"Sir that's my mug."
Jack's hand froze in mid-air, as his lips pursed towards the steaming brew of fresh Arabica beans inside Carter's mug. For crying out loud it's 0500 and he's about to have his first coffee after three weeks of doing nothing but babysit Daniel who had been slooowly transcribing boring text from those boring stone tablets in that godforsaken dusty PRXBORING. And here was Ms Prissy calling him out for not using his own mug.
He glanced at Carter, who despite the clenched teeth, dusty hair and shirt, was looking soo –okay he wasn't supposed to go there.
Without breaking his stare, he squinted and sipped away.
"Ahhh, coffee sure tastes better in your mug, Carter." He said, urging a smile from her.
But she maintained a stoic face as she pulled herself up from where she'd been half kneeling in front of him, looking like she'd been coaxing something out of a 5-year-old.
No half smile, no grin, no huff, not even a sigh. Uh-oh. Jack hoisted himself up and followed her as she walked really fast towards nowhere in particular in the desert landscape. "Carter, hey!"
He quickly scanned the timeline in his head as he watched her six, noting any particular event to blame for Carter's sudden sulkiness. And since her sulkiness, Jack had done everything possible to please her. Well not e-v-e-r-y thing, at least not those that went against the regulations.
Sam hurried off as she blew steam. It wasn't the mug of course. But she felt really mad. She was mad at him. She was mad at herself. For weeks now, she had been realizing that something's wrong. Her over analytic mind didn't want to dwell on it, afraid that she'd discover something that her heart seemed to have already realized.
Sensing that her CO had not given up chasing after her, Sam spun on her heel, dust swirling under her boots.
O'Neill halted, almost bumping into the mad Carter.
They stood face to face in the balmy heat of that desert-like alien planet, where early morning was as hot as mid afternoon on Earth, even when the sun was still not peaking.
Seeing her face, Jack thought Sam was positively mad. Her jaw line was tense, her eyes a darker blue, and her lips tightly closed. She softened up as she noticed how long he'd been staring at her lips.
"Carter am sorry. I won't touch your stuff again, I promise," Jack felt a little surprised at hearing himself plead to his 21C. He was grovelling. Jack never grovelled. But he felt bad about making her feel mad. He didn't like her mad. Moreso mad at him.
She forced herself to think that his voice was cloying, the look on his brown eyes equally so, but was instead overpowered by his hopelessly handsome face that was inches away from hers. She shut her eyes briefly, stifling that emotion that should not be named.
Then taking a mental step back as she was wont to do, she regarded their situation.
There they were: Captain Samantha Carter, magna cum laude in Astrophysics, graduated with top honors at the Air Force Academy, second in command, lead astrophysicist and Jack O' Neill, leader, war decorated Colonel, Tactics Specialist. Both leading members of a top secret military frontline team of a billion dollar military project whose task was to explore the universe and defend Earth from alien threats, arguing – OVER SOME DAMN MUG.
It's so mundane. And of all people, they had the least right to be so.
And yet she wanted to be mundane. Needed to be mundane. And the only thing that could afford her to be mundane was the mug. And the only way she could be mundane with her commanding officer, was through that goddamned mug.
Jack felt her forehead when she seemed lost in thought. Had she contracted some virus?
"Are you okay?"
She stirred from her thoughts, and with a dawning realization of what was happening to her – the sting of seeing him shirtless with Kynthia, the hitch in her chest when he would drop by her lab, the fever in her body when he would stand so close like he was at that moment.
Sam looked at him and said weakly, "I'm fine. Keep the mug, Sir."
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Wow what's with her mug. He sipped his coffee slowly, trying to recapture the initial eagerness for his fave beverage before Carter weirded him out. He must remember to buy her a mug for Christmas. And her birthday. Or Valentine's Day. Maybe a mug with a big honking red heart on it. Or maybe he should have a special mug made, with text on it that read, 'Careful, I'm hot.' Hmm not a bad idea. Could also be better if the text was in Tauri symbols. Oooh she'd love that. Or a mug with a list of all the worlds they've gated to like, P3X788. Or individual mugs, printed with the face of each of the aliens who had the hots for her. That'd be funny. He could already imagine the crinkle on her nose and her laugh when she unwraps the gift.
"Jack, a little help here please." Daniel's voice was tired. More from being the lone culture vulture in the group, translating texts and whatnots, he was tired of his teammates acting like teenagers. Teal'c was closely behind, lugging more symbol-ridded artifacts.
Jack took the heavy stone tablets from Daniel with some annoyance as his coffee enjoyment was again interrupted.
"What was that all about?" Daniel sat on his makeshift workplace outside the tent.
"Her mug." Jack set the tablets on Daniel's table.
Teal'c joined Daniel. "Colonel O'Neill, why do you have a sudden penchant to use Captain Carter's things?"
Sitting back on his low stool, Jack held the object in question, appraising it. "Hey, not my fault if I'm drawn to her mug. See it's perfect for me. Fits my hand. Keeps my coffee warm. Makes me happy. Just what I need."
"Are we still talking about the mug?" Daniel said with nonchalance as he set about scribbling on his notebook.
Jack's head snapped back to look at Daniel and the Jaffa. "What?!"
Daniel just smiled as he continued scribbling, thinking how a dense guy ended up leader of their team.
Teal'c gave his customary brow raise and said, "In Chulak only married couples are allowed to use each other's personal belongings."
"Well we're not from Chulak Teal'c," Jack picked the dregs in his coffee, as he wondered why the hell did he care so much about pissing off Carter. It was just a mug.
Daniel pressed on when Tealc's words of wisdom didn't quite sink in. "You know Jack, when I was kid, I used to tease this girl a lot. I'd pull her pigtails. Call her names. Eat her lunch. Steal her mug.."
Still busy picking the dregs, Jack shot his mouth off, "Yeah that meant you liked the gi—" He quickly spun around to see Daniel grinning with his head buried in his journal.
"Yeah thought so," Daniel mumbled, thinking how it easy it was now to put one up on Jack, thanks to Sam.
"Shut up Daniel," Jack growled uneasily as he looked at Carter who was heading towards them.
He did like her. She's brainy. Beautiful. Kind. Geeky and hot at the same time. He liked how she sucked in her breath when he's being dense after she had explained at length. He liked how she flinched when he stared at her longer than was appropriate. Just like what she was doing at that moment. They caught each other's eyes and for a second they hung suspended, exchanging an understanding of what had been revealed to them that day.
He tore his eyes away from hers and threw the remaining coffee on the ground as it had suddenly turned bitter in his mouth./pozp