"So what are you doing tonight, Jack?" Daniel asked as he followed the silver headed Colonel down the hallway.

"Mrphmph" Jack mumbled

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."

Jack stopped walking and turned to the annoying archeologist.

"I said-" Jack lowered his voice as a SF walked past the pair. "I said I have a date."

"You? YOU have a date?" asked an incredulous Daniel.

"Yes, I have a date. Is it that hard to believe?" Jack asked sarcastically.

"Well, no. I mean it's just that, well, I thought that you were waiting or something for, well you know."

"Daniel! Stop! You're rambling. Now, you thought I was what?" Jack asked as though he were talking to a three year old.

"I thought that you and Sam were, you know-"

Jack cut Daniel off. "Not that it's ANY of your business, but Carter and I had a talk a while ago and decided that to wait for the Goauld threat to disappear that neither of us would be happy, so we decided to keep it at a friendship level. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go home to get ready for my date." And with that, Jack turned on his heel and strode down the hall to the elavator.

"What in the hell is going on here?" wondered Daniel. He decided to head to Sam's lab and see if she could make sense of everything.

______________________________________________________________________________


Sam Carter stood behind her pet project, her Naquadah reactor. Something just wouldn't seem to click with the thing and she was beginning to get frustrated. As she tried to weld two pieces of metal together on the machine a spark flew up and landed on her lab overalls, burning through the fabric and making the Major drop her torch and clutch her arm.

"Dammit! Stupid piece of sh-" Sam stopped in the middle of her rant as she saw a very familiar shadow being cast on the floor of her lab.

"Carter, you ok?" O'Neill asked trying his best to cover up the laughter that was threatenting to erupt from the man.

"Yes, COLONEL. I'm fine, just slightly more well done then before." She replied with a grimace.

"Well, I was just on my way out. I had to stop when I heard all those colorful words coming from your lab. You know, I've never known you to cuss so much before, other then commenting on the replicator's ass's a few years ago."

"Well, sir, when you have a flaming ember baking YOUR flesh, let's see who uses the most profanity. Wait, on second thought, I wouldn't want to see that."

"Why can't stand seeing a fellow team member in pain?" he asked with his trademark grin.

"No, I just couldn't look at you the same way after witnessing you cry like a baby." she shot back with an innocent smile.

"I would not cry! Colonels DO NOT cry."

"Whatever you say sir. It's just that you tend to get a little, uh, moody, when you get injured."

"First of all, I do not get "Moody" ," jack said while motioning with his hands, "Secondly, I- oh never mind."

Sam just smiled at Jack and began to clean up her lab; shutting down machines, collecting notes.

"So, how are you planning on spending your first night of downtime, sir? Any Simpson's marathons on?" Sam asked, trying to fill the silence that suddenly fell on the room.

"Uh, nothing much. Just meeting a friend." Jack mumbled.

"Oh, really? Are they someone you served with?"

"No. I, um, just met them a few weeks ago."

"Do 'they' have a name?" Sam asked with an amused smile.

"Yeah, her name's Denise."

"Oh. Um, how did you meet?" Sam asked, taken off guard.

"She moved in down the street a about a month ago." Jack answered, trying to gauge her reaction.

"That's nice. I'm sure you'll have a good time. Look, I'm gonna head topside. I have a lot of stuff to do at home. I'll see you later." Sam said as she tried to rush past Jack.

"Sam! Wait. Get back in here." He asked, grabbing her arm and pulling her back into the lab and closing the door.

"I thought we talked about this? We agreed that we couldn't put our lives on hold for the other, right? If that's changed withing the past month, we need to talk about it, ok?"

"We did talk about it, sir. And I have no objection to you going out. Even if I did it wouldn't matter. I would just prefer not knowing about it all th time ok?"

"Wait, what do you mean 'even if you did it wouldn't matter'? You know that's bullshit. And you asked me what I was doing, ok?! I didn't come in here gloating about it! And maybe you wouldn't be acting this way if you would get out of this damned lab every once in a while and get a life!"

As soon as the words left his mouth he wished he could take them back. Sam eyes shined with the newly forming tears, but her face remained hard as a stone. Without saying another word, Sam pushed past him and walked briskly down the hallway.

'Shit, what have I done now?' thought Jack.