Title: Cargo Bay Three

Author: Hya Ri

Email: hya_right@yahoo.com

Summary: There's always...footwear. Post episode addition for 'Unnatural Selection.'

Category: Drama, Angst, Sam/Jack friendship, UST, Jaffa sarcasm

Spoilers: S6 Unnatural Selection

Rating: PG-13, language

Archive: SJD, Heliopolis, yes. Anyone else need only ask

Status: Complete.

Disclaimer: They are *so* not mine.

Author's Notes: Ben & Jerry's is the brand of ice-cream the guys scarfed down in this episode, for you poor deprived folks who've never sampled the joys. Two big pints of it to my darling sis on her birthday. And more pints to Kelly and Lesley for the beta'ing, and to Denise and Jen for clearing up that whole 'bridge' issue. Eat quick, before it melts!

*****

Sam sped along the corridor, almost breaking into a run as the door for Cargo Bay three came into view.

Dammit, be here, be here, she thought, punching the button with more force than necessary. The door swung open with a click, and with a rush of relief, she saw that he *was* there. The only person she wanted to be with right now.

Jonas.

//You do realize what you did?//

//The right thing, Jonas.//

Jonas looked up, forcing her to shake off her thoughts. "Hey Major Carter. Did everything go well with the Asgard?"

"Yes, Colonel O'Neill's wrapping things up with Thor now." She paused, reluctant to voice the next phrase. "We should probably join them, we'll be back in our own galaxy soon..."

"Yes. Of course..." Jonas put down a soggy ice-cream carton and looked around for something to wipe his hands with.

Knowing that neither one of them wanted to go back to the bridge just yet, Sam found a crate next to him and sat down. She considered joining Jonas in drowning their sorrows in a tub of Ben & Jerry's - drowning being the operative word, since all that was left was a runny, mucky mess that even the Replicators hadn't touched. But where the Replicators feared to tread, their own intrepid Jonas Quinn...

"How can you stand this stuff?" Sam asked, making a face.

"I'm hungry, and it's the only thing that they didn't take." Jonas said. He gave a sudden smile. "First time eating melted ice-cream, though..." His expression turned earnest. "It's not as good."

She laughed with him companionably. After the suffocating silence of the bridge, it sounded good, felt even better. It traveled up from her gut, rumbled in her chest and loosened the tension in her shoulders. Smiling for the first time in hours, she grabbed a carton from the cooler.

Chunky Monkey. Not one of her favorites. She looked over at the carton Jonas was working on.

Cherry Garcia. Bingo!

"Hey Jonas," she said with her most winning smile, "Why don't we switch flavors?"

"Uh-uh," he said, tucking his carton of ice-cream possessively into his body and swiveling away from her. He'd learned a few things from Teal'c about guarding one's ice-cream.

"Jonas, come on!" Sam cried. When he still shook his head, she dug a nut out of her carton. "Here, let's compromise," she said, holding her spoon out to him, "I don't like the nuts. You can have them all if you give me the cherries in yours."

"Why do *you* get the cherries?"

"Because I'm the Major," she said matter-of-factly.

"Oh." Jonas' grin signaled that she'd won. "Okay." he said graciously.

They both dug into their cartons, rummaging around for the salvageable pieces. Sam knew that, eventually, explanations would have to be made, but from the Colonel's simmering silence back at the bridge, she knew he wasn't ready to talk. Neither was she. They were all dancing around a sore topic, but for now, she wasn't in the mood for a Jack O'Neill tirade. She wanted time to calm down, wanted just to sit next to Jonas and go fishing for chunks in the rivers of melted chocolate around them.

*****

Jack caught Carter's laughter floating down the corridor. The clear, melodic sound was rare enough that he usually counted himself lucky whenever he heard it, usually found himself listening for the next time...

...But now, it just irritated the hell out of him.

It had been several hours since they'd left the time dilation field, several hours since the Asgard had started towing them back home, since Thor had congratulated them in person. But unlike the playful nervousness that had accompanied them on the trip out, the mood back had been anything but celebratory. Instead, they'd all sat in discomforted silence, and he'd endured several hours of Jonas' accusatory bewilderment and Carter's silent defiance.

And the fact that she was laughing now, after subjecting him to all those hours of stony silence, *really* annoyed the hell out of him.

At first, he'd left them alone, to their thoughts, thinking they'd soon come to their senses. Jonas was a smart guy, and he'd figure out that strategically, they'd been no other choice. Carter had been military her entire life; she knew that some actions, however...distasteful, were part of the reality of war.

So he'd left them alone, and kept close to Teal'c instead. Teal'c, who knew, understood the burdens of command, the tough choices needing to be weighed against the consequences. There was a reason they were close friends...other than their winning personalities, of course.

Teal'c just got it.

And Daniel. Daniel would have ranted, called him names, eyes blazing with frustration as he heaped stammering argument after argument on him. Jack would have given as good as he'd gotten, they would have had it out, cleared the air...

None of this silent festering that Jonas, and especially Carter, seemed inclined to.

And now, from the sounds greeting him from down the corridor, it was obvious they were having a great little time by themselves.

Jack considered turning back. He'd gone to look for them because they were a team, and he and Carter had to get over this, if only for the reason that he was her CO, she was his 2IC, and they had to work together as a team. And he'd be damned if doing his job - one of the two things he cared about - came at the expense of the only other thing he cared about. So he'd gone in search of her...

But she sounded *fine* now. Just *peachy*.

She probably *was* all right, probably didn't need him...some things didn't change. And he'd had a lot of experience taking, and later, giving, orders that made him feel like shit, but his experience was that most soldiers learned to deal with it. And it sure *sounded* like Sam had figured out a way to deal...

He turned around, started to go back to the bridge.

...Except Carter wasn't 'most soldiers'...

He stopped in mid stride.

...and he didn't want her to feel like shit...

Dammit! Why couldn't he make up his mind? He shook his head, unable to believe what he was about to do.

He headed in the direction of her laughter.

*****

"What do we do with the marshmallows?"

"Throw it over there." Sam indicated a soiled pile of formerly white fluff that she'd started in the corner. "I don't like them either."

Holding his spoon straight up, Jonas flung the marshmallow off with a flourish. "Isn't the Air Force going to be upset if we get their new ship messy?"

"They'll be glad just to get it back, Jonas."

"Huh," He said, putting his spoon down. She looked up quickly, the tone of his voice alerting her that they weren't playing around anymore. "Major Carter, I find it difficult to understand Colonel O'Neill sometimes."

"Join the bewilderment," she said dryly. Then, seeing the lost expression on his face, she let out a sigh. "What is it, Jonas?"

"How is it so easy for him to make those calls? How can he be so adamant, so sure? Because, right now, I'll tell you Major Carter, I'm not sure of anything."

Sam sighed, resigned to having to explain. After Daniel, or Teal'c, she probably knew the Colonel better than anyone...though that wasn't really saying much. "I'm sure it wasn't easy for him, Jonas. Besides, I was the one who promised Fifth we'd take him. It wasn't my call to make, and the Colonel was trying to rectify the situation." It was okay for *her* to be upset at the Colonel, but for some reason, she didn't want Jonas to doubt the Colonel. "Colonel O'Neill...he's of a different..." she groped for the right words to make Jonas understand - it was imperative to her that Jonas understand - "He's Special Ops trained. Their assignments...well, they have to do a lot of...things...which they wouldn't be able to do unless they were trained to..." She paused, debating how to best put it so Jonas understood...

"To what, Major Carter?"

"Dehumanize the enemy." She closed her eyes. "Marks. Targets. Whatever you tell yourself to get the job done. They're not people. I guess, in his eyes, it was easier to tell himself that Fifth was even less so."

"But with the Replicators, with Fifth...was it the right thing?" Jonas asked. "I hope we didn't make a mistake."

She squeezed her eyes shut tighter, thinking of him.

Fifth. //I'm a mistake...//

She'd tried to reassure him. //No, *they* are. A terrible mistake...//

She'd been so sure. He'd been so trusting.

//Hope we didn't make a mistake...//

She shook her head. "I still don't know, Jonas..." Opening her eyes, she looked into Jonas' confused gaze and felt a twinge of sympathy. "Boy, you really didn't sign up for all this, did you?" she asked.

Jonas shrugged and picked up his spoon again, idly twirling it inside the carton. "Saving earth, part of the job, right? Saving the galaxy, I can handle that too, but..." She waited patiently for him to finish. "But I don't know if I'd have been so insistent on joining SG-1 if I'd had known about this whole 'saving the universe' business," he said, a slow grin dawning on his face.

Sam laughed and spooned a fudge chunk into her mouth. "Yeah, me neither!"

*****

Jack heard the laugh again and pushed down an absurd surge of jealousy. He really wanted to know what the hell Jonas and Carter found so damn funny. Well, he'd find out soon enough, he thought, rounding the last corner. The door to the bay was open and he had an unobstructed view of Carter and Jonas, sitting, spooning soupy portions of ice-cream into their mouths.

"Now I *know* you're trying to make yourself sick," he said, entering the bay.

"Sir." Carter stood up.

Jonas tried to greet him too, but the ice-cream got in the way. "Carghneel," he mumbled, as he swallowed.

Jack gave him an amused look.

"Sorry, Colonel O'Neill." Jonas wiped his mouth with the back of his hands and then grimaced at the damage. "I better go wash my hands," he said apologetically, heading out the door.

"I better go too," Carter said stiffly, following Jonas out.

Oh, no. He wasn't about to let her off that easily. "Hey, Carter..." he said. She turned and looked up at him expectantly. "Stay a minute, will ya?"

"Yes, sir." she said, not moving out of the doorway.

Jack tried not to let his annoyance show too much. "Mind coming back *in* the room?" he said.

"Yes sir," she repeated, stepping back into the bay and snapping to attention next to the crates.

"Oh for crying out loud, Carter," he said, his voice edged with exasperation. Was she *trying* to tick him off? He turned to pull the door closed, and when he turned back around, she was still at attention.

Yep, she was *definitely* trying to tick him off. "At ease."

She physically adjusted her stance, but that was it.

"Carter..." he warned.

"Just following orders, sir," she said.

The resentment in her tone was hard to miss, and Jack decided to plunge right in. "Carter, sit down...Please," he said, seeing her mutinous expression.

She hesitated for a moment, and sat down on a crate.

Jack found himself stumbling around, trying to explain. He wasn't used to this...answering for his actions to a subordinate...he didn't like the feeling. But hell, this was Carter, and...

"He couldn't come with us."

"It's a moot point now, isn't it sir?" she said.

Jack sighed heavily. "The mission parameters were simple, Major - get in, reset the damn device, and get the hell out! Nobody said anything about adopting your friendly neighborhood Replicator!"

"We're not talking about 'keeping a puppy' here, Colonel!," she said, her voice rising, "He risked everything for us!"

O'Neill ran an angry hand through his hair. "Carter, for cryin' out loud, get a grip!" He didn't understand why she was being so stubborn, so intent on this. "If he'd come with us, we may not had the chance to escape, and you *know* that Carter!"

She suddenly looked up with an expression that made him catch his breath, one that made him distinctly uneasy. And he knew what was coming. "Sir," her voice was pleading, hopeful, "If taking Fifth wouldn't have alerted the others, if he hadn't been a threat to our escape, we would have taken him with us, right?" Jack knew she was begging him, asking for a way to acquit him, their actions, his, hers. And it was tempting to lie, exonerate himself in her eyes; her good opinion meant more to him than even he would admit to himself.

But his need for vindication was overwhelming, and he wouldn't *couldn't* lie to her. Not about this.

"No."

The single word sent her face crashing down. Jack tried to read the play of emotions that flooded her features. What - Disappointment? Accusation? Contempt?

"Don't you look at me like that, Carter. Don't you DARE look at me like that!" he raged, wanting to slam his hand against the wall. "You know better than anyone what would have happened if that *thing* had gotten out!"

She jumped off the crate, hands clenched into fists. "Will you stop calling him a *thing*!"

"I don't care what the hell you choose to call it, Carter! It wasn't human!"

"How can you say that! You *heard* him!" Her voice shook violently. "God, did you see how trusting he was? Thanks to us, he'll pay for his trust and the others will destroy him!" She was yelling now, her entire body shaking with fury, but she didn't seem to be able to stop. "He was naïve and innocent, and..." her voice broke. "And we used that against him."

"Yes, we did," he said with finality. He could accept that fact. But her...

She looked up, and the steel in her eyes belied the fragility of her voice. "How could you do that?"

He hated the tone in her voice, hated that it was coming from Carter, hated that it was directed at him. His eyes bored into hers, his tone contemptuous as he said, "You're the one who's naïve, Major. If you had been in my position, you'd have made the same call."

"No..." she said.

But he could hear the doubt, and the hollowness of her denial sent him over the edge. Carter, with her righteous, holier-than-thou attitude, when she wasn't even sure herself... How dare she judge him, question her commanding officer? What did she know about the burdens, what it meant to call the shots, to give the orders that no one wanted to take responsibility for?

What did she know of it? Nothing.

No, she knew better, Jack corrected himself as his fury boiled over. She'd been with the SGC for *six* years! But here she was, acting like a green, untried cadet, with that censure in her eyes, that judgment in her voice he couldn't bear. He couldn't stand it, wouldn't stand *for* it.

"Well then, *Major*" he sneered, making her title sound like an insult, "I guess it's lucky that you're not the one in command."

She stepped back, looking as if he'd slapped her.

Goddammit!

"Carter..." he said warily.

One day he was going to staple his goddamn mouth shut! But now, he needed it... "Carter, that's not what I meant..."

"No, sir, I understand your point," she said coldly.

"No..." He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. Shit.

Her eyes turned flint. "Sir, your meaning is crystal clear. I may be *naïve*, but I'm not stupid."

Jack fought an insane, inappropriate desire to laugh. Carter? Stupid? What the hell had just happened here? How had it gone so wrong? It was supposed to be a simple mission. They were either supposed to all die, or go home big-time heroes. A simple goddamn life-or-death mission!

"God, Carter..."

When were things ever simple, he chided himself. There was always...footwear.

"...It wasn't human," he whispered, for lack of something better to say.

She was silent for a long time, then she sat back down, on the crate next to him, as if too tired to stand. And when she finally spoke, there was no longer any anger in her tone, just resignation. "Maybe not, sir..."

Jack felt himself holding his breath, waiting. Waiting for her to finish, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"But after what I did to him...well, I don't feel very human either."

*****

Teal'c watched the screen in continued amazement. The speed of these Asgard motherships...even with the X-303 in tow... By comparison, the fastest Goa'uld ships could not even...

"Aren't Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter back yet?" Jonas asked, sliding into his seat.

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "Were you not with them recently?"

"Well, they were still talking when I went to wash up..." Jonas grimaced, looking down at his hands. "Blisters, ice-cream, I can't seem to keep my hands clean on this mission."

"Do your hands feel dirty, JonasQuinn?"

"Yeah, Teal'c," Jonas said, feelingly. "They do."

Teal'c caught the inflection in Jonas' voice and allowed himself a brief smile, one he made sure his teammate could not see. Jonas Quinn was indeed learning quickly when it came to using the expressions of the Tau'ri. "You have no reason to feel guilt, JonasQuinn. It was the decision of Colonel O'Neill and the action of MajorCarter."

"It still bothers me," Jonas said, looking up from his examination of his hands. "I was there, as a part of this team...And I can't help thinking it would have worked - to bring Fifth with us, I mean."

Teal'c wondered if Jonas realized how much his doubts, and his comfort in airing those doubts, signaled his integration into SG-1. That he'd very much become an integral part of SG-1. And for this fact alone, Teal'c was ready listen to what Jonas had to say. "What is the basis of your belief?"

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time the SGC has absorbed alien lifeforms. Look at us, Teal'c. Both of us turned against our own people because we knew it was right. Both of us were forced to leave our home planets because of that decision. Fifth was in the same situation, but Colonel O'Neill made the decision *not* to take him. How is this different? At the very least, we could have *learned* from him, *studied* him to fix the problem with the Replicators..."

Teal'c could not believe that an intelligent being such as Jonas Quinn could be, at times, so slow. "Your arrival on earth represented only a minimal risk to the Tau'ri, JonasQuinn. And while I posed a much greater risk to them," Teal'c saw Jonas nod; Jonas understood it wasn't a boast, "It is nothing compared to the damage that a single Replicator could have caused. You have read the journals of DanielJackson?"

Jonas nodded.

"Then you recall that it was a single Replicator that the Asgard took back with them to study. And that act has threatened the extermination of the entire Asgard race. 'Studying' a Replicator is not without its risks."

"So what you're saying," Jonas said slowly, "Is that Colonel O'Neill weighed the relative merits of taking Fifth with us and decided that it was not worth the risk."

Teal'c reigned in his impatience, wondering if Dr. Fraiser had greatly underestimated Jonas Quinn's ability to learn quickly. "No, JonasQuinn. My intention is that O'Neill did not have *any* right to take that risk. Unlike the example of you, or I, harboring a Replicator endangers more than just the humans and their planet."

"It endangers their entire galaxy," Jonas said. Then after a pause, "*Several* galaxies..."

"Indeed, JonasQuinn." Satisfied that Jonas was starting to comprehend, Teal'c turned his attention back to the panel in front of him. Humans spent much time in introspection, in examination of actions that were already passed. And Teal'c had gotten used to their need to do so, even appreciated their need for it. But for himself, though he had found Major Carter's arguments about the Replicator Fifth exceedingly valid, Teal'c had also understood O'Neill's position from the very beginning.

He had understood the moment he had entered Kel'no'reem and relived one of the Replicators stretching out their hand out towards him, entering his mind. And while he remembered little of the experience, what he *did* remember only made him more determined, more convinced that O'Neill had been correct in his judgment. For him, his mind had put the pieces in place during Kel'no'reem, but the humans were still dealing with it.

Especially, their newest member, it seemed.

"Do you know what really bothers me, Teal'c?" Jonas said. His voiced the thought tentatively, and Teal'c encouraged the further confidence with a tilt of his head. "What really bothers me...is that it doesn't seem to bother *him*."

"You speak of O'Neill."

"Yes."

Teal'c waged a fierce internal battle between protecting his friend's privacy and helping Jonas Quinn understand. For a warrior, guilt was a luxury, an often futile emotion that made little difference after the outcome. But how to convey this to the newest member of SG-1? A scientist who had, as of yet, seen little combat? Teal'c found himself searching for the words, but a verbal explanation failed him, and in the end he could only offer the vaguest of advice to Jonas.

"Make no assumptions as to what O'Neill is thinking, JonasQuinn. It is my experience that O'Neill allows very few outward manifestations of his true emotions."

"Then I'm the exception on the team," Jonas said, grinning.

Teal'c didn't deign to answer, but he rapidly revised his earlier opinion of Jonas' abilities. Perhaps Jonas Quinn's powers of observations were not an empty boast. Out of the corner of his eye, Teal'c saw his teammate's eyes close in thought, no doubt continuing to grapple with the ramifications of their earlier actions. Teal'c turned his attention back to the control panels, satisfied that Jonas Quinn would figure it out, come to terms with the ambiguities. He had every faith in Jonas Quinn to be able to do so, on his own.

As for Major Carter, and for O'Neill...Teal'c only hoped that they would help each other reach some measure of acceptance.

*****

They were silent for a long time, the words hanging between them.

'I don't feel very human either...'

It was a tone of voice he was all too familiar with.

*No... Not Carter...*

And, when she finally looked up, the expression in her eyes was something he was also well acquainted with.

Self loathing.

No, not Carter. God, not Carter! He couldn't stand it, and broke away from the eye contact. He knew that his own humanity had some dints in it; it had weathered a lot of collisions over the years. And most of the time, he'd been able to suppress those memories, not let them overwhelm him. But the doubts, the rabid self-hate was constantly there, nagging in the corners of his mind, quietly eating away at him in the dark places of his soul...

But Carter...he'd never wanted that for Carter.

"Carter..." he said, gently.

But she just shook her head in dejection.

Jack silently dammed himself to hell. He'd been so caught up in his own anger, his own doubts that he had not realized where *her* anger had been really directed at. Instead, he'd pushed her, him into this senseless argument, and neither of them could take their words back. Yeah, he was a bastard, all right. And as much as he wanted to make it right, he didn't know how.

Except to listen.

"It bothers you," he said simply.

Her laughter was ragged, cutting into him like glass. "Of course it bothers me! I had no right to give him hope. It just ended up being...cruel."

"That's good," he said. He saw her stiffen, but she didn't look up. "When it stops bothering you, that's when you should watch out. When you stop caring about who you're hurting...who you've hurt..."

There was a rare, raw honesty to his voice that made her finally look up. He didn't talk that way very often.

He shrugged, answering her unspoken question in her eyes. "I've served for over twenty years, Carter. It's bound to happen once or twice."

"What brought you out?" she asked, her eyes concerned, not probing.

Jack looked away. It was a personal question, and they both knew it skirted the line they'd long ago tacitly agreed not to cross. A question he didn't know if he wanted to answer. Only that, in that instant, in that cargo bay in the void of space in another galaxy, he wanted to forget those rules, to have a true moment of honesty, craved it with an intensity that overwhelmed his defenses. And if it would help Carter...there was no question about it, really.

"First time, it was Sara." He paused, trying not to let the familiar regrets wash over him. "The second, Daniel and Abydos..." And, he thought, if there ever was a *third* time...

He looked back at her. They'd been fighting this war for longer than he wanted to think about, survived more than just physical attacks on their lives. Things that should have sidelined a normal soldier years ago, or driven them into the darkest depths with no hope of return. But Carter, with her genuine humanity, undimmed by the years of war - even after all the things she'd seen and experienced - that warmth remained unchanged. It was that spark, the heat of her passion for everything she did that drew him to her. It was her light that shone into the dark corners of his mind and heart, provided the perspective, the anchor that kept him from falling into the dark depths he feared.

Over the course of his life, he'd made some bad calls, been forced to do things he'd rather forget. Used deception when necessary, gotten his hands dirty more than a few times. But he'd never wanted that world to touch the ones he'd cared about. And if he could protect her from it by bearing the blame, the sole responsibility for their actions... If he could protect her from the muck...keep that light for himself by keeping her from getting her hands dirty in the shit...

"Carter, you were just following orders. Ultimate responsibility lies with me." He looked directly at her. "*Only* me."

She refused to accept it. "No, you tried to warn me. Back in Engineering, before we had gone back. I *chose* to be more...involved." She shook her head, the combination of self-disgust and disillusionment in her voice scaring the hell out of him. "But, if you'd been inside his mind...I think you could see why I did..."

Jack shook his head, not sure if he would have wanted to. But he let her talk. "What was it like?"

"Chaotic. Stormy. Beautiful." She gave him a watery smile. "Probably a lot like ours."

Jack nodded, vaguely able to guess at what she meant.

"He was...amazing."

//No, *you're* amazing,// but he had to bite back the words. But it was difficult, especially now, as she amazed him with her steady, knowing gaze which refused to let him take the blame. Sharing the responsibility for their actions. "Then he deserves better than to have to spend a few hundred years being prodded and studied, doesn't he?" he said instead.

She nodded, accepting his statement. She was rallying. He saw it in the renewed squaring of her shoulders, the small flame rekindling in her eyes, and once again, he marveled at her strength, was humbled by it. There would another mission, another day, and she would deal with this in her own time. He wouldn't have to worry. They'd be okay.

Eventually.

He was damn lucky to have her as his 2IC, and for the millionth time, he vowed once again not to let anything jeopardize that. Especially him.

"Listen, Carter...what I said earlier..."

"No," she said quickly, "If anything *I* was childish and petty, and *I'm* the one who should..."

He cut her off. "No. Don't apologize, that..." That would make him feel even worse. "That's not necessary..."

She nodded, neither of them comforted by the unspoken apologies in the air. Jack desperately wanted to hold her, do something to show the depths of his apology, his mistake. But he could only reach out and squeeze her right arm, ending in a couple of awkward pats. She looked up, staring at his hand on her arm, and as she turned her eyes up towards him, and he saw acceptance, gratitude...and another emotion that made the warmth rush through him, made the desire to do more than squeeze her arm an uncontrollable compulsion.

But he kept to his earlier resolve. What they had...it wasn't all he wanted...but it was worth protecting.

"We should get back to the bridge..."

Reset.

She nodded, the spell broken. An almost imperceptible look of regret crossed her features, but when he looked again, it was smooth, blank. They put more space between them, moving as far apart as they could in the small confines of the room. Standing awkwardly, searching for a safe topic, something to cover the feelings that were too raw, too exposed.

Jack looked around the room. "Anything left to eat? I'm starved."

"I'm afraid not, sir," she said, also taking shelter in the casual banter.

"Are you sure those Asgard provision are that bad, Carter?"

"Trust me, sir, you don't want to try them."

Oh, he trusted her, all right. His faith in her was absolute. He could only hope that this hadn't damaged her trust in him. "Can you tell me how those little guys can make a box that slows time, but they can't whip us up a nice, big stack of pancakes?"

"You want *pancakes*?"

"Oh yeah, with some thick, sticky maple syrup. Maybe the Asgard can beam over some syrup? I feel like something sweet."

"If you want something sticky and sweet sir, Jonas and I left all the..."

She stopped as he froze and bent over. Picking up his boot a few inches, Jack examined the sticky white web from that clung from the floor to his boot.

"Er- marshmallows, sir."

"Oh. Eewh," he said, scrunching his face together like a teenager. "*That's* what you and Jonas were doing in here?" He tried to scrape it off on the side of the crate, and was having little success, when his radio crackled to life. "O'Neill, we have just entered the Solar System."

"Copy that, Teal'c," He said, following Carter, who was already racing back towards the bridge, "We're on our way."

*****

Jack barely caught the Asgard ship as vanished from view.

"Sir, we'll be in earth's orbit in a few minutes," Carter said, taking her seat. "Working on establishing radio contact and commencing re-entry procedures..."

"Heat shields, landing thrusters on standby," said Jonas from his corner.

Jack looked at Teal'c and tilted his head towards Jonas. Teal'c nodded. Jack was satisfied.

"Now, that's more like it!" Jack took to his seat in a flurry of activity, the heels of his palms tapping impatiently against the armrests. "Okay, campers, let's get the Enterprise landed." They were almost home, and his team was going to all right.

"Sir, the Prometheus."

"Enterprise..."

"Prome- oh, have it your way."

"O'Neill, MajorCarter, you are both incorrect. This ship is still officially the X-303."

Carter sent an amused glance his way, her bright, dancing eyes sending a bolt through him.

//Alien obtuseness?// her eyes asked.

//Nah, Jaffa sarcasm,// he answered, shaking his head. He thrilled to their unspoken communication, their private joke. Then, he tore his gaze away from her to another sight that never failed to thrill him - the blue horizon of the earth coming up over the Sun.

And for the first time in days, he let himself relax.

They were home.

***Fin***

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