In a room filled with only artificial light, Samatha Carter was leaning up against her work station not even pretending to work. She had one arm laying on the counter and her head resting lazily in the other. She didn't even notice someone enter in behind her.
"Major Carter, what is the matter?"
"Oh, Teal'c, you scared me."
"Daydreaming?"
"Sort of. I just can't believe he's actually going through with it this time."
"Although surely Colonel O'Neil will be missed, there is no shame in such an honorable warrier to as you say 'retire'. Now, if you don't mind, I am going to go bid Colonel O'Neil my personal farewell."
"Thanks, Teal'c. I'll see you later."
"Are you coming with?"
"Not right now."
She lets out a sigh and goes back to doing what she had been doing before being interrupted…absolutely nothing.
"Carter!"
She jumped three feet in the air before feeling a familiar hand on her back. A shiver secretly ran down her spine.
"Come on, Carter, you owe me a farewell lunch."
"Colonel O'Neil, I didn't see you coming. Did Teal'c find you? Did you finish cleaning out your office?"
"No and no. That can wait. Come on. You wouldn't let me starve, would you?"
"No offense, sir, but I highly doubt you are going to starve any time, soon."
"And why so formal? Come on. I'm retiring. I am no longer going to be your superior officer. It's Jack to you. Now come on, I insist. To the cafeteria with you."
He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her out of the room and down the hall. As much as it may have appeared so, she wasn't really fighting it.
"So, do you want to know what my favorite moment was working with you?"
"What was that, sir?"
"Uh, uh, uh."
'What was that, Jack?"
He leans in closer so that he is whispering in her ear as he continues to lead her down the hall.
"Oh, I remember it clearly. You were in the locker room, wearing this cute little black tank top, and you attacked me…something about me being considered the dominant male or something."
She almost laughs before remembering the inappropriateness of that situation. Instead, she slaps him in the arm before turning a lovely shade of pink.
"Hey, you can't blame a man for liking that."
That made her turn an even lovelier shade of pink.
"Oh, and I have a slight confession to make."
"You do?"
He turns to her with an evil grin and starts to laugh.
"Yeah, I must say, I wouldn't feel right about leaving with at least coming honest about this one little thing."
"And what would that be, sir?"
"Well, I don't think you are going to like it very much."
"Spit it out."
"Uh, well, you know that time we were under the influence of the machine that through us into a continuous time relapse?"
"Yeah. What about it?"
"Well, you see, after the first couple times, Teal'c and I, well, we kind of devised a way to quickly remember the situation we were in. This kind of freed up some time to do some things we couldn't normally do because we would get in trouble, you see, because time would start back over and erase everything we had done…"
"And?"
"Well, while you and the rest of the crew were actively looking for a way to get us out of our time loop on like the um-teenth time around, I so-called quit my job and attacked you back. And you know what, Carter?"
She couldn't say anything. That comment left her utterly speechless. She just looked back at him and raised an eyebrow.
"I liked that, too."
"Sir, how can you even remember that? Every time that the time loop restarted, our memories got erased to what had happened."
"Well, Carter, I guess some things are worth remembering."
She didn't offer a reply. They walked in silence the last couple of feet to the cafeteria. She looked behind her and all around, and when she found that they were alone for the moment, she smiled back.