Sam was getting quite agitated with her Colonel.

Instead of playing the silly board game properly—as Sam was doing—Jack decided to give his companions a sample of how obnoxious he could be.

For every figure that Jack sketched, Sam gave valid guesses. And since Jack was more adept than her at creating drawings—a skill he'd honed quite nicely while ignoring mission briefings and doodling in page margins—usually Sam's guesses were on the mark.

But for every picture that Sam drew with her less-than-artistic hand, Jack insisted it was a duck.

Seven 'ducks' later, and Sam had lost her grasp on what little patience she had left.

"Is that a duck?"

"It's a horse," Sam informed him through clenched teeth.

"Oh." Jack shrugged a shoulder. "Looked like a duck to me."

"Sir, you think everything looks like a duck!"

"No, I think a duck looks like a duck," Jack retorted a bit childishly. "And I also thought I ordered you not to call me 'sir'!"

"Could you two keep it down?" Daniel complained. "Jack is about to propose to Samantha."

"What?" Sam and Jack shouted simultaneously, both jerking their heads in Daniel's direction.

Realizing what he'd just said, Daniel blushed. "On the TV," he added belatedly, pointing a finger at the screen. "I, uh...I meant on the TV."

Stupid soap operas , Sam thought to herself, her face tinged with pink. Not daring to look anywhere near Jack at the moment, she hopped off the bed and stalked over to the steel door.

She pounded the palm of her hand against the small window, asking the guards in a loud voice, "Is there any chance we could get lunch in here soon?"

One of the guards responded with, "I'm sorry, ma'am. Dr. Fraiser has instructed us not to allow food into your room until she approves it."

"Oh for cryin' out loud," Sam muttered to herself. "I'm stuck in the Looney Bin with Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and now my lunch is being held hostage?"

"You say something, Sam?" Daniel queried from across the room.

"Yeah…we can't have any food until Janet says so," she informed with irritation.

"Getting a bit cranky without your blue Jell-O?" Jack commented sourly.

Sam stared at him solemnly. "With respect, sir…please shut up."

"Nice going, Jack," Daniel snapped at him as Sam moved past them and locked herself into the room's adjoining bathroom.

"What'd I say?"

(time break)

Sam took small comfort in the icy water cascading over her tingling fingers. With her unaffected hand, she dampened a clean washcloth and gave her face a gentle scrub.

Her empty stomach rumbled, reminding her that for some cruel and unknown reason, Dr. Fraiser wouldn't allow their lunch to be delivered. Sam actually had been looking forward to enjoying her usual cup of blue Jell-O...until the Colonel had piped up with that stupid and unfunny remark about her getting cranky without it.

Sam flushed with embarrassment and slight anger as she recalled the last thing she'd said to Jack before retreating to the lonely silence of the bathroom. Not only was it rude—it was also quite insubordinate to speak that way to a superior officer, no matter how deserving of it they were.

But she couldn't blame the Colonel entirely for the mutual grumpiness in their current environment. It was mostly her fault for losing patience at him and Daniel over such stupid little board games.

Jack was accustomed to being in control of things. Being the leader was as natural to him as breathing. But now he found himself in the very uncomfortable position of being essentially trapped. He couldn't control the situation and he dealt with it the only way he knew how—by disguising his feelings with sarcasm.

Daniel tried to make the best of the situation. Even though all they had were a junky TV and childish board games to pretend to enjoy, Daniel was still willing to play them with Sam to keep her from dwelling too much on their confinement.

And what was Sam doing to help her comrades? Absolutely nothing, she sadly admitted to herself. I got mad at them both over silly trivial things, and just made everything worse.

Over the many years of working for the SGC, Sam had lost count of how often she and her teammates had been forced to occupy extremely enclosed spaces with each other on alien planets. How many times had they drawn strength and comfort from each other's presence while awaiting imminent torture from their captors?

Even a simple thing like eating in the SGC commissary was more enjoyable when in the company of her friends.

The Colonel always knew how to lighten their serious conversations with sprinkles of humor—usually some comradely mocking of Daniel's artifacts and Sam's projects.

Daniel was always fun to bounce theories off of; though they specialized in different topics of study, he and Sam were equals in their thirst for knowledge and understanding.

And Teal'c...well, they could always count on their solemn Jaffa brother to stand loyally beside them in the face of danger, and tell the honest and unbiased truth even when they didn't want to hear it.

They were a solidly-bonded team...yet they couldn't handle just a few hours of simple quarantine?

Sam was ashamed—of herself and her teammates. They should be sticking together in their ridiculous time of trial, rather than bickering like adolescents.

A tentative knock sounded on the door, and before Sam could stop herself, she snapped, "What?"

Daniel's voice was quiet on the other side. "I just...need to get in there when you're done," he answered sedately. "Sorry I bothered you."

Sam glared at herself in the mirror. Now you've hurt Daniel again. "I'll be right out," she said in a much milder voice. She made a silent vow to be nice to her two favorite guys for the rest of their quarantine, no matter what else may happen.

She opened the bathroom door and stepped out. "It's all yours," she politely told Daniel.

Daniel slipped past silently and shut the door behind him.

Sam gave a resigned sigh, and perched on the edge of the bed next to Jack.

"I'm sorry for the way I acted, sir," she apologized with downcast eyes. "And for what I said. If you want to bring me up on insubordination charges, I completely understand."

"No, it's my fault," Jack countered with a smile. "I shouldn't have provoked you like I did. I should be the one apologizing here."

"But I shouldn't have lost my temper like I did," Sam insisted.

"And I shouldn't have made a crack about you getting cranky," Jack added seriously, but with a twinkle in his eye. "I'm willing to forget the argument if you will," he offered.

Sam suppressed a smile. "And the, uh…insubordination?"

Jack grinned. "If you play a game of Checkers with me, I'll also forget the charges entirely."

Sam smiled back, relieved. "Deal."

When their game was nearly finished, Daniel finally came out of the bathroom.

"I was beginning to wonder if you'd accidentally fallen in," Jack teased lightly.

Daniel muttered something unintelligible and flopped across the bed behind Sam, inadvertently giving the checkerboard a minor upset.

Sam and Jack calmly moved the checker pieces back into their places.

Typical Daniel, Sam idly thought to herself. He's irked at me, yet still chooses to share the same piece of furniture with us rather than have that couch all to himself.

Daniel surfed through the meager assortment of seven TV channels, finally settling on a boring gardening program. He watched it for about four minutes before the signal cut out and he was left with a fuzzy grey screen.

After losing the Checkers game to Jack just a few moments later, Sam addressed her other companion. "Hey Daniel, you want to play Candyland with us?"

"You said only children play it," Daniel responded a bit coldly.

"Adults can play it too, though," Sam replied. "Can't they?"

He eyed her warily. "I guess."

"Aww, come on, Danny," Jack wheedled. "Sam's sorry for picking on you. Let's just forgive her and play a game together, huh?"

Daniel smiled despite himself. "All right."