Disclaimer – I own nothing, just borrowing for fun.
A Piece of Cake
She finds him in the commissary sitting at their usual table beside Teal'c with Daniel opposite the Jaffa, the fourth chair opposite him left for her. He looks up at her approach and stares at the plate in her hand, openly ignoring what Daniel is prattling on about. She's carrying the biggest piece of chocolate cake she managed to cajole out of the head chef on the breakfast shift. She tries not to smile at his unabashed interest and can imagine the ways he's plotting to swipe it for himself or at least sneak a taste.
Well, that's what would happen any other day. And most of the time she'd let him, after a short parry of forks over the frosting surrounding the thick end of the hefty wedge while ignoring the raised eyebrows of their teammates.
Not today.
Today, this slice is all his.
Today, she needs a favour.
A big one.
The chair scrapes lightly on the tiled floor as she places the plate on the table, just a tad closer to her than him. Jack eyes it like a predator would its prey. She drops lightly into her chair and feels Daniel smirk beside her, his interest piqued by the duel about to take place. Teal'c remains impassive despite staring at her in silent askance.
"I don't remember that being on the menu," Jack says, his hand inching toward the fork haphazardly left on the side of his plate.
"It isn't," Sam returns as naturally as she can manage. Just to keep the façade in place, one of her fingers drags the cake toward her. She needs the cake to distract him enough to ask the question she needs to ask. He's always game for sneaking food from her plate but he would've been immediately suspicious if she turned up at the table with red jello. Like he is now but it seems he's more hung up on her methods of acquiring said cake rather than her motive for doing so. That's what she needs, for now.
"How'd you get it?" Maybe he was planning a raid of the kitchen in his head but his hand finally managed to grope for his fork, pulling it under his hand, preparing to attack 'her' cake.
"I asked nicely." She explains with moderate smugness only for Daniel to cough beside her. She ignores what he says under his breath about beware people bearing gifts as Jack eyes him with a frown. Even Teal'c does his eyebrow thing.
"And you didn't bring enough to share with the rest of the class?" Jack drawls sarcastically, looking at one particularly thick piece of frosting on top of the slice.
Sam smiles and, with the same finger she used before, pushes the plate to the centre. Neither Daniel nor Teal'c are big on anything sugary, they indulge in doughnuts occasionally, but she and Jack are the ones with the sweet teeth. She takes a small, token bite with her fork. It is his after all. Distracted by the invitation of sorts, Jack grabs his fork and she can sense Daniel's eyes boring into them.
His chocolate cake laden fork is halfway to his mouth when she says, "I need a favour."
He pauses; the fork hovers between them. Looks between the fork, the cake and her, contemplating each for a long beat to decide whether it's worth it. "What?"
"I need to assess a new weapon before it's presented to General Hammond and I was wondering if you would come with." It sounds simple and if it were any other experiment, any other scientist, she wouldn't have a problem going alone.
"You're brandishing cake as a bribe?"
"Yes sir," Sam tells him as innocently as she can. He doesn't seem to mind about that point as the cake finally makes it into his mouth. He chews thoughtfully.
"What's the catch?"
She takes a deep breath and tries not to wince, "Felger."
"Oh, for crying out loud." The fork clatters to the table. "Carter-."
"Sorry Sir," Sam responds sheepishly. He's the only she can ask. Teal'c is heading off-world to plan the Jaffa negotiations with Bra'tac and Daniel has a briefing on the evacuation of P3L-997. She glances at the other members of their team to find Daniel's head bowed toward the table and his shoulders shaking while he poorly tries to conceal his amusement. Coupled with Teal'c undisguised smirk, she knows they're going to be no help. She won't play the girl card, she never has. But she's not above begging for this. "Please."
He stares at her impassively for a long beat. He pokes at the cake, deciding its value and whether it's worth spending the morning in Felger's company. Eventually, he comes to his answer.
"I guess someone has to watch your six so Felger doesn't," Jack says casually taking another forkful of cake. Daniel snorts. If she wasn't so relieved, she'd blush.
"Thank you, Sir," Sam says with a smile.
"But it's going to cost you more than cake."
The smile drops. "What?"
"To be determined after the meeting, depending on how it goes," Jack says swallowing another mouthful.
It's going to cost her a hell of a lot more than a piece of cake.