thing that Sam wanted was for her daughter to start school and tell all of the teachers about mommy and daddy's interplanetary escapades, or for her first word to be Goa'uld. Jack had admitted that after the plan went south, Felger and Coombs had each played a helpful part, but they had disobeyed orders. Sam knew the importance of following orders and it made Felger grate on her more than normal.
"It was I who accessed the control room and helped lead you all out to freedom, though," Coombs argued back and Sam did not even try and hide her grimace. This was going to end up in an argument worse than when they had started out discussing the merits of Captain Kirk and Han Solo. Although it had been a tamer one than a different disagreement which had concerned who was going to watch an experiment overnight. Felger had claimed to have a hot date whereas Coombs had declared that he would have to miss the newest episode of 'Enterprise' if he were forced to stay. Sam had snuck from the room before things had turned ugly and she foresaw having to escape from this discussion, too.
"But it was me who 'knew' where the control room was and got you there, wasn't it? And it was me who knew that something had gone wrong when those two Jaffa were killed!"
"Yes, it was your idea for us to dress in dead men's suits of armour." Coombs sounded displeased at having to don Jaffa dress.
"Did you two really pretend to be Jaffa?" Jonas asked and Sam could only hope that he did not become a member of the new Felger Fanclub. Jonas must surely be too sensible for that.
"We knew that it wouldn't be easy."
"Or pleasant," Coombs interrupted his partner in crime.
"But we managed it and then we rescued SG-1. I think Colonel O'Neill is rather impressed with our skills. Maybe he'll consider me as a replacement for Lieutenant Carpenter..." Felger seemed to drift off into a daydream which was often the expression on his face and Sam rolled her eyes again, accidentally making a slight disgruntled noise. She hoped that no one heard it and brought their attention to her. The only advantage of Felger living in his own little bravery world was that he seemed to have forgotten about his obvious crush on her.
"Major Carter," Sam looked at Coombs' smiling face and forced a matching greeting.
"Good morning," she said as all four men turned their eyes onto her, including Felger who seemed to have snapped out of his daydream and was approaching her.
"Would you like to grab some lunch, Major?" Jonas asked, darting in front of Felger and raising his eyebrows at Sam.
"That would be nice." She stood, locked her computer screen and left the lab with Jonas by her side without a glance back. Once they had rounded a corner, Sam let out a breath and said, "Thank you."
"For rescuing you from Jay?" Jonas questioned.
She nodded. "I'm just glad that i wasn't on that mission."
"Me too, but then that's because Colonel O'Neill would treat me the same as he does them." He gestured behind him to the three scientists.
Sam was well aware of what Colonel O'Neill thought of Jonas, having to not only hear Jack complain at home, but she had been a member of the delegation team to Kelowna just a few weeks earlier. "He doesn't understand people who are purely intellectual. With those doctors," Sam explained, "they can't follow military orders and that's why he can't tolerate them. It's more complicated with you."
"Because he blames me for my people's actions?"
Shaking her head, Sam answered, "It's true that Ferretti meant a lot to him. They'd known each other a long time, but he understands that you did the right thing in his name. I think he sees the advantage of you remaining here rather than return to Kelowna."
Jonas nodded, still staring down at the floor as they made their way through the corridors. "Maybe." She had never considered that he might get homesick and the only company he had was the physicists and archaeologists with whom he worked. He was the shared assistant of Sam and Carpenter and threw himself into both fields of work. Jonas had the eagerness and desire, along with the brain capacity to excel at everything he tried.
"I'm glad that you stayed."
"Thank you." They shared a smile as they entered the commissary and it was Jonas who spotted the menu first. "Look, they have blue jello."
Author's Notes: After a few blissful days working in the research lab, Sam is pained to have Doctor Jay Felger return from his heroic rescue of SG-1.
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