Colonel Jack O'Neill was in a God awful mood and Daniel was already sick of it. They had only been on P6X for an hour, but Jack's terrible mood was already aggravating everyone. Nicola was attempting to take soil, air and water samples which were not her normal job-tasks and Jack's glaring was slowing her progress further. Teal'c had taken to staring off around the immediate area a lot more than normal and was standing quite far from Jack. Daniel was watching Jack's pacing out of the corner of his eye, trying not to draw the colonel's attention or wrath. He was pretty sure from the anger in Jack's eyes and stance that the ticking time bomb had finally exploded. Neither Sam nor Jack had been acting normally for the past two weeks and Sam had refused to talk to Daniel about any problems. He had not even attempted to speak to Jack about what was bothering him.
Nicola tutted at herself as she attempted a soil pH test and Daniel hoped that Jack had not heard. He watched as Nicola disposed of a test tube and started the test again. It was not her fault that she was neither quick nor skilled at these tests. She had probably performed them years ago at high school or possibly during her early career. It was normally Sam's job to do the on-site scientific testing, but she was ill according to Jack. Daniel found this highly suspicious as she had seemed fine two days ago when he had last seen her. Her mysterious absence and Jack's foul mood were all the evidence Daniel needed to think that their relationship had altered for some reason. He wanted to question Jack on it, but knew that during a mission was not the right time in which to do so. He would just have to wait until they returned to Earth in a few days and then try and question either of his friends.
"What's the hold up?" Jack asked, but his tone was slightly demanding and Nicola stuttered and faltered under his intense gaze. Nicola was not normally so timid, but she had never seen Jack in such a mood. "Well, Lieutenant?"
"Jack," Daniel intervened, trying to calm the impending situation. Before either man could say anything, all four members of the team turned towards the Stargate as it began activating. Jack, Teal'c and Nicola each got their weapons out, ready for whatever was dialling into the planet. Daniel glanced at the other three with a mixture of weaponry - Jack and his P90, Teal'c and his Staff, and Nicola and her Zat. Daniel prepared to get his weapon ready, but he was not as sceptical as the other three due to his non-military background. They each spread out slightly further as the wormhole whooshed out of the Stargate. Daniel had no need for his weapon as Sam stepped through the event horizon, proving to Daniel that Jack had in fact lied about Sam's illness. He watched silently as Sam stormed over to the four of them, but she was heading directly for Jack. Daniel had rarely seen such anger in his friend's eyes, but for a moment he felt pity for what Jack was about to suffer.
"Major Carter, what are you doing here?" Jack demanded whilst Daniel waited for the fireworks.
"Don't 'Major Carter' me, Jack. What the hell gives you the right to throw me off a mission without a word, lie about me and ignore me?"
"Major Carter, stand down." Jack shouted his order, hoping that she would listen to her rank being used.
"Answer the damn question!" she demanded. Daniel was unsure he had ever really heard anyone yell at Jack the way that Sam was, but their relationship was different to every other relationship Daniel had ever seen Jack have. He was immediately worried about their yelling and anger, but he was unsure of what could be done to stop them. Figuring that if he were to say anything, both of them would turn their wrath to him before resuming their own argument, Daniel opted to do nothing for the moment.
"Have you lost your mind, Carter?" Jack asked without any hint of calm. "Did you even get permission to come here?" Jack moved slightly closer to Sam in an attacking stance. He was gesturing with his arms and everything about him was dripping with anger.
Daniel looked to Sam and saw the answer to his question clearly across her face, although Daniel only saw a momentary flicker of shame cross her eyes. "What did you expect me to do?" she screamed in anger at him.
"Oh, he is so gonna court-martial your ass," Jack said with a hint of a sarcastic smile on his face.
"Well, that was going to happen after we broke the regulations two weeks ago!"
Daniel knew then exactly what had caused the ticking time bomb that was their living arrangement to finally explode. He had never heard Sam speak so candidly, but then he was not sure he had ever seen her in any state like her current one. Even when Jack had originally decided to leave the planet and Sam had had a minor emotional breakdown on base, Daniel had never seen her so open and brazen before. He had seen her cry and become emotional, but never as angry her eyes now showed.
"That's why I took you off of this mission," Jack shouted, "Because you can't ever be on my team again. I was trying to avoid either of us being court-martialled. We’ve crossed the line."
"Bullshit," Sam declared. "I don’t know why you've been acting like a jerk, but it has nothing to do with preserving either of our careers. I'd venture a bet that it has a lot more to do with you being a coward and scared of anything real."
Daniel saw the anger flare in Jack's eyes and almost expected him to throw a punch. Daniel was sure that if it were anyone else to have said that to Jack or anyone male at least, Jack would not have held back. He took two steps away from Sam, who cleverly allowed him to and Sam chose not to antagonise him further. "Go home, Major," Jack ordered. "This really isn't a military matter."
"Not a military matter?" Sam asked incredulously. “What on Earth are you talking about? This needs to get sorted. Now. I'm not going home until we resolve something. Anything."
Daniel took his gaze from the warring pair for a few seconds as they stood in their stalemate; each as stubborn as the other when it ever came down to it. He first noticed Nicola who was edging slowly away inch by inch, staring at something far off in the distance as if that was something worthy of her archaeological interest. In that moment, he completely understood her reasons for not becoming involved with certain colleagues outside of work too much. Teal'c was studying his staff weapon as if something about it were the most fascinating thing he had ever seen and that in all of his years possessing such a weapon, he had never noticed this new facet.
"You're not gonna let this drop, are you?" Jack asked in a non-shouting, but still angry voice. "Fine, let's talk."
Before Sam could demand more answers from him, Daniel coughed loudly. Everyone turned to him, including Sam and Jack who appeared to have forgotten that anyone else was even there. "We're gonna... go... explore. Or something.” He crossed past them to where Nicola and Teal'c were gathering up some essentials. "Try not to kill each other, yeah?" Daniel asked and Jack smiled wryly. Sam still had a look of thunder set upon her face and ignored the others as Daniel left them to their discussion or, more likely, argument.
"Thanks," Nicola whispered as soon as they were far enough away to not be heard.
"No problem."
"I reckon the colonel's the scarier one," Nicola said as a whisper still despite their increasing distance from the warring pair.
"Yeah, I've never seen Sam so angry." Not even on the few occasions when Sam had been shot down by someone on scientific or military reasons, had Daniel seen his friend channel so much anger. It was then that he wondered just how long it had been building within her. Perhaps from that first moment that Jack changed everything, deciding to go to Edora and starting the chain reaction that had changed everyone.
"O'Neill looked like he was going to punch her at one point," Nicola said and before Daniel could respond that he was pretty confident that Jack would never raise a hand to a woman, let alone to Sam, Teal’c spoke.
"Major Carter is the one to be more concerned with," the stoic Jaffa said with no extra emotion in his voice, explaining further when Daniel and Nicola looked at him quizzically. "I believe in your culture it is spoken as linked to a woman wronged and revenge."
"A woman scorned," Daniel corrected.
"Indeed."
SG – SG – SG
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 ]