Strapped to the chair, being interrogated again, whilst the man he considered his brother, his Doctor, and an alien that seemed intent on hitting on him the moment she had him alone, watched on. Oh, and his 2IC. Strapped to a chair, and about to confess to inappropriate feelings towards said 2IC with all these people in the room. Jack was pretty sure this beat the 'taking-a-test-in-High-School-whilst-naked' dream. A tiny little bit of him thought that he might have preferred having the Zatarc treatment.

He closed his eyes as Freya began to question him, took a deep breath, and opened them again, focusing only on the Tok'ra. Not looking up to the Observation Room where Doc Frasier and Teal'c were…observing. Determinedly avoiding eye contact with Carter, who stood beside Freya. Seeing the look on her face, he thought, would only make this harder.

He was ashamed of himself. Damned ashamed. A good CO didn't develop feelings for a subordinate. Ok, sometimes they did. And he'd told himself those feelings were ok, so long as he never, ever acted on them. So long as it didn't affect her, or their team, or the missions. He was so sure he'd done a good job. He'd convinced himself he could ignore the crush, maybe flirt a little. A bit of harmless banter was fine. And then he'd screwed up.

Because it wasn't harmless, and it wasn't just a crush. He knew, the minute that shield had gone up and he'd felt real, physical pain at the thought of losing her, that he was in love with Samantha Carter. He'd put both their lives at risk, he'd put Teal'c and Daniel's lives at risk, and now he was being forced to admit to his screw-up and to his feelings.

He knew Carter wouldn't say anything to Hammond, though she had every right to. The way she'd been talking when she'd interrupted the procedure had convinced him that this inappropriateness probably wasn't one-way. Hell, the way she'd looked at him through the force-shield had made that pretty damn clear too. And then another wave of guilt flooded through him. Here he was, feeling sorry for himself, giving no thought to the fact that she'd have to sit here and go through exactly the same, humiliating process.

He let himself glance at her. And his heart warmed. She looked terrified, but she smiled at him a little none-the-less. He started to focus on what Freya was saying to him.

"Major Carter was trapped behind the force-shield."

"That's right." He thought back to the image of her, standing there, helpless. Something he never thought he'd see from his strong, Air Force Major. He thought of how he'd tried desperately to free her, using the only tool he had: brute strength. She had her mind; if it had been the other way around, perhaps they'd have had a chance. She probably could have freed him. And the wave of shame flooded back through him.

"There were sounds," he said.

"You did everything you could?"

"Yes." There was that shame again.

"You couldn't save her." Freya's words were like a knife in his heart as he forced himself to re-live the moments aboard Apophis's ship.

"No," he sighed.

"But you still could have saved yourself?"

"I guess." And that was the problem wasn't it? He could have, should have, saved himself. He should have left her behind. He should have gone back to Daniel and Teal'c, saved his team. He was torn in two directions: towards his team, the good Commanding Officer, sticking to the reg's; or towards Carter, towards the truth of what he felt. And in making the choice, in choosing Carter, he'd finally admitted to himself that he loved her. The dam had broken, and there was no taking the admission back.

She'd tried to tell him to go. She'd tried to make him leave, to force him to remain the good CO, to stop him acknowledging what he felt, perhaps? Had she known then?

"What happened next?"

And he thought back to her face, to those eyes, filling with tears. At the thought of her own death? No, Carter wasn't like that, she'd faced her death bravely so many times before. What, then? The thought of him dying too? And he knew, remembering the look she gave him then, that she felt exactly the same. She couldn't stand the thought of him dying. That look, those tears; she loved him.

Jack swallowed, and in his head he heard the footsteps of the Jaffa getting closer, saw them round the corner.

"What were you feeling?" He was sure he hadn't even answered her last question, but this was the crux of it, wasn't it? This was where he would be forced to confess.

"Like someone who was about to die."

Silence for a moment. Then Carter spoke. "Sir."

He looked away, the feelings of shame washing over him again.

"I didn't leave…because I'd have rather died myself than lose Carter."

"Why?"

"Because I care about her." He glanced back at her. Her eyes snapped open and he held her gaze. He felt her question him, with those beautiful, expressive eyes. Those eyes, that he thought would be the last thing he saw. The blue that he'd tried so hard to imprint on his memory right before he thought she was going to die.

This was the one chance he had to tell her how he really felt. He knew he couldn't use the word 'love', but he thought if he could just hold her gaze whilst he got this out, then maybe she'd understand.

He felt himself smile a little at her. "A lot more than I'm supposed to."

Her eyes softened and she smiled a little, and he knew she understood.

"You are not a Zatarc."

Sam lowered her eyes. "Now re-test me."

She walked over to him, and for the second time, removed the restraint from his head, this time brushing her finger tips through his hair. As she pulled them off one wrist, her hand slid down to his fingers and she grasped his hand in hers and squeezed. He looked up, back into those eyes. She looked scared. Determined, but scared. He smiled at her again, and she smiled back. He ran his thumb over the back of her hand, just lightly, before he let go and undid his other wrist himself.

He felt his heart clench as she took his place in the chair.