Chapter 3

Colonel Jack O'Neill sat in the commissary pushing his food around his plate. He was not a happy man. The past few days had not gone as he had planned at all!

The worst part of it was that merely hours ago he had watched a good soldier, a friend die. One of those snake things had got inside his head and tried to take over his body. Jack himself had given the order. The order that ended his friends life. He knew it was the only possible course of action he could take. Kawalsky himself had asked Jack personally to ensure the snake didn't get a proper hold of him. Still, knowing that he had carried out the wishes of a friend didn't make Jack feel much better. They had still lost one more good man to these aliens.

The day after tomorrow SG1 had their first mission through the gate as a team. And what a team they were. Jack huffed and pushed his plate away. Not even pie looked appetising to him right now. SG1 were now a 5 man team. Jack had got his way in the end and so had Daniel Jackson. Both Daniel and Teal'c had been placed 'preliminary' on the team. However, he hadn't succeeded in scaring off Sam Carter.

He thought back to their training sessions over the past few days, and how at every damn opportunity, she had surprised him.

General Hammond had finally given Daniel permission to join an SG team, although the exact team had yet to be decided, so Jack had been ordered to put both doctors through the basic training to ensure that they were both fit enough to go through the gate.

He had started out fairly easy, taking them out for a run. As it turns out, both Carter and Daniel were reasonably fit. For scientists. That was pretty much as Jack had expected, although perhaps Carter had managed slightly longer than he had hoped. He had been silently pleased when Daniel had proved to be better than Carter in that respect, smirking at the look of surprised annoyance on her face when Daniel was still going strong and she was running out of breath. She had a competitive streak. "You spend a year on Abydos and see how fit you get," was Daniels reply when the Colonel had commented on his fitness.

However, the tables had been turned when he and Captain Mathews had taken them for a bit of hand to hand combat training.

First up had been Daniel. He knew the man had guts, he'd seen them in action, so he knew that, with a bit of fine tuning, Daniel would probably make a good fighter. He had been nearly right. Jack was sure, in the end, Daniel would make a good fighter, but it was going to take considerably more than a bit of fine tuning. After landing the doctor on his ass several times and having no success in showing him how to avoid ending up on said ass, Jack decided that a smaller and lighter opponent would be easier for Daniel. "Okay Carter, I think it's your turn. Just move as though you're going to attack Daniel. Daniel, just do what I showed you." And sure enough, Daniel had managed to turn her attack around and bring her to the floor instead. Daniel had looked pleased with himself, until he found himself lying face down on the mat with his arm twisted around his back, a far too smug Sam Carter sitting on top of him. "Please tell me you weren't going easy on me doctor." Daniel moaned, as Carter let him go.

"Of course not, Dr Jackson," was Sams reply, although the smile on her face told Jack she had been.

The smug smile just pissed Jack off to much, "You really think you're something, don't you Carter?"

"I know how to take care of myself Colonel." Carter simply stated as she helped Daniel back to his feet.

"Well then," Jack said stepping towards the doctor, "let's see what you got." He took up a fighting stance in front of Sam, "Now, just remember what I said to Daniel, you want to make sure…Ooof!" Jack never got to finish his sentence as Carter had swung her leg at his, taking his feet out from under him and landing him on his back with a thud.

"You want to make sure you don't get too cocky Colonel, it may cause you to underestimate your opponent." Carter smirked down at him. That smirk was quickly wiped off however, as Jack had swung his own legs round and brought her quickly to the floor. What started out as a simple training session, ended up as a rather feisty sparring match. One which ended rather abruptly when Daniel shouted out would they like for him and Mathews leave them alone for a while. The snigger Mathews failed to cover up was quickly smothered by the glare sent his was by the Colonel. Jack struggled to his feet and offered a hand to Sam, who took it after eyeing him suspiciously for a moment. "So Carter, care to share how you learned to fight like that?" Jack had asked as they headed back to the changing room.

As it turned out, a young Sam Carter had been mugged not long after starting college, and as a result had been motivated into joining a martial arts class and had been going ever since. Although not an exceptionally high grade she was still pretty damn good. And, although he was loathing admitting it, she had certainly proved Jack wrong; Carter definitely knew how to handle herself.

'I definitely would've had her if Daniel hadn't interrupted that fight.' Jack thought to himself as he took out his anger on what had been a potato with his fork. 'She just had to go and be a damn martial arts expert, didn't she?'

The day after the sparring match, Jack had taken them for a bit of target practice. Once again Jack had found himself put firmly in his place. "Okay kids, this" Jack said holding up the weapon, "is a gun." He ignored the roll of Carters' eyes at his tone and continued, "If you are permitted to be armed when going through the gate, this is what you'll have. That's the ammo clip, and…" He trailed off as he watched Carter pick up her own weapon, take out the clip, reload it, cock it and aim it at the target." She turned and looked at the Colonel, "Permission to fire on the target?"

Jack, eyebrows raised, did his best to cover up his surprise. "Oh please Carter, by all means, show us how it's done."

And she did.

Jack looked from the target to Carter and back again, eyes narrowed in suspicion. Sam just stared resolutely back. "Don't tell me Doc, after the mugging you decided to join a gun club 'cause you didn't think martial arts quite did the trick."

"Actually Colonel, my dad taught me how to shoot. My mum didn't like him having guns in the house when I and my brother were there, so he taught us all about them and as soon as we were old enough he taught us how to shoot. Stop any accidents happening." Sam shrugged, unloaded the gun and set it back down.

A shadow passed over Jacks face, "Smart man your dad." And then it was gone. "Ok then Danny boy, your turn!"

Back in the mess Jack scoffed as he thought back over what Sam had said then. He was fairly certain she didn't know about his son and that that comment had not been a dig at him, but it had still cut. "Damn her." He murmured, as a jab of his fork sent a potato flying off the plate and onto the floor, rolling to a stop at someone's feet.

"Damn who?" Daniel asked as he picked up the errant potato and threw it in the bin behind him.

He sat himself down on the chair opposite, cup of coffee in hand. "You wouldn't be cursing Sam would you?"

Jack just glowered at him, saying nothing. He really wasn't in a talkative mood.

Daniel sighed, "Look Jack, I know you're not happy with having her on the team, but to be honest, I have no idea why!" He exclaimed, sitting his coffee on the table and sending Jack a questioning look. "I mean, she's clearly a brilliant scientist, having someone like that on a team going through the Stargate will be a great asset. Who knows what kind of technologies we might come across out there? We need someone like Sam, someone that may have some idea how it works."

"Daniel…"

"And, Jack, it's not like she is some stuttering geek. She can really handle herself. I mean, she put up quite a fight in that sparring match. And you're a trained air force officer!"

"Daniel…"

"And she can shoot, got quite a good aim too. Could probably give you a run for you money there too, so I really…"

"DANIEL!"

Daniel sputtered to a stop and looked at Jack like he was surprised to see him sitting there across the table.

"Daniel, I know all this." Jack leaned over the table towards Daniel, his eyes narrowed and his voice low, "I am well aware how great a scientist she is, and she is in good shape and can handle herself pretty damn well. And yes, she may even be a better shot than many soldiers here. But Daniel, I swear, you tell her any of this, and I will kill you." Jack pointed a finger a Daniels chest. He wasn't sure whether or not Jack was kidding. "We'll see how she does on SG1 Daniel, she still has to prove herself to me," he said standing up from the table. "And Daniel, there's no way she's a better shot than me." And with that he left the mess hall leaving Daniel staring after him.

"Oh, this is going to be an interesting first mission."

A/N: Hope you ejoyed! Thanks to everyone that reviewed! And big thanks to my beta Athens! Chapter 4 will hopefully be up soon. Please review!!