Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate or its characters, unfortunately. Would I be writing this if I did? I'd be sunba—forget it.


Jack doesn't normally pay attention during briefings, meetings, conferences, or the like, but this is a little bit more important than the normal, run of the mill briefing. We've got less than three days to plan a defense and Colonel O'Neill is doodling! I can't tell from my vantage point just what he's doodling, but just then he stops and looks up at Dr. Weir.

"Look, let me make this simple. If I come up with the Lost City, we go find it. Yes or no?"

Kinsey shouts no, but his opinion doesn't matter in this decision, thank God. The manner in which Dr. Weir has become the commander of the base makes me wonder just where her loyalties lie. And apparently, Colonel O'Neill is reading my mind because he looks at her suspiciously and says, "Who are you really? And why are you here?"

After a moment, the woman responds. Dr. Weir's attention is focused on him as she says, "I will consider it."

"Thank you," the colonel says. Bra'tac rises and tells us he must return to Chulak. Jack then rises and gathers up his papers. That's our clue to follow. The meeting is over. As we leave the briefing room, I pick up pace to walk alongside Colonel O'Neill. "That guy really gets on my nerves. Can't we just send him to a Ba'al-controlled planet and leave him there?"

I have to smother a smile because there's no doubt as to which "guy" in that room the Colonel was referring to. "Sir, that would amount to murder, or at least manslaughter, and get you dishonorably discharged at the very least." I point out to him some of the ramifications of his actions were he to do that.

"I could deal with that," he says flippantly. As we're talking, my eyes keep drifting to that manila folder Jack's holding in his hand. Every once in a while the folder flaps open and I get a split second of a glimpse of that piece of paper, the one I know he was doodling on. We go back to his office and I watch as he drops off that manila envelope with that doodle covered inside. And then I watch as he closes his door behind us. "I'm gonna go say goodbye to Teal'c. Wanna come?"
"No. I already said goodbye. I've got some simulations to run." We part and go in opposite directions. I'm halfway to my office and lab when that damn manila folder gets into my brain again. My curiosity won't let it go. I have to know what he was drawing. I walk back down to Jack's office, checking frequently for base personnel. A colonel's office is his office and no one's supposed to enter it without permission and for that, I feel guilty. But my conscience isn't getting in the way of this mission. I have to know. Once I reach the colonel's office, I take one more look around the hall and slowly open the door. Jack's office is always left unlocked. The man is constantly losing his keys, so he decided a long time ago to leave his door unlocked. Besides, anything that is really sensitive and on a need-to-know basis is locked in a vault in his office. Of course, I know the combination. For emergencies, he said. What kind of emergencies, I don't ever want to find out. But that's besides the point.

I close the door behind me and silently creep toward his desk. Why I'm creeping I don't know. There's no one here but me. It just feels like the right thing to do. Well, nothing about this is right. I've broken into, well, not really broken into, a colonel's office, to take a look at a picture he was drawing in the middle of a meeting. My eyes glance through his desk and find a mess of paperwork. I lightly rummage through the war zone looking for that manila folder. I don't want to make too much of a mess of the mess because Jack can usually tell when someone's been in his office. This isn't working. I need to sit. I walk around the desk and pull out the chair. And what do I find? The manila folder. Success! I smile and pick up the folder before sitting in the colonel's chair.

Opening it slowly, I am shocked at what I see. And am also about to crack up laughing. Jack is obviously not Monet because his depiction of Kinsey is a stick figure with the name "Kinsey" above the drawing. But that's not what has laughter bubbling up and tears coming out of my eyes. There's another drawing. A haphazard depiction of Ba'al. And what makes the drawing utterly irreverent and hysterical is the fact that stick-figure Kinsey is, excuse the language, sucking Ba'al's dick. Just looking at this, a mental picture forms in my head. And I can't hold back the laughter. Or the tears. A few seconds later, I'm still laughing as the door swings open and in walks Jack. The sight of him makes me blush a little in embarrassment, but I can't stop laughing. Colonel O'Neill knows exactly what I'm looking at and he just grins. "Ya like that, huh?" My hands are weak and they can't hold the drawing for all the laughing. The paper slips from my fingers, races down the folder and slips to the floor.

It is only then, as I reach down to pick up the paper, that I see the other drawing. Tears dry up and laughter dies in my throat as I take in the doodle before me. It's a picture of me and Jack, crudely drawn, sitting in a tree. The figures are drawn to each other and appear to be kissing. Above the tree are two circles, intertwined, that look like…wedding bands? And beneath the tree, that is what gets my voice stuck in my throat. It just completely freezes. Beneath the tree is a sketched drawing of a baby carriage. My eyes fly up to his. He knows what I'm looking at now. There's a sober expression on his face and for a long moment we just stare at each other. But then he decides to break the spell.

"Eh, I got bored. Kinsey bores me, you know that." I just look at him. After a moment, he says, "Soon, Sam. As soon as we can. That'll be us. But…"

For now, we've got a job to do, I complete his sentence in my head. Save the world and all that. I pick up the first doodle and put it underneath the second and close the manila folder, leaving it on his desk. I walk over to where Jack's standing and there's a communication between us. Nothing else needs to be said. Promises have been made and acknowledged. We can wait. Walking out with the colonel, I think, Soon.