Chapter 2
Jack was feeling pretty smug, he had to admit.

The look in Carter's eyes had been priceless. She even pouted when he went to leave her lab. He only wished he could have been there when she saw the Hershey kiss on the table. Yes, Jack O'Neill was definitely proud of himself.

But this Colonel was no fool. There would be hell to pay. In the form of one tall, blue eyed, blonde major. He didn't know when or how, but he was sure that she would be planning something.

Jack rested himself assured that not even his beautiful brilliant 2IC could come up with something equally cunning on short notice. He would have at least a few days before she would strike. But knowing Carter, she'd make him wait. Make it part of his punishment by making him wonder when she would exact her revenge and just when he'd forgotten about it, WHAMMY!

Maybe toying with Carter hadn't been a good idea.

And speak of the devil, there she was. She sat down opposite him in the briefing room, not even bothering to look up at him.

Was she actually mad? Crap. That hadn't been his intention at all.
Look at me, Carter. Look. At. Me. I know you can tell I'm staring at you. Come on, I'm giving my very best puppy dog eyes ever.

"Ahem."

Straight face. Totally cool. Daniel's looking at me like I'm quite possibly the strangest thing he has ever seen. I give him my best 'What?!' expression, to which he just continues giving me that same look while going to his seat beside Carter.

The same Carter that has still not looked at me.

"Okay, everyone. Now that we are all here, Daniel Jackson would you please begin."

Teal'c and General Hammond sat down as Spacemonkey got up from his seat. Since Carter refuses to look at me, I decide to amuse Daniel by making him think that I'm actually paying attention to what he has to say.

Blah. Blah. Blah. Yadayada-de-da. It really is quite amazing how long Daniel can go on. Aha! I can see her watching me from the corner of my eye. Cool, calm, and collected. Do not smirk O'Neill!

She's glaring at me. That's scary. Wait. I think that's more of a thinking glare. Yeah. She's definitely thinking about something. That's actually a scarier thought. She's actually planning her revenge right here at this table.

Distraction is necessary. Unfortunately, I can't think of anything to distract her that would not involve attention falling on me and thus failing to distract her away from me. I never thought that I would find Carter staring at me to be a bad thing. It is definitely a bad thing.

So what do I do? I casually turn my head toward her, like I've done absolutely nothing wrong, and look back at her. Her expression doesn't change at all. She's still narrowing her eyes at me. I can actually see the gears turning in her head.

Holy hannah! She's thought of something. A smug grin slowly creeps up her cheeks. With a happy little sigh, she turns her head and directs her attention to Daniel again.

Crap! I have missed something huge. That smug little grin is still there, only now her eyebrows are a few inches higher than normal as she nods her head along with something Daniel's saying.

Ever so lightly, something tickles my ankle. I twitch naturally at the sensation but think nothing more of it. There it is again.

Is that a foot, Major? She wouldn't. She couldn't. Are her legs really that long?

I try my very best to hold back the grin that's dying to come out. Too late.

Major Samantha Carter is playing footsie with me in the presence of General Hammond himself.

How did she even get her boot off without anyone noticing?

Doesn't she just look like the picture of innocence too? She's even taking notes.

Daniel's looking at me. I can see him out of the corner of my eye. I guess that's probably my cue to quit staring at Carter before I get caught by anyone else. Footsie, Carter? I'm still in shock.

She stops and I look at her out of the corner of my eye. Acting like she's going into a full body stretch, she slides down a little in her seat, leaning her notepad on the side of the table to continue her 'note taking'. Right. What are you about to do, Major?

She gives me a 'what?' look and continues doodling. Hmm. I don't know what you're up to but I'm on to you, Carter. I reach for my glass and I swear I see her smirk, though it's quickly hidden again.

As I'm taking a drink, the foot returns, at an infinitely higher location I might add. This, of course, causes me to cough ridiculously as I choke on my water.

"Colonel, are you alright?"

Everyone in the room now has their eyes on me after the General's question.

Carter looks at me with an innocent questioning gaze.

Calm. Cool. Collected. Everything's just dandy. There's nothing going on underneath the table. Nothing at all.
"Yes, General, fine. Carry on, Dan-YULL!...Sorry, Daniel?"

Everyone is now looking at me like I've lost my mind or that maybe I'm somehow going through puberty again as my voice just raised several octaves 'spontaneously'. Right. Carter licks her lips and then proceeds to bite her lower one.

So not helping, Carter. But that's not exactly your plan now, is it?

She sighs and smiles faintly to herself, sitting herself again upright in her seat. My attention is now riveted on her. There's no use even trying to pay attention to Daniel at this point.

Carter glances in my direction and gives me a quick conquering smirk.

That woman is pure evil.

"Okay. Briefing's over. Dismissed people."

What? Over? Now?? Don't these things usually go on for a few more hours??

Before she stands up, I see Carter take something off her lap and fidget with it. Looking up and me with a very wicked grin, she pops one little Hershey Kiss in her mouth, closing her eyes to savor the flavor.

Yep, definitely evil.

Once she deems the moment fully taken, she stands up.

"Coming, Colonel?"

Oh, I was wrong. She's not evil. She's the Devil incarnate.

"No. No. I think I'll sit here, for a while, and look over this...stuff."

Daniel was now giving me an even stranger look than before.

"You okay, Jack? You look a little flushed."

"Fine, Daniel. Just fine."

"Okay?"

Daniel and Sam both turned to leave the room, all the others having already exited.

"Hey, Carter?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Your shoe's untied."

Hearing what distinctly sounded like the beginning of a giggle, Sam walked out of the room, followed by a confused Daniel.

"I missed something, didn't I?"

After the briefing, Jack made sure to avoid Carter for the rest of the day. He even barricaded himself in his office for a while. He wasn't sure he could face her without either bumbling around like an idiot or taking her right there on her lab table, cameras and regulations be damned.

A knock at the door caused Jack to send the pencil he had been fiddling with flying across the room.

Daniel opened the door before Jack had time to respond. He sighed in relief. It wasn't Carter.

"Jack, are you okay? You look a little stressed."

"What? No, I'm fine. What is it, Spacemonkey?"

Daniel narrowed his eyes at the use of the in his opinion, annoying moniker, and continued on with why he had come to Jack's office.

Jack listened to Daniel prattle on about P3X something-er-ather. Had they not just talked about this in the briefing?

"Yeah, Daniel. I get it. You can play with your rocks all you want tomorrow."

Daniel narrowed his eyes again at Jack's insisting on calling artefact's 'rocks' but chose to ignore it...this time, instead choosing to bring up the other reason he had come to see Jack.

"Do you know of anything going on with Sam?"

"What do you mean?"

That reply was a little quick. Don't seem to anxious, O'Neill.

"I don't know. She's been smirking all afternoon and I went to her lab on the way here and she's gone. She actually left to go home early."

Jack sighed with relief. He could go the rest of the day and not have to worry about running into Carter. He could be completely fine tomorrow. No problem. He just didn't need to see Carter for the rest of the day.

"Jack? Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Listen. I'm gonna go home. I'll see ya tomorrow. K, Danny boy?"

"Okay. See ya, Jack."

Home. Yes. Carter was gone and he was on his way home.

Unlocking his front door, Jack smirked, remembering the look on Carter's face that morning.

Taking off his jacket he stopped, seeing a coat on the floor. Military mode automatically kicked in and he reached for his gun until he realized whose coat it was.

That was Carter's jacket. In his house. Her leather biker jacket at that.

Next to the coat was a white paper arrow pointing in the direction of his hallway. Okay? What on earth was she up too?

Jack set down his own coat and his gun and walked slowly down the hall. The next thing Jack saw was a shoe, followed by another shoe and then two socks.

Nothing too crazy. So she'd taken off her shoes and rather messily left them all over his floor. And she was in his house...down his hallway. No, thoughts not even going in that direction. This is Carter. She would never...Holy Hannah! Those are pants!

Breathe, Jack. Breathe. Carter is not somewhere in your house pantless. Continuing down the hallway, getting closer and closer to his bedroom, there lay a sweater. A light blue girly sweater. Of Carter's. On his floor. Leading to his bedroom.

So, this had been why she had left work early. To come to his house and strip down to her barely there clothes in his bedroom.

He'd officially created a monster. A super hot monster that was down his hallway in his bedroom at this very moment. Maybe he could just act like he hadn't come home. Turn around and leave. Maybe she hadn't heard him yet. That's highly possible considering Jack wasn't even sure whether he'd been breathing after seeing her pants on his floor. The good little soldier in him told him to high tail it out of there and go take a very cold shower somewhere far far away. The man in him wanted to run down the hall as fast as he could and see what lay awaiting him behind his bedroom door. Decisions, decisions.

He couldn't very well just leave her there, could he? That wouldn't be...nice. Just plain rude, really. Shut up, Jack. This is stupid. This is really stupid. This shouldn't be happening. Turn around and leave.

He took another step down the hallway. And another. There in front on his feet lay a single lacy red bra. Conscious rational thoughts were quickly fleeing his brain. He'd finally reached the door. Hanging from his bedroom door knob was a pair of matching red lace panties.

Oh god. If he turned that door knob, there would be no turning back. There was no way in hell he could see naked Carter and even think about turning around. So this was his last chance to do the smart thing.

Taking another look at the teeny tiny panties now in his hand, Jack thought, 'Screw the smart thing.' and opened the door.

It was pitch black in his room. He was a little shocked that she'd been in here in the dark all this time. Where was that damn light switch? Of all the times to be having a hard time finding his own light switch, did it have to be now???

Finally, his finger rested on it. He focused his eyes on where his bed lie not wanting to miss one second of naked Carter.

With a deep intake of breath, Jack turned on the light.

He blinked several times as his eyes tried to adjust to the light and let out a horribly disappointed shudder/sigh. No Carter. Not even a dressed one. Just an empty bed with a wait, what was that?

In the middle of his bed, Jack found a small little Hershey's kiss. Why that little...D'oh!

She was good. Jack had completely and utterly fallen for it. Of course a pair of tiny red panties could do a fair deal of convincing a man to believe anything.

Jack picked up the little treat with a smirk. This wasn't the same one he'd given her. The wrapper was different. He took the treat out of its wrapper and popped it in his mouth. Mmmn, the nutty kind.