Best Kept Secret

By: KatanaDoshi

Summary: Daniel was the first to know and it all kind of snowballed from there.

A/N: This was commissioned by Sarrritta, with the note "the only thing I really care about is I want to see Sam and Jack as an item openly."

I'm almost not entirely positive isn't what you were asking for, but I don't argue with plotbunnies when they wake me up at 2 am.


Daniel was the first to know, exactly eight-one hours after Sam and Jack did. Not through any careful planning or anything; it just so happened that Daniel, always welcome, had never gotten into the habit of knocking on the door to Jack's office.

Sam was more embarrassed than anything, so was Jack who really ought to have grown out of the making out on a desk phase by now (or so Daniel's look seemed to imply). He'd had the presence of mind to swear Daniel to secrecy right afterward because this was Against the Rules (probably) and Daniel while he had pointed out that three men could keep a secret only if two were dead (where did he get these things? The internet probably), he had gamely promised – cross his heart and hope to die – that this secret would never pass his lips again.

Teal'c had found out three days later. Not because Daniel was bad at keeping secrets. No, but because Teal'c was family, and also because Daniel was really bad at keeping secrets.

The comment that had spilled the beans had been so casual and just so natural that Jack hadn't even noticed until Teal'c somberly congratulated him on his arrangement with Carter. Then Teal'c, though Jack had no proof, had probably gone off and told God-knows how many servicemen just as cavalierly had he himself had been told.

For about a week Jack went around feeling like everyone was staring at him and like Hammond was giving him dirty looks while his back was turned. But then aliens attacked, and team 6 got stranded on a desert planet and all that worry got pushed to a back burner while they dealt with the daily happenings of the Mountain.

Jack wasn't sure when he realized it, but it eventually became apparent that everybody knew. And no one cared.

Well of course not, Sam would have said if he'd told her about his epiphany, why would they?

Why, indeed?

/

"So," Daniel smiled over a mug of coffee while Jack stabbed at a cup of jell-o. Sporks were so undignified.

"So?"

"Dinner with Sam tonight?" Oh, Jack looked up and gave Daniel a well practiced 'shut up' look.

"Yes, dinner tonight."

"Where are you two going?" He asked it so innocently that for one crazy moment Jack thought that maybe the anthropologist had forgotten everything.

"Italian," and the concern was abated. Daniel gave him a little smirk and went back to his scientific-whatever-that paper-was.

"Well you guys have fun."

It was like that the rest of the day, but it had been like that for the whole month, so it wasn't really any different. An airman winked at him in the hall. Team 6 wished him a very good day. General Hammond told him to take his time coming back from the weekend.

"That's the third person to smile at me like that today," Sam commented as security let them out of the Mountain.

"Really?" Jack feigned ignorance as the same guard gave him a none-too-subtle wink. "I wonder why."

"If I didn't know any better I'd say we've had the world's biggest security breach," she hesitated for a moment then laughed it off. "So, Italian?"

"It's Friday isn't it?" Jack opened the car door for her, something she still thought was ridiculous, before heading to the driver's side. Before getting in, he paused to finger the little black box in his pocket. They'd been outted less than four days after they'd gotten together but that little black box had been sitting in his locker for over a month and it was still the best kept secret in the mountain.

End