Authors Note:

For this episode I went with a prompt from the Team Flyboy thread on Gateworld - 'Deductive Reasoning' (thanks bailey1ak!). Didn't reference the prompt directly but hopefully there's enough there to consider it an answer. There have been so many tags and rewrites for this episode it was hard to come up with something different - so this one really just addresses my wonderings on what Jack might have thought after the event, given with his last comment about the tank top, he clearly did remember what happened. Enjoy!


Chapter 4: The Caveman Approach

(Spoilers for: S01E04 - The Broca Divide)

"Was today a strange enough day?"

Jack O'Neill looked up from his coffee to see Daniel Jackson standing beside his table, a too innocent expression on his face. "Sorry?" he queried, his tone less than inviting. He'd had a difficult day – he was tired and sore and his face still felt like it wasn't quite his own. Turning into a Neanderthal explained some of it, the rest probably the reason Daniel was there to torment him. He didn't want to talk about that or the fact that he'd gone at Daniel with every intention of killing him. Thankfully it didn't look like Daniel was going to hold that part over him ... not when the cause was so much more interesting.

"After the whole 'dress' incident you said it would have to be a stranger day than that before you'd discuss the non frat regs with me," Daniel reminded him. "Surely today qualifies."

"It certainly was a strange one," Jack agreed dismissively.

Daniel, contrary as always, took that as all the invitation needed, moving to sit down across from his friend. The Mess was deserted, the base already in late shift mode. Jack should have gone home hours ago, only the need to make sure all their personnel, including Daniel had been checked and cleared of the virus the reason he's stuck around.

"You don't think it's telling that Sam chose you?" Daniel, in his usual 'Daniel' way just jumped in without any kind of preamble.

"No Daniel, I don't," Jack shot back impatiently. "She wasn't herself just like most of the base. The best thing we can do for everyone affected is to forget about it."

"Janet said that primitive females -,"

"I know what Doc Fraiser said," Jack interrupted. "It was proximity Daniel – I was just the nearest male when the virus started to affect Carter."

"I don't think so," Daniel's tone went all 'Sherlock Holmes' and Jack could almost see his brain turning over the clues of a mystery only he could see. "Think about it – she wasn't in the locker room when you got there, was she?"

Jack gave Daniel his leave it alone look but as usual the archaeologist was oblivious.

"Right," Daniel continued, "and she was already out of uniform when she got there."

Jack felt the sudden urge to smirk – 'out of uniform' was such a bland way to describe the Captain's attire when she'd accosted him in the locker rooms. That tank top; the way it revealed her shoulders and midriff deserved a sexier title than that – not that Jack would ever admit that to Daniel.

"So?" he queried blandly.

"So she went looking for you – specifically you Jack," Daniel returned. "She would have passed half the base on her way to the locker rooms and she didn't attack any of them. Don't you think that means something?"

"You were quoting the Doc before," Jack waved a hand vaguely. "Carter wanted the guy in charge. Around here that's either General Hammond or me. Now personally I think George is a very handsome man," his eyes sparkled with sudden humour, "but primitive Carter went for the younger option. Simple as that."

"That conclusion is flawed on so many levels," Daniel shot back insistently. "We have how many women on base? You would have been overrun before you could get Carter to the infirmary if it was that simple. Besides, it doesn't explain why your primitive self chose Sam as well."

"She infected me," Jack held up a hand with an abrupt "Uh!" when his friend went to say more. "What's your point Daniel, because I'm sure you have one!"

"You like her and she likes you," Daniel's expression was so earnest that Jack felt a twinge of regret he couldn't make the transition to a military way of life easier for the younger man. Daniel might have been a part of the Stargate program for more than a year but he'd spent only a few weeks of that actively involved with the military aspects – the way he's been brought in hadn't allowed time for orientation either.

"And it counts for nothing," Jack said quietly, "not that I'm agreeing with you. I'm Carter's commanding officer and she's my second in command – that's all it can ever be."

"What about friendship?"

"The Captain and I can be friendly – up to the point beyond which there could be any suggestion of favouritism or behaviour that would call the service into disrepute." Jack's tone was matter-of-fact; he believed in the non frat regs and had never had even a blip on the road to following them – until Samantha Carter.

"So you can't even be friends?" Daniel scoffed. "That's crazy!"

"It's not," Jack shifted forward a little, dropping his relaxed pose. "She'll get promoted Daniel, probably well before most of her cohort. Do you want people thinking it's for any other reason than because of her skills and her dedication?"

"No, of course not," Daniel frowned, clearly considering something that hadn't occurred to him before. "I just don't think it's practical in reality," he finally offered after a few moments of silence.

"How so?"

"We're out there alone, relying on each other, finding out things no one else could know," Daniel explained. "And sometimes things go wrong, like they did today, and we have to rescue each other, any way we can. The air force might be able to regulate you admitting to or acting on feelings you have for your team mates but they can't regulate you having them. And if you can't care about the people you work with, what's the point?"

"Military service isn't about 'you' Daniel. It's about giving your life to something bigger than any one person. If that means you sacrifice something you want then so be it."

"I don't think I can do that Jack," Daniel's eyes glinted. "I want to find Sha're – it's the only reason I'm here. I won't sacrifice her, not for anything."

"I know that," Jack offered a reassuring half smile. "You're a civilian Daniel – the regs don't apply to you the way they do to Captain Carter and I."

Daniel nodded but his expression was still troubled.

"We'll find your wife. Her and Skaara," Jack promised, his tone leaving no room for doubt.


The Colonel had reason to think on that conversation later, once he finally made it home and was sitting alone on the sofa, cold beer in hand.

Daniel's reason for bringing up the virus driven events of the day was obvious – not so much about Jack and whatever feelings he was 'allowed' to have for his second in command, but about Daniel himself, and what the SGC might expect of him. About Sha're and how willing they all were to do what was necessary to find her and bring her back to Daniel.

Jack could understand that – he wasn't so far from being a married man himself that he didn't remember the need to protect, to do everything necessary to keep his family safe. He'd failed, so badly that he'd never forgive himself. Failed his son, and failed Sara too – for what had happened to Charlie and for what he couldn't be for his wife in the aftermath.

He felt the same need to protect his team now – they were still new, still forming their dynamic, but Jack O'Neill had already taken full responsibility for each of them. Maybe that was why he'd been able to resist Carter's very insistent advance, even though he'd already been feeling the early effects of the virus.

In the privacy of his own home he could be honest. He'd wanted Carter … wanted to take what she'd been offering, what she'd been demanding of him. He'd felt the burning need to claim her – to drag her off somewhere and make her only his. Cover her in his scent in the most basic way. He wished what he'd said in response to Sam's weak attempt to apologise was true – he wished he didn't remember anything. Instead it was all too easy to close his eyes and replay the entire scene in his head in full technicolour, with sounds, smells, sensations. He didn't even want to think about how much Sam remembered - they had an unspoken agreement not to talk about it and this was one incident Jack had no intention of reminding anyone of. Joking about it broke the tension with Captain Carter but Jack was sure it'd be a while before he stopped feeling a pulse of tension whenever she walked into a room.

Maybe the cave men had it right – pick the woman you wanted, knock her over the head with your club and drag her off to your cave. No discussion, no complications. And no regulations to get in the way. With a smirk Jack shifted off the couch and headed for the kitchen. Knowing Carter as he was coming to, she'd have found a way to outsmart all the cavemen so that the women did all the 'clubbing and dragging', leaving those cavemen convinced it was all their own idea.

Grabbing another beer he returned to his sofa. Right now the SGC needed him. His team needed him. He'd already lost more than he'd ever be asked to sacrifice in the name of service to his country. If he could keep that bottled inside every hour of every day then surely he could handle the memory of what Carter's body had felt like when she'd been pressing him down onto the floor with her lips devouring his, right?

"Yeahsureyoubetcha," he muttered to himself with a touch of sadness.