Sam walked into her empty eerie house. It set her teeth on edge. The silence tested her sanity to its braking point. She could hear her own heartbeat pulsate impossibly fast as she heard herself breathe in the stale air. It wasn't comfortable.

She placed her car keys on her bedside table and heard the echo reverberate around the room. She gathered a spare change of clothes as she readied herself for a shower. She turned the water on hot to relax her muscles which only tensed instead. She felt as though she was walking through the fires of hell. Each droplet of hot water bit her skin like the venom of a snake. Sam felt the bile rise in her mouth, threatening to be sick. She turned the temperature to cold. The relief of the ice did not last long. It reminded her of the time she was trapped in Antartica with Colonel O'Neill. As a matter of fact, this was less comfortable. Talking to her CO under the ice sharing body heat was peaceful. The water from her shower made her skin crawl.

She turned the shower off, but her unease continued to haunt her. She tiptoed to her bedroom and pulled her duvet over her face covering them like a child who is afraid of the dark. She twisted and turned in the night waking up at random hours. Her blankets wrapped themselves around her in a suffocating hold. She couldn't breathe.

After some hours of restless sleep, She flipped herself over to glance at the clock sitting on the table. It read 0545. It was close enough to 0630 which was her scheduled wake up time and prepared herself for another day of gate travel. She pulled on her uniform and tugged on her boots, grabbed her keys and close the door loudly behind her. She couldn't leave her house sooner.

She revved up the engine and as she pulled out of her driveway her sense of unease dissipated. Her hair was still wet from the night before but the boys wouldn't mind. Hell, chances are they wouldn't even notice.

She approached the base and parked her car. She locked it and strolled inside like she owned it. A bright happy grin met the stoic Teal'c as he left his quarters. She walked passed Daniel's office as he stumbled in there with files piled high above his head in one arm and a jug of coffee that was threatening to spill over in the other. She smiled to herself.

She casually walked into her own lab and began working on a project when she heard a knock at the door. She looked up and saw the colonel standing with his legs crossed at the ankles and elbow propped up against the doorway. Carter tiredly blinked at the man as she greeted him. "Colonel?"

He strode inside. "Major."

"How are you, sir?"

"Good. You?"

"Alright, actually. I'm working on the weather modulator that we found on-"

Jack rolled his eyes and held up two hands indicating that it was time for her to stop. She did so, taking the hint and he scrunched up his face deep in thought. Sam couldn't help but smile.

"When did you get here?" He asked.

"About 10 minutes ago. Why?"

"Your report time isn't until 8. Why are you here so early?"

Sam looked guilty. "I couldn't sleep last night sir."

"And why might that be?" He tilted his head to the side in curiousity as Sam wracked her brains for an appropriate answer when Daniel came brushing past Jack in a flurry.

"Hey Jack! I need help with this!" Daniel was dropping books and papers as he struggled to keep everything in his hands without it falling to the floor.

Jack turned to face his friend in feigned irritation, "Well I'm busy! Go bother some other geek!"

"You're not a geek." Daniel stated.

"Of course I'm not!" Jack retorted indignantly. "Why would you say such a thing?"

"Because you said go bother some other geek!"

"So?" Jack asked, not really caring about the answer.

"So other means that you include yourself in the group."

Jack blinked a handful of times and shook his head waving his hands about frantically, entirely forgetting that Sam was directly behind him watching the scene happen infront of her eyes. "You know what Danny-boy," He snarled the pet name Danny-boy as if he was talking to an insect rather then a human being, "I am so sick and tired of your," Jack searched for the right word, "technicalities on the technical technicalness of the English language."

Daniel blinked. "Technicalness isn't a word."

"Hey! It can be a word if I want."

"No, it can't." Daniel snorted.

"Yes it can."

Sam laughed to herself and rolled her eyes. She tuned out the two grown men who were acting like little children, just as she had done many times before. Each chanting in their respective baritone voices, "yes" and "no," the argument obviously going absolutely nowhere.

Teal'c walked in, a smile as wide as can be expected from a former first prime of Apophis. Unashamedly, Sam smiled brightly at the Jaffa at her door. Teal'c's gaze bounced back and forth from the Bickering Two to the Hearing but not really Listening one.

"Are you quite well, Major Carter?" He asked.

"Yes Teal'c," she smiled, "I am just fine."

"Yes it can!" Jack screamed.

"Not it can't!" Daniel retorted.