Janet was hiding. She never hid, normally, had told Cassie many a time about how problems have to be faced up to, and so on, but today she was hiding. And not only she. Daniel and Teal'c were both stuffed into her tiny office with her, trying to keep as quiet as possible.
HE was out there.
The interviewer.
Janet was hurriedly stuffing medical records into the back of the filing cabinet.
"Daniel, hand me the virus one." She whispered.
"Which one, he's had so many?" he hissed back.
"The one where Sam jumped him!" Janet told him, then held her breath as she saw Emmett look towards her office. The glass was one way, theoretically he couldn't see in, but she was taking no chances. Daniel handed her the file and it went behind the cabinet.
"Perhaps you should also include the 'Hathor incident'" Teal'c remarked, flicking through the file in question, but before Janet had a chance to take it, Siler ran in, shoving Daniel up even further against the desk, and slammed the door.
"You have no idea what I've got." He gasped.
"Fatal disease?" Janet asked.
"Broken arm." Daniel guessed.
"Severe electrical burns." Teal'c added, but Daniel shook his head.
"No, he had that this morning. Even Siler couldn't get that twice in one day."
"On the contrary, he had mild staff weapon burns. It is entirely possible for Sgt Siler to have two different kinds of burns in one day."
"No, I think."
"You're all wrong!" Siler somehow managed to shout and whisper at the same time. They turned towards him." Davis saw Brigman interviewing Major Carter.entirely by accident, of course"
"Of course" Janet and Daniel chorused
"I have no doubt his intentions were entirely honourable." Teal'c added.
"Damn right, big guy." Siler continued. "All for the good of the CGSJFFL. Anyway, he may have somehow managed to swap one of his tapes for the interviewers, and completely innocently given me the tape, and I might just have it in my hands right now." Siler finished triumphantly, pulling the tape out from behind my back. "And Walter said we really REALLY want to see this."
He handed the tape out to Teal'c, who squeezed past Daniel to the computer on the desk.
"I don't know." Daniel mused. "I mean, this is a private interview, and none of us wanted to do this interview and wouldn't we be invading Sam's privacy? I mean really, this whole committee thing is an invasion of privacy, and now I think of it.."
He ground to a halt as Janet shoved a cup full of coffee in his hand, and guided it up to his mouth. He drank contentedly, then stepped back as Teal'c finally got the tape to play.
"Wow, she looks gorgeous." Daniel said as Sam's image came up.
"Yeah, she could blow me up anytime." Siler sighed.
"And frequently does." Teal'c replied, as Janet tried very hard not to giggle. The last thing she wanted was for Emmett to hear them and come bursting in. They concentrated on the tape.
Most of the first half was technical, Sam, explaining the winking lights, and so-on, and describing the gate as really cool, which made Janet laugh. But then Brigman asked THE question.
"How do you feel about Colonel O'Neill?". Daniel tightened his grip on his coffee cup. Janet held her breath. Siler crossed his arms as far as he could. Teal'c.no doubt did something stoic deep inside to keep his raging feelings in.
"Ah. He's an amazing man." Sam said, and continued to rave about Jack for quite a while. Janet felt a grin grow on her face, so big her cheeks began to ache, and Teal'c nodded in approval. Daniel took such a huge gulp of his coffee he choked on it, but managed to do it silently so no-one missed the next bit. Siler hit him on the back as Daniel choked, tears springing to his eyes, finally nodding his thanks.
Which was good. No-one wanted to miss the next bit. Sam had finally stopped talking about how amazing Jack was, and had a wistful look on her face as she looked upwards.
Brigman said 'You spend a lot of time together, outside of work?"
Sam managed to sidestep the implication gratefully, even when Brigman pushed a little more. She managed to say nothing that was in any way..revealing. But she began to blush. To look around, to shift, and fidget, just like Jack, Daniel thought. And finally, finally, she said
"Even if there was potential for something more - and I'm not saying that there is - our military positions and the very nature of our job wouldn't allow it."
Siler switched the tape off.
"Well?" he asked.
"Well, she didn't actually say anything." Daniel said. Janet shook her head.
"She didn't have to. Honestly Daniel, you speak 26 different languages, but you're totally dumb when it comes to body language."
"27, in fact." Daniel muttered, but nobody heard him.
"SamanthaCarter's posture and aspect were most expressive." Teal'c agreed.
"She looked gorgeous." Siler sighed. Janet glanced at him.
"Be sure to tell her that next time she asks you to 'hold this wire'" Janet snapped.
"Are you joking? She'd kill me.oh, right." Siler realised, and he turned to watch Brigman chasing Jack through the infirmary.
"So, considering how totally dumb I am at these things." Daniel said, glaring at Janet, who blithely ignored him, "we're saying, basically, that despite what she's actually saying in the video, what she really means is..?"
"She loves him" Janet said softly, her eyes glowing, happy for her friend.
"Indeed." Teal'c said, smiling down at Janet.
"But we knew that." Daniel said.
"No, we suspected, now we know." Janet said, but before she could explain, the door was flung open, and a voice bellowed
"What the hell are you all doing in here?"
"What does it look like?" Teal'c answered calmly. Jack.for it was Jack standing in the doorway..puzzled a second, than tried to peek at the video screen. Janet had stood in front of it, smiling innocently, but he could swear that for the moment, there was someone familiar on screen. Daniel was trying desperately to take the tape out of the machine, and finally succeeded.
"Whatcha' got there?" Jack asked.
"What? Where?" Daniel asked, trying to look as innocent as Janet and failing miserably. He hid his face behind his coffee cup instead.
"There, on the tape."
"Oh..the tape." Daniel mused, then lied. "It's some of my tapes of various missions. I offered it to Brigman, and he said it was boring. I was just showing some to Janet and Teal'c and Siler, see what they thought."
The other three gazed at Daniel for a second. That had been a good lie. And he'd told it well. Daniel, it appeared had come back from the dead just a little bit more sneaky than when he had gone.
"And?" Jack asked suspiciously. Lately, he seen Daniel and Janet and Teal'c huddled together several times, discussing something intently, and going quiet every time they saw him. He'd asked Daniel about it, but he'd find something very important he had to do right then, Teal'c would just deny all knowledge of everything, and Janet..well, he was just too scared of Janet to ask her anything. But now he'd actually caught them.
"And?" Janet asked, .
"The tapes..were they boring?"
"Very." Janet said, ignoring Daniel's outraged 'hey!'
"Unbelievably tedious." Siler chimed in.
"As incredibly dull as Pete's the oddly-eyebrowed policeman's jokes." Teal'c said, quite forcefully. Jack frowned at him a moment, then decided some discussions were best left undiscussed.
"OOkay." Jack said. "Siler, Carter's looking for you, and Teal'c. I think she wants to shoot you again."
"Great! Can't wait!" Siler said, grinning wildly as he left, followed by Teal'c.
"You should cut down on his medication." Jack said to Janet.
"All he's on is burn cream." Janet said. "Of course, he insists it's rubbed on by two female nurses"
"Sounds fair." Jack said. "And you two..?"
"Are in my office, having a private discussion." Janet said firmly. Daniel took a sip of coffee to keep himself from laughing at Jack's chastised little boy look.
"Ok, but Brigman's looking for you." He told Janet. "And I'm going to tell him where you are so he can stop getting shots of my ass."
"Now there's an interview I'd like to see." Janet muttered. Jack debated with himself whether to take that subject further, and decided, wisely to just leave.
"How are we going to get the tape back to Brigman?" Daniel asked.
"Oh, I'll do an interview, flirt with him a little, distract him, slip it back in the bag somehow."
"Really?" Daniel asked dubiously.
"What, you don't think I can make him.. libidinous?" Janet asked wickedly, looking up at Daniel. "I've done it before."
Daniel took a huge gulp of coffee to cover up his embarrassment. Jack wasn't the only one who never wanted the Hathor incident never mentioned again. He glanced down at Janet as she took the tape off him and slipped it into the pocket of her medical coat.
"Janet." He suddenly said. "Do you really think it's worth it?"
"I'm just doing a little flirting, I'm not planning to sleep with him!" Janet protested.
"No..no,I meant, this whole CGSJFFL thing. I mean."
"You mean there's more important things in the universe than whether Sam and Jack get together."
"Yeah, I guess that's what I'm trying to say." Daniel said moodily.
"Ok, there are. But there's not a lot I can do about that. I can't fix the Jaffa and Tokra alliance. I can't defeat Anubis's super-soldiers. But I do what I can. I save lives, and I fix up the injured soldiers that come in here, and I try to make people happy. And if I think that I can make my best friend and my commanding officer happy by helping them realise that they're in love, I can do that too. Real love doesn't happen very often, and sometimes it needs help, and that's my job and usually all I can do, to help."
Daniel looked down at Janet's glowing face, and she smiled up at him, sure he understood.
"You do help. More than you know." He said. For a moment she thought he might say something else, but then Brigman knocked on the door.
"I'd like to interview you now, Dr. Frasier." He said.
"Ok, Mr Brigman, I'm ready for my close-up." She said. "See you later." She said to Daniel as she left. "At the next CGSJFFL meeting, if you think it's worth it." She smiled to take the sting out of it.
"Oh, it's worth it." Daniel said, watching her sit down for her interview.
Story Notes: CGSJFFL: Spoilers, Heroes Part One
Spoilers, Death Knell, Chimera
Author's notes; The CGSJFFL were first introduced in the story 'outside the lift'. The letters stand for Committee to get Sam and Jack to Finally Fall in Love. It was founded soon after Daniel descended to co-ordinate and strengthen efforts to get Sam and Jack to Finally Fall in Love. It's main members are Daniel, Janet and Teal'c. However, other members of the base are aware of it's existence, and sometime participate in the CGSFFL meetings and activities. There are a thousand stories in the CGSFFL conspiracy, this is just one of them.
Spoilers, Death Knell, Chimera
Author's notes; The CGSJFFL were first introduced in the story 'outside the lift'. The letters stand for Committee to get Sam and Jack to Finally Fall in Love. It was founded soon after Daniel descended to co-ordinate and strengthen efforts to get Sam and Jack to Finally Fall in Love. It's main members are Daniel, Janet and Teal'c. However, other members of the base are aware of it's existence, and sometime participate in the CGSFFL meetings and activities. There are a thousand stories in the CGSFFL conspiracy, this is just one of them.
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 ]