"Hold still, sir."
"Oh, lay off it Carter, I'm fine," Jack grumbled, making a feeble effort to push Sam's hand away from his forehead.
"Sir," she repeated firmly, her tone brooking no arguments. "Stay still."
Jonas watched with fascination as she stood with her hand pressed to his face, far closer to his observant eyes than Earth American customs dictated was common between friends.
"You definitely have a fever," she said after a while. "Hey, Teal'c."
"Yes, Major Carter?" Teal'c answered from where he stood a few feet away, checking his gear and watching them out of the corner of his eye.
"We'll have to call off the mission. SG-3 didn't have anything scheduled today - could you check and see if they can take over?"
"I will ask General Hammond."
"Thanks, Teal'c."
He nodded. "Of course."
After he left the room, Sam dropped her hand from Jack's face, but they made no effort to increase the distance between them.
"Come on, Carter, did you really have to do that?" Jack asked. "It's just a little cold, I'll be fine."
"Colonel, we're going into an unknown and possibly hostile alien environment - "
"It's uninhabited!"
"Yes," she said, "but no matter how much information we gather about these planets beforehand, we have no one hundred percent guarantee of how the human body is going to react to their atmosphere. Do you really think heading out in your condition is a wise idea?"
Jack's lips pursed like he knew he'd been beaten and wasn't very sorry about it. "My condition," he muttered anyway with a halfhearted scoff.
"SG-3 can handle it," Sam said with confidence.
"You'd really deprive me of the wonders of P3X-31, uh, whatever?"
"P3X-316," she said, her lips twitching slightly.
Jonas blinked, a little confused. It was unlike Colonel O'Neill, an extremely competent commander, to forget crucial details of the mission like that. Either he was sicker than he appeared, or…
"Yeah, that one. Purple forests, right?"
"Orange, sir."
"See what you're making me miss out on?"
"Maybe they'll take some pictures for you," she said, smiling.
"They'd better," he said, looking at her with a suspiciously warm expression. "I suppose you're going to drag me in front of Dr. Fraiser now?"
"I was just getting to that."
He sighed. "Better get it over with."
"Indeed," Sam said, her eyebrow raising just like Teal'c's. Both chuckling, they made their way out the door.
Earth was such an interesting place, Jonas thought. He had tried asking Teal'c if the colonel and Major Carter were representative of typical romantic relationships here, but all he had gotten in response was a serious, "They have a…unique relationship," and a slight lip quirk before Teal'c had distracted him with an enthusiastic recommendation of something called daytime television to better learn about Earth culture.
Jonas shrugged. He was new here, and still trying to prove himself, so he didn't want to ask too many questions. But it was still interesting.
Getting up, he headed out himself. Maybe if he was lucky, they'd have more "potato chips" in the mess hall today.