"How do you know that you are correct, Major Carter?"
"How could I be wrong, Teal'c?"
"She's just oozing confidence, isn't she, Daniel?"
Daniel looked at his three friends from over his own cards and slowly lowered them to the green felt. He furrowed his brow and then, sighing, surrendered. "I'm out."
"What?" Jack was startled, his eyes snapping to the bespectacled archaeologist across from him. "You think she's right?"
Daniel sighed and threw a questioning glance at Teal'c, who sat to his right. The Jaffa was watching the exchange with his usual aplomb to the antics of the humans of his team. There was little that happened the escaped his attention, but Daniel was pretty sure that poker did fall into the realm of common Jaffa activities. Even after five years on Earth.
With Jack O'Neill.
"Jack, how often has Sam been *wrong*?" Daniel watched as Teal'c also lowered his cards to the felt top and folded his hands before him. He turned back to Jack. "I mean…" Daniel shrugged as if it explained his obviously traitorous actions.
"You have said it yourself, O'Neill. Major Carter is `oozing confidence.'" Teal'c monotone voice brought Jack's eyes to his and the Colonel narrowed his eyes.
The cards still in play, namely those in the hands of the two Air Force officers started to shift imperceptibly within the hands that held them. Sam continuously splayed them, then collected them, her eyes darting between the three men around her. She kept her opinions to herself. Jack's thumb ran across the outside edge, lining them up together so that little seam revealed that he had only five cards in his hand.
"Just because she's confident, doesn't mean that she's right." Jack hedged, wondering if maybe this was a loosing argument. He had to admit that when Carter felt confident about something it usually turned out that she was right. He glanced at her, horrified to see a small, smug smile appearing on her face, even as her eyes remained glued to the cards within her fingers. However, he still felt a certain confidence within his own cards: two pairs, Jack's high.
He grinned at the irony.
"Ah," Daniel started, his glasses getting righted on his nose by his index finger. "I think I'm going to have to disagree with you there, Jack. I'm with Sam on this one."
"You think I'm bluffing."
It was a statement, and a rhetorical one at that. Jack knew that his team had turned against him and some feeling of indignation rose within his throat, but he wondered himself how it was that Carter's confidence and her ability to be correct were so coincidental.
Maybe she did have a better hand than him and if that was the case, then he really was bluffing.
Teal'c cleared the air.
"It is not so much that you may be bluffing O'Neill as that she may have a better hand than you." Teal'c shifted and turned his gaze to Carter's cards. "In either event, should she win this hand, she has been proven correct."
Jack rolled his eyes at the formality of Teal'c's logic.
"Alright, for the good of my team, I'm willing to eat crow if she's right. I can handle being wrong time and again. I guess I could be due."
"That's big of you, sir." Sam said, her cards now splayed neatly in her hand. She looked at his expectantly and Jack couldn't quell the desire that she really was right. Some traitorous part of him wanted to see her win this just so that he would *know* something concrete about her.
If she felt confident, then she was right.
Jack rolled his eyes and then surrendered to the peer pressure of the table. "Fine. No more betting. It's me and Carter." Teal'c and Daniel nodded and the Jack turned his focus onto the theoretical astrophysicist beside him. "Show `em."
Hand folded out and Jack stared at Sam's hand.
Two pair.
Queen's high.
~FIN~
Story Notes: Spoiler: Fail Safe
A/N: I just watched this again last night and it caught my imagination. If Major Doctor Samantha Carter is confident, does that make her right? This is a `team' fic, with nothing overwhelmingly S/J or anything like that. Team bonding, pre- ascension. Any errors (grammatical or otherwise) are solely my fault.
A/N: I just watched this again last night and it caught my imagination. If Major Doctor Samantha Carter is confident, does that make her right? This is a `team' fic, with nothing overwhelmingly S/J or anything like that. Team bonding, pre- ascension. Any errors (grammatical or otherwise) are solely my fault.
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 ]